Speed is not acceleration, nor is mass a clearly defined concept here when it comes to a strike or ma action.
Acceleration is a key to the presentation of significant force, while speed is merely a 'measurement' of the rate of motion. I.e., it's not how many feet per second, but how many feet per second per second... which is quite a different animal altogether and which is crucial to understanding such difference if you wish to be truly skilled in applying techniques associated 'beyond' merely hitting someone.
Here's where some heavy learning comes into play, so bear with me:
If you use momentum (a set high rate of speed) to when you try to manuever or strike someone, you have 'committed' and are thus vulnerable. The higher the momentum, the greater the window of vulnerability, and thus the greater the window of opportunity for your adversary. Unfortunately, this is the definition of speed, and it is what so many people end up fixating on.
Then there is the one that tries to muscle their way through actions. This also creates a degree of commitment, but moreso it presents 'tenseness' in your actions that can be exploited by 'change' in your adversary's resistance. In judo, a training concept to resist such habits is referred to as push/pull, in which the two perform pulls and pushes in an attempt to catch their opponent overcommiting through force or 'momentum.'
As to the issue of mass, that's a real tricky one. It's tricky because someone who is strong, or heavy, or big, or tall... can present more mass in their actions. But, the catch word here is, "can." As in the example presented above, strength alone is insufficient to be effective, and presents its own inherent problems. So too does being heavy, big, or tall. It is not as much what someone's 'potential' for presentation of mass, but whether they have sufficient 'skill' to be able to 'utilize' their mass whilst maintaining balance.
What determines whether 'potential' mass can be applied effectively is skill in technique. By applying techniques cleanly, more mass can be applied to your actions without presenting opportunities that your opposition can exploit.
And now, we talk about acceleration. Acceleration, in my opinion, is the lost aspect of many practitioners today. Acceleration is what is the concept to 'generating' an increasing degree of motion, thereby ensuring that the adversary remains incapable of action, timed or reactive. I.e., by accelerating with your strikes, rather than merely reaching a speed and striking the adversary, you prevent the adversary from effectively countering. by accelerating through a throw or takedown, you incrementally increase the rate of speed your opponent is being thrown with, and thus exponentially increasing not merely the effectiveness of the techniques, but the power generated and the damage capable. I.e., instead of reaching a certain speed and maintaining that speed during a technique, you present the same force throughout, which causes an exponential increase in the rate of speed.
White Warlock
- Just ask an professor in Math or Physics.
