Stealing the Energy requires a few steps to properly perform.
1. A stealing the energy hit is performed in a manner whereby the whole body weight is transferred through the hit so that if I weigh 170 pounds then 170 pounds gets transferred to and through the point of contact.
2. The hit needs to have blistering speed. You need to be loose and moving before executing the stealing the energy hit. If you tense anywhere before the hit it is literally robbing the speed from the technique.
3. The the hit needs to accelerate on the way to the point of impact and then the strike needs to retract back twice as fast as it went in. For beginners to learn the strike it is often easier for them to go up on their toes while they are preparing to strike and then to drop (like squatting) when executing the strike. As soon as you feel solid impact on the opponents arm then immediately retract your striking hand as if you had touched a hot stove while bouncing back up on your toes.
4. The impact needs to be penetrating. What this means is that you do not hit to the surface of the target but instead you hit several inches into the target. I often use the analogy of dribbling a basketball and then you dribble in such a way that the basketball bounces high into the air after it impacts the floor. To do this you must mentally hit the basketball with more “through” force so that the force will transfer into a high bounce. This is the way to hit the arm for a stealing the energy hit.
5. The loose moving quality, whole body weight transfer, blistering speed, body bounce and penetrating through the target all have to be coordinated so that the force gets transferred into and through the attackers limb.
If you are going to practice a basketball is a good tool and on a willing partner you can use a serious forearm pad to help you work out the basic details of the strike.
Our test for students to graduate from Phase 2 of our program is that they have to hit a forearm pad and leave red hand / finger marks on the arm of the instructor who is wearing the pad (through the pad) which means that the practitioner can transfer force completely through the pad.
This would be an arm break or worse if the bare arm were to be struck like this. This is also the beginning requirement for students to learn more advanced transfer of energy strikes.
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