03-26-2022, 04:31 AM
(03-26-2022, 04:11 AM)FlyingClayDisk Wrote: Spent some time in Bangkok and Phuket while in SE Asia working. Me and a buddy went to Phuket one time and were cruising the streets in the party district of Patong. They have all these gals on the street with this various board and other games (chess is a frequent one). Anyway, this one gal had a stump with a little 16oz finish hammer and some 16d framing nails. She'd bet you she could drive a nail further into this stump than you could (same hammer, and exact same nails). I worked as a carpenter for many years, and I know how to drive a nail! At work we used to do this shit all the time! So, of course I took the challenge. The only hammer she had was this totally crappy 16oz claw hammer with a piece of pipe for a handle, but I figured hey, we're using the same hammer so she doesn't have a chance...right?
Heh, to this day I don't know how this gal, who couldn't have weighed even 90lbs soaking wet, could consistently beat a 270 lb 6'-5" experienced carpenter...but she did...every gawd damned time!! Same stump, same nails, same hammer. I have no idea how she did it!! My buddy still teases me about that to this day! That little Thai gal kicked my butt, badly! LOL!
Driving nails is all in the wrist. Doesn't matter how much mass you have to come down on it, that last little bit of OOMF! whipped into the wrist is what it takes. It's the same with swords - all the real power comes out of the wrist.
She was probably playing on the fact that you're a big 'ol boy, and confident that you were aware of that and would use that bulk instead of the finesse in the wrist.
It's the same way scrawny little farts like me (I'm 6' 2" and 180 pounds soaking wet) wrestle 800 pound steers to the ground. You just find the weak point and make it happen. On a steer, like most animals, the head is the weak point - where that head goes, the body will follow. You just find the weak points on the head to make it go where you want it to. Ears, horns, sometimes a nose.
A nail is the same way - power comes from the wrist, and control comes from the head in a straight line down the shank. apply the power along that line, and, voila!
most folks swing from the shoulder and ignore the wrist, relying on their strength and mass to follow through instead of the power shot.
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Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’