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Оглавление10 ways to Improve your Hand Techniques
Kicking stylists will probably disagree, but real fights involve mostly hand techniques. While my approach to training has always been 50 percent punches/50 percent kicks, I’ve used my feet only a few times in my many physical confrontations as a police officer. Most often, I had my hands on the guy when the fight exploded, so I was at a range that was too close to get off a kick.
I’m definitely not saying that kicks are unimportant. When I did use them, they worked like a charm (one time in a Saigon bar, I sidekicked a guy coming at me with a barstool. He flew backwards across the room, crashed through a door and landed on his back out in the kitchen. He started to come back at me, but changed his mind and ran out the back door). But in my experience, and in the experience of others who have survived lots of real-life encounters, hand techniques are used the most often.
Here are 10 ways to make your fists fast and powerful.
1. SHOULDERS
Far too many students raise their shoulders when they punch, in particular, when reverse punching. Sometimes they look down their extended arm as if looking down a rifle barrel at a turkey shoot. Lifting the shoulders at the completion of the reverse punch weakens its power because it eliminates the involvement of the upper back muscles and the latisimus dorsi muscles, commonly referred to as the lats.
Try this test. Extend your reverse punch with your shoulder down and feel your lat muscle just below and to the outside of your armpit. With your shoulder down, your lat muscle is flexed because it’s contributing to the punch. Now, with your hand still on your flexed lat, raise your shoulder. It’s no longer flexed, is it? When your shoulder is hunched it becomes the weak link in your power chain because it eliminates the involvement of your major back muscle.
An Exception to the Rule
But are there occasions when you can raise your shoulders when punching? Mike Ferguson, a Muay Thai fighter based in Canada, says there are some techniques that require it.
“While I shadowbox,” Ferguson says, “I try to stretch and loosen my shoulders by throwing hooks and uppercuts, allowing my shoulders so much room to move. My shoulders generally pop up and slap my jaw a little. This ‘jaw slapping’ happens when you get enough rotation and you are really relaxed. It’s a good sign that you are loose.”
As a Muay Thai fighter, Ferguson uses a stance similar to boxer’s. “My stance is a little high and I lift my shoulders so my hands can cover my face better. As far as the delivery of straight punches, I don’t change the position of my shoulders. When I have my guard up by my temples, my shoulders are up, and when I throw a punch, my shoulder slaps my face. My fist comes right from my jaw. If my shoulders are down all the way, and I’m relaxed, I throw the punch from my chest, but still my shoulder touches my chin a little.”
While Muay Thai fighters raise their shoulders for a few of their punches and therefore negate some involvement of their upper back muscles, they make up for the loss by rotating their shoulders and waist further than do most karate styles (more in a moment why you should incorporate this rotation).
Mike Ferguson says that having relaxed shoulders is important for speed and power. “You want to keep your shoulders relaxed because you want to be really loose. If your shoulders are all tight, chances are you will be using your arms to punch instead of your whole body. When doing a lot of punches, tight shoulders will actually slow you down, while relaxed shoulders improve your snap. Most importantly, you want to keep your shoulders relaxed so you don’t lose power.
2. ROTATING YOUR BODY
I can still remember my first instructor telling the class of the importance of snapping the hips forward when throwing a reverse punch. “You will increase your power by 80 percent,” he told us. I don’t know if he just grabbed that percentage out of the air to make his statement sound more official, but for sure, rotating the hips adds tremendous power to some hand techniques.
Rotating While Exercising in Horse Stance
Let’s consider the reverse punch. Hopefully, you understand that sitting in a deep horse stance and punching straight ahead from the hip is just an exercise. You would never - heavens forbid - ever do that in a real fight. As an exercise, it serves as a pretty good way to simultaneously strengthen the legs while working the involved punching muscles in the arm, chest, back and shoulders. However, many styles, especially the more rigid traditionalists, don’t rotate their hips or turn their shoulders when punching in horse stance. In fact, many traditionalists consider it blasphemy.
I still remember my kong su instructor shouting at the class, as we sat low and pounded out rep after rep, “Stop turning your shoulders! Keep them square to the front! Don’t turn your hips! Keep them motionless!” I never questioned this back then when I was a young neophyte, though I wish now I would have.
