OC Power Generation and Root

Or, the importance of "root".

Power, in the sense of a physical expression, is not "created", it simply arrives/manifests when the conditions are right. It is not a matter of producing force or using muscular strength/tension, rather it is primarily alignment and secondarily velocity. This is easy to understand with basic knowledge of physical mechanics. When a strike contacts the target, the two bodies undergo collision. Elastic collision refers to a situation where the strike hits an unbreakable object and momentum is conserved. If the target is stationary, then momentum is determined by mass and velocity of the strike, and the transfer of momentum depends on how much more or less massive the target is. If a strike contacts a breakable object, the collision may become inelastic, which means that at least some of the momentum of the strike will be "used up" by deformation of the target, e.g. breaking bones. To illustrate the salient features of power, in this example, the target is unbreakable.

A strike which originates at the shoulder, meaning that the alignment of the strike is a continuous segment from shoulder to hand, with the rest of the body a separate segment, has the total mass of the arm from shoulder to hand. On average, an arm makes up about 5% of the total body mass. Striking another body with 5% of its mass means that most of the momentum will be transferred back into the striking arm and must be "resisted" at the end of the alignment segment, which in this case is the shoulder. Shoulder dislocations are very common among boxers because the forces generated through this kind of momentum transference are often greater than the strength of the shoulder joints, especially after chronic force absorption.

On the other hand, a strike which originates at the ground, meaning that the alignment of the strike is a continuous segment from bottom of foot to hand, has the total mass of the planet itself. For all intents and purposes, the strike is an immovable object (along the path of the alignment). When the strike makes contact with the target, all (not actually all, but in practical terms, all) of the momentum is transferred into the target. Because all of the joints are in alignment with the path of the force, no joint must resist the transfer of momentum. Thus, by conceptual simplification, when properly aligned from strike to ground, it is primarily the speed of the strike which determines the power (in actuality, there are other factors, such as modulation of acceleration at moment of contact, depth into target of collision, non-linear vectors, vibratory mechanics, etc.)

It bears noting, however, that proper alignment does not mean injury is impossible. Momentum is fully transferred to the target only when the striking mass is much larger than the target (e.g. planetary); this means that the alignment must be perfect for the strike, and it also means that the alignment must be non-compressible. For this latter to be the case, each bone segment in the alignment must be capable of withstanding the total compressive force of the strike along the alignment without deformation (i.e. without crushing/fracturing the bones). Thus it is inadvisable to strike massive objects which are less breakable than one's own bones. This is also the impetus for conditioning the "shock-absorption" system of the body (i.e. the fascia) as well as conditioning the most vulnerable bones (i.e. at the striking surface, e.g. knuckles) through the application of Wolff's Law in practices like "Iron Palm" training.

Diagrams here: https://imgur.com/a/ZC5svHH