Elbows and Sat saos

[Brokenmace]

I've been trying to convert an elbow strike to a knife hand or hammer fist, even a forearm strike, on my partner's retreat. I'm a large man (265lbs) and usually can't manage the fluid alacrity of my counterparts in class, so in addition to working the jump rope to increase my foot speed, I've been trying to leverage my reach.

My problem is that torquing my waist in the opposite direction of my elbow strike is slow, because I don't have any limbs generating momentum on that side of my body against the force of the elbow strike. I'm trying to reproduce the speed of a jab-cross. Any tips?

[doubleouch]

From the shoulder back an elbow strike is the same as a cross. If you are throwing a right elbow then the right hip moves forward. Try keeping a little bend in your knees it makes your hips move more freely. If you want to see high level elbows check out some thai boxing. They have the best in the business. They use boxing mechanics for all their strikes

[Brokenmace]

Thanks

I got the boxing mechanics down (got a wicked hammer fist) but I'm just too slow at it unless I've tied someone up. 'Course, the tips you and Fighter gave me for increasing recovery speed might help, so thanks. No one wants to walk into my cross, even if I'm not a speed demon

I've got a pretty big body frame, and even if I lost thirty pounds I'd still be tall and wide. Folks see my sat sao a mile away, but for some mystifying reason they still give me an attachment off it!

However, I'd rather use it to hit with, if I can.

[StraightBlaster]

You know what. I gave up on those extending techniques after elbo's. I could never get them to work right. They allways lacked power. i got a couple concussions trying to do it :P lots of fun in practive tho, hard as crap in sparring.

[Brokenmace]

Oh, well

You're probably right. Unfortunately, where training is concerned, I'm a bit stubborn (more than one person has chided me for that). I'm likely to work on it from time to time until some less-than-happy lesson is taught to me in the gym. But "stubborn" doesn't mean "stupid": I won't be using it in a real situation or competition unless I can land it consistantly in sparring. Thanks for the heads up!