How can i develop power in my knifehand strike?

[Earl Weiss]

Used Steel Shot bag for years. Now use an Iron Plate. This is not to develop greater power in the strike but to "Toughen" the striking surface by building bone density thru repeated use / contact at moderate power levels. High power strikes need to be done on an object with more "Give" in order to lessen adverse impact consequences.

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

Square bag filled with BB can be a good training.

View attachment 30068

Have you ever tried to break concrete blocks without space in between?

View attachment 30069

Much harder with no spacers.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

High power strikes need to be done on an object with more "Give" in order to lessen adverse impact consequences.

To strike on top of a wavemaster can be easier for your hands.

 

[wab25]

Is there any way I can gain some power on this strike at home?

Don't try to gain power.

When you try to gain power in your technique, you over focus on the power. Since, the power is the only part you care about, you end up sacrificing valuable parts of your technique, because you can hit a little harder. But, you will end up off balance, over committed, telegraphing, no structure.... Most importantly, you will be limited to that little bit you gained now.... In addition to the little bit of power you gained, you will also gain bad habits that are very hard to break.

Instead, when you are striking, focus on getting better technique. There were a bunch of posts already in this thread about how to improve your technique.... follow that advise, but your focus should not be on the power, but in the technique.

Note that part of a striking technique is the impact.... that is part of it. But start soft... remember do not focus on power, but technique. So, when you hit a board or heavy bag or maki wara... hit it soft, but accurately. Accuracy means hitting the exact target you want to hit, in the exact direction you want to hit it, with the right surface, with that surface in the right orientation, with the right stance, the right balance, the right weight distribution, the right sequence of movements, with the right timing between the movements.

As your technique gets better... your power in the technique will increase.... and you will not have bad habits that need breaking, you will be in the proper stance / balance / position when delivering the power. Most importantly, you will be able to continue developing that power... much more than if you focus on hitting harder.

There was one suggestion of getting stronger. That will definitely help. But, the process of making yourself stronger is separate from making your strike hit harder. When doing the strength exercises, do those.... they will make you stronger. When you practice the striking technique, focus on the technique. The added strength you got will help and add power.... But by focusing on technique, you will be able to more efficiently use that added strength.

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

Don't try to gain power.

When you try to gain power in your technique, you over focus on the power. Since, the power is the only part you care about, you end up sacrificing valuable parts of your technique, because you can hit a little harder. But, you will end up off balance, over committed, telegraphing, no structure.... Most importantly, you will be limited to that little bit you gained now.... In addition to the little bit of power you gained, you will also gain bad habits that are very hard to break.

Instead, when you are striking, focus on getting better technique. There were a bunch of posts already in this thread about how to improve your technique.... follow that advise, but your focus should not be on the power, but in the technique.

Note that part of a striking technique is the impact.... that is part of it. But start soft... remember do not focus on power, but technique. So, when you hit a board or heavy bag or maki wara... hit it soft, but accurately. Accuracy means hitting the exact target you want to hit, in the exact direction you want to hit it, with the right surface, with that surface in the right orientation, with the right stance, the right balance, the right weight distribution, the right sequence of movements, with the right timing between the movements.

As your technique gets better... your power in the technique will increase.... and you will not have bad habits that need breaking, you will be in the proper stance / balance / position when delivering the power. Most importantly, you will be able to continue developing that power... much more than if you focus on hitting harder.

There was one suggestion of getting stronger. That will definitely help. But, the process of making yourself stronger is separate from making your strike hit harder. When doing the strength exercises, do those.... they will make you stronger. When you practice the striking technique, focus on the technique. The added strength you got will help and add power.... But by focusing on technique, you will be able to more efficiently use that added strength.

I like this.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

Don't try to gain power.

Agree with you 100% there.

When you think about

- power, that's not your true power. When you don't think about power, that's your true power.
- speed, that's not your true speed. When you don't think about speed, that's your true speed.

A guy runs toward you and tries to knock your head off. Suddenly he drops down right in front of you. You don't even remember what you have done. It is your body reflection. That's your true power and true speed. We all try to develop that ability through our lifetime.

 

[Earl Weiss]

To strike on top of a wavemaster can be easier for your hands.

View attachment 30072

Different objectives. Striking the bag to develop power and strikes that are not max power repeatedly as a conditioning exercise.

 

[HighKick]

So I'm gonna try to keep this short. I've been breaking boards rebreakable ones at my dojang. Like 2 weeks ago I broke a green one(equivalent to a 1 in pine) I broke it pretty easy with my non dominant hand. So the other day I figured let's try the next difficulty up with my dominant hand same strike just different hand. I couldn't break it tried 3 times, I did break with an elbow but my right knife hand wouldn't break it. Is there any way I can gain some power on this strike at home? I don't have any punching bags or anything but was wondering if yall could give me some advice on this. Thanks.

I know I will catch a lot of flack for this but just Don't.

Yes, there are some practical applications to the strike. Yes, it can be deadly and effective. But to be effective, it is a rather advanced technique, and one that has limited striking areas. Just a low percentage technique that I don't waste my time on.

Back in time when few people carried weapons and open-handed combat was rather common and life important, I would want it in my tool bag. But today, Meh.

It can be hell on your finger joints long term. Singularly, they are not that strong.

My 2-cents that I know will be refuted.

 

[Dirty Dog]

I know I will catch a lot of flack for this but just Don't.

Yes, there are some practical applications to the strike. Yes, it can be deadly and effective. But to be effective, it is a rather advanced technique, and one that has limited striking areas. Just a low percentage technique that I don't waste my time on.

