Something I Found Useful For Punching Faster

[KangTsai]

This is just a concept, or a mindset I found useful for making my punching faster.

So before this realisation, I was treating my punches as explosive, stiff, mechanical movements which indeed generated a lot of impact, but lacked that particular speed I wanted. I looked around (searching "how to get faster punches" and "workouts for faster punches" etc.), and I don't recall where, but there was a piece of advice quoting roughly "pretend your arms are whips, not pumps."
This worked for me. I rephrased it to match what worked even better for me:
"Pretend you have no arms. No, mate, like really, pretend you have spooky scary floating boxing glove ghost hands and punch with those."
The mindset of your hands pulling your arms like this is a great concept for my punching that's shown dramatic results.

Maybe it works for somebody else, who knows.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

This is just a concept, or a mindset I found useful for making my punching faster.

So before this realisation, I was treating my punches as explosive, stiff, mechanical movements which indeed generated a lot of impact, but lacked that particular speed I wanted. I looked around (searching "how to get faster punches" and "workouts for faster punches" etc.), and I don't recall where, but there was a piece of advice quoting roughly "pretend your arms are whips, not pumps."
This worked for me. I rephrased it to match what worked even better for me:
"Pretend you have no arms. No, mate, like really, pretend you have spooky scary floating boxing glove ghost hands and punch with those."
The mindset of your hands pulling your arms like this is a great concept for my punching that's shown dramatic results.

Maybe it works for somebody else, who knows.

Any mindset that helps relax the support muscles is a good thing. Most students, when first learning formal punches, are fighting their own muscles. Because the form feels odd to them, they tense muscles to pull the arm into the position the instructor is teaching. Old muscle habits are trying to get back to what feels familiar, and the conscious commands are trying to pull the arm into the new form. Those two competing demands create tension, and that makes the punch slower and stiffer. Relaxing the unneeded muscles lets the required muscles ease the arm into form with less force and removes the stiffness that reduces speed and power.

 

[marques]

Since body rotation is fundamental for my punching style (as for Boxing), I have been using it to concentrate myself on body (shoulders and hip) rotation, as well as weight swift to the lead leg. Elbowing a quite far target is a similar exercise with similar results.

I don't know about the speed (don't focus very much on that), but power and balance will increase forcelly.

 

[Buka]

Glad that mindset is working for you, bro. Keep working it, and any others you can conjure. And work your physiology regarding your speed as well. Fast twitch core rotation might be a good place to start. (or to continue if you already are.)

 

[Touch Of Death]

Another component, of speed, is the return motion, so, a good mind set, is that your hands are attached to rubber bands, and after punching you need to snap back to a ready position. It wont increase the punching speed, but it will make you faster, overall.

 

[marques]

Another component, of speed, is the return motion, so, a good mind set, is that your hands are attached to rubber bands, and after punching you need to snap back to a ready position. It wont increase the punching speed, but it will make you faster, overall.

This is useful, no doubts.

But as I train slowly (against people that keep their regular speed) I apply a different tactic (other than speed). If I need time to come back, I strike (or threaten) a 2nd punch with the same hand (or lead leg). So if 'he' is trying to defend, 'he' cannot be very much offensive. When he is mentally busy, I can return peacefully. Or finish.

It is fun when you do not rely on speed, specially for old (or slow) people. I prefer to see it (sparring/fighting) as a chess game, rather than a sprint.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Another component, of speed, is the return motion, so, a good mind set, is that your hands are attached to rubber bands, and after punching you need to snap back to a ready position. It wont increase the punching speed, but it will make you faster, overall.

At the same time, guard against developing what I call an "anti-punch". I've had folks challenge a technique that uses trapping the punching hand, saying something like "you'd never be able to trap my hand." When they "punch", they toss the hand out and yank it back as fast as they can. All the force is delivered in the yanking back, so there's no actual punch. When I ask to just see the punch, some of them actually retract with more force than they punch, even when hitting a target. Weak, to say the least, and not a punch that requires much defense.

 

[wingchun100]

Here is a paraphrase of something Bruce Lee once said:

Imagine a chain with an iron ball attached at the end of it. Now imagine whipping the chain so the ball goes through the air and hits something.

