stomps in footwork?

**meng_mao** · Posted On: 1/31/2006 10:50pm

From reading about Baji on the web and this site, I've learn that many strikes include a stomp as part of the striking structure/motion.

From messing around, I can't tell what the right way to stomp is, when you throw a Baji punch. I've tried my best to decipher the mechanics of this diagram, but I can't figure it out (This is why learning MA from a book doesn't work):

Is the purpose of stomping to enhance power derived from falling weight? Or does it help you move forward? Or both?

Anyone who knows a technique that uses a stomp, please share your knowledge as well.

**Omar** · Posted On: 1/31/2006 11:12pm

Mostly it's about enhancing power from the weight dropping.

Sometimes you stomp on people as you attack and they aren't really stomps but rather stomp kicks. You stomp on a straightened knee for example. There's one variation on a classic "escape" from a cross arm wrist grab except instead of escaping you clam the hand down onto your wrist and do one of those weight dropping stomps to sink the wrist lock in explosively and theoretically break the wrist.

But mostly it's number one. Kind of like that Jack Dempsey "drop step" thing. I think there's some mention of it in Koto's article on punching power. That and the conditioning effect it seems to have on your body.

**CanucKyokushin** · Posted On: 1/31/2006 11:15pm

I learned it at a Daito-ryu seminar.It works when you drop your weight in the stomp.Basically droping your center of gravity me thinks.I've done it once in a while in karate.The problem is that while your arm is drped you have no guard protecting your head.

**meng_mao** · Posted On: 1/31/2006 11:22pm

Originally Posted by Omar

But mostly it's number one. Kind of like that Jack Dempsey "drop step" thing. I think there's some mention of it in Koto's article on punching power. That and the conditioning effect it seems to have on your body.

Familiar with the drop step. I always do that when I jab.
By conditioning do you mean building up the knees?
From doing a few stomps, I feel that I could kill my knees that way.
Also, is it a true stomp, where you accelerate your foot down toward the ground,
or do you just lock your leg and let the foot fall into the ground? It seems you'd
get more weight dropping with the latter, but that doesn't seem to be a real stomp.

**j416to** · Posted On: 1/31/2006 11:22pm

Enhancing power from weight dropping? How does that work? How does dropping your center of mass, vertically, enhance your punching power in the horizontal plane?

**Omar** · Posted On: 1/31/2006 11:22pm

Context.

There's no reason to drop your arm. In Baji anyways, there's a lot of stomps connected to palm strikes to the face. The specific wrist lock I was talking about it doesn't matter about your head as the other guy is too busy getting his wrist broke to punch have time to punch you in the face.

That and ever try this exercise? Grab your partner by the wrist and see if he can kick you. The instant he tries to kick you yank his arm. His foot may reach you but it won't have any power in it.

**meng_mao** · Posted On: 1/31/2006 11:24pm

Originally Posted by j416to

Enhancing power from weight dropping? How does that work? How does dropping your center of mass, vertically, enhance your punching power in the horizontal plane?

If your arm is at even a slight angle, as opposed to parallel to the ground, then it'll get a boost from the acceleration of your body mass downward.

**j416to** · Posted On: 1/31/2006 11:26pm

Ah, okay, I'll have to think about that. Thanks!

**meng_mao** · Posted On: 1/31/2006 11:33pm

j, here's a diagram (my interpretation):

The tiny cross on the arm indicates its center of mass.

EDIT. I'm kind of unsatisfied with this pic. It oversimplifies the situation a bit. Most of the time, you will definitely not be dropping straight down; you'll be doing it in conjunction with some forward velocity. If you don't work on the dropping part a lot, I imagine the % benefit is quite low.

**Omar** · Posted On: 1/31/2006 11:50pm

There's that but then there's also the idea that you don't hit truly verticle. I will always punch slightly downwards if I have the opportunity. Same thing for round kicks right? Don't you like your kicks to cut downwards on impact as opposed to rising up? You want your body weight to drop just at the moment of impact. Think of is as the opposite of floating up on your punches. You drop down.

The other thing that hasn't been mentioned is its use just as a training device for coordinating everything to arrive at once. For real full body power you want everything, your exhalation, your foot, your hand, the waist twist, everything involved...it all needs to arrive together. The stomp acts as a punctuation mark. It makes it easier to see if everythings together or not. Baji has a lot of kiai type shouting too. So when you watch, there's the hand, the feet and the sounds of both the stomp and the shout. If you can hear separate sounds then they are not together. If you can see motion after the sound it's not together. You want to see one unified sound/motion and nothing left over.