The Science of Hitting Hard

[Heroic Wolf]

Hi everyone,

There's so much advice out there about how to hit hard and whatnot, so I was wondering if every1 could help me make a list of all the principles behind hitting hard. Here's what I have off the top of my head:
1. Hit them where it hurts
2. hit from angles that maximize damage
3. Concentrate the damage (striking with just 2 knuckles instead of the whole fist)
4. Trying to hit a few inches deeper than where your target is so the damage goes in deeper
5. Exhaling with a diaphragm compression while striking

[sikal]

Last weekend I was working with a guy who trains MMA and he spars hard on a regular basis and has been in some competitive fights. I asked him, "I assume you can take a punch?" He said, "Yeah." I said, "How about a really good, solid right cross? Can you take it?" He said, "Usually, yeah, and it rarely slows me down."

I reached out and rapped him on the side of his lower jaw right about the gum line - like I might knock on a door - one quick rap with no real intention and his eyes rolled back a bit and he stumbled. He was ready to roll again in about half a second - but half a second is a long time in a fight. He was shocked.

As I explained to him, "It's not so much how hard you hit but where and how you hit."

Having made that semantic distinction, though, it sounds like you're on the right track with your list of principles. One that I would add is what I refer to as "proper relaxation."

You have to have some tension to maintain proper structure/form in your strike. Too much tension, though, and you start fighting yourself. It slows down your strike and robs it of some of the power - you are working hard so you feel like you're hitting hard (and you may, in fact, be hitting hard) but if you get rid of the unnecessary tension you can hit considerably harder.

Mike

[Heroic Wolf]

I think I've heard something similar to that before: Relax your muscles and only tighten up until right before you strike so that your strike is able to travel as fast as possible. Does that sound about right?

[sikal]

That's certainly one way of expressing it - and an expression I use when teaching. Personally I find that when I explain it to people like that, though, they still use too much. The "tighten up right before" ends up - in their heads - being the equivalent to slamming on the brakes in a car (tensing up = slamming on the brakes). By doing this, they still hit harder than if they're tense all the way through but they are still losing some potential power. Like I said, I still use this explanation when I'm teaching for safety reasons addressed in more detail below.

Imagine your striking tool as the front of a car. You have just enough tension to keep the "car" intact then you drive the car through your target - you don't tense up anything more.

This is a tricky subject, though, because early on people will be too lose and this can lead to potential injury (i.e.: they punch and their wrist buckles).

Early on, too much tension is better than not enough because while it reduces the power it can also protect the body. The trick, then, is to move away from that and get more and more relaxed until you find "proper relaxation" throughout the movement.

Many of the best strikers I know don't even make a full "fist" when they punch. Their fingers are still relaxed when they hit. The impact itself compresses the fingers into a fist-like shape (but it's still not usually a "proper" fist) but the wrist/forearm/shoulder are all in good alignment throughout the motion. Because of the relaxation they transmit most of their energy (kinetic) into the target and anything that comes back into their arm gets dissipated through their structure. Trying to get to this place too quickly, though, is dangerous because if the structure buckles then the recoil energy slams into that buckled area and can injure it.

But you're right - maintaining relaxation means you continue to accelerate through the entire motion and acceleration is a multiplier in the generation of power.

Mike

[Bill_1]

Its all in the hips.

[Filero]

One thing I like to do is separate the fundamentals from the tunes. How many times have you seen two big guys in a bar fight, throwing big bombs that would knock someone's head off, but not landing anything effectively ... throwing hard, but not effectively. One guy throws a punch, but the other is a bit too far away or too far along the punch's arc so the power is depleted or he misses completely; now the other guy throws, but the first guy is too close and the punch gets stuffed or swings back behind his head. You all have seen this scene. Throwing hard punches isn't enough. You need to use footwork to get to the right distance and throw the punch with the right timing, all while the opponent is also moving in some non-predictable manner. If you can do those things, your punches will be effective; if you can't, it doesn't matter if you can hit the heavy bag right off the hinge, because you may not land effectively. The guy who hits the heavy bag harder, is not always the guy who lands punches more effectively against an opponent. Footwork, distance, timing, work those as fundamentals, while you're tuning up your power via the advice above. I think too much focus on "hitting hard" in a vacuum can be counterproductive if you lose sight of the fundamentals, which most beginners will if you don't drill that into their heads.

[Ghost]

hitting hard is about good technique which is as a result of body correct body mechanics. once that is taken into account you have to hit the target on target.

Trying to write down how to throw a hard punch in terms of technique doesnt work. You have to see about it and talk about.

To try to write down how to throw a punch is like trying to write down what a song sounds like in words.

Originally Posted by Heroic Wolf

Hi everyone,

There's so much advice out there about how to hit hard and whatnot, so I was wondering if every1 could help me make a list of all the principles behind hitting hard. Here's what I have off the top of my head:
1. Hit them where it hurts
2. hit from angles that maximize damage
3. Concentrate the damage (striking with just 2 knuckles instead of the whole fist)
4. Trying to hit a few inches deeper than where your target is so the damage goes in deeper
5. Exhaling with a diaphragm compression while striking

[Tant01]

Good timing... gotta know where the target will be when your fist gets there!

[legshot420]

proper form, speed and power.