As you can probably guess, in this analogy your fist is the iron ball, and your arm is the chain. That always helped me immensely.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Here is a paraphrase of something Bruce Lee once said:

Imagine a chain with an iron ball attached at the end of it. Now imagine whipping the chain so the ball goes through the air and hits something.

As you can probably guess, in this analogy your fist is the iron ball, and your arm is the chain. That always helped me immensely.

This seems like a good analogy for circular strikes, especially - like our chop. It doesn't work for me with straight strikes, because in my head it implies leaving the fist behind to follow the rest of the movement.

 

[Touch Of Death]

At the same time, guard against developing what I call an "anti-punch". I've had folks challenge a technique that uses trapping the punching hand, saying something like "you'd never be able to trap my hand." When they "punch", they toss the hand out and yank it back as fast as they can. All the force is delivered in the yanking back, so there's no actual punch. When I ask to just see the punch, some of them actually retract with more force than they punch, even when hitting a target. Weak, to say the least, and not a punch that requires much defense.

Wow, you bring up an interesting point. Most of us learn to beat on people before we clean it up; so, I guess that would be something to look for, if you were trying to instill this in a beginner. Mostly, however, that can be avoided by teaching people to swing a punch, rather than throw it. (Stick art wisdoms)

 

[Touch Of Death]

This is just a concept, or a mindset I found useful for making my punching faster.

So before this realisation, I was treating my punches as explosive, stiff, mechanical movements which indeed generated a lot of impact, but lacked that particular speed I wanted. I looked around (searching "how to get faster punches" and "workouts for faster punches" etc.), and I don't recall where, but there was a piece of advice quoting roughly "pretend your arms are whips, not pumps."
This worked for me. I rephrased it to match what worked even better for me:
"Pretend you have no arms. No, mate, like really, pretend you have spooky scary floating boxing glove ghost hands and punch with those."
The mindset of your hands pulling your arms like this is a great concept for my punching that's shown dramatic results.

Maybe it works for somebody else, who knows.

Depth is always first. It makes sense.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Wow, you bring up an interesting point. Most of us learn to beat on people before we clean it up; so, I guess that would be something to look for, if you were trying to instill this in a beginner. Mostly, however, that can be avoided by teaching people to swing a punch, rather than throw it. (Stick art wisdoms)

There are a lot of ways to avoid these kinds of errors. I prefer to clean them up early, but there are downsides to focusing on the form first, so others prefer to get people in an interactive situation and clean it up later. There are advantages to both, so long as we don't ignore the disadvantages to whichever we each choose.

This is similar to the ongoing debate about the value of stylized techniques where the "attacker" waits around for the response. The advantage, of course, is that the defender gets to practice the technique purely and work on muscle memory without having to watch too many variables. The clearest disadvantage is that the defender can develop habits that depend upon that "attack once and wait" approach. That disadvantage can be mitigated in myriad ways, so the only big risk is if we fail to use any of them. The same applies to issues like the "anti-punch".

 

[wingchun100]

This seems like a good analogy for circular strikes, especially - like our chop. It doesn't work for me with straight strikes, because in my head it implies leaving the fist behind to follow the rest of the movement.

It has still helped me with my straight on wing chun punch because it helps me remember to not tighten the muscles as I punch. The fist shouldn't be clenched before the moment of impact.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

It has still helped me with my straight on wing chun punch because it helps me remember to not tighten the muscles as I punch. The fist shouldn't be clenched before the moment of impact.

A good point to keep in mind - one of those areas where many beginners create unnecessary tension that hinders the punch.

 

[JowGaWolf]

This is just a concept, or a mindset I found useful for making my punching faster.

So before this realisation, I was treating my punches as explosive, stiff, mechanical movements which indeed generated a lot of impact, but lacked that particular speed I wanted. I looked around (searching "how to get faster punches" and "workouts for faster punches" etc.), and I don't recall where, but there was a piece of advice quoting roughly "pretend your arms are whips, not pumps."
This worked for me. I rephrased it to match what worked even better for me:
"Pretend you have no arms. No, mate, like really, pretend you have spooky scary floating boxing glove ghost hands and punch with those."
The mindset of your hands pulling your arms like this is a great concept for my punching that's shown dramatic results.

