How to increase the power of your punches?

TheBookofSpeed said:
Yup.

That's why I don't believe in drills. I'm talking about throwing tires, swinging sledge hammers, jumping up and down on a fence post, or whatever. Train what you're going to do. Dissect it, understand it, and train every part of it to as close to perfection as possible. Then repeat, repeat, repeat until you've established a workable motor engram (what most call muscle memory).

Every rep develops the right muscles as well as training the motor engram. Any time spent doing unrelated crap wastes valuable training time.

Sure you can supplement with conditioning (strength and cardio), that's just common sense. But training for a specific outcome requires specific training.

That's my opinion.
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thats not opinion its modern training to a t, good stuff
 
It's all about getting the kinetic chain down for every type of punch in such a way that you get your weight into the punches and deliver them as explosively as possible so as to be punching rather than pushing.
 
Been reliably told by at least once Sherdogger that it’s entirely impossible to increase punching power.

I pointed out that you could Improve pretty much every other area of athleticism with practice - strength, explosiveness, speed - but can’t quite put my finger on why punch speed is the exception.

What say you guys? If I walk into a boxing gym on day one. Is that as hard as I’m ever going to hit?
 
Khaiser said:
Been reliably told by at least once Sherdogger that it’s entirely impossible to increase punching power.

I pointed out that you could Improve pretty much every other area of athleticism with practice - strength, explosiveness, speed - but can’t quite put my finger on why punch speed is the exception.

What say you guys? If I walk into a boxing gym on day one. Is that as hard as I’m ever going to hit?
Click to expand...

Jack Dempsey would disagree with said Sherdogger.
 
Khaiser said:
Been reliably told by at least once Sherdogger that it’s entirely impossible to increase punching power.

I pointed out that you could Improve pretty much every other area of athleticism with practice - strength, explosiveness, speed - but can’t quite put my finger on why punch speed is the exception.

What say you guys? If I walk into a boxing gym on day one. Is that as hard as I’m ever going to hit?
Click to expand...


Of course you can increase it from day one, in fact you had better increase it significantly or else you're not actually learning.

What you probably heard was that everybody is built with a natural maximum level of force they are able to generate with their body. A ceiling. Once you've polished everything and are doing everything right, you're not going to be able to improve that power even more. Kinda like you can only get so healthy or run so fast. Some people have more some have less, but everyone can improve what unpolished ability they have with training their technique.

The good news is, for 98% of people, that ceiling is unbelievably high. For the top 10-20% of those 98%, it's even higher than that. They have brute force, which isn't necessary but sure is a nice bonus!

If Woody Allen had done everything (or even a third of what) he could to be his best at it, listened and been diligent to technical trainers, he could very likely generate enough force to be scary, more than enough to deal with everyday tough guys, and nobody calls that guy physically gifted.
 
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Reyesnuthugr said:
Of course you can increase it from day one, in fact you had better or else you're not actually learning.

What you probably heard was that everybody is built with a natural maximum level of force they are able to generate with their body. A ceiling. Once you've polished everything and are doing everything right, you're not going to be able to improve that power even more. Kinda like you can only get so healthy or run so fast. Some people have more some have less, but everyone can improve what unpolished ability they have with training their technique.

The good news is, for 98% of people, that ceiling is unbelievably high. For the top 10-20% of those 98%, it's even higher than that.
If Woody Allen had done everything he could to be his best, he could most likely generate some scary force, more than enough to deal with most tough guys, and nobody calls that guy gifted.
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You would think that. My original posts were along the lines of,

“I genuinely don’t know how someone even gets into martial arts and isn’t aware than things like power and speed can be enhanced with the correct training”

And again,
“Sprint speed can be improved.
Vertical jump can be improved.
Squat can be improved.
Bench can be improved.
Kicking power can be improved.
Grip strength can be improved.
Horizontal jump can be improved.
Distance running can be improved.

Punching power is not some sort of exception to the rule.”

And finally....
“If you have good technique, you can improve your punch power through training the physical contributors to a punch”

But he’s convinced that if punching power can be improved, then every fighter would end up punching like Mike Tyson...or something.

The summary of it it really seems to be - punching power isn’t inherently different from most athletic skills. You can improve it with the correct teaching/coaching, but will always have a genetic limit.
 
Khaiser said:
You would think that. My original posts were along the lines of,

“I genuinely don’t know how someone even gets into martial arts and isn’t aware than things like power and speed can be enhanced with the correct training”

And again,
“Sprint speed can be improved.
Vertical jump can be improved.
Squat can be improved.
Bench can be improved.
Kicking power can be improved.
Grip strength can be improved.
Horizontal jump can be improved.
Distance running can be improved.

Punching power is not some sort of exception to the rule.”

And finally....
“If you have good technique, you can improve your punch power through training the physical contributors to a punch”

But he’s convinced that if punching power can be improved, then every fighter would end up punching like Mike Tyson...or something.

The summary of it it really seems to be - punching power isn’t inherently different from most athletic skills. You can improve it with the correct teaching/coaching, but will always have a genetic limit.
Click to expand...

Most people, most fighters are limited by their refusal to slow down, observe and listen. Most fighters never get anywhere near their actual body's limit. Tyson was an incredible listener- even though he was gifted he would have still been a nobody if he wasn't extra careful and smart with training, listening and observation. So is nearly every one of the greats and all of the technical wizards of each era.

They have to put honest analysis ahead of ego and their own pre-conceptions (and impatience). That's the toughest thing for most people, not even the physical grind which is easy in comparison. It's the self-analysis of your own weaknesses and performance each session, and to be able to entertain and evaluate the results of borrowed wisdom (which often seems counter intuitive.)

Driving yourself with emotion (not thinking) is much easier and comes naturally, so that's what most people and fighters do. They end up against a wall and the natural reaction is to just push harder. They end up pushing, stalled against that block for the rest of their lives instead of finding a way over around or under it.

The final performance limit most are held back by in their careers and lives isn't genetic most of the time rather it's stubbornness and ego, even for fighters, even for good ones (but not great ones).
 
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So yeah, watch footage of the greats (only the greats) to try to see what they're doing well (textbook stuff not fancy flashy stuff like dancing, taunting etc) and try to emulate how they do it. Ask people who know and don't rush to conclusions. Ask them to evaluate what you're doing and they'll get a funny look on their face and tell you what to do to tweak it.

If something feels wrong it is wrong so speak up. If something isn't delivering then ask someone knowledgeable why and demonstrate on the bag or during a drill.

Go at 3/4 speed or maybe even more* while demonstrating, that will make it really easy for them to see what is wrong and correct the parts of it.

* (going slower doesn't mean pantomiming or trying to do it "gently" which completely fcuks up the mechanics, it should still work and act the same but just be slower)
I also hope you're not going to karate or kickboxing to learn how to improve your punch, even some boxing guys have it wrong. Find a legit dedicated technical boxer/boxing trainer (not a meathead) or else your effort in making this thread is worthless. You need a specialist to specialize
 
technique plus strength/conditioning sessions, but you need a good SC coach for that
 
Stay relaxed, thus throw relaxed plus right technic.

Technic > power
1st technic
2nd power
 
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