Today in my school, we occasionally do the classic-horse stance punching exercise, but with a twist (pun intended). We get low in the stance, hold our arms high, fists just below the jaw line, and thrust our punch forward as we snap the other fist back to our ear. The big difference is that we rotate our upper body as we punch, including the shoulders. You can turn the hip with the punch just a tad, but the emphasis is on rotating the upper body.
Punching in this fashion while exercising in horse stance keeps the concept of rotation alive in your mind. Why ingrain in your subconscious a rigid way of punching in horse stance, but then use hip snap and shoulder rotation when punching in your fighting stance? Always remember that how you train is how you perform for real. Secondly, when you punch rigidly in horse stance, you don’t stimulate the muscles that rotate your shoulders and waist. Every supplemental exercise you do should work the same muscles you are going to use when throwing a technique from your fighting stance.
Incorrect
While a good exercise, one problem with rigid horse-stance punching is that it conditions the mind not to sink the punch.
Correct
However, slightly rotating the waist and shoulders trains the mind to sink the punch deeper, and exercises the muscles involved in the extension.
Incorrect
Rigid punching in your forward stance limits your power potential and your reach.
Correct
Without stepping, rotate your hips, waist & shoulders to increase impact and reach.
Rotating in your Fighting Stance
The classic reverse punch is usually done by extending the arm in conjunction or slightly before the rotation of the hips. This is fine. But many styles stop the rotation when both shoulders form a straight line, a position sometimes referred to as “flush to the front.” This is okay if that is where your target mandates that you stop your rotation, but too many karate students always stop at this point. This is unfortunate, because when you have the option of rotating your hips and shoulders further, but don’t take it, you greatly reduce your power and penetration capability.
How far should you twist? As much as 45 degrees beyond flush to the front. When throwing a right reverse punch, continue twisting your shoulders until your chest is angled to your left at a 45-degree angle.
Try this experiment. Face a wall and extend your right punching arm until your chest and shoulders are parallel to it and your fist is touching. Keep your arm up as you scoot your feet back until your fist is about 12-15 inches away from the wall. This is where a fighter’s punch would stop who does not rotate his shoulders and hips. Now, without moving your feet, rotate your shoulders, waist and hips about 45 degrees to the left. Hey! Your fist is now resting against the wall and you didn’t take a step. This simple illustration proves the reach potential gained when rotating the body in the reverse punch.
To test the dramatic penetration power of the rotation, try it on the heavy bag. First hit it with a punch with your shoulders flush to the front and then again with a hip, waist and shoulder rotation 45 degrees to the side.
3. TRICKY-KNEE PUNCH
No, this doesn’t have anything to do with a bad knee or punching at the knee; it’s just my way of being linguistically clever. It does, however, involve doing a quick bend of your lead knee to get a little closer to your opponent and hitting him just a little harder. This is a great trick to create an illusion that you are further away from your opponent than he thinks you are. Assume your fighting stance but position your feet a couple inches closer together than you normally do. To make him think you need glasses, throw a reverse punch that misses him by several inches. Throw another and twist your upper body just a little to show him that you are really trying. Ideally, he becomes lulled into a comfort zone because he thinks you are too far away to be dangerous (hee, hee, snicker).
The third time you punch (the third being the charm), bend both knees deeper, lean your upper body slightly forward and engage that shoulder and body twist we just discussed in #2. Tuh duh! Without taking a step, you increased your reach by more than 12 inches and punched a hole in his chest.
You can do this with your backfist, too; the only difference is that you rotate your upper body away as your arm extends and your knees bends. Throw out a couple strikes that miss your opponent by a mile, then sink your knees, lean in and whack him.
You can even combine your backfist and reverse punch. Set him up with one or two backfist misses, and then sink, extend and hit him with a quick one-two, a backfist and reverse punch combination.
Try not to laugh too hard at his look of surprise.
4. BOXER’S JAB
The jab may have originated with the “sweet science” of boxing, but karate people are free to use it too, though few do. I’m not talking about traditional karate’s straight punch, which is about as sneaky as an out-of-control Mac truck with a stuck horn. Yes, the karate straight punch can be extremely powerful, but it’s harder to sneak in than is the more versatile, easy-to-deliver and disarming boxer’s jab.
The jab is most often delivered from a high stance, a boxer’s stance, a position that allows your footwork to be fluid, light and highly mobile. It’s a stance that makes for easy and quick movement in and out of range, which allows for more opportunities to set up your opponent.