Maybe it works for somebody else, who knows.

It's a hard concept to explain. Here's how I explained it to students. Starting from the hand this is how your arm should be when punching, (tight fist) -. (relaxed arm) - (firm shoulder) - (firm twisting waist) - (relaxed hips) (body moving forward by leg pushing with leg.) It doesn't make sense, but when I punch I can make a fist without making my forearm tight, and right before impact all I need to do is squeeze my palm right before impact so that the structure will be there. I make my shoulder firm to help connect the power that I've generated. This gives me the benefit of fast punches without having have my hands slightly open and closing my hand before impact.

When ever I explain it, people look at me like I'm crazy.

 

[JowGaWolf]

It has still helped me with my straight on wing chun punch because it helps me remember to not tighten the muscles as I punch. The fist shouldn't be clenched before the moment of impact.

I'm think people say that the fist shouldn't be clenched before the moment of impact because most people tend to tighten the forearm when making a fist. I also think how you make a fist will determine if you can keep the forearm relaxed at the same time the fist is made. Some of the punches in Jow Ga are described by the other instructor in my school as a rock on the end of a rope. I often demo this concept by letting students squeeze my forearm while my hand is opened, and then I make a fist and allow them to squeeze my forearm to see if they can tell the difference. If they have doubts then I squeeze my palm which makes my forearm tighten and shows a clear difference between tense and relaxed.

It's not an easy technique to learn and when fighting it becomes even more difficult to maintain, but once you get the technique down, The fist begins to feel disconnected from the forearm and it creates a sensation that I'm pushing my fist and not pushing my arm. In order to create the structure I'll need to deal with the impact I simply squeeze my palm which is faster than closing an open hand moving forward, often forward into punches or guards coming straight back at you causing the estimated time of impact to be shorter.

At first I thought that I was off base because I was always taught to close my hand right before impact. But we have techniques where we redirect and hook kicks and punches with our fist. I didn't understand why would we use our fist when our hand would normally be open, and that's where my theory gained some validity within the concepts of Jow Ga.

I'm not saying that having the hand open and clenching it right before impact is wrong. I'm just saying that making a fist when the hand "should" be is probably something that was just easier to do and to learn than trying to explain a "rock on the end of a rope"

 

[wingchun100]

I'm think people say that the fist shouldn't be clenched before the moment of impact because most people tend to tighten the forearm when making a fist. I also think how you make a fist will determine if you can keep the forearm relaxed at the same time the fist is made. Some of the punches in Jow Ga are described by the other instructor in my school as a rock on the end of a rope. I often demo this concept by letting students squeeze my forearm while my hand is opened, and then I make a fist and allow them to squeeze my forearm to see if they can tell the difference. If they have doubts then I squeeze my palm which makes my forearm tighten and shows a clear difference between tense and relaxed.

It's not an easy technique to learn and when fighting it becomes even more difficult to maintain, but once you get the technique down, The fist begins to feel disconnected from the forearm and it creates a sensation that I'm pushing my fist and not pushing my arm. In order to create the structure I'll need to deal with the impact I simply squeeze my palm which is faster than closing an open hand moving forward, often forward into punches or guards coming straight back at you causing the estimated time of impact to be shorter.

At first I thought that I was off base because I was always taught to close my hand right before impact. But we have techniques where we redirect and hook kicks and punches with our fist. I didn't understand why would we use our fist when our hand would normally be open, and that's where my theory gained some validity within the concepts of Jow Ga.

I'm not saying that having the hand open and clenching it right before impact is wrong. I'm just saying that making a fist when the hand "should" be is probably something that was just easier to do and to learn than trying to explain a "rock on the end of a rope"

Make no mistake: I don't mean you have the hand COMPLETELY open and clench before impact. Your fingers should still be balled up into a fist. However, you don't tense up the muscles until just before impact.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

When ever I explain it, people look at me like I'm crazy.

Just because they think you're crazy doesn't mean you aren't.

 

[wingchun100]

Just because they think you're crazy doesn't mean you aren't.

Just because you're paranoid
don't mean they're not after you.