Control

If a person faints or is knocked out, voluntary and involuntary muscular control is interrupted and the person falls. Since muscle tension is still in effect, the person falls in some direction. If a person is instantly killed, such as by a suicide gunshot, muscle tension immediately ceases and the person collapses in an instant. At one instant, the person is standing normally with a gun to his or head, then the trigger is pulled and, in an instant, the person is in a pile on the floor. The person does not fall over, he or she just collapses to the floor in an instant. With no muscle tension in the body, it collapses similar to a wet rag.

If you need to stop a punch that is about to strike an opponent, and, if you are able to consciously reduce muscle tension in your punching arm, the arm will be similar to a wet noodle and will harmlessly bounce off the opponent. Have you have waked up after lying on your arm to find the arm is "dead." Not only does it not have any feeling, it just hangs uselessly, similar to a wet noodle. If you were to spin your body so the arm could hit someone, it would not cause any harm. Practice stopping a technique by instantly reducing muscle tension in the arm and relaxing it so it becomes limp. Since you cannot "slam on the brakes" or redirect a technique without a great amount of muscle tension, you cannot use this relaxing method at the same time you use them.

Some martial arts, such as A .S. P. (American Self Protection), believe that teaching beginning students to focus is not only unnecessary, but also dangerous. They posit that a well placed, powerful kick needs does not need to be focused to be very damaging, and that a focused kick may cause damage that is incommensurate to the severity of an attack, thus exposing the user to liability. These critics argue that any attempt to control an attack may result in an ineffective attack or an unnecessarily damaging attack (actually, this would be result of not using control). These critics believe that, when students train to deliver attacks using light-contact, that they have the option to use focus if the situation calls for it. Hogwash! How may you have the option to use something you do not know how to use? In addition, if you do choose to use the focus option, then you will still have the claimed limitations of using focus.

If you master control, you will impress spectators more than a person who performs spectacular breaking techniques. Almost anyone off the street can break a board with raw power, but only a highly trained martial artist can execute a technique with precise control.