Much lip service is given by today’s martial arts instructors about power, yet many students come to me, from beginner to black belt, with no concept of how to hit hard, or even how to hit!
How can this be allowed? After all we do MARTIAL arts, don’t we?
So how do we generate power?
The hips are the source, all your movements, be they punches, kicks, throws or whatever, the movement should start in the hips.
Go to a good internal martial artist (if you can find one that is) and you’ll see students moving slowly in a deliberate and determined way ensuring they have the movement driven by the hip and the body aligned to deliver the power effectively. They will then test out their progress on each other and on the heavy bag/strike pads
Go to a good hard style school and you’ll see students doing squats and push ups, lifting heavy objects from the floor to overhead and hitting heavy bags.
Go to an average karate/kenpo/ (insert style here) class and you’ll see people throwing their arms and legs around willy-nilly in the air.
Who do you think gets the least results? Who do you think will probably be most injured in later life?
It’ll be group 3. Many karate men are suffering in their old age from throwing punches and kicks forcefully at nothing. What absorbs the shock?
That’s simple, the joints, ligaments and tendons. How much abuse can they take?
If you want to make real progress and learn to hit, then you have to hit! Next time you go training choose your favorite technique and practice it on the bag or have someone hold pads for you.
Go to your local gym and ask to learn these lifts: Deadlift, Clean & Press, Snatch, with either kettlebells, dumbells or barbells.
You could use your training partner and do zercher style lifts with him, Jim Smith of the Diesel Crew talks about this here.
I remember the surprise on my face the first time I hit the heavy bag after a set of heavy deadlifts. I was so tuned into driving the hips through to lift the bar, I used the same intensity on the bag and Whoa!!!
Train smart
Wild Geese any cause but our own