Lessons from a watermelon

[Decker]

My dad and I just ate a watermelon we opened with our fists. He'd bought the unfortunate fruit this morning, for us to have some fun.

The melon was placed against a wall on a table 'bout waist height, so quite apparently, more "traditional" low stance punches were the order of the day.

First, some background info. I've had some on and off training in sport poomsae taekwondo, and I'd read some books on karate, the knowledge from which I intend to follow up on with some real lessons. I can move a heavy bag with a good punch, but not much more.

My dad (62 this year) has had a couple years' worth of hardcore training in what he called "Shaolin" style wushu. The first 2 knuckles on his right hand are flat from overzealous overtraining.

I started first. I threw about... almost 10 punches in all. The first few thrown with my left hand (I'm pretty ambidextrous when it comes to martial arts) glanced off. I switched hands twice, eventually bruising the melon to the point where a patch of it was "bleeding".

At this point, my dad made some somewhat disparaging comments about my technique, so I asked him to show me what he'd got.

Hm... well, I suppose it didn't matter whether he hit the bruised part or not, since it split open about halfway around the "top" third of the melon, after he'd hit it just once.

I completed the split with another punch.

While we were eating, he told me that why my punches sucked were pretty much 'cos I was "punching it for the sake of punching it", even though I'd tried my best to remember to keep proper shoulder and arm alignment, and to recruit the hips.

Then he said that he'd "aim at a particular spot", and "synchronise (his) fist with (his) mind, to make it go through the target".

Epiphany. I'd focused so much on the technique that I'd somewhat forgotten the result I'd wanted to achieve. I was indeed just trying to punch the general central area of the fruit.

Pardon the long-winded post; I'd just thought this'd be interesting to share. We're getting another watermelon next week.

Thanks for reading. :asian:

 

[clfsean]

Try this...

Watch & listen to the whole thing...

 

[geezer]

At this point, my dad made some somewhat disparaging comments about my technique, so I asked him to show me what he'd got.

Hm... well, I suppose it didn't matter whether he hit the bruised part or not, since it split open about halfway around the "top" third of the melon, after he'd hit it just once.

If you really want to know how to break bricks or stone, talk to an old mason. If you want to know how to effortlessly split a 300 lb block of ice, talk to the guys on the loading dock at the icehouse (if your city still has one). These guys may not use their bare hands, but they are still masters at their craft, and they know just how and where to hit the material they work with to achieve the desired result.

My point? I'll bet your dad can hit really hard, but more importantly, I'll bet he hits "smart" too...with precision. Some old guys pick up a lot of common-sense type knowledge and really know how to apply it!

 

[yak sao]

If you really want to know how to break bricks or stone, talk to an old mason. If you want to know how to effortlessly split a 300 lb block of ice, talk to the guys on the loading dock at the icehouse (if your city still has one). These guys may not use their bare hands, but they are still masters at their craft, and they know just how and where to hit the material they work with to achieve the desired result.

My point? I'll bet your dad can hit really hard, but more importantly, I'll bet he hits "smart" too...with precision. Some old guys pick up a lot of common-sense type knowledge and really know how to apply it!

The older I get, the more I appreciate a quote i read. ( I think it was in The Gift of Fear).."the young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions"