biomechanics vs brute muscular force

It took me many years for me to understand this....

In fighting, and in pretty much any endeavor requiring physicality and/or skill, the most relaxed person wins (save for a lucky punch, or similar). This doesn't just mean physically relaxed, but mentally relaxed, too; but both are interconnected!

So, in sparring, for example, you may find one opponent who is tense and using tense, muscular, strength in every movement. Not only will this person "gas-out" quickly (a most common decider of who loses), but s/he will also be inaccurate, mis-timed, and clunky in his/her movement. All things you DON'T want if you want to be successful in sparring or fighting.

On the other hand, you have the relaxed person. Likely relaxed because of the confidence-competence effect. When both mentally and physically "relaxed" - you might think of this as "in balance" - this opponent can move more fluidly, faster, with more accuracy, and with less exertion.

Quite simply, *all other things being equal*, the relaxed opponent will win.

So, you might ask, what has this got to do with bio-mechanics?

One thing I have asserted for a long time is that learning optimal bio-mechanics (from Goju-Ryu Karate, for example) along with conditioning over time, means that a practitioner can still be very effective in self-defence at more senior ages. We see this from many advanced Karate-ka well into their 60s, 70s, and 80's, who have trained properly for many decades. Age takes its toll on all of us, so muscular strength won't be what it once was, and it is then that your understanding and application of optimal bio-mechanics really comes into its own. Competence in this element coupled with a relaxed mind (and obviously, conditioning over time) will help elevate anyone's ability to defend themselves.

To explain this from another perspective, have you ever noticed how many (not all) good MMA fighters seem to throw punches that look like there is nothing behind them? Yet, those can be the punches that knock someone out, or at least send them stumbling back, grasping for their bearings (ignoring the point about "the punch they don't see being the one that knocks them out" for a minute). In a nutshell, application of optimal bio-mechanics can allow someone to impact hard, whilst expending comparatively little energy because they are less reliant on their muscular strength; and with the mind-body connection, they can move optimally, and their timing will be on point.

Remember: "When your fists rise, lower your temper".

We can see an example of this phenomenon in the following clip, which shows 2 skilled karate-ka, but one clearly more of a master, and the other being comparatively clunky in his movement: