Friday, January 31, 2014
“Ay-Yah”!!
When I do karate kicks,
I wonder which one creates the most force. Having earned my green
belt in Martial Arts, I started thinking of ways to improve the power
of my kicks. To my surprise, it turned out to be more about physics
than brute strength.
In doing my research, I learned about kinetic energy, momentum, velocity, mass and force and their importance in performing my kicks. All this and I had a great time kickin' it!
In doing my research, I learned about kinetic energy, momentum, velocity, mass and force and their importance in performing my kicks. All this and I had a great time kickin' it!
Experiment Question
Which kick in Mixed Martial
Arts creates the most force: A front kick, round kick, or spinning
back kick?
Variables
Independent Variables: The type of kick
performed
1)Front kick
2) Round kick
3)
Spinning back kick
Dependent Variable: The movement of the
bag
Constant: The person (mass) performing
the kicks with the same leg.
Hypothesis
My
hypothesis is that the front kick will create the most force.
Research
In
order to perform the kicks it is important to know the proper
technique.
Six steps in performing a front kick starts by getting in
the proper stance, raising the left knee, extending left leg,
striking bag with the ball of the foot, bring left leg back to the
bent position, and set leg back to stance.
Next is the round kick. Start
in stance, raise knee to belt level keeping the supporting leg bent,
supporting leg pivots while the raised leg extends forward striking
the bag with the instep of the foot, bring the extended leg back to
raised knee belt level, set leg back to stance.
Finally, the steps
for performing a spinning back kick. Start in stance, head should be
facing opponent, use the hips and supporting leg to pivot around
while raising left knee to belt level and dropping opposite shoulder.
At this point, thrust leg out and around with the foot back keeping
body up right, knee back to bent belt level than returning to the
stance.
It is
impossible to talk about kicks without mentioning muscles and their
importance. The human body has about 650 muscles, and the smallest
motion requires at least two muscles that work opposite of each
other.
An example of this is when the leg is bent, the muscle on the
front of your thigh will contract while the muscle on the back side
of the thigh will relax. Muscles that bend a joint are called
flexors, and those that straighten a joint are called extensors.
Muscles
exert force by contracting. This contraction requires energy. The
body gets this energy from nutrients in food and stores it in a
special chemical called adenosine triphosphate (ATP). This energy is
released when the muscles contracts. A chemical reaction breaks down
the (ATP) into adenosine diphosphate (ADP). Some of this energy is
released and used to contract the muscle. The rest is thrown off as
heat. This is why you get hot when you exercise.
Some
important terms to my project are:
Mass - A
body of matter. The amount to material an object contains.
Inertia -
The tendency of a body to remain at rest or stay in motion unless
acted on by an outside force.
Velocity -
The rate at which an object changes its position. To measure it you
need to know speed and direction.
Momentum -
The product of a body's mass and velocity.
Potential
Energy - Energy that is stored or dormant “sleeping.” The example
of this during the experiment is when I am in my stance getting ready
to kick.
Kinetic Energy - Energy in action shown by motion. An example of this is when
I am striking the bag during the kick.
Materials for experiment
-Kick
boxing bag-
-Assistant-
-Video
camera-
-Tape to
mark the bag-
-Pen-
-Paper
to record the results-
Procedure
First
warm up by stretching to prevent injury
1)
Place a piece of tape on the bag to have a consistent strike zone
2) Have
the assistant start the video camera
3)
Perform 10 front kicks
4)
Perform 10 round kicks
5)
Perform 10 spinning back kicks
6)
Watch video and record bag movement
7)
Assign a number rating to the amount of movement of the bag:
0=no
movement
1=slight
movement
2=moderate
movement
3=hard
hit
4=knocked
the bag over
8) Record the data
Record the results
8) Record the data
Record the results
Results
The
front kick produced the most movement from the force generated by the
kinetic energy. The round kick was second, and the spinning back kick
showed the least amount of momentum.
Graphs
Click on each graph below to enlarge:
Conclusion
My
hypothesis was that the front kick was the strongest. My results do
support my hypothesis. The front kick is the strongest because of
the energy used in performing that kick. The other kicks create
energy but not as much as the front kick. The force generated by the
kinetic energy caused the bag to have more momentum.
Experiment Bibliography and Acknowledgments
Ward, Alan, Experimenting With Energy, New York Philadelphia, Chelsea House Publishers, 1991
Graham John, Hands - On Science Forces and Motion, New York, Kingfisher Publications plc, 2001
Stein, Sara, The Body Book, New York, Workman Publishing, 1992
Earth Moon and Sun, Delta Education LLC, OH, 2011
Webster's New Notebook Dictionary, Wiley Publishing Inc, Cleveland Ohio, 2000
Jenkins Darlene, P.H.D Power Kicks, The Physics Of Martial Arts, SCIENCE BUDDIES (http://www.sciencebuddies.org,) 2/26/2013
TPT 2006, "Tae Kwon Do By Peta and Kha," Twin Cities Public Television, (http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/show/taekwondo.htm)
Blot Pierre, KARATE for beginners, New York, Sterling Publishing Co Inc, 1996
Virginia Alexandria, Human Body, Time Life Inc, U.S.A, 1992
George, Zachariah, In person interview, May 7th, 2013
Eagles, Dennis, In person interview, May 4th, 2013
All of this would not have been possible without the invaluable help of the instructors at The Center for Mixed Martial Arts in El Reno and now Yukon, Oklahoma.
Experiment created and written by Sydnie
