To all the skinny runts out there - how to really punch with power

Alright wise guy, its time to face up to facts - you don't punch very hard - in fact you punch like a sissified girl. What are you going to do about it? Cry like the mommy's boy that you are? Hang on you say - but I've got (insert your belt here) I can hit just fine. Really? How sure are you about that? Do some contact sparring with the big hitters of your class - notice how they all hit way harder than you?

The hard humbling truth is that smaller guys like you and I simply don't hit that hard. Does this mean we quit gracefully? No - it means looking for ways to make the best of what we've got - it's some hard work and pain is on the horizon. It took me a long time to figure out the best ways of building effective hitting power - I still don't hit as had as the biggest guy - I never will - but when we spar - he knows he's going home with some serious bruising and a bell ringing in his head.

Here you go, Gyaku's steps to hitting big:

Step 1. Boxers on the whole - even some professionals tend to lack any real technique - in fact if you watch lower level bouts they look not much different that that year 10 fight you saw last week - seriously! However - boxers do have solid power behind their punches. The reason? A heavy bag, not some Fitness First/LA Fitness 25kg pillow case - but a really huge bag - at least 70kg - more is better - the heavier the bag the heavier the punching. Tape it around the middle to help keep its shape and stay firm. Use it at least an hour a week and you will develop man stoppers in a couple of months.

Step 2. Develop technique - this won't help you punch that much more powerfully, but it will help you to punch safely - try to practise on the heavy bag with no padding on your fists - if it hurts, or you're grazing the knuckles your technique is wrong - fix it - because in real life you won't have any padding - that's why Tyson breaks his wrist every time he gets into a fight outside the ring.

Step 3. Hit with your body. But your body weight behind your punches, lean your body into them!

Step 4. Visualise - Picture your boss/school bully/ George Bush etc on that bag. Now hit with feeling! Each time you punch try to simply punch a lttle bit harder - over time you will consistantly hit with commitment and power.

Step 5. Well done, you've been practising hard - now lets apply it all to sparring. Pick your spots - hit where it hurts - you can't afford to punch wildly - you've got to make your opponent scared every time you punch - he must KNOW he's about to receive indescribable pain. If you hit randomly - he'll get confident and start his own wailing campaign - on you!

Step 6. Persevere. Face up now that you're going to need twice the effort to get even half the power of the big hitters - but just stick it out dude - it's a lot of hard work - but you CAN do it - Talk to yourself, shout at yourself - whatever it takes, get out there and train.

What are you waiting around for? Log off and getting to work!!!!!!

 

Ok, I'll bite... I don't see anything special in there. It seems like your average power building drills that any half decent club will perform.

 

This a joke, rubbish

 

Boxers lack technique in punching ???????????????????????????????????????.

Compared to who exactly ?.

Strange.

 

Note to self - don't reply to stupid posts.

 

pretty poor. if anyone who trains at a club finds any of this information new, you need to find a better club.

 

I'm bored so I'll bite

Or we get down the gym, lift some weights and improve our diet. *Gasp* - suddenly we don't look or punch like 12 year old girls any more Worked for me in the last year

WHICH professionals exactly?

Who shot who in the what now?

Or don't. Chances are it's a damn sight better for you in the long run. If you punch the bag with any power, use a minimum of 10oz gloves and wraps. Personally, I sometimes just hit it light to check my technique, but I still use 4oz MMA gloves. Arthritis isn't fun

Like Ikken said, if this is new to anyone, they need to start training at a better club

Oh yeah, baby! You're a wreckin' machine, Rocky and so on and so forth (Sorry, I've wanted to use that line for ages)

Something anyone who ever actually spars with any contact should know. The ninja lot might like it though

To be honest, if any of your sparring partners are scared to train with you because of the "indescribable pain" they'll feel, you shouldn't be sparring until you can learn some control

 

I missed the 'indescribable pain' bit. Very funny. Roll on when the school holidays finish.

 

n00b-a-liscious!

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!

Your post was as hilarious as it was inaccurate!
That is to say 100% on both accounts.

Completely n00b-a-liscious!

PUT DOWN THE TAE BO FANTASY
AND STEP AWAY FROM THE KEYBOARD!!!

I REPEAT!!!!


PUT DOWN THE TAE BO FANTASY
AND STEP AWAY FROM THE KEYBOARD!!!

 

Can someone offer me some real advice on how to punch harder (and better) ?

 

Sure. It's much simpler than you think, really
1) Get down the gym and do some big compound lifts (You may want to go via MAP's excellent Health and Fitness forum, where you'll find more useful info than the entire Mod team there can squat - and that's a LOT ). See, it's all well and good learning techniques which will improve your power, but there'll be much more power if the strength's there
2) Find a boxing club. It may not be the most glamourous of arts, but when it comes down to it, these guys punch better than anyone. Even a few lessons at a quarter decent club will have a serious positive impact on your punching. There's all kinds of stuff we can say like don't punch with your arm, punch with your whole body, get your hips into it etc, but when it comes down to it, you're going to be better off being shown by a hands-on instructor.
3) Work the bag, work the focus mitts, work the speedball, just work!
Good luck

 

Hitting the heavy bag develops bulk muscle which makes your punches slow. If you are "Skinny" and "Small" like this article is about you will have to rely on your strength and body weight if you develop slow punches. and if you are skinny and small you dont want to go blow for blow with a big guy, you would want to use your moblility and speed.

