Isaac Newton was a little guy. Not a muppet or anything. Just a handsome little chap. 5’6″. Shorter than Beyonce. But he is responsible for the most far-reaching generalizations of the human mind. His equation to explain the moon’s orbit, for example, applies to any moon anywhere in the universe. Boy never saw a baseball. But he explained that the force with which a baseball hits you in the nads is equal to its mass times its acceleration. And the acceleration varies due to the mass of the planet you are on in the event you get beaned. So, if you get beaned in the beans on the moon, it hurts less than getting beaned on Earth.

Newton used the word force. Force equals mass times acceleration (F=ma). Unless we can move at the speed of light, our mass remains pretty much a constant on earth. I’ve fought a couple of guys who could move at the speed of light, but we ordinary folks have a constant mass. The good news is that my little fist has a force that can be multiplied by acceleration. So the faster I strike, the more force.

In athletics, the word “force” has been replaced by “power.” I blame Batman comics. Sock! Pow! And thus we are stuck with the word “power.” We analyze the “power” of a team’s offensive line. The “power” of a batter’s swing. And the martial arts were talking about “limitless power” even before Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris.

There is a surfeit of mythology in the martial arts surrounding the concept of limitless power. And by “mythology” I mean horse manure. Limitless power does, in fact, exist, but what does the term mean? If you believe the “mythology”, you can punch out a Peterbilt at highway speed, or chop a 4×12 bridge plank across the grain like Miyagi did in Karate Kid 2. I’m sure Pat Morita told the director, “Get lost! I couldn’t do that with a backhoe.” And the director goes, “C’mon, Pat. Just do it. We won’t put it in the final cut.” So Pat does the scene, and they put it in anyway. A single human brain can egest more horse manure than the Budweiser Clydesdales on any given day.

Very simply, “limitless power” means “to exceed limitations.” I start out by breaking a toothpick. Next year, I a break a 1×12 pine board (with the grain). The year after that, I break an 8×16 concrete slab. Maybe even a double slab, someday. Eventually, my hands (and my wife) say, “Cut it out, nimrod!” What then? That is when power becomes metaphysical, which literally means “beyond physics.” So . . . limitless.

Power does not consist in breaking bricks or in vanquishing opponents. Power abides in making friendships. My instructor never fights anymore, despite a veritable forest of five-foot-tall trophies in storage behind his office. But he has transmitted his power to hundreds of others– people he chose personally after long acquaintance.

Isaac Newton’s power was in his intelligence and concentration. And in his respect for others: “If I have seen further than other men, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” The little man’s best friend was Edmund Halley, the comet guy, who never actually saw his own comet. Their individual powers eventually fused into an alliance that yielded something like immortality.