I hit like a girl

I didnt mean = punching power

I meant i would take accuracy and timing over punching power any day of the week :)
 
I didnt mean = punching power

I meant i would take accuracy and timing over punching power any day of the week
Click to expand...

My bad, I could have sworn I saw an = sign.
 
Evil Eye Gouger said:
For good punches, you need a strong core and a very good technique.

Make sure you have somebody who is a good striker (a boxer coach or similar) show you how to properly use your lower body and hips when punching. Punching is not about hands or bench press, it's about hips.

As for exercises to help you, rotational core exercises are the most important. Stuff like full contact twists and twisters. Look in Strength & Power for more ideas. Lower body exercises such as squat and deadlift, as well as ab work is also important.

Only after that's sorted out and you're punching with your hips, should you concentrate on shoulders and arms for the maximum power transfer.
Click to expand...

It's true. The most important thing you could learn about punching is that the majority of your power comes from your hips. Use your hips and your entire body like a whip.
 
Bro you're kinda pushin' it with that Av.
 
perfy said:
One thing to also keep track of is footwork. You don't want to be flat-footed as it's going to rob you of a lot of power. Get on the balls of your feet so you can properly rotate your hips and put some power behind the shot. Most of the boxing coaches I had emphasized putting a lot of weight on your lead leg when you threw a shot. The problem with this is that in mma you will leave yourself open to a takedown and it's difficult to sprawl.

Speaking of the hip-torso relationship, keep in mind that one of the main components of developing a powerful muscualr contraction is the concept of the "prestrecth".

This involves a pre-lengthening of the muscle in order to induce a more violent contraction. It's also called pre-loading.

Now, if you rotate the hips first and keep your upper torso back, the oblique muscles will then lengthen. These muscles will then contract more forcefully when you then rotate the upper body to bring the punching shoulder forward.

Now bringing the shoulder forward and leaving the arm back will also prestretch the shoulder muscles for an ultimately more snappy punch.

Of course, you don't want to prestretch too much as this will give away the punch. Which is why when people are trying to punch as hard as they can, they pull their whole arms way back.

But just throwing the shoulder first, and then letting the punch go will definitely add more to the shot just as rotating the hips before the upper torso will.

And these pre-stretches all have to be lightning fast, or the power dissipates.

For SPEED and STRENGTH you want to use your muscles in order from biggest to smallest (that's using two principles together; velocity and strength).

Throwing a right hand: sitting down in a low position start to expand exploding from your centre (hips, torso, thighs). after a bit of rotation start to release the elbow from your side and extend your leg. your foot should be turned with toes pointing to the target a split second before impact (called the 'critical instant').
Click to expand...


i definately believe in pre-stretching for speed.. ali did a lot of pre-stretching, you see roy jones doing some crazy stuff too
 
King Kabuki said:
Bro you're kinda pushin' it with that Av.
Click to expand...

brand nizzle is but toughchick isn't? :eek:

argh i hate some of the rules here. no porn whats that all about.. its about $$$ thats what its about
 
argh i hate some of the rules here. no porn whats that all about.. its about $$$ thats what its about
Click to expand...

Yup, sponsors and investors who hand over cash > you. Sorry. lol

hey cmon now...you cant see nothin!
Click to expand...

It ain't based on whether or not you can see the hole man. Sheeze. And I'm just giving a warning here, a stricter Mod than myself (and they do exist) sees that and questions may not be asked.
 
Interesting discussion. To elaborate a little more on my comment, it's not that I think it's impossible to improve your punching power, it's that I think it's like improving your vertical leap -- your base talent is far more important. You can add a few inches if you train your ass off, but the guys who can jump high could pretty much always jump super high, and the guys who can't, can't. I just see so many posts about how to punch harder or faster, and honestly there's only just so much you can do to become more athletic.

Cardio and technique, that's where you make your biggest gains. You should focus less about hitting harder and more about hitting smarter. Working on accuracy and timing, as someone said, will improve much faster and help you much more. Even a light puncher will take people out with accurate, well-timed combinations.
 
Kabuki I don't think you ever accepted my friends request on myspace. It saddens me. =(
 
You know how many people on there just send me random Buddy requests without Identifying themselves? Here's a hint. A LOT. Send me another one and let me know who the crap you are.

And no you can't be a Mod. lol
 
I dont wanna be a mod (although before you came around a few people nominated me to take charge of this forum :D)

but I do wanna be friends

I e-heart you.
 
Heh heh. It's all gravy-baby. Being a Mod is actually kind of fun if you don't get insulted easily. It's especially fun when you run into sitautions where you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. Being a veteran member I'm sure you've seen many of those. A long-time poster of elevated status repeatedly breaks the rules. We let it slide we're favoratists. We ban him we're Nazi's. Woe is us. But I like it. I enjoy being a villain. Muahahahahaaaaaa......?
 
OpethDrums said:
brand nizzle is but toughchick isn't? :eek:

argh i hate some of the rules here. no porn whats that all about.. its about $$$ thats what its about
Click to expand...
My av is fine... I am all covered up in the front. If it were of my ass maybe I can understand there being an issue.
 
I would STRONGLY recommend against trying to increase punching power through weights before putting in serious effort on the heavy bag. IMO this is like the newbie "bodybuilders" in the gym who only do isolation/machine exercises and have no idea what a deadlift is. Weights can help, but only if you are at an advanced stage and have got the technique down to a tee.

BTW, in my mind hitting like a girl isn't so much about how hard you hit but how improper your technique is. I see plenty of weightlifters throwing girly arm punches at the gym heavy bag :D . Also remember that oftentimes timing/accuracy > power when you're talking about punching (Tom Erickson remarked that Briggs didn't punch harder than the other K-1 guys, just that he had great accuracy and timing).
 
Zankou said:
Interesting discussion. To elaborate a little more on my comment, it's not that I think it's impossible to improve your punching power, it's that I think it's like improving your vertical leap -- your base talent is far more important. You can add a few inches if you train your ass off, but the guys who can jump high could pretty much always jump super high, and the guys who can't, can't. I just see so many posts about how to punch harder or faster, and honestly there's only just so much you can do to become more athletic.

Cardio and technique, that's where you make your biggest gains. You should focus less about hitting harder and more about hitting smarter. Working on accuracy and timing, as someone said, will improve much faster and help you much more. Even a light puncher will take people out with accurate, well-timed combinations.
Click to expand...

Sorry man your posts are normally good but I think you're off base with this one. Professional boxers hit alot harder than amateurs. Why? Cos they have learnt how to punch harder. They sit down on their shots, dig their toes in, pop their hips e.t.c. This IS technique increasing power.

People often confuse things when it comes to punching hard, especially noobs. They think that gurning and tensing up, straining for the big shot will give them the power. When in actual fact this just slows down their punch and robs them of power. This I think is what people don't understand and why when they concentrate on just hitting harder it doesn't work. But if you are taught correctly how to punch harder it definitely works. I see it all the time with kids at my gym. Our trainer is an ex pro with some 50 fights under his belt. He HATES amateur boxing! He stresses punching hard in the professional style and it definitely works. I don't know figures but boxers from my gym definitely have a higher KO rate than other clubs I have seen.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,236,977
Messages
55,458,689
Members
174,787
Latest member
Freddie556

Share this page

Back
Top