Sensors for Martial Arts

The PARC boys areusing sensorsto monitor the force of blows delivered in Tae Kwon Do competitions. This is pretty cool. It lets judges know how hard a blow lands and allows them to score appropriately. While this is useful, it could definitely be expanded.

I personally would like to see a system that rates punches landed in key areas where guarding was inadequate. Say I get a shot into your solar plexus because you had your elbows tucked too tightly into your ribs or where defending from a kick. While measuring force is good, in normal sparring, you’re not using a lot of force, but it’s important to defeat your opponents guard. Hits can often go unnoticed if the judge is turned the wrong way, or if you manage to slip your attack past a tight guard while in close (happens a lot with black belts).

Taking this further, you could have light-weight armor with sensors and force-feedback that could train students in learning better guard technique. For instance, if you raise your right arm high to block a punch, a buzzer goes off over your right rib cage indicating that your are unguarded there. This reminds you to quickly pull back your arm after the block. After a little while sparring this way, you’ll start to get an instinctive feel for where you’re open, without necessarily having to take a shot there.

This kind of stuff would really help with basic martial arts training, and it’s something I would love to see.

Posted by Joe Mullins at June 3, 2004 04:42 PM |TrackBack