This technique is especially popular in those styles that are reality based, although not too many years ago there were only a few karate fighters who knew how to defend against it. The first time I tried the jab against karate people outside of my school, it was like shooting ducks in a barrel. Each time I popped one, my opponents would flinch as if startled, and only a few of them blocked it, or even tried. Today, however, more fighters are familiar with the jab, and the only people who have problems with it now are those who don’t include it in their personal arsenal or practice it in their style.
Historically Speaking
Just as many kung fu systems were created from watching animals, birds and even insects fight, early boxing most likely copied the way cats and bears slap and cuff their enemies. Historical boxing records show that before the jab came along, early fighters relied on swinging and hooking their blows. As boxing evolved, straight hitting was discovered and fighters found they could hit faster and more accurately with straight shots than with circular ones. They also found they could better maintain their balance, since it was safer to snap their punches straight out and back than it was to make over committed swings.
How to Jab
Let’s take a look at the mechanics of the jab and see how using your hips is so important to delivering a fast and powerful blow.
Assume a left leg forward fighting stance with your hands up near your head. As your left fist travels forward, turn your left shoulder and left hip no more than a quarter turn to your right until your arm is fully extended. If you turn so far that your entire left side is toward your opponent, as if drawing a bow to launch an arrow, you have gone too far. More is not better.
Technique: Jab
Assume your on-guard stance and snap your left arm straight out making sure to keep your elbow pointing downward. Rotate your upperbody about a 1/4 to the right. Snap it back on the same path.
Don’t let your right arm hang down like a dead grape on a vine. When you launch your left jab, snap your right arm back to a place near your chin. Though this may be a boxer’s jab, the karate principle still holds that for every action there is an opposite action. Snap your right hand back fast, and watch your jab go out even faster.
Your jabbing fist rotates until your palm is facing the floor at the point of impact. Some fighters hit with their thumb side up and with their fist turned downward slightly to make impact with their index and middle knuckles. You might want to experiment with this to see how you like it.
With either method, your arm travels in a straight line and strikes through the target, not at the target. If you are punching a guy in the neck (a safer target for your fist than his bony old chin), think of punching all the way through his Adam’s apple to his back collar. It’s the same thinking process for breaking a brick: You don’t just hit the top of the brick, but you think all the way through.
The jab is a light and easy movement. But if you tense your shoulder, fist and arm prior to hitting, it will be stiff and slow. Practice the jab until it becomes a natural, almost casual movement. Experiment with lifting the shoulders as the Muay Thai fighter suggests on page 32, #1, “Shoulders” to see if you like that method. Practice hitting the air, hitting a heavy bag, a handheld pad, and a training partner’s open palm. Then work your jab into your sparring. Your ultimate goal is to have a jab that is quick and powerful without apparent effort. Here are a few ways to use it.
Jab to Make your Opponent Nervous
As you move around stalking each other, keep popping jabs at your opponent’s face. It doesn’t matter whether you jab in an attempt to hit, or jab just to make your opponent flinch. Your objective is to keep him nervous and thinking about defense rather than thinking about attacking you.
To Disrupt your Opponent’s Setpoint
Use the jab every time he sets himself to throw a technique at you. As the two of you spar, you see him get set to launch a punch. To disrupt his plan, lunge forward with your lead foot and snap a quick jab into his face.
Strategy Tip: Jab to Disrupt your Opponent
While sparring, you detect your opponent begin to advance.
You disrupt this with a quick jab to the side of his face and …
Take advantage of his nicely exposed neck and punch it.
Jab to Set up your Opponent
This technique works especially well with the high/low and broken rhythm principle. Gary Sussman, my senior student and a 3rd-degree black belt who has been with me since 1982, loves to combine high/low with broken rhythm. “I like to jab high and then kick low,” he says. “First, I’ll jab at my opponent’s face and let him block it. Then I’ll jab at his face a second time, and again I let him block it. My third jab is a fake that goes out only enough to make him commit his block. When he does, I slam a kick into his groin or against his knee. The concept is simple: I set a rhythm with the jabs and then I break it.”
Jabbing the Body
Not a lot of fighters jab to their opponent’s body, but I have seen guys get hit there and crumple to the ground unable to continue fighting. Here is how to do it with power.
