Straight Lead. Teri Tom
that there is a straight line from your shoulder to those bottom three knuckles, not to the top two knuckles.
The origins of the power line may be traced to Jack Dempsey. Chapter 9 of Championship Fighting is heavily underlined in Bruce Lee’s copy.12 Dempsey defined the power line as a straight line that runs from your shoulder and exits at your bottom fist knuckle. Because of the way we are anatomically structured, this is the purest, most solid point of contact. To use the top knuckles disrupts the focus of the power line.13 I don’t make the rules. We’re just built this way.
In accordance with Bruce Lee’s advocating of kinesthetic learning, I recommend that you try the following. Stand in front of a wall in the JKD stance. Extend your arm and fist. Rest the bottom three knuckles on the wall. Take a moment to feel the solidity of contact. Try lightly tapping the wall as you go through the motion of throwing a straight. This is how you should land every time you throw a straight lead. See Figure 18.
Figure 18: Line up against a wall to feel the solidity of the power line.
Now do the same thing, but with the top two knuckles resting on the wall. Do you feel how you’ve deviated from the power line? Instead of forming a stable straight line from your shoulder to your fist, you’ve actually created an angle at your wrist with your fist and forearm. Feel how unstable this is. Try tapping against the wall. Can you imagine throwing all of your body weight with your wrist in such a precarious position? This is how hand and wrist injuries occur. See Figure 19. Just thinking about hitting with those two knuckles makes me queasy!
Figure 19: Incorrect use of top two knuckles at point of impact. Using the top two knuckles necessitates a bend at the wrist, which is often the cause of injuries.
Now compare this with the proper thumbs-up, bottom-three-knuckles fist in JKD, as demonstrated in Figure 20. You should be feeling a lot more solid.
Figure 20: Correct use of bottom three knuckles at point of impact. There is no bend at the wrist, and the power line is not disrupted.
Keep in mind that one of the underlying principles of the straight lead design is Newton’s third law, which states that when an object exerts a force on another object, that second object exerts an equal and opposite force on the first. You’ve probably heard it stated as, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
Physicists will tell you that the application of force is not so much one thing acting on another as it is an interaction between two objects. So in our example of tapping the wall with the top two knuckles, you exert a force on the wall, and that jarring you feel through your shoulder and elbow is the wall exerting a force on you.
Another example would be the focus pads. You can only exert as much force on the mitt as your trainer is exerting back toward you. Notice that when your trainer doesn’t give you much resistance, you cannot punch with very much force. But if your trainer gives you more resistance, you punch with more force (and have a lot more fun). As another example, think of trying to punch a piece of paper, versus hitting the heavy bag. No matter how hard you try, you can only hit that piece of paper so hard, because it cannot exert much force back. The heavy bag, on the other hand, allows you to hit much harder because it sends back a much greater force.
As you can see from our experiment with the power line, then, the JKD stance is designed to best withstand whatever force is coming back at you. It puts you in the best possible alignment to absorb the force returning from your punches. One of the benefits, of course, is that the power line makes for an efficient punch. Nothing is wasted. All of your force is focused and concentrated and directed toward your target. There is no dissipation at the weak links at the wrist, as is the case when a punch is incorrectly landed with the top two knuckles. In a properly constructed JKD stance, there are no weak links.
The second benefit of the bottom-three-knuckle landing is a “big picture” argument. Since the straight lead is the most frequently thrown punch in JKD, it makes sense that we want to incur the least wear and tear on our bodies from throwing it. Good form is what will keep you in JKD for the long haul. It is why Ted Wong, at sixty-five as of this writing, is still actively practicing, while many of his contemporaries have been sidelined with injuries. He’ll tell you that he even hits harder than he did more than thirty years ago, and he attributes this to the sound mechanics he’s honed over those years. As Bruce observed, “The older athlete regards form as a means of energy conservation and the great athlete saves energy because his extra skill makes each motion more effective—he makes fewer needless motions and his conditioned body uses less energy per movement.”14
So if you have any intentions of practicing JKD for a long time, you must be able to feel and utilize the power line.
R E A R H A N D
The rear hand is positioned for protection, to parry and block blows aimed at your head. You’ll want to keep your left hand close to the left side of your chin. A good left hand and judgment of distance can make you nearly impossible to hit. Parrying with the left hand also gives you a feel for your opponent’s range.
You’ll also want to keep your elbow close, to protect your side. By simply turning your trunk, you can deflect most blows to the body with your left arm, as shown in Figure 21.
Figure 21: With a slight turn to the right, the left arm provides protection as you roll with the punch.
T H E F R O N T H A N D
To correctly position the front hand, stand in the stance as we’ve discussed so far, with your lead hand extended and resting at your side. Keeping your shoulder completely relaxed, bend your arm at the elbow at about a forty-five-degree angle. See Figure 22.
Figure 22: Correct position of the front hand. There is no space between my arm and my side. This allows for complete relaxation of the arm.
Figure 23: Incorrect position of the front hand. The slight extension at the shoulder places unnecessary tension on the arm, which will slow your punch.
There should be little space, if any, between your arm and your side. Holding your arm away from your body places tension on your shoulder, and you’ll be wasting energy holding your arm out. This will slow you down.
Some people incorrectly think that holding your arm out gives you a speed advantage, by keeping the hand closer to the target, but it will only fatigue your poor deltoids, making you slow. As with our phasic bent knee, keeping the arm close gives you more potential energy. You have somewhere from which to lash out. If your arm is already extended, you have a tired arm with nowhere left to go. See Figure 23.
THE GUNSIGHT
Now let’s be a little more precise about positioning the lead hand. Have someone stand in front of you, and with your right hand up, extend your right index finger. Where is your finger pointing? It should be toward the target, your opponent’s nose. If you find yourself pointing too low—say, at your opponent’s foot—readjust your hand so that you’re pointing at the nose. Likewise, if you find yourself pointing at the sky, you’re aiming too high. Again, adjust your hand so that you’re pointing at your opponent’s head. Now close your fist. This is the correct position of the hand. See Figures 24 through 26.
Figure 24: To check if your hand position is correct, extend your index finger. It should point directly at your target—in this case, my opponent’s face.