Improving Punching Power, Part 3

Taken From Muay Thai: The Art of Fighting E-book


The Body Is What Punches, Not Just The Arm



When you hit someone, it should feel like a piano fell out of a second story window and hit him on the end of your fist. This is in keeping with info provided earlier in this post about shifting the weight, etc. The reason why you're shifting your weight is SO THAT HE FEELS YOUR WEIGHT IN YOUR PUNCH. There's a Thai saying that a person who really knows how to hit moves fluidly but his touch is as heavy as a mountain. Sounds like good boxing to me. If your weight is settled on your feet, then that mass is not going into the punches.




Tight Fist
At the tail end of execution, the last place you can either add or lose power in a punch is in your fist itself. It should stay loose through most of your execution and tighten up just before impact.




The Snap - The Right Time and Place
The power of your punch is right on the end, where it snaps. This is true of ALL punches -- not just your linear punches. The art of punching then becomes the art of coordinating your own body mechanics (which is most of what I've talked about here) with the placement of your target AT PRECISELY THE RIGHT RANGE AT THE RIGHT TIME, where you hit target as your punch is snapping on the end. When you don't get this right, your power is either jammed because the range and timing weren't right, or it falls short or misses for the same reasons.




This, by the way, is one of several ways in which KEY attributes come together to equal success in your hitting. As far as the above paragraph, you get this ability from essentially two areas of training: sparring and fighting. Partner drilling will never in a million years give you this ability.







Secondarily, you can get some aspects of this ability from focus mitt training and the top and bottom bag -- in both cases because they simulate either the chaos or the predictable flow of sparring and fighting, where through timing and range you get your punches to meet up with the target properly.




There's more to this, in general, as far as learning to punch with power is concerned. Much of it, though, is difficult to convey in text. Much easier to show.




One last point for you, is that you have to develop your kinesthetic perception if you really want to be able to hit with power. There is a correct sequence of muscular contractions for every punch, every kick, which happens very quickly in rapid succession. In addition to contractions, there is a correct series of RELEASES (very important) -- i.e. when a certain muscle in the chain has done its job, and now needs to let go before it starts to hinder your function.

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