Boxers believe that the jabber’s body should be behind the jab (as shown at right) whether it’s to a high target or a mid level one. To jab hard to a low target, you need to lower your body so that your left shoulder is at a level with your opponent’s solar plexus. Bend your lead leg slightly and your rear leg a little more as you rotate your shoulders, and drive your fist into your opponent’s gut. Be sure to snap your other hand back to the side of your head. Since being low and close to your opponent is not a desirable place to loiter, especially if your jab didn’t hurt him, follow up with additional techniques or scoot yourself out of there.
Add the jab to your repertoire and you will be happily surprised at how well it works - though not half as surprised as your opponent.
5. HOOK PUNCHES
The hook punch is another hand technique rarely found in karate styles. This is an unfortunate omission, since it’s a devastating blow that can easily drop a street attacker. In point fighting competition, however, you might find it difficult to get the judges to call it since it’s harder to see than the more obvious reverse punch. Additionally, because it’s rarely seen in point competition, you might run into judges who won’t count it as a point no matter how accurately or obviously it’s thrown.
There are two kinds of hook punches: the lead and the rear. Both require considerable practice to perfect, but are well worth the effort. They can be sneaky and get into openings that other hand techniques can’t, and they can be extremely powerful when executed with all the correct body mechanics.
Front Hook
Assume your fighting position with your left side forward, arms in an on-guard position and your front heal slightly off the floor. Some fighters like to hit with their palm facing downward, others prefer their palm facing back toward them. No matter which method you like, be sure to make contact with your two, large knuckles.
Think 90. Keep your punching arm bent about 90 degrees as you rotate your hip and foot in the direction of your punch. Your front foot twists 90 degrees to the right until your toes are pointing to your right side, as you simultaneously twist your hips about 90 degrees in the same direction. Your rear foot twists the same way, but only about 70 degrees. Under the stress of a real fight, you may not twist your lead foot all the way to 90 degrees, but your hips should twist as far as possible to maximize the impact of your punch. When practicing in the air, stop your left hook punch when it’s even with your right side, and simultaneously snap your right fist back to your right ear.
It’s all these factors working together that provides power to the hook.
Technique: Front Hook
Move to his outside as you block his punch.
You can easily pop him with a lead hook. In this case, I’m throwing a downward hook to his neck because he’s tall. You could just as easily hook punch his liver.
Rear Hook
The big difference with the rear hook is that you are unable to twist your feet and hips to the degree that you can when hooking with your lead. It’s still a deadly blow because it’s traveling a greater distance to the target that the front hand. Be sure to snap your other hand back to your ear for greater hooking power.
Many trainers don’t recommend either the front or rear hook as a lead technique unless you have exceptional speed.
Here are a few circumstances in which a hook works like a charm.
• Attack with a reverse punch to the opponent’s middle and follow with a lead hook to the side of his neck. This works especially well in the street when the guy bends forward from the impact of the reverse punch, thus bringing his head down right there in front of you almost begging to be punched.
• The attacker is in an opposite stance and jabs at you. Slip to his outside and throw a lead hook around his guard and into his neck or ear.
• Your opponent drops his hands when he is within range. Ram a front hook punch into his ear.
• Your opponent throws a reverse punch that you sidestep and block. Throw a hard rear hook into his middle.
I encourage you to work your hook punches on the heavy bag to see if your blows are landing properly. Don’t start out slamming it like a mad man because the bag may show you the errors of your ways by spraining your wrist (been there, done that). The heavy bag is a great teacher and it will tell you faster than any observer whether you are holding your hands correctly. Take it easy at first, and work your way up to harder blows.
Boxers love hook punches for a good reason: They inflict pain.
6. USING DOUBLE HAND PADS
If you don’t use hand pads in your training, you should. There are many great exercises and drills you can do with them, and even more if you have a creative imagination.
Instructor Daniel Alix uses them to not only improve punching but to coordinate footwork as well. Here is one of his drills that is fun and beneficial. We tried it in my school after he sent it to me, and everyone saw a marked improvement in their hand skill by the end of the first training session.
“The instructor holds up two hand pads,” Alix says, “both high, or one high and one low, while you practice simple combinations like high jab and low punch or a high hook and a low punch. After you get good at it, your instructor can wear body-armor so you can throw kicks at him along with your punches on the pads.
“After throwing several combinations, the instructor adds to the exercise by backing up, slowly at first and then faster and faster as you get proficient at pursuing. This gives you a chance to learn how to attack with multiple punches while advancing forward using whatever footwork you want. If you get careless about how you move and attack with your hands, your instructor should throw mock punches or kicks at you to help you get back on track.”