Shadowboxing is good beacuse it improves speed and small people are naturally faster so you can land more punches than a big guy.

Technique also is VERRY VERRY VERRY important. If you dont punch with propper technique you lose alot of power.

P.S. it probably took you "Ages" to figure out the above article beacuse it workes with almost NO RESULTS

 

nightcrawler, i hope your post was just a bad joke.

 

Aside from other wrong/misinformed information in your post...you spelled the word very wrong three times in a row!

 

Whoops! I was writing this in a rush and What i meant to say was...


Hitting the heavy bag develops muscle. What you have to work on is speed also. If you are "Skinny" and "Small" you will have to rely on your Speed/Mobility. You do not want to have to rely on strength and body weight.

The best way to develop both speed and power is by hitting focus mitts.


I stand by the rest of my post

 

basically....

to make an attempt at sumArising...

(before i start you should know i have very bad spelling, and am in a rush :woo: )

1) general strenght training:

lift compound weights,
focus on basics:

deadlifts
squats
benching
dips

do some gpp
WORK ON CORE!!!!!
for punching with power, u all know you need to use your core, so work on it!


2) work on speed!

do plyometrics, not just in upper body, but also in legs
for explosive power!

your whole body should be able to switch SUDENLY from friendly postman type guy to bad ass italion stalion bihatch.

so... things like
interval sprints
upper body plyometrics, like plyo pressups etc
lower body plyometrics, LIKE AIR ALERT 3 , if its too east adapt it, make it harder, I DID

3) TECHNIQUE
people say its not important... poeple say its not goin to get you power... OH DEAR GOD, WAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN THE WORLD....
technique is "THE" single most important thing in punching with power....
bruce lee 130lbs or so... 5'7 could hit back a 6foot GIANT/ BRICK ****HOUSE weighing over 200lbs with an inch punch....
I TAKE NOT THE **** !!!!!!
ALLE LES TECHNIQUE'? OUI haha
yes fu***g technique poeple,

LEARN:
to use your WHOLE body , your CORE, your UPPER BODY, your LEGS, your SHOULDER:

your body should be in a perfect punching position for maximum power!!

read books, read articles, GET ONE ON ONE TRAINING IF POSSIBLE FROM PROS NOT ur "dads old stories of wen he was ina fight back in 62, and he used the OL rite ander"

4)STAMINA
TRAIN HARD, TRAIN LONG, TRAIN BADASS,
if u just want to learn how to hit hard for fun, then wats the point... u cud be up against someone just as powerfull as u just as lean as u just as strong ... but if hes/she(i make no assumptions ) has got better stamina, then in the end they will pwn u, maybe by a second but its wat counts.
so train for fitness....
do 50% aerobic , running long distances, swimming, biking etc
do 50% anaerobic , sprinting intervals, skipping intervals , punch out drills

5) THE HHOLY HEAVY BAG

train on this... as often as you can!
aim at doing 20 mins a day.... YES WRAp YOUR HANDS UP YOU FOOLS... if u dont u wont end up pwning anyone but urself....
work on 4 different things on the bag:
- speed
- power
- technique
- adrenalin

ADRENALIN? wats this guy talking about?
yup adrenalin
people get nervous wen the adrenalin kick in IN A REAL FIGHT...
so sike yourself up...
say...
u get up saturday morning as part of your routine...
the same way you would get up if u were going to a championship...
then walk in to your room where ur bag is at... bow to the door as if its the judges . bow to the bag as if its ur aponent, get someone to shout out wen a minutes over and KILL THE BAG
1 minute that bags in the ring with u. sort it out. :bang: :woo: :bang:


its great doing all of the above but if and lifting weights til u feel on fire with the pump.
but unless you can last a minute beating the bag up . u wont last half as long wen the adrenalin kicks in:|
SO TRANI FOR ADRENALIN

a good bag routine could be seen as .

5 min warm up
5 min stretching all body
3x1min rounds focusing on speed
3x1 min rounds focusing on technique
3x1min rounds focusing on power
3x1 min rounds focusing on EVERYTHING together.
some more stretching
40 left hooks
40 right hooks
50 right jabs
50 left jabs
30 left uppercuts
30 right uppercuts
stretch
2x2min FINAL ROUNDS (go in as if its the championship ur entering)
stretch and cool down

seem like alot? try it... if its too much, split it up do half in morning half in afternoon...


erhm hope any of that helped.
seb

 

RIIITE
had some more thoughts...

you want POWER in your punches...
but wats more important SPEED OR STRENGHT

i wanted to try and asnwer this...
so lets go into it technically...

Power = velocity x force.

force = strength
velocity = speed


so... speed x strength = power....


so there is no PERFECT ANSWER for this question...

SOOO....train...


speed = plyometrics, speed ball, general speed training

strenght = compound weights but mostly ballistic training.



(ballistic training is the middle ground, think of it as plyometrics with greater resistance)
eg. If squatting is the strength training, jumping is the plyometric training then jumping squats are the ballisctic training.


cheers, seb

 

I think this is the most reasonable post in this whole thread people should just get to work!

gogz

 

Exactly. Take a hint from your own advice.

 

LOL, this whole thread should just be deleted, or at least come with a health warning.

This intro reminds me of the seminar that David Brent gives in the comedy 'The Office'! lol