Can you suggest any methods or techneques for increasing punch power?

Practice. Try getting pull up bars and putting them on the doorways around your house. Whenever you go through a door, do as many as you can. Also do pushups, always until failure. That and you can just get a heavy bag and start going at it.

Hold something in your hand to give it more weight...

kubaton

roll of pennies

biking gloves with carbon fiber knuckle inserts

cue ball

And of course the age old brass knuckles.

Like you said in your spurious thread "i hit him as hard as a could and he stumbled back" and i replied "If i hit someone my hardest, the wouldn't just 'stumble back'" You see, i boxed for 5 years. and when you box for that long, a strong hit is something that you just aquire.

What i would suggest is that you wrap a pole with some rope (the more course, the better) now. Box this pole everyday for about aleast 15 minutes. It will callous your knuckles and strengthen your hit. Box it furiously so that you break a sweat and yout knuckles hurt when you are done. you don't have to hit it hard, just quick jabs. The more and more you hit it, the harder you will be able to hit it. Without noticing that you are hitting it harder.

Another way to increase your hit strength is to hit correctly. You don't have to be strong to hit hard. You just have to know how to hit. First, make a tight fist so that your fingernails meet with the middle of your palm. You will find that your fingertips will align well with a line in your hand. Your pinky and ring finger will ruck in more closely towards your wrist, this is ok...its what its supposed to do. Your middle knuckle will protrude up against all the others. Your on the right track, you will want to hit with this knuckle and your index knuckle.

Now, keep your wrists straight and yoru elbows out. In your normal boxing stance. you know "put up your dukes" spread your legs in a fighting stance and maintain a good balence that you can dodge with.

When you jab lean your shoulder forward with the punch and keep your feet in the same postion. Perhaps a slight turn of your opposite heel outward.

When you are doing a power hit, you want to move your whole arm. use your pectoral muscle(your tit muscle) and your triceps along with your elbow and forearm(like you use in a jab) when you hit, be sure to keep your body balanced and not step when you punch. Instead. say if your hitting with your right arm, focus your weight on the ball of your right foot. and only stand on the BALL of your left foot, it should be easy because most of your weight is on your right foot. And when you swing, turn your left heel away from you. and turn your right heel away from you is you are swinging with your left fist. That should knock him straight on his ass and give you enough time to proceed kicking him...or give you time to run.

...vote for brown

^Lmao. Fuck that shit, you aren't going to polevault people 10 feet and shit with your punches unless they don't know how to take a punch.

One of the best ways is just to work a punching bag, obviously, you learn how to twist your body and all that shit and put it in muscle memory. When I first started fighting my wrist was always a little bent for some reason, after fucking my wrist enough I figured it out and got it down. There are bags of varying hardness that you tran up on... For power pullups/pushups/other shit are good. Take a look at that "For SEAL hopefuls thread" and look at the dudes workout plan, start doing it, then modify it to suit your needs. Pullups sort of suck, you can revolutionize it in a way and not have to buy a bar by climbing up decks and shit like that. Use your legs less and less until you can do it without them.

The BEST idea though, is to go to a boxing gym or something equivalent and ask around what people are doing and ask them if they wouldn't mind helping you train, the upside being you get friends in the process.

Good luck.

[This message has been edited by ShqipTAR (edited 02-20-2006).]

I never said they were going to fly, this ain't the fuckin matrix. But trust me, the method works. Of course i had to dumb it down a bit. But thats how its done. I know what im talking about. Of course muscle is important. but if you don't know how to focus your muscle into fighting skill, then its useless.

I fully agree, power is useless unless you know how to use it,\ poles wrapped in rope is just a little to hardcore for him at the moment, hes liable to break a knuckle open, its just not a good starting point, plus I doubt he could absorb what to do by reading. He needs to experiment on his own, and get someone whos more experianced to push him.

Yeah, i agree. Perhaps the pole is a little much for him. He probobly can't afford a decent heavybag though. Maybe you should try leaning an old mattress against the wall or something along those lines...

(if your a really weak hitter, they sell 40lb heavybags at wal-mart for about 40 bucks. It comes with gloves(14 oz i belive) wraps, and i think it comes with headgear too)

I my file, I said to wrap something in fabric, rather than rope.

You could duct-tape some polyester foam to a pole/board and then wrap it with fabric or something.

(google makiwara)

hold on ...

My home power bag,

Teaching yourself to trow a punch.

There’s a lot of people asking around on how to win fights. So I’ve decided to put out a little text on how to learn the basics of training yourself.

These instructions are aimed at young people (<25) with little to no schooling in martial arts (I consider boxing a martial art, along with wrestling, kickboxing, savate and other western fighting styles)

If you read through this, and follow the instructions provided, you will mainly gain physical strength and learn the technique of the basic “punch”. But far more importantly, you will gain a lot of confidence, making you mentally more fit to take up a fight. This also reduces your “victim” factor, allowing you to avoid unwanted fights, and avoiding fight is quite often better than to actually fight.

There are three stages you’ll need to go through:

1 Gaining Fitness

2 Learning Technique

3 Building Strength.

Gaining fitness relates mainly to you endurance. You simply will not be able to efficiently train if you can’t keep at it for a significant period of time, at a significant pace and level of intensity. Jogging works great to build endurance, light training with weights will increase the endurance of specific muscles. Discipline will be the main factor of success, this goes for all three stages, but it is most of all needed here.

