Where Kung Fu and Tameshigiri Meet
Thoughts on the relationship between punching and cutting, and between practice and testing techniques in Kung Fu and Battodo
By Ravi Rajkumar
I am a student of several martial arts. Primarily, I have studied Kung Fu at the Chinese Kung Fu Wusu Association for about 20 years, achieving the rank of 'third degree'. I've studied Battodo at Zentokan Dojo for almost four years, achieving Shodan rank in Zen Nihon Toyama Iaido Renmei. I've also practiced Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for a little over a year (Masterskaya Brooklyn) and have several years' experience training in Western Fencing (Sabre). At the start of 2021, Biesanz Sensei asked me and other rank holders to write about the relationship between Battodo training and our training in other arts, I've thought a lot about this since then and finally hit on this idea while engaged in one of my favorite forms of punching training, when it occurred to me that doing it felt a lot like tameshigiri.
This is my equivalent to tameshigiri, for punching:
Developing and Testing Technique
In my opinion, one of the simplest, most effective ways to both develop and test power in punching is to light a candle, and throw punches straight at the flame, one at a time, to try to blow it out.
At the first, basic level, you stop your punch 3-6 inches from the flame. As you advance, you can increase that distance, throwing your power further and further. At an even higher level, you can achieve what's pictured here: set up two candles, one in front of the other, and throw a punch right on the line intersecting them, blowing out the second (rear) candle, but not blowing out the first (front) candle. Difficult as this sounds, with enough training and practice, the second candle can be selectively blown out, which ultimately translates into being able to focus power from a punch onto an arbitrary point in three dimensional space.
In Kung Fu, we're taught that to develop power in punching, you need to relax, explode, be loose, and then tense at the point of impact. There can also be a rotation of the fist—twisting—that creates a kind of vortex of force when the fist lands. All of this is trained by punching out the candle because all of it is necessary to succeed in blowing it out. Practicing candle punching has led me to build up 'muscle memory' for punching in this way consistently and automatically, but thinking about the practice has led me to a number of observations, some of which may contrast with concepts of power and intent in sword practice, though they may also contain lessons that apply to both.
As I've contemplated the forces involved in punching, I've come to think that the objective in 'basic' punching is to have power leave your fist/arm and enter the other person's body. This necessitates a sudden stop that allows kinetic energy to continue from your fist into the other person.
The Yin of Internal Power
Executing that basic technique (exploding and stopping) is enough to blow out the front candle, but to blow out the second candle we have to go beyond basic (correct technique) punching and develop more advanced (internal) power. Internal power is a concept that's been written about at length by many practitioners across numerous arts. There's more to say about internal power and its development than I could possibly write down here, and I am far from mastering it. This is something I'll likely spend the rest of my life exploring. Developing the capability to create and mobilize internal power involves diligent and repeated training and practice of breathing techniques like T'u Na Breathing, chi gung/qigong techniques like Ba Duan Jin, and executing martial techniques (eg. punching) with the breath. There are well known martial arts like Tai Chi and Xinyi that make this a primary focus, but I believe the principles can be found in many other arts as well. Among the many subtleties to explore in 'internal power', there is one dimension of this that I think is particularly relevant here, which is that of the void or vacuum.
What snuffs out any candle is the flame being deprived of oxygen. A highly regarded Kung Fu Master (my teacher's teacher's teacher) once reminded me of this and told me that to accomplish this, I needed to create a vacuum at the point where the flame is. I believe that the mechanics of this involve sending a shock wave forward and then stopping the punch with a sharp snap that creates another shock wave in the opposite direction. These two waves of alternating dense and thin air can, when they intersect, create a very low pressure area—a vacuum—at a specific point in space. That and the focused implosion that results from it can snuff out specifically the second candle flame, or in the body of someone being punched, can rupture specific organs and cause internal damage.
In thinking about the entire system of mind, body, striking fist, and target, we can actually recognize at least four manifestations of void/vacuum/implosion: the emptying of the mind; the implosion and emptying of the lungs; the implosion in the fist, as it tightens to remove any last remnant of space and slack; and the implosion of the medium (air) around the target point. In my mind, all of these 'emptyings' are interdependent and work in concert to produce internal power.
