This week’s FighterWriter, Jonathan Clay, asks: How would hand to hand combat change ina zero-g environment (say, on the ISS)?
Good question. Any time I explain how something works, or doesn’t work, I try my best to use science for several reasons. One, science is something to which we can all relate. You don’t have to know a thing about fighting to understand the science of fighting. Two, it doesn’t change. Fighting is fickle. Science is stubborn. Three, Science is, like, so much smarter than me. All of that said, if you have magic in your manuscript, some of this may not apply. If that’s the case, your reader should be aware of the physical laws of your world.
Ok, let’s put on our Newton pants and look at his laws of motion.
Law One: An object at rest tends to stay at rest. An object in motion tends to stay in motion.
Things on earth slow down because of the opposing force of gravity. On the ISS, however, if you push yourself off of a wall you will keep going until you hit something. And, you better hope you hit something because if you don’t, you will just keep going until Jesus comes for you. How can you use that to your advantage in a fisticuffs? Push your opponent. It won’t take much. A little nudge could send them off into oblivion if they aren’t anchored in some way. If you do hit them, they will propel away from you until something stops them. Which is all well and good until that third law comes into play. (I will come back to Law Two.)
Law Three: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.If I hit or push you, I am, in turn, pushing myself away from you with that same amount of force. That puts me in a real pickle. And before you say, “oh, no biggie, there’s a wall behind my character,” remember that the character will hit that wall with a force equal to that of their punch. And, if their momentum is circular, as with a hook, the character might end up spinning until they hit something…with a force equal to their punch.The way to work around the first law also helps with the third. Your character would hold on to their opponent. And, they’d probably do well to grasp the combatant on the center line of their body – say, the chest of their clothing – as it would give your character a point of reference for their strike. When the body starts spinning, your character could get disoriented. Their hand below their combatant’s face would guide their aim no matter how their own body is moving.
But, I tell ya, if it were me, I wouldn’t punch at all because of the second law of motion.
Law Two: Force = mass x acceleration.
I only know how to punch on earth. And, on earth, I am able to create force for my strike by getting as much of my mass and speed into the equation (literally) as possible. In order to punch hard, I don’t punch hard. I punch fast. That speed combined with the mass I already have will create a punch with greater force.
To get the mass of my body behind my punch as well as create acceleration, I need rotation in my upper body. That rotation is a result of torque in my hips. That torque (twisting motion) is given speed as well as stability by the pivot of my feet on the ground.
My feet remain anchored to the ground while pivoting because of friction. I have stepped in sweat before, pivoted and hit the mat because that liquid inhibited my friction. It took away my hold on the floor and the torque in my hips set me off balance. That friction is crucial to the entire movement that creates force in a punch. And the thing about friction is that it needs gravity.
So, I personally can’t see how, from free floating, a punch in zero-g would have as much force for the simple fact that it doesn’t have any sort of anchor. Now, by propelling off of a wall you could create acceleration to go with your mass and create a ton of force with that punch – which will send you flying let’s not forget. But, again, from free floating, I just don’t see how it’s scientifically doable.
Also, punching is a problem because it brings in momentum. It would send me and my opponent banging around against the walls and all the equipment in the room. I could feasibly be knocked out by whatever we propel ourselves into.
Instead, I would employ a choke. I’m not talking about a strangle hold. I mean capturing the neck in such a way that blood flow is impeded which leads to unconsciousness. At the same time, I’d want to isolate their legs because they would likely kick out of panic. The kick could create momentum which might propel us and cause me to to hit something. If I can manage to be anchored to something while choking them, the legs wouldn’t be an issue.
If I chose the right sort of choke, I wouldn’t need to worry about guarding my own neck as my body position would make it difficult or impossible for them to attack me. But, again, their legs could cause some momentum issues. I’d want to wrap those babies up with my own legs.
This is my favorite choke, my “go-to”. This example is from Kent Peters and ZombieProofBJJ. This guy and this channel are great resources for fighting…even though they’re Canadian. 😉 (That’s a joke! Canadians are so nice and Coach Peters is no exception. I’m sure he apologizes to all the people he submits.)
I hope that gives you all some ideas for your work. Again, the physical laws of your created world may differ. Plus, spacecrafts in movies and TV all seem to work out an artificial gravity so zero-g isn’t an issue. I’m not sure how they do that but they all do with the premise that we will accept the fact and we do!
On the podcast that goes with this post, (recorded almost a year after this post was created) I mention the rear naked choke. Here is another great video reference from my buddy Kent Peters. As soon as the Zero G podcast is uploaded, I will attach it also to this post. Also, I will do my own video tutorials at some point. It makes me all uncomfortable and stuff… Stop looking at me!
But, every now and then, movies like Inception embrace the concept of “compromised gravity”. It wasn’t zero-g as much as moving-g! Here’s a behind the scenes look at how they did it.
Until the next round at FightWrite, get blood on your pages.