Back in time when few people carried weapons and open-handed combat was rather common and life important, I would want it in my tool bag. But today, Meh.

It can be hell on your finger joints long term. Singularly, they are not that strong.

My 2-cents that I know will be refuted.

If we were talking about spear hand strikes, you'd be correct. But we're talking about knife hand strikes. If your knife hand strikes are impacting the fingers, you really really really need to improve your technique.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

that has limited striking areas. Just a low percentage technique that I don't waste my time on.

I prefer to land my palm edge on my opponent's head than to land my fist on my opponent's head.

One day when you get old and have Arthritis on your finger joints, you can't hold a proper fist, the palm strike may be the only dependable weapon that you will have.

 

[Earl Weiss]

One day when you get old and have Arthritis on your finger joints, you can't hold a proper fist, the palm strike may be the only dependable weapon that you will have.

Or if you Damage the fore fist while punching - Knifehand or Palm may be a great option.

 

[Fungus]

I don't have any punching bags or anything but was wondering if yall could give me some advice on this. Thanks.

To practices to get thee feedback of the backreaction, I think a heavy bag is too soft. I have a heavybag at home, but for practicing some strikes, I put one of those quite HARD smaller mitses on it, but the original idea was to just put the hand mits on a concrete wall.

A board, or even a chest is not as swampy as a heavy bag,

How about a pile of books? Not to break them, but it will give you backreaction to see where in the chain you feel pain.

I have been troubleshooting my left straight punch for a while and only when having a harder surface I realise that my fingers fail to form 90 degree angle to my wrist (i guess due to my anatomy), this caused compensatory strain in my arm. I now learnt to compensate instead to make it a "slight" overhand rather than striking perpendicular. That was hard to figure out on a swampy bag.

The old fashioned way is the makiwara I guess.

 

[Earl Weiss]

To practices to get thee feedback of the backreaction, I think a heavy bag is too soft..........................................
A board, or even a chest is not as swampy as a heavy bag,

...........................................

The old fashioned way is the makiwara I guess.

It is important not to overdue high impact training. "For every action.........." Repeated high impact training will take it's toll on the joints. So, you need to balance conditioning and strengthening with the occasional high impact strike on solid / semi solid objects.

 

[Fungus]

It is important not to overdue high impact training. "For every action.........." Repeated high impact training will take it's toll on the joints. So, you need to balance conditioning and strengthening with the occasional high impact strike on solid / semi solid objects.

Thanks for the good advice, I suppose those are expensive lessons without advice.

 

[Fungus]

Paradoxally I was punchig for months on the heavy bag and felt pain in my left arm. It was not ideal. I couldn't figure out why as I didi the right and left the same. Until I started to train on harder surfaces, then I realized quite fast that I have a slight anatomic difference between my right and left fist/fingers. So maybe doing daily training on hard surface is a bad idea, when troubleshooting a problem it seemed to help me.

Now once I have adjusted, I can punch much harder on the heavy bag as wel, without getting the pain afterwards. This kind of fine details that you may need to calibrate the basic techniquies to your anatomy is not something that was teached to me in class. Also during kata or touch fighting, none of this matters as there is no resistance; so you can go on for a long time and thing you do it right.

 

[HighKick]

If we were talking about spear hand strikes, you'd be correct. But we're talking about knife hand strikes. If your knife hand strikes are impacting the fingers, you really really really need to improve your technique.

You are 100% correct. I was thinking spear hand the whole time.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Paradoxally I was punchig for months on the heavy bag and felt pain in my left arm.

Some years ago i was reading one of He Il Cho's books where he was addressing kicking the heavy bag and opines that you should not be kicking any bag over 100lbs. saying it put too much strain on the joints and IIRC 60lbs is enough to develop power.

 

[mograph]

My understanding is that one is not supposed to actually strike anything other than soft targets (like an eye or the throat) with a spear hand. Instead, one moves through the defence, then changes the hand to fist (or hiraken) for the strike ... or starts with fist or hiraken in the first place.

Hiraken - The Digi Dojo

Hiraken, the flat fist, is an old-fashion way of striking that has unique features that you shouldn't overlook. Especially if you understand how...

the-digi-dojo.com

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

My understanding is that one is not supposed to actually strike anything other than soft targets (like an eye or the throat) with a spear hand. Instead, one moves through the defence, then changes the hand to fist (or hiraken) for the strike ... or starts with fist or hiraken in the first place.

Hiraken - The Digi Dojo

Hiraken, the flat fist, is an old-fashion way of striking that has unique features that you shouldn't overlook. Especially if you understand how...

the-digi-dojo.com

The issue with this is if you get the wrong angle on the throat/your hand you can still seriously damage your hand, or if someone moves and you hit something hard instead (ie: they see the spear coming, duck their head and push in, now you're hitting their jaw instead). Obviously, you can't control everything and there's always some risk, but using those strikes seems like extra risk for little reward.

 

[Dirty Dog]

My understanding is that one is not supposed to actually strike anything other than soft targets (like an eye or the throat) with a spear hand. Instead, one moves through the defence, then changes the hand to fist (or hiraken) for the strike ... or starts with fist or hiraken in the first place.

I trained spearhand in my youth. That was a LONG time ago. You can certainly strike hard targets with it, IF you have trained and conditioned the hand. But the risk of injury will pretty much always be higher than other options.

I no longer train and condition for spearhand strikes. I will, when asked, explain to students how to do so, but I also caution them about the risks and discourage them from doing this sort of conditioning. None of the students who have approached me about this training have elected to follow through with it. I think that speaks well of them.

I think there are probably very, very, few people who actually train for spearhand strikes these days.