title: Comparison of force, power, and striking efficiency for a Kung Fu strike performed by novice and experienced practitioners: preliminary analysis.
abstract: This paper presents a comparison of force, power, and efficiency values calculated from Kung Fu Yau-Man palm strikes, when performed by 7 experienced and 6 novice men. They performed 5 palm strikes to a freestanding basketball, recorded by high-speed camera at 1000 Hz. Nonparametric comparisons and correlations showed experienced practitioners presented larger values of mean muscle force, mean impact force, mean muscle power, mean impact power, and mean striking efficiency, as is noted in evidence obtained for other martial arts. Also, an interesting result was that for experienced Kung Fu practitioners, muscle power was linearly correlated with impact power (p = .98) but not for the novice practitioners (p = .46).
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento, Universidade do Vale do Paraíba. osmar@univap.br
authors.forename: Osmar Pinto
authors.initials: OP
authors.lastname: Neto
authors.forename: Marcio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Magini
authors.forename: Marcelo M F
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Saba
authors.forename: Marcos Tadeu Tavares
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Pacheco
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D000328:Adult; D001132:Arm / Q000502:physiology; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015992:Body Mass Index; D004522:Educational Status; D004526:Efficiency / Q000502:physiology*; D006225:Hand / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016139:Martial Arts / Q000193:education / Q000502:physiology*; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology; D053580:Muscle Strength / Q000502:physiology*; D010809:Physical Fitness / Q000502:physiology