Here is an ultimate guide on how to punch. A perfect tool for boxers, kickboxers, fighters, and just about anyone who wants to learn how to punch correctly.
The Basic Theories of Punching
You must have your body weight behind a punch. A fast punch will not hit hard unless you put some body weight behind it.
Move Your Entire Body – You must move your entire body to get the maximum force (weight) behind that punch. Turning your hips, shoulders and feet will help generate more power and a greater reach. The trick is not to focus on moving your body a great distance but rather to move it all at the same time.
Use Your Legs. Your legs contain the biggest muscles in your body and will generate the most power. People who punch only with their arms will never punch with real power.
Punch Inside Your Range – Your strongest punch doesn’t land when your arms are fully stretched. Your punch hits harder when it lands a little shorter than your full range of motion.
How to use your body
Feet
- Planted on the floor a little wider than shouldes
- The back foot always starts with the heel lifted.
- When punching, the feet should pivot in the direction of the punch.
- As you throw multiple punches, your feet will pivot back and forth pushing in different directions as you throw different punches.
- When you throw a right handed punch, the right heel is lifted while the left foot is flat; the opposite is true when you throw a punch from the left hand.
- Your feet never leave the ground when you throw a power punch (unless throwing pivoting punches.)
Legs
- Knees slightly bent
- Drop your bodyweight into your legs as you throw the punch
The Hips
- Twist your hips – this is a key way to generate power and extend your reach without over stretching
The Upper Body
- Your upper body (torso) should rotate as much as possible. Spin the punch out from your shoulders.
- Don’t lean forward. Don’t try to reach forward – rotate instead!
The Shoulders
- Shoulders stay loose during the punch. This keeps the punch relaxed saving energy while increase speed and power.
- Try to raise your shoulders during your punch. This makes the punch stronger because is uses the shoulder muscles.
The Arms
- Your arms start relaxed.
- As the punch is thrown, your arms spring out towards your opponent extending just enough to hit your opponent.
- Don’t let your punches over-extend or else you’ll get countered.
- Do not pull your fist back right before a punch. This is called, “telegraphing” and allows experienced fighters see the punch coming, minimizing its impact.
The Hands
- Clench your fist tightly and fold your thumb around the outside of your knuckles.
- Your boxing gloves start at your face and end in the same position. Don’t drop your hands after a punch – protect yourself from counter attacks
- Your turn your fist over (horizontal) for straight punches, but your fist can stay vertical when you swing a left hook to the body or throwing pivot left hooks.
The Head
- Exhale sharply on every punch.
- Your eyes are 100% alert. Always look at the target you’re punching.
- Your chin is tucked down a little so that it’s covered a bit by the shoulder on your punching arm.
How to aiming a Punch at your opponent
It is important to learn the distance of all your punches. Try to keep your punches within this range. Punching too close or too far of a distance diminishes your power.
Jab
- Stepping forward quickly will make this punch much stronger.
- Extend your fist all the way and lift that front shoulder a little to really stab your opponent with this jab punch.
- Don’t lean forward when you throw this punch, save that momentum for your cross.
Cross
- Body rotation, body rotation, body rotation.
- Pivot on your back foot
- Turn your shoulders. This will allow you to extend your cross much further.
- Keep your feet planted. The cross is one of your most useful and powerful punches. Lifting your feet will reduce the power.
Left Hook
- Elbows stay low when you throw hooks to the body and elbows go high when you throw hooks to the head.
- Learn to throw a stopping hook. Don’t let the hook pass through your opponent. Practice stopping your hook when it’s in front of you. This gives it the “smack” sound and also keeps you from over-rotating on that hook.
- Don’t forget to spin both feet so that they’re pointing to the side when you throw that left hook.
- As you throw the left hook, drop the right heel and lift the left hook to put leg strength into the left hook.
Right Hook
- When you throw a right hook, swing your body weight from your back foot to your front foot and make sure you push your head into the punch and look at where it’s hitting.
- Also, don’t throw your head to the side when you throw the right hook, instead bring it forward but try to keep it in front of your target. (This hits harder but in some cases, you’ll have to move that head more to stay out of harm’s way.)
Uppercut
- Forget what you saw in Street Fighter 2.
- A real uppercut is short and quick. The punch doesn’t go straight up, it actually goes forward.
- Imagine yourself throwing a big right cross. Now start a new one, but instead – flip your fist so that the palm is facing up. Now throw that right hand straight at your opponent’s head.
- An uppercut isn’t necessarily thrown from the floor down up, it’s thrown more like from your waist so it’s diagonal. The point is: it’s still got plenty of horizontal momentum, it’s not completely vertical.
Hitting Your Opponent
This is a very important to learning how to punch hard. You can’t just throw a hard punch anytime you want. You have to learn when to throw it. You have to be at a proper distance. Not just for the first punch but for the second one as well.
When is the best time to hit your opponent?
- When your opponent is punching – getting hit by a counter-punch hurts!
- When he’s not expecting it – you can achieve this by breaking through his defense or simply throwing punches in a weird rhythm. Very fast boxers can do this by simply throwing a super fast lead right hand or left hook.
- From an angle – Hitting your opponent from an angle can hurt him more, stun him better, and at the very least disrupt him for another hard punch.
Common Mistakes when Leaning to Punch
- Lifting Your Feet. This will prevent you using your whole body weight and will weaken the punch
- Over Reaching. More often than not, you’ll just lose your balance and over-committing will limit you to one punch whereas keeping your balance will allow you to throw several in a combination.
- Forgetting The Jab – Don’t rely on the big ‘knock out punches’! If you don’t jab, you’ll never set up those big punches. If thrown correctly your jab can do a lot of damage: it’s short, powerful, and can setup the hard punches by stunning or distracting your opponent momentarily.
- Telegraphing – Don’t cock your fist back before you throw it. Your opponant will be able to spot this and will help them to slip the punch. Tip: Stand in front of a punch bag completely still and throw a punch when someone says go.
- Stay Away From Weights – Although there are many conflicting articles that argue whether or not lifting weights will aid your punch, the science is quite simple: when you lift weights, your body is becoming stronger at moving slow (punching is a fast movement). Also, lifting large weights is designed to increase your bicep size which is a contracting muscle – punching is an extension action of the arm.