Jackscrew at Elbow, Transmitting Shoulder’s “Tead” Power to the Pole
https://www.facebook.com/mark.ho.372/videos/10220968731985606
Mark (Ho) shared the above video on 21 September 2020. Alongside Mark brought readers’ attention to the following:
“The Teachings of Chu Shong Tin
Fundamental Sung Action Number 1: Tead (Sink)
Applying ‘Tead’ to the pole by releasing from shoulder to wrist
Kin Chow Woon (Shoulder Elbow Wrist)”
Mark’s highlight attracted my attention on the “Chow” — the elbow — what’s actually happening there in particular, when “Tead” is “by releasing from shoulder to wrist”?
Is the elbow also “tead-ing” (sinking) to the pole in the way similar to the shoulder, such that we can say that the shoulder “teads” to the elbow first which then accumulates and further “teads” to the wrist? — the “Kin Chow Woon” combination. If not, what’s otherwise?
I would like to propose that the elbow doesn’t “tead” (like the shoulder) at all. Instead, it just “jackscrews”* to straighten the arm, so that the power from the shoulder’s “tead” could be almost fully transmitted to the wrist, where the load (the incoming force resisting the pole) acts upon through the wrapping palm.
(* “Jackscrew” is used here instead of “jack” because the load for jacking is not at the elbow, but at the wrist-palm; and “jackscrew” can also hint that the elbow is where to “screw” open to jack up the load.)
You are recalled that the jackscrew effect has been put forward at this page to explain the Wing Chun punching. (Refer to the post [Penetrating Punch and The Wing Chun Stance — The Jackscrew Analogy] 2014.04.07.) This is the same jackscrew effect being talked about here for operating the pole. And yes, you can actually regard the “Kin Chow Woon” here are indeed launching a punch towards the pole; the difference is that in a normal punch, the impact area is the fist’s front, while here the contact area is within the wrapping palm (i.e. inside the fist).
The properties of the jackscrew effect then apply: It’s hard for the incoming force to stop the arm from straightening, because the direction the elbow is moving towards doesn’t lie on the same line as an opposite to the incoming force direction; it is in fact going to the direction perpendicular to the incoming force. If it does, which will happen if you think the elbow “teads” to the wrist, the incoming force can then counter the elbow force head-to-head and will thus significantly obstruct its progression, that will in turn directly counteract onto the shoulder’s “tead”.
The “unstoppable” straightening of the arm thus leaves no room for any (at least kept to minimum) obstructing force to get in to consume the “tead” power from the shoulder. In other words, nearly all of the “tead” power can pass through the straightening arm to the end onto the pole and act upon the incoming force.
In fact, I would opine that in all straightening movements of the arm (not only for the pole), the elbow always “jackscrews” to give out the above effect, namely, fully transmitting the shoulder’s “tead” power.
