Masahiko Kimura (木村 政彦, Kimura Masahiko), September 10, 1917 – April 18, 1993) was a Japanese judoka (Judo practitioner) who is widely considered one of the greatest judoka of all time. Kimura (5ft 7in 170cm; 85kg, 187lb) was born on September 10, 1917 in Kumamoto, Japan.
Biography
Kimura at age 24 with the Emperor's tantō gift after winning the Ten-Ran Shiai tournament
At age 16, after six years of judo, Kimura was promoted to 4th dan. He had defeated six opponents (who were all 3rd and 4th dan) in a row. In 1935 at age 18 he became the youngest ever godan (5th degree black belt) when he defeated eight consecutive opponents at Kodokan (headquarters for the main governing body of Judo). Kimura's remarkable success can in part be attributed to his fanatical training regimen. He reportedly lost only four judo matches in his lifetime, all occurring in 1935. He considered quitting judo after those losses, but through the encouragement of friends he began training again. All through the nights, he practiced osoto gari, a basic leg throw, against a tree. After six months, his technique was such that daily randori or sparring sessions at various dojos resulted in 10 people with concussions. Fellow students frequently asked him not to use his unorthodox osoto gari. At the height of his career, Kimura's training involved a thousand push-ups and nine-hours practice every day. He was promoted to 7th dan at age 30, a rank that was frozen after disputes with Kodokan over becoming a professional wrestler, refusing to return the All Japan Judo Championship flag, and issuing dan ranks while in Brazil.
Kimura vs. Hélio Gracie
Kimura vs Gracie –his winning "Kimura lock."In 1955, Kimura, at 38 years old, participated in a match in which he defeated Hélio Gracie of the famous Gracie Jiu Jitsu family in a submission judo match held in Brazil. During the fight, Kimura threw Gracie repeatedly with ippon seoinage (one arm shoulder throw), osoto gari (major outer sweep), and harai goshi (sweeping hip throw). Kimura reportedly threw Gracie repeatedly in an effort to knock him unconscious. However, the floor of the fighting area was apparently too soft to allow this to happen. Kimura also inflicted painful, suffocating grappling techniques on Gracie such as kuzure-kamishiho-gatame (modified upper four corner hold), kesa-gatame (scarf hold), and sankaku-jime (triangle choke). Finally, thirteen minutes into the bout, Kimura positioned himself to apply a reverse ude-garami (arm entanglement, a shoulderlock). Gracie refused to submit, even after his arm broke, forcing Kimura to continue the lock on Gracie's broken arm. At this point, Carlos Gracie, Helio's older brother, threw in the towel to end the match to protect his brother's health. In 1994, Helio admitted in an interview that he had in fact been choked unconscious earlier in the match, but had revived when Kimura released the choke.
As a tribute to Kimura's victory, the reverse ude-garami technique has since been commonly referred to as the Kimura lock, or simply the Kimura, in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and, more recently, mixed martial arts circles.
Kimura in Professional Wrestling
In the early 1950s, Kimura was invited by Rikidozan to compete as a professional wrestler. They performed both as tag team partners and as opponents, but Kimura was not marketed or publicized as much as Rikidozan, primarily due to Rikidozan's own opposition (Rikidozan was actually Zainichi Korean, and thus he reportedly felt conflicted or insecure about having a real Japanese in competition with him for publicity[citations needed]). The Rikidozan vs. Kimura match for the Japanese Professional Wrestling Heavyweight title was the first high-profile match between two native professional wrestlers. The match, according to Kimura, was supposed to go to a draw and set up a series of rematches. But Rikidozan, whether it was premeditated or in the heat of the moment, shot (began fighting for real) on Kimura and battered him unconscious with a series of open hand strikes, punches, and kicks (some of which were to the groin), and won the match by knockout. Kimura never received a rematch with Rikidozan.
Kimura formed International Pro Wrestling Force (IPWF), a promotion based in his hometown of Kumamoto, as a local affiliate of The Japan Wrestling Association (JWA). Although JWA later took over operations, IPWF is remembered for being the first Japanese promotion to introduce Mexican Lucha Libre wrestlers.
Some biographers note that his professional wrestling career began shortly after his wife was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and it is speculated by some that he began professional wrestling to pay for her medication. Indeed, the predicament was likely beyond the financial means of a police instructor, which was his paying job prior to professional wrestling.
Kimura vs. Valdemar Santana
Kimura went to Brazil again in 1959 to conduct his last Professional Judo/Wrestling tour. He was challenged by Valdemar Santana to a "real" (not choreographed) submission match. Santana was a champion in Gracie Jiujitsu and Capoiera. He was 27 years old, 6 feet tall, and weighed 205lb. Santana had twice fought Hélio Gracie and won, both fights lasting more than three hours. Kimura threw Santana with seoinage, hanegoshi, and osotogari. He then applied his famous reverse ude-garami (entangled armlock), winning the match.
