Jin in kung fu – physical basics

Traditional wushu and the way of its teaching is full of mythological issues. Because of that the training process is not always clear enough. That is the bad marketing for Chinese martial arts these days. The proper systematization and standards of teaching are of key importance. Many schools concentrate on teaching forms (mainly for sport competition) without understanding of movements and their application. Traditional martial arts training consists of a few elements, namely: forms practice, application, qigong, hardening, and the most important sparrings. All these features combined with understanding of biomechanics and at least basics of physics give a comprehensive knowledge of what kung fu/wushu is. Nowadays, literature explanations should be passed to students together with scientific interpretation. For example, developing of high momentum punches resembles strikes of a thunder or adopting some stances is like rooting. The article touches the basics of physics of jin which is one of the most common elements in traditional wushu. All fundamental physical quantities such as: momentum, kinetic energy and velocity are explained. Additionally, the last one for punches was studied since it is a component of mentioned above