gravity, alignment, compression

this whole gravitational alignment business is what allows for compression.   the body acts like a bridge, if it sufficiently relaxed, and everything is in the right place to let force be easily grounded.

watch the compression model video again and get a sense of how the human body is used in this fashion.   as i have it so far,  all or most of the soft tissue spaces have some compressive capability, 'spring' if you'd like, that can be harnessed passively to absorb, store, redirect, and maybe even amplify force on your body.

its like stepping on a balloon, or a pogo stick, or a trampoline.  

by the 3rd law or motion or somesuch, everything has an equal and opposite reaction.  force exerted between two bodies in a martial context is usually absorbed in a variety of ways,  most of which are really inefficient.    blocking, struggling, getting hit, etc.  

this is because, by and large, what is occuring are expansive collisions between two solidly based objects, relatively speaking.    resisting by rigidizing your structure at the moment of impact is an across-the-board practice in ma, especially tma.    and that usually results in a very localized force, whether it be a strike,  or takedown.

a starting point for this might be something like kenyan women carrying heavily loaded baskets on their heads.   if they stay upright, and relaxed, their body compresses and can handle the weight.   not the best example, but a simple example of intrinsic strength gained through relaxed gravitational alignment.

another example is the kangaroo.   it uses less energy the faster it runs, due to an elastic storage/rebounding technique using its connective tissue.  

we are not ballons, pogo sticks, kangaroos and so on, but we can manifest this basic property if the body is trained to do so.  

everthing has to be grounded into the supporting foot.   if your relaxed and lined up correctly, you will bounce the force involved into and off of the ground and back into your opponent.   its a subtle thing most times, but unmistakeable when it happens.

this thread like many others so far is like a broken record...the same thing over and over again. this will continue until we are ready to go to the next round of considerations.