Santana requested a rematch under vale tudo rules—the first fight was apparently grappling only—and this time, the result was a draw after 40 minutes in a bout in which both competitors reportedly drew blood. Kimura fought this match despite having an injured knee, and was pressured by the promoter and police to fight against his doctors orders.
Death
Kimura died on April 18, 1993 from lung cancer.
View short documentary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkDBflFtPIw
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Breaking Boards - the physics of a karate chop
Scientists say it's not a trick--it just takes blinding speed and a couple thousand newtons.
ADVANCED DEGREES IN PHYSICS come in different varieties. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; students earn them by writing a dissertation. At the Karate Institute in midtown Manhattan, they earn them by breaking one-inch-thick pine boards. Lots of them.
Ben Paris, a fourth-degree black belt in tae kwon do, is happy to demonstrate his grasp of the scientific principles. First, he adjusts his belt. Then he lets out a short, sharp yell, snaps his left leg forward, and smashes his foot through three boards, showering the mat with splinters. "Five boards is about the most I can break," Paris says. "But I'm not really limited by strength; I'm more or less limited by the size of the hands holding the boards."
Few things offer more visceral proof of the power of physics than a karate chop. Punch a brick with your bare hand, untutored in the martial arts, and you may break a finger. Punch it with the proper force, momentum, and positioning and you'll break the brick instead. "Amazingly, there are no tricks involved at all," says Michael Feld, a physicist at MIT. "What you have here is one of the most efficient human movements ever conceived. We've found nothing in our studies to improve upon the art."
In the late 1970s, when Feld was earning a brown belt in karate, his instructor, Ronald McNair, also happened to be his physics student. (McNair later died tragically while working as a scientist-astronaut aboard Space Shuttle Challenger.) The secret to karate, both men agreed, lies in the speed and exceptional focus of the strike. But just how fast does a karate punch move?
To find out, they joined with undergraduate Stephen Wilk and set up a strobe light that flashed either 60 or 120 times per second. Then they photographed McNair and others throwing various kicks and punches. Once the film was developed, they could calculate the speed of a punch by counting how many times the strobe flashed until the fist hit its target.
Feld and McNair found that beginning students can throw a karate chop at about 20 feet per second--just enough to break a one-inch board. But a black belt like McNair could chop at 46 feet per second. At that speed, a 1 1/2-pound hand can deliver a wallop of up to 2,800 newtons (one newton is roughly equal to the force exerted by the weight of an apple). Splitting a typical concrete slab 1 1/2 inches thick takes on average only 1,900 newtons.
Of course, the best boxers can punch as quickly and powerfully as any black belt. Why can't they break concrete blocks too? The answer lies in the nature of their punches. When a boxer throws his fist, he usually ends the movement with follow-through. This gives the punch maximum momentum (golf and tennis players follow through for the same reason), and it can help knock an opponent down. But the impact itself is diffuse: It's meant to jar an opponent's brain, not crack his skull.
A karate chop, on the other hand, has no follow-through at all: It lashes out like a cobra and then withdraws instantly When a black belt hits a slab of concrete, for instance, his fist touches the block for fewer than five milliseconds, and yet the block breaks with a resounding crack.
To understand how this works, Jearl Walker, a former tae kwon do student who now teaches physics at Cleveland State University, set up a study much like Feld's and McNair's. A well-thrown fist, he found, reaches its maximum velocity when the arm is about 80 percent extended. "That's exactly what my tae kwon do master had taught me," Walker says. "You learn to focus your punch in your imagination so that it terminates inside your opponent's body, rather than on the surface. To deliver the maximum power, you want to make contact before the slowdown begins."
The purpose of all that focused power is brutally obvious: to break bones and rupture tissue. But success also depends on more subtle forces. Solid as they seem, all materials are at least slightly elastic. Whack them in the right spot and they will start to oscillate. A punch with a follow-through would dampen such oscillations, but a karate chop, by pulling away at the last moment, lets them move freely "If you tweak a rubber band it goes up and down, and the same is true if you tweak a board or a brick with a much greater force," Feld says. "When they reach their elastic limits, they start to yield. In other words, they break."
Fortunately for most of us, reaching that limit in bones is no easy matter. Feld says bone can withstand 40 times more force than concrete, and a cylinder of bone less than an inch in diameter and 2 1/3 inches long can withstand a force of more than 25,000 newtons. Hands and feet can withstand even more than that, because their skin, muscles, ligaments, tendons, and cartilage absorb a great deal of impact. As a result, a well-kicked foot can absorb about 2,000 times as much force as concrete before breaking.
