Martial Arts Has Gone Technical
Martial Arts has been an island of traditional purity surrounded by a sea of technology. Martial Arts practitioners have focused on mental and emotional discipline as well as physical training, preserving their particular fighting system's centuries-long legacy. Measuring the strength of a blow isn't a new idea. The automobile industry has been doing if for decades, but It isn't surprising that traditional martial arts have been slow to adopt technology. Despite that reticence, martial artists are now readily utilizing advanced Load cell sensors that have become small enough and flexible enough to be sewn into the protective padding. After all, anyone who has ever hit a punching bag wonders just how hard he is really able to hit. Now technology makes that possible
Today's Martial Arts academies advertise high technology gear such as focus pads (electronic force measuring pads) along with their free standing kick bags, body opponent bags, stretching machines, and traditional wooden dummies. In fact, sensor technology has made its way from the martial arts training ring to the tournament arena. Tae Kwon Do now allows the use of force sensors in tournaments. 2006 Olympic Tae Kwon Do rules state: "In the use of electronic trunk protectors....Valid points scored on the mid-section of the trunk shall be recorded automatically by the transmitter in the electronic trunk protector."
Evidence of the degree to which sensor technology has been accepted into the martial arts was provided by The National Geographic Channel's program 'Fight Science' which aired in August 2006. A $150,000 government-certified crash-test dummy known as the "Hybrid III anthropomorphic test device." outfitted with sensors and measurement capabilities created especially for this research, allowed scientists to measure the impact of blows, throws, and kicks, providing data that frequently astounded the scientists. This was a highly intelligent show which brought together a team of crash test scientists, sports biomechanists and Hollywood animators with a cross-section of the world's top martial artists representing various styles of martial arts in an attempt to separate martial arts fact from fiction. What they found was fact, something which can only increase the technology hungry public's appreciation for martial arts.
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