Alix says the next step is for the instructor to move toward you. “He either walks or he throws kicks at you, while you back up and hit the pads with combinations. It’s important that the instructor be the one to control the pace by forcing you to retreat faster and faster as your skill progresses. The instructor can also use walls and corners to try to trap you.
“Another way is to have the instructor wear a boxing glove on one hand, and a focus target on the other. He keeps you on your toes by jabbing with his gloved hand and throwing kicks. As before, he begins by standing in one place. When you are proficient at that level, he advances to moving backward, and when you are responding well with that, he moves toward you. In all stages, he keeps moving the pad around and tossing out the occasional punch and kick. Your job is to avoid getting hit while you attack the moving target.”
This a great exercise that will quickly improve your ability to incorporate your footwork, blocking, evading, and attacking while on the move.
7. GOOFY BAG
Another name for this training device could easily be “The Humbler” since it can make you feel like an idiot if you have never trained on it, or have laid off of it for a few months. What gives the bag its goofy quality is that it’s suspended in the air by an elastic cord attached to its top and another to its bottom. A mere tap sends it into a mad frenzy of bobbing, twirling and erratic spinning. It’s this quality that makes it a good training device.
While martial artists spend an inordinate amount of time working drills that target their opponent’s head, it’s actually not that easy to hit. A fighter with even a little training, or a fighter with no training but a lot of instinct, can easily move his head to avoid being struck. One of the two reasons police agencies don’t hit suspects in the head with their police batons is because most people expect to be struck there, so they are on guard against it. The second reason is that usually the head bleeds like a gaffed fish, even from a minor blow. When a photographer captures the moment of bloody impact for the evening news, it’s not good for public relations, no matter how lowly or deserving the criminal.
The goofiness of this bag makes for an excellent training tool that increases your ability to punch with accuracy. Even the slightest tap will send it jerking and writhing all over the place. But once you get proficient at hitting it, your ability to hit a human head will increase tenfold. And it doesn’t take long to develop proficiency. In fact, you will experience a marked improvement in as little as 30 minutes.
Your First Workout
Assume your fighting stance and stand before the bag. Slam a hard backfist into it and watch it fly away and, quick as a wink, snap back and smash you in the face. When you feel a geyser of blood erupt from your nose, cover it with a towel and end your workout.
Your Second Workout
Wiser from your first training session, you are respectful of the goofy bag and all the surprises of which it’s capable. You have learned that it’s not about hitting hard, but rather hitting with accuracy. Hit it lightly this time and observe how it propels outward and how quickly it returns on its irregular path. Hit it again, and watch it shoot off in diagonal direction and then return quickly on a completely different trajectory, forcing you to lean out of the way. Smack it again, and watch it warp and shimmy and fling back at you from another direction. This time you are taken by surprise, and you slap at it like a kindergartner.
This is all part of the learning process. The more you do it, though, the better you get at it. You may not always be able to read how it’s going to fly out and return, but you will learn to move about and hit it no matter how wobbly and erratic it comes back. In time, you will be dancing, bobbing, weaving, slipping and ducking as you assault it with jabs, backfists and straight punches.
With regular training on the bag, you will be better able to hit your opponent’s moving head. Even if he is good at head evasion, he will never be as tricky as the goofy bag.
8. PUSH-UPS
The motion of the push-up is virtually the same as the jab, reverse punch and other straight-line-type punches. It makes sense then to incorporate lots of push-ups in your conditioning routine, and there is a large variety to use. One time I was teaching a class of 30 students, and as a way of ending the training session, I asked each person to lead the class in a different pushup variation for 10 reps. Not only did each student come up with a different one, we came up with an additional 10 variations for a total of 40. Here are a few:
* Hands spaced wide
* Hands spaced narrow
* One-arm
* On thumbs and index fingers
* On knuckles
* On the backs of your hands (ouch)
* On fingertips
* Fingers facing each other
* Do only bottom half
* Clap hands at top of pushup
* With thumbs and index fingers touching
* Begin on forearms and roll up onto hands
Use some or all of the above and feel free to add some of your own. They are all good for your punches.
