Tag Archives: punching power

5.5 Principles for More Effective Striking in ANY Martial Art

Posted on by
Reply

Part 1 of this series, Conditioning the Fists for Striking can be found HERE.

Being able to strike with power and precision involves a lot more than merely knowing the technique. Practice must include these principles of effective striking techniques for all martial arts…

1. Whole Body Power 

All movement in real life happens in three dimensions, so why train exercises that only incorporate one or two? Training muscles in isolation, unless it is used to rehab a specific injury, range of motion, or strengthen a particular muscle to add to the whole, does not work in martial art.

Our strike conditioning exercises must train movements in three dimensions utilizing diagonal, rotary, and angular strength, as well as prime moving muscles.

2. Stored Elastic Energy (SEE) 

Stored Elastic Energy is basically the potential energy stored in tendons and connective tissue as a way to power movement.

An easy exercise to begin to feel stored elastic energy is to stand in a natural stance with feet shoulder width apart.  Bend your right arm and raise it up to shoulder height as if you were about to throw the most telegraphed punch in history (don’t worry, it’s just an exercise).  Now, lead from the elbow and pull your fist back.  Allow your torso to rotate, but keep the feet planted and the hips facing forward.  When you reach the end of your range of motion, hang out there for a second and feel the tension (torque) on the spine.  Now simply relax and release that torque to throw the punch.  Don’t add any driving forces with muscle.  You can’t propel it any faster; you’ll just slow it down.

Feel it?

Try it again.

Do it with the other arm.  Remember the feeling.  This is stored elastic energy (SEE).

The point here about creating torque or stored elastic energy (SEE) in the spine is essential in being able to move powerfully without winding up or telegraphing the movement.

If you are having trouble feeling it, try to exaggerate the movement.

Make it much larger than necessary to study the feeling. It should feel like a tension in the lower back near the bottom of the spine. When this tension (torque) is relaxed (released), the movement happens.

3. Structure / Kamae 

Many people tend to use the terms alignment and structure almost interchangeably but in actuality, alignment is a component of structure.

For example, looking at a natural standing posture, good alignment would be:

  • Crown up
  • Chin down
  • Shoulders packed down
  • Spine lifting up (through crown)
  • Spine pulling down (through the sacrum)
  • Hips under shoulders
  • Knees under hips
  • Mid-foot balance
  • Chest is relaxed
  • Butt not sticking out nor is pelvis tucked under
  • Knees are over the toes
  • Weight evenly distributed (50/50)
  • No leaning forward or backwardThis puts the whole body into proper alignment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Structure also includes (in my lexicon) the balance of tensions within the body’s soft tissues. The bones act as compressive struts pushing outward from the center while the soft tissues (fascia) act as the stays pulling inward towards the center keeping the tensional balance in the body.

4. Breathing 

How often do you think about breathing as it relates to striking?

Yet it is absolutely essential to maintain proper breathing when in combat or simply hitting a heavy bag, mitt, or an opponent. Lack of breath control affects the rest of your body and hinders your overall performance.

5. The S.A.I.D Principle 

Why are all the above ideas important to understand in relation to striking and martial movement?

The SAID Principle – Specific Adaptation to Implied Demand says every activity that we repeat consistently causes an adaptation in the body.

The critical thing to note here is that it does not matter at all how we value this adaptation.  It can be something that we want like how healthy exercise increases lean muscle mass and burns excess fat, or it can be something we do not want like how eating junk food to an extreme causes our body to adapt by putting on weight.

Both of these are examples of activities that cause adaptations in the body.   Our goal is to train adaptations we value highly like the enhanced neural connections in our nervous system that increase our skill level. Keep this in mind when training.  We do not want to train bad habits!

5.5 Elements of Efficiency 

Efficiency is defined as the amount of useful work divided by the amount of total work.  In other words, how much effect are you producing for the amount of effort you are expending?