Focus on: biceps, triceps, pectorals and lateral deltoid muscles.

DO’s and DONT’s

Don’t start too heavy. Your muscles will gain strength at an amazing pace, but you ligaments and tendons won’t. It’s easy to damage them during the early stages of training, this can set you back considerably.

Do: train regularly, train consistently. “Gosh, I’m tired today” is NOT an excuse to deviate from your schedule. If you train light, you should be able to train at least a little bit every day. Motivation gets you started, but habit keeps you going.

If you can go to a gym, you have the advantage of professional help available, as well as a variety of equipment present. But having a simple set of training weights at home is far better. It requires far less discipline to quickly do some reps before bed (or better yet, when waking up) than to haul your ass over to the gym. You don’t need a treadmill to go jogging, you don’t need a bench press if you’ve got a set of dumbbells and a matras.

You’ll be off best if you watch your diet. Having a lot of potential glycogen, and other sugars at the ready will cut back exhaustion, so eat a lot of carbohydrates, and some proteins too. Sugar is perfectly fine, but try to watch the amount of fat you ingest. A bowl of cereal in the morning and a turkey sandwich for lunch, make great bases for meals. If you go jogging, vitamins will keep you healthy outside. If you feel like steak, why not? Feel free to eat anything you want, just remember that you’ll be needing carbs and sugars, not fat and proteins. Also, be sure to drink something evry 10 minutes to keep from getting dehydrated.

Learning technique before doing any serious training is very important. If you punch at a bad angle you could damage anything in between your wrist and knuckles. I’ve got a power bag which made a great practice target. The first thing you’ll need to get down, is hitting mainly with the knuckles of your index and middle finger, and being able to punch straight without skidding off target. Don’t start by trowing punches as hard as you can. Get your positioning (hands and feet) down first, make sure you punch straight at various distances and positions.

You can do this simultaneously with getting fit, earlier or afterwards.

You may want to consider buying a couple of things:

Hand wraps: very handy in protecting your hands, also reduce hands/gloves friction, allowing you to punch more consistently during practice.

Power bag: Perfect target, especially when suspended. Being round, you can punch straight onto it, even when trowing a hook. If unavailable, you may want to look into constructing a makiwara (wrap a piece of wood/tree in several layers of fabric. Do NOT use rope!

Gloves. I find speed bag gloves better than normal ones because they are less likely to “skid”, and they also give a more realistically shaped fist. This is important for learning technique.

Headband/bandana: If you’ve got long hair … you get the picture.

After you can safely punch, look into different basic attacks.

Low close range punch:

Start with you fist against the side of your torso, half an arms length away from your target. Punch straight forward, as low as possible. This is the most common first punch in a fight, because often, someone will stand very close to you, trying to intimidate you. Other uses are to effectively hit someone trying a grapple.

Low sideways hook.

Start with your fist close to you, preferable at chin height. Punch low and forward, turning your torso and stepping forward with the leg on the same side as you punching arm. You’re aiming to hit either the liver, spleen, solar plexus, lower ribs or stomach. All are close to each other in the lower torso, and are hard to defend. Moving in sideways add to your strength, makes you a smaller target, and automatically brings one hand away from your opponent, giving you the chance to deliver a long range punch.

These two make great moves for your initial conditioning, build onto them as you advance. Straight punches that extend your arms entirely are good for building strength, but aren’t all that practical.

As you get proficient at these punches, move back, keep your distance. Practice jabs, followed by a stronger punch or hook.

General advice:

Train regularly and consistently.

Don’t overdo anything.

Wear you’re hand wraps and gloves, you’re not on a “fists of steel” program.

Practicing kicks will only give you better balance, they’re not practical moves in a real fight.

Keep your point of gravity low, and don’t lean back.

Threating minor wounds.

You’ll likely get cuts or abrasions if you train hard, so here’s a quick and easy way to heal them.

Start by desinfecting any cut/wound. Don’t put a bandage, or worse: band aid on them. Cover it with a small amount of vaseline. The vaseline will cover the wound, reducing chances of infection. More importantly, the vaseline will keep the wound hydrated, whereas a bandage would drain the moisture and cause crusting. The crust could break easely, and when gone the skin would not have gained any real strength. But with vaseline, a supple but rigid new layer of skin will grow. (it seems like a contradiction, but seriously, try it!) in a period of about 12 hours. (Read: overnight)

I don’t suppose you’ll like smearing vaseline evrywere, so I put a small bit of cotton pad (image google, you’ll see) over it (cut to shape), and fix it in place with a piece of medical tape. You could use a piece of sterile cotton, but it’s costly and won’t work any better (I’ve tried).

Once you’ve got your technique down, start traing to build strength. Punch harder, train longer, up the weight you work out with. You will benefit from eating a lot of proteins, I love yoghurt smoothies, adding fruit and sugar makes a great base for a breakfast. As for meat: poultry is the best option. There’s no harm in eating beef or pork, but they tend to contain a lot of fat. Even tough you need to have *some* fat, too much will slow down your circulation and causes you to get tired quickly.

I’ve mentioned before how fast your muscles will gain strength. Still, it’s better to move a lighter weight 50 times, than it is to move your maximum for 10 times. The latter will cause your muscles to grow faster, but you will not be ably to keep it up for extended periods of time due to damaging the tissue around your muscles.

Drink a lot, stretch a lot, be healthy feel good about yourself

-Moko

Join a real gym, skip the ninja crap.