Here is a variation I found recently that, although quite stressful on your joints, will greatly increase the explosiveness of your punches. If you have bad elbows, shoulders, back or arms, don’t do this method. But if your parts are all in good working order, include them once a week in your workout. It’s okay if you want to do other variations on other days of the week, but I wouldn’t push it too hard. This method is so stressful that you risk overtraining if you do too many others.
Here is how it’s done.
Push-up Jumps and Drops
Set up two six-inch-high platforms or cinder blocks, parallel with each other and about shoulder width apart. It’s more comfortable if you place the blocks on a mat or some other kind of padding.
Begin by placing your hands on the blocks in the standard push-up position, and then drop your hands simultaneously between them and allow your chest to go all the way to the mat. Without hesitation, straighten your arms and explode upward until your hands are completely off the mat and back onto the blocks. Again without hesitation, drop your hands back down onto the mat, touch your chest and then thrust forcefully back up again.
This push-up method will definitely build explosiveness in your straight-line punches. Do three to four sets of four to six repetitions.
Let me warn you again to be careful as this is a risky exercise. But if you have no preexisting injuries and you do the exercise correctly, you will see a marked differences in your hand techniques in just a few weeks.
Place your hands on two pads that are a little wider than your shoulders. Lower yourself all the way down and then push up hard enough to leave the pads.
Then drop to the floor …
… and lower yourself until your chest touches …
… and then forcefully explode back up and onto the pads. Your reps should be done nonstop with explosive pushes.
9. STRENGTHENING YOUR ABS FOR BETTER PUNCHES
Let’s take a look at how you can improve your hand techniques and at the same time develop a six-pack of abdominal muscles that will make ‘em swoon at the beach. Now, aren’t you glad you bought this book?
Your abdominal muscles are positioned at the center of your body (if yours are elsewhere get a hold of me and I’ll write an article about you) and, when strengthened, they dramatically increase the power of your hand techniques, as well as your kicks. This is because a strong midsection is like a rocket booster for your moves. When you involve your abs in, say, your backfist, your ab power flows from your middle, up to your shoulders, down your arms and out your fist.
There are dozens of abdominal exercises floating around; if you don’t know any you can find them in books, magazines and on exercise videos. The best book I have seen on the subject is one called The Complete Book of Abs by Kurt Brungardt, published by Villard Books.
The only stipulation I have to including an ab exercise in my routine is that it’s safe. While most of the newer exercises are, there are still old ones being used that are potentially dangerous to your back. Case in point are those old sit-ups that require you to raise all the way up. Those are the kind my generation did in highschool and probably account for why so many baby boomers have back problems today. The Complete Book of Abs not only lists dozens of exercises, but also rates them as to how safe they are.
Choose ab exercises that work the lower abdominal area as well as the easy-to-develop upper abs. In most exercises, it’s important to press the small of your back into the floor so as to not strain or injure that area. If any exercise hurts your back - eliminate it. Don’t keep doing it because you are a macho kind of guy. If you are a student, and one of your instructor’s ab exercises hurts you, don’t do it and tell him why. A back injury can affect your life forever. Besides, there are lots of other exercises you can do that won’t hurt it.
Any exercise that requires you to raise your legs should be done with them bent slightly and with the small of your back pressed into the floor. This puts more stress on your abs as it removes it from your lower back.
How many reps should you do? As many as it takes. Sometimes when I’m lifting weights, I put a 25-pound barbell plate on my chest and I exhaust my muscles with only three sets of 15 reps of the basic crunch exercise. In class, however, we always burn out 200-300 reps of an assortment of crunches and leg lifts. As is the case with any exercise, I believe that variety is the key to keeping the muscles stimulated and your mind interested.
The Ab/Fist Connection
Here is how you incorporate your abs with your hand techniques. First, give this a try while you are sitting there in your chair reading this book. As hard as you can, tense your abs for just a fraction of a second, and then do it again a couple times to get a sense of how this makes your ab muscles feel. Remember that sensation, because that is exactly what you want to do as your fist hits its target.
Now, try it striking with your backfist against a heavy bag. Assume your stance and snap your backfist toward the bag with a lead-leg lunge. When your fist is about four inches away from impact, tense your abs as hard as you can. As you do so, exhale sharply while you mentally force energy from your ab muscles up your chest, along your arm and out your fist. That’s it, pretty easy. But once you get this coordinated, you will see and feel at least a 25 percent improvement on the bag.
