A Kick Start!!

Walk your talk! the very thought lingers in the minds of many when a sports officer or (I know best -politician) talks about getting the sciences across to the masses.

Hey! We did exactly that. On the 16-18 May 2008 at Cheras Badminton Stadium. A magnanimous number of 1500 young Karate-kas participated in the 9th Malaysian Schools Karate Championship, organised by Hayashi-Ha Karate Association of Malaysia with the endorsement of Malaysian Karate-Do Federation (MAKAF). The tournament a brainchild and fruit of Mr. P.Thiagu's labour also saw participation of Singapore and Indonesia adding to that of various states in Malaysia.

What exactly we do? Nothing much .... just manning a booth that measures kick and punch speed of those interested and comparing them to that of the National Elites and Juniors standard. We used a simple user friendly two dimensional software - SiliconCOACH Pro to analyse kick and punch speed and gave the results in a photo format as seen above. Coolll Ahh!! Too bad it was the Singaporeans whom flocked the booth throwing us with tones of questions; and you wonder what you have to do to get our ayah and ibu interested. Hey!! It wasn't too bad. Many curious local "GrandMasters" whom attended the tournament thought its a brilliant idea and wanted their kids to be tested in closed dojo environments. As to not to reveal the weaknesses of their teaching!! Hahahaha, just kidding there.

End of the day we (me and Faisal) headed home jaded and fuzzy but filled with satisfaction of achieving the following or sending these messages across STRONGLY to the local coaches and parents:

1. Sports Karate is not about kicking or punch to kill a person, pain is not a measure, so the force that is transferred to the other person upon contact is not the measure in awarding a point. In fact you have to avoid having much contact as it only increases your contact time which increases your overall punch time. The Que is Punch and Recover as quick as possible.
2. Unlike Taekwando and Boxing that achieves maximal velocity prior to contact with the sole purpose of achieving maximal force; In Karate we have acceleration, maximal velocity and deceleration. This is due to the very fact that we need to pull back (recover) in executing a punch and avoid excessive contact as part of the requirement to be awarded a point . The timing of these sequence in Karate is essential as to not loose potential scoring time. An elite Karate-ka could go in punch and recover within 0.3 seconds (R.Puvaneswaran, Lim Yoke Wai and G.Yamini). These particular difference in Sports Karate is all due to change of rule book and its scoring requirements.
3. So one must understand that these variation that is seen in Sports Karate involves the functionality of different group of muscles and its working order. As per such coaches, athletes and even parents have to be aware of training methodology and conditioning method that is systematically structured to reach the target.

Finally it was a good weekend barred the tiredness as we manage to create a ripple with a wish that it would one day transform itself to become tide if not tsunami. Not forgetting the tonic in which we had in the form of encouragement and interest shown by athletes, parents and coaches throughout the tournament.