REAL_LIFE DATA

This section is designed as a reference area for some of the facts that gave us the numbers for Bardic Tales.It is short right now and drastically incomplete. But enjoy!

Martial Arts Data

A Shotokan kick takes 2.3 seconds- but that includes the recovery. A Uechi kick takes 1.4 seconds?(Jim?) including recovery.

 Of course the attacking foot in Shotokan travels 2.5 meters, while the attacking foot in Uechi travels less than a meter! :-)

 A Shotokan punch takes .75 seconds. A Uechi punch takes .45 seconds

 Karate punches in some studies have been recorded at .1 seconds(eat your heart out Chuck!;-))

 A hammerfist strike is, apparently (this is hard for me to swallow, but this is what the facts seem to say) twice as powerful as a punch, and takes only a little longer (the action time on a hammerfist is still a little fuzzy).

 Other interesting data: it appears that there is a marked division in speed of action between trained and untrained that starts around 25% difference in speed!

 A spin takes 1.5 to 2.0 times as long as the kicking technique it is delivering! Spins definitely have a minimum time. If that is true, and your joe average kick takes 1.5 seconds say that would make a spin take between .75 and 1.5 seconds! I bet that doesn't include recovery from the spin either.

Kicks generate more than three times the amount of force as a punch!!!

 A shuto apparently does the same as a hammerfist in all observable ways. I hate it, but it seems to be true! A ridge of hand is a ridge of hand is a ridgeof hand.... A hammerfist is basically an arcing hand, a punch is a linear hand. (I hate this!*grumble)
  

ENDURANCE RESEARCH

From Jim Mochel on 1/5/98:

Ahh. This harkens back to the good old days of game design! Here, for those who never had to listen to me on this topic :-), is a quick summary of the research I did for SH. Muscle fatigue models just as you might expect , with expenditures of stored energy (stage 1) up to the point where the body starts trying to bring in other energy reserves (stage 2) , then when those are exhausted, continued exercise causes damage to the tissue (stage 3). Stage 1 expenditures are gained back quickly (in hours) while stage 2 expenditures take days to recover from.

Fatigue from aerobic activity is related but not necessarily linked. As a person starts exercising their breathing deepens to bring in more oxygen for burning energy. This continues with the increase of activity until the point where the respiratory system is no longer able to bring in enough oxygen (the famous oxygen debt). At this point the body starts burning stored oxygen (in other forms). What differs for many activities is the percentage of stored versus intake oxygen being used.

Sprinters go into oxygen debt very quickly and experience much less muscular fatigue for a given event than marathon runners who expend a continuous but small percentage of stored oxygen throughout the race. Muscular fatigue by that time is often the main recovery item.

The oxygen pool does increase in size as a result of training but it is not that elastic. The amount of stored oxygen is always a much smaller amount than could be desired. Experienced athletes (Cyclists and Runners have been extensively studied) simply expend less energy per action.

Oxygen debt is recovered very quickly (AKA Second Wind) (scale: minutes) but you recover less effectively each successive time you blow through that pool of energy.

Recovery from extended labor appears to be a _relatively_ constant value. Oxygen debt recovers in minutes, stored muscular energy in days, damage in weeks... And the variation is not that great between person to person.