Do this with your jab, reverse punch, uppercut and all your other hand techniques. The stronger your abs, the harder you hit.
And if you watch your calories and reduce your body fat, you and your new abs will be the envy at the beach.
10. HAND TOUGHENING
Toughening the hands is a controversial subject that has been debated for years in the martial arts. Consider the following Q and A.
Q. Is it absolutely necessary to build thick callouses on your knuckles to have an effective punch?
A. No.
Q. Is it potentially dangerous?
A. It can be, especially when you injure the bones.
O. Is there a relatively safe way to build them?
A. Yes
Q. Are big, calloused knuckles impressive to look at?
A. Some people think so.
Q. Do they make for a harder hand strike?
A. Yes.
I’ve worked at toughening my knuckles off and on for all of my martial arts career. There have been times when they were thick with callousness and there have been times when I’ve stopped working them and the callouses diminished (maintaining them is a continuous process). One time while in Vietnam, a country where the people are quite aware of the martial arts and notice such things as calloused knuckles, a dozen Vietnamese people gathered around me after one of my brawls as a military policeman and stared at my hands as they talked excitedly among themselves about my knuckles. The only word I could understand them saying was “taekwondo,” the primary martial art in Vietnam at the time.
Other than for cosmetic purposes, calloused knuckles, especially if they are thick and hard, add to the impact of your punch. One Chinese master, who strikes a metal plate 1000 times a day and has knuckles nearly as large as golf balls, says that hitting someone with his knuckles is like hitting them with a rock. He also says that he doesn’t feel pain in his knuckles because he has long ago deadened the nerves in them.
Whether to toughen your knuckles or not is, of course, your decision. You may find that toughening them is a long and painful process that has no benefit other than impressing white belts. On the other hand, you may find that building them is beneficial to your punching. If you choose to do it, you should know that there is some risk involved, especially if you build them by repetitiously striking a hard object, like the aforementioned metal plate. When doing it that way, it’s quite possible to cause irreversible damage to the nerves, so much so that you could spend the rest of your life walking around with a hand frozen in the shape of a claw.
There is, however, a way to put callouses on your knuckles by toughening the skin rather than damaging the bones. This may be a superficial way to build up the knuckles and not as effective as enlarging and toughening the bones, but it nonetheless puts a layer of protection on them. This is the way I have always done it and, when they are at their best, I can hit a hard object without feeling much pain.
Knuckle Push-ups
Do your push-ups on the large knuckles of your index and middle fingers. They are your primary striking points, and therefore the ones you want to toughen. Just doing push-ups on them won’t toughen the skin much, so you need to twist your hand ever so slightly so that your knuckles rub into the floor. The keyword here is twist “slightly” because the weight on your knuckles is significant, and too much twisting will tear the skin, a not-so-fun moment in time that stings like the dickens. Start out doing these on a carpet, then progress to wood and then cement.
Make sure your weight is on your index and middle knuckles and twist them ever so slightly.
Rub a Brick
Actually, you can rub your knuckles with a rock, a piece of wood, cement or anything else that has a rough surface. Place your two large knuckles on the object and rotate your hand back and forth in a vigorous rubbing motion. Don’t get carried away and press too hard because you will tear the skin. As your skin grows tougher you can press progressively harder.
Punch a Canvas Bag
Modern-day heavy bags are usually made out of slick, smooth vinyl. These are excellent for developing power in your techniques, but they don’t do much toward toughening the skin over your knuckles. Canvas-covered heavy bags, however, work wonderfully. They are hard to find (I found mine in an old boxing gym), but they are worth the search because they toughen your skin quickly.
Salt Water Torture
There are herbal ointments on the market that supposedly toughen and heal your skin, but I have never used these products and haven’t heard anything as to how effective or ineffective they are. I have always used salt water or just plain salt to help heal my skin after I have gotten carried away and torn off a big patch. I just sprinkle a little salt on the exposed layer of wet meat (is that graphic enough?) and lightly rub it around on the injury. It hurts, sometimes all the way to my elbow, but I have found that it accelerates the healing.
If you are going to toughen your knuckles, I recommend that you only work the skin that covers them. I recently heard of a Japanese master who in his advanced years suffered greatly from all the pounding he did on his knuckles. Arthritis of the bones is natures cruel way of letting you know you did too much when you were younger.
Building callouses is controversial, though some martial artists believe they serve as armor.