  • Ever see a batter “swing for the fences” only to completely miss the pitch?
  • Ever see someone try to pick something up that is really light, but they believe is heavy?
  • How about watching someone using the general whole-body tension we discussed above trying to hit a heavy bag?

How much effect, i.e. force from the strike embedded into the target, is gained from the huge effort expended?

You must train to have your strikes be both effective (devestatingly powerful) and efficient (uses the least amount of force or energy to accomplish the movement). Only then can you be said to have mastered the art of striking!

 

Learn exactly how to upgrade your striking skills in ANY martial art with these resources from Warrior Fitness Training Systems…

Conditioning the Fists for Striking

Posted on by
Reply
One of the most underdeveloped aspects of the martial artist’s arsenal is the conditioning of his fists for striking.
The tendon strength, wrist strength and flexibility, and the overall structure of the strike is an exploitable weakness that needs to be addressed.

In this article we will examine several different push-up variations and isometric exercises to fortify the structure of our strikes.

This type of training will work to enhance the power generation of all manner of striking.

Do these push-ups slowly and purposefully with full attention to the movement.  These are not meant to pump up your beach muscles, rather they will strengthen the connective tissue in your hands, wrists, forearms, and shoulders to build structure and encourage the correct alignment for all your strikes.

Fudo-ken (fist) Push-ups 

Place the weight of the body on the fists.  Make sure the wrists do not bend. After performing several repetitions (or as a separate exercise) simply hold the body in the Fudo-ken push-up position. Relax as much as possible and allow the correct structure to support the body on the fists. Try this in the upper position, lower position, and halfway point of the push-up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do the same isometric holds with each exercise.

 

Shuto (sword hand) Push-ups 

Hold the hands in the form of a shuto strike.  They should close to a 45 degree angle with the thumbs supporting the fingers.  The weight is on the meaty, inside portion of the hand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fingertip Push-ups 

Place the pads of the fingers on the ground like you are clawing it.  Try to squeeze the ground as you press up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wrist Push-ups

Place the wrists on the ground. These will be very difficult at first if you have not done them before.  Take them slowly.  If necessary, perform them on your knees to build strength.

 

 

Train these basic exercises thoroughly. Study this well!

Be sure to check out part 2 of this article, 5.5 Principles for More Effective Strking in ANY Martial Art.

Learn exactly how to upgrade your striking skills in ANY martial art with these resources from Warrior Fitness Training Systems…

 

 

 

4 Principles For Punching Power

Posted on by
Reply

Principles of Striking Power

 

1.    Whole Body Power

All movement happens in real life happens in three dimensions, so why train exercises that only incorporate one or two?  Training muscles in isolation, unless it is used to rehab a specific injury, range of motion, or strengthen a particular muscle to add to the whole, does not work in martial art.  With very few special exceptions, the majority of exercises in this manual will train movements in three dimensions utilizing diagonal, rotary, and angular strength, not muscles. As discussed above, this is the goal of SPP – neurological adaptation.

 

2.  Stored Elastic Energy (SEE)

Stored Elastic Energy is basically the potential energy stored in tendons and connective tissue as a way to power movement.  An easy exercise to begin to feel stored elastic energy is to stand in a natural stance with feet shoulder width apart.  Bend your right arm and raise it up to shoulder height as if you were about to throw the most telegraphed punch in history (don’t worry, it’s just an exercise).  Now, lead from the elbow and pull your fist back.  Allow your torso to rotate, but keep the feet planted and the hips facing forward.  When you reach the end of your range of motion, hang out there for a second and feel the tension (torque) on the spine.  Now simply relax and release that torque to throw the punch.  Don’t add any driving forces with muscle.  You can’t propel it any faster; you’ll just slow it down.  Feel it?  Try it again.  Do it with the other arm.  Remember the feeling.  This is stored elastic energy (SEE). This point here about creating torque or stored elastic energy (SEE) in the spine is essential in being able to move powerfully without winding up or telegraphing the movement. If you are having trouble feeling it, try to exaggerate the movement. Make it much larger than necessary to study the feeling. It should feel like a tension in the lower back near the bottom of the spine. When this tension (torque) is relaxed (released), the movement happens.

