In a sport defined by split-second strategy, the heated pressure of a wrestling match leaves little room for hesitation. Junior Ben Nguyen understands this visceral reality better than most. Having grown up navigating the mats in both Judo and wrestling, he now captains the wrestling program at Mitty, a group he calls “the brotherhood.” To him, they are “wrestling brothers, who go out there to sacrifice their bodies,” forging a shared bond from the high-impact sport.
Despite a concussion that cut his school season short this year, Ben’s individual trajectory remained high. He snagged second place at the Golden State Open and traveled to Texas for Nationals, fueled by a relentless appetite for high-intensity and strategic play. Yet, the most significant evolution of his game didn’t happen in a gym in Texas—it happened in a classroom.
For the majority of his martial arts career, Ben relied on power and grit. He threw kicks with explosive force and controlled positions through sheer physicality. But, true mastery is rarely the byproduct of instinct alone. It’s built through experience, and most importantly, technical understanding. Recently, that understanding came into focus through an unexpected lens: physics.
Recently, Mitty’s Physics Club and Martial Arts Club hosted a collaboration meeting, a cross-disciplinary event designed to bring both groups a new understanding of their respective subjects. The feeling of unity was immediate. At the meeting, the martial arts club officers demonstrated a sequence of moves—a jab, a spinning kick, a hip throw—followed by the physics club officers’ breakdown of the mechanical principles behind it. The content not only demonstrated how martial arts worked, but why certain motions and techniques generate more power than others.
The knowledge gained through his understanding of physics propels Ben in his martial arts journey, providing him with a distinct competitive advantage. While many athletes stop at knowing how to execute a move, a sophisticated grasp of the mechanics behind it allows for Ben to systematically diagnose and correct his mistakes. This allows for optimization that simple brute force can never achieve. And in a high-stakes tournament, these marginal gains are often what separate a stunning win from a crushing defeat.
Ben points to the chokehold move as a prime example of the impact of his understanding. By narrowing the surface area of the arms around the carotid arteries, an athlete can generate immense pressure with minimal exertion, saving Ben valuable energy for the final minutes of a round. “I’m constantly thinking about concepts like these in training now,” Ben noted. This is especially true in Judo, where Ben consciously maintains his center of gravity below his opponents in order to effortlessly topple them over.
Interestingly, elite martial artists at the professional level have long been celebrated for their strong understanding of physics. Ben’s own Judo coach, an engineer for Lockheed Martin, has seamlessly integrated concepts like center of mass and rotational torque into his coaching style. For Ben, the physics club collaboration was less of a revelation and more of a deepening of understanding that his coaches had been building upon for years.
Ultimately, mastery demands a descent into the details, especially for technical sports like martial arts. The surprising collaboration between the Physics Club and the Martial Arts Club fused two seemingly different spheres that, upon closer inspection, are more intertwined than many ever notice. In the end, Ben isn’t merely out-working his opponents. He out-calculates them.