Feld himself has never broken a finger in karate, even though he once broke eight one-inch-thick boards at a time. Still, good bones and a Ph.D. in physics alone couldn't earn him a black belt. "Tiger Woods didn't just wake up one morning and start hitting a ball 320 yards, and we don't just walk in and shatter a cinderblock," says Sihak Henry Cho, grand master at the Karate Institute. "Everybody has to work at it."
Published by Curtis Rist, May 2000
ADVANCED DEGREES IN PHYSICS come in different varieties. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; students earn them by writing a dissertation. At the Karate Institute in midtown Manhattan, they earn them by breaking one-inch-thick pine boards. Lots of them.
Ben Paris, a fourth-degree black belt in tae kwon do, is happy to demonstrate his grasp of the scientific principles. First, he adjusts his belt. Then he lets out a short, sharp yell, snaps his left leg forward, and smashes his foot through three boards, showering the mat with splinters. "Five boards is about the most I can break," Paris says. "But I'm not really limited by strength; I'm more or less limited by the size of the hands holding the boards."
Few things offer more visceral proof of the power of physics than a karate chop. Punch a brick with your bare hand, untutored in the martial arts, and you may break a finger. Punch it with the proper force, momentum, and positioning and you'll break the brick instead. "Amazingly, there are no tricks involved at all," says Michael Feld, a physicist at MIT. "What you have here is one of the most efficient human movements ever conceived. We've found nothing in our studies to improve upon the art."
In the late 1970s, when Feld was earning a brown belt in karate, his instructor, Ronald McNair, also happened to be his physics student. (McNair later died tragically while working as a scientist-astronaut aboard Space Shuttle Challenger.) The secret to karate, both men agreed, lies in the speed and exceptional focus of the strike. But just how fast does a karate punch move?
To find out, they joined with undergraduate Stephen Wilk and set up a strobe light that flashed either 60 or 120 times per second. Then they photographed McNair and others throwing various kicks and punches. Once the film was developed, they could calculate the speed of a punch by counting how many times the strobe flashed until the fist hit its target.
Feld and McNair found that beginning students can throw a karate chop at about 20 feet per second--just enough to break a one-inch board. But a black belt like McNair could chop at 46 feet per second. At that speed, a 1 1/2-pound hand can deliver a wallop of up to 2,800 newtons (one newton is roughly equal to the force exerted by the weight of an apple). Splitting a typical concrete slab 1 1/2 inches thick takes on average only 1,900 newtons.
Of course, the best boxers can punch as quickly and powerfully as any black belt. Why can't they break concrete blocks too? The answer lies in the nature of their punches. When a boxer throws his fist, he usually ends the movement with follow-through. This gives the punch maximum momentum (golf and tennis players follow through for the same reason), and it can help knock an opponent down. But the impact itself is diffuse: It's meant to jar an opponent's brain, not crack his skull.
A karate chop, on the other hand, has no follow-through at all: It lashes out like a cobra and then withdraws instantly When a black belt hits a slab of concrete, for instance, his fist touches the block for fewer than five milliseconds, and yet the block breaks with a resounding crack.
To understand how this works, Jearl Walker, a former tae kwon do student who now teaches physics at Cleveland State University, set up a study much like Feld's and McNair's. A well-thrown fist, he found, reaches its maximum velocity when the arm is about 80 percent extended. "That's exactly what my tae kwon do master had taught me," Walker says. "You learn to focus your punch in your imagination so that it terminates inside your opponent's body, rather than on the surface. To deliver the maximum power, you want to make contact before the slowdown begins."
The purpose of all that focused power is brutally obvious: to break bones and rupture tissue. But success also depends on more subtle forces. Solid as they seem, all materials are at least slightly elastic. Whack them in the right spot and they will start to oscillate. A punch with a follow-through would dampen such oscillations, but a karate chop, by pulling away at the last moment, lets them move freely "If you tweak a rubber band it goes up and down, and the same is true if you tweak a board or a brick with a much greater force," Feld says. "When they reach their elastic limits, they start to yield. In other words, they break."
Fortunately for most of us, reaching that limit in bones is no easy matter. Feld says bone can withstand 40 times more force than concrete, and a cylinder of bone less than an inch in diameter and 2 1/3 inches long can withstand a force of more than 25,000 newtons. Hands and feet can withstand even more than that, because their skin, muscles, ligaments, tendons, and cartilage absorb a great deal of impact. As a result, a well-kicked foot can absorb about 2,000 times as much force as concrete before breaking.
Feld himself has never broken a finger in karate, even though he once broke eight one-inch-thick boards at a time. Still, good bones and a Ph.D. in physics alone couldn't earn him a black belt. "Tiger Woods didn't just wake up one morning and start hitting a ball 320 yards, and we don't just walk in and shatter a cinderblock," says Sihak Henry Cho, grand master at the Karate Institute. "Everybody has to work at it."
Published by Curtis Rist, May 2000
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