WF UG Cover1

3.   Structure / Kamae

 Many people tend to use the terms alignment and structure almost interchangeably but in actuality, alignment is a component of structure. For example, looking at a natural standing posture, good alignment would be:

  • Crown up
  • Chin down
  • Shoulders packed down
  • Spine lifting up (through crown)
  • Spine pulling down (through the sacrum)
  • Hips under shoulders
  • Knees under hips
  • Mid-foot balance
  • Chest is relaxed
  • Butt not sticking out
  • Hips are open
  • Knees are over the toes
  • Weight evenly distributed (50/50)
  • No leaning forward or backward

This puts the whole body into proper alignment. Structure also includes (in my lexicon) the balance of tensions within the body’s soft tissues. Think of spine as the mast of a sail boat while the soft tissues (fascia) act as the stays keeping the tensional balance.

 

4.           Breathing

 How often do you think about breathing as it relates to striking?  Yet it is absolutely essential to maintain proper breathing when in combat or simply hitting a heavy bag, mitt, or an opponent.  Lack of breath control affects the rest of your body and hinders your overall performance.

This article is from my e-book manual, Warrior Fitness Guide to Striking Power.

Want to learn even more about how to bring together fitness training with your martial art practice for vast performance improvement?  Join me on a 6-week journey where I take you behind the curtain and show you how to build Martial Power!

MP

Intelligent Tension For Striking

Posted on by
Reply

How intelligent is your usage of tension in striking?

All too often in training our punching and kicking techniques, we find what I’ve come to label as “dumb tension”.  This is used by martial artists across the board either accidentally through lack of understanding of how the body should work, or taught and passed down from teacher to student on purpose through a lack of knowledge.

Dumb tension is defined as either the complete usage of whole body, generalized tension to attempt to deliver extra power to a specific kick or strike, OR the complete lack of any and all tension to attempt to whip a wet noodle-like strike at the opponent or target.  Both of these things miss the boat, in my opinion.

Walk the Middle Path

Intelligent Tension (IT) is simply walking the middle path between the two extremes and using the appropriate amount of tension required, and only that amount, to coordinate whole body power into a strike.  More tension does not necessarily equal more power in terms of striking.  Actually, the more tension recruited for a movement, the more you apply the brakes physiologically since your body is now moving against itself in an attempt to use generalized tension.  When both the agonist muscle and antagonist muscle are working against each other the result is less overall power delivery for the strike.  Learning to appropriately activate only the muscles necessary to accomplish the task removes the brakes, ups the power wattage, and increases the efficiency since you are no longer using energy you don’t need.

Additionally, the more tension created in a movement, the less mobility you have.  If you look at tension and mobility on one line with tension on one side and mobility on the other, the more you have of one, the less you have of the other.  When we train the nervous system to fire high tension all the time, we lose mobility and range of motion.  While this is perfectly acceptable and absolutely essential for a purely low-gear strength based activity like dead lifting, it is not fine for martial arts.

This article was a short excerpt from my manual, Warrior Fitness Guide to Striking Power.

WF UG Cover1

Get The Warrior Fitness Guide to Striking Power (e-book) and the original book, Warrior Fitness: Conditioning for Martial Arts (e-book) FREE when you pick up my brand new program –          WarFit Combat Conditioning!

warfit3d3

 

How to Develop Wrists of Steel

Posted on by
Reply

Martial arts training, especially in arts like Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, Aikido, and old school Jujutsu, tend to put a lot stress on practitioners’ wrists due to the various types of wrist locks and throws.  Over time this can lead to chronic wrist pain, soreness, and even permanent injury. Continue reading →