“Thirty spokes converge on a hub
but it’s the emptiness that makes a wheel work
pots are fashioned from clay
but it’s the hollow that makes a pot work
windows and doors are carved for a house
but it’s the spaces that make a house work
existence makes something useful
but nonexistence makes it work”
I believe that the concepts of void and implosion have analogous applications in Battodo, but there are nuanced differences in how the void or implosion is used in Kung Fu versus Battodo. Both arts, for example, depend on the combination of breathing with technique. and I have found that collapsing the rib cage in exhaling may be connected to internal power in both arts. Tenouchi—the closing of the empty space in the palm of the grip in Battodo—has been described to me as being like a collapse or implosion as well, and is analogous to the closing and tightening of the fist at the point of a punch's impact. But the shock and its reversal—the sharp snap that I believe is essential to internal power in punching—seems to me to be an important difference, and not how one would move a sword effectively. My theory about this is that it has to do with the profound difference between cutting, where the blade's edge moves through and separates its target, and hitting, where the fist must stop and do its damage from a distance (force traveling forward into the body and past the fist's leading edge).
Training the Mind
The description above summarizes the physical principles involved in technical and then internal power, but like with all martial arts practice, the mental is perhaps an even more vital part of this practice. Having a theory of the mechanics of the technique is not enough on its own to succeed. Executing this consistently also requires harmony with the mind and breath, which I've found to be the case with tameshigiri as well, and that's where (in my opinion) the two practices have more similarities than differences.
Having a theory of the mechanics of the technique is not enough on its own to succeed.
Candle punching can be maddeningly frustrating. The candle doesn't care if you are a beginner or an advanced practitioner, and total beginners can step up and punch the candle out easily (maybe not the second one though), while experienced martial artists can have bad days where they fail and fail. It requires you to relax, concentrate, and focus all your attention and energy on the point where the flame is, but if you start getting frustrated, that becomes more and more difficult. It's possible sometimes to overcome this by continuing until you're so exhausted that you relax involuntarily. I'm sure many Battodo practitioners can relate to this, and I have certainly experienced these things in cutting.
With a good blade, and lots of tiny ‘compensations’ you can achieve reliable basic cuts while failing to address fundamental flaws in your technique.
When you're aiming for the second candle, you must put all of your intention, your whole mind, on the second flame, but the first flame is always right in front of you, constantly distracting you from your more ambitious goal. Similarly in tameshigiri, I have found that my cutting can suffer when I become too preoccupied with the surface of the mat. When my mind is on the surface, my blade does not pass through that surface to the other side, or doesn't do so consistently. In both practices, there's also the challenge of resisting the temptation to gratify yourself with easy results. After failing enough times to blow out the second flame, the first one becomes more and more tantalizing of a target, because you crave the endorphin rush of blowing out any of the candles. You have to force yourself to eschew that gratification in order to move past it to more advanced technique. Similarly, in Battodo, I think you can sometimes, with a good blade, and lots of tiny 'compensations' achieve reliable basic cuts—results!—while failing to address fundamental flaws in your technique that can prevent you from achieving higher levels of practice.
Like tameshigiri, candle punching is both a way to train and hone your technique, and a totally unforgiving way to test your skill, focus, concentration, and patience. For my colleagues in Battodo, I'd highly recommend trying this at least once, as it's a form of practice that's quite accessible and easy to set up.
This all is an ongoing exploration for me—my understanding continues to evolve the more I practice.
Getting Started
Some tips for candle punching for those who want to try:
You can re-use the same match over and over by re-lighting it off whichever candle is still lit
It's handy to have a third candle lit in case you blow out both candles when trying to get just the second one
Stand in a good rooted stance with knees slightly bent
Don't wear long sleeves
Start off with a punch that ends with your elbow at about a 120 degree angle, where you twist your fist 90 degrees on the way to the candle
Test your distance before you start, and give yourself an extra inch or two for the snap
Look out for any tiny unconscious 'cheats' you might be employing, like punching over or to the side of the front candle
Flaming candles flying across the room and hot wax all over your fingers is a possibility to be aware of
