Most people think that to have alot of power in your punch you need to sacrifice speed and bulk up your arms. In my oppinion this is not true, you dont have to sacrifica any speed or strength.
Here are my thoughts (May be wrong, But Worked for me)
Speed = Power
Think about it, What would you rather get hit by? a tennis ball going at a slow speed or one going at a high speed?
Therefore any hit you do, if it is fast enough is going to be hard. The Power of your punch is also effected by the force behind the target. So if you are doing a punch and you are verry muscular then the punch will probably be very hard. But you are losing alot of power just by hitting with your arm. You need to put your whole hip into it and use your whole body behind the punch (without leaning foward too much) use your body like a corkscrew and twist while pushing the shoulder doing the punch foward while pulling the other shoulder backward.
Weight training can affect your punching but there are differences in types of strengths gained by weight training.
You have both Fast and Slow twich muscle fibres. By training slow twich muscles you are gaining Strength for slow movements. By training the fast twich fibres you are gaining strength for fast movements (punching).
Therefore by training your fast twich muscle fibres you are gaining strength for fast movements like punching.
Stretching your arms after doing weights is good and it increases the range of motion for the muscles stretched. If you are stretching remember to stretch the opposite muscle group as well (both tricep and bicep).
Power = Strength & Speed
By combining a good technique and the right type of weight training you can greatly increase your punching power and speed.
There are 3 stages of a punch (My Thoughts)
1. The throwing of the punch (The movement of the body and the punch moving toward the target)
2. The inch Power (Where your arm is almost fully extended)
3. The Follow Through (Pushing Through the target for extra power)
In My oppinion the best time for a punch to make contact is during the second stage (when the arm is almost fully extended) beacuse this is the stage of the punch when the most resistance is requred to stop the punch (From the Bag or Enemy) and the least force is required by you to complete the punch. This is also the time of the punch when the most power is in the punch. "Also w/ a good power punch, your front foot should land slightly after your punch. This will keep the kinetic energy from splitting into two different directions. " - Checkhands (30/dec/05)
Also snap the punch at the right moment. It's hard to explain so I won't cover it here but you should ask your instructor in how to add the 'snap to your punch'. Remember the snap is good but dont bend your wrist to punch, it loses power and hurts beacuse the impact will be absorbed at the wrist, also your wrist can be bent back. Most people when learning to punch have this problem due to lack of strength in the wrists but it can be fixed with various exercises (knuckle pushups, weights, or just practice)
Although a punch is mostly a upper body movement, it is affected by the movement and weight distribution of your legs. A wide stance increases balance and power in your punch but if the stance is too wide it can decrease your mobility and movement speed. Most martial arts have good stances to deploy a punch so just adopt your normal fighting/sparring stance and you should be fine.
Being to tense when about to deploy a punch can be a bad thing. To move 'any' part of your body involves contractions and relaxation. Therefore to move your arm your tricep must contract and your bicep must relax. If your bicep is too tense when doing a punch your tricep must work harder to move your arm and so on. (note: you DONT only use the tricep for punching, but it is a big part of the punch)
The kihap is also an important aspect of the punch.
"Very often in different Martial Arts you find a loud exhalation. This is a good way for beginners to focus on their breathing and for learning the correct breathing rhythm. But experienced students should use this loud exhalation during breathing excercises only. During sparring or a real fight this is no good idea, as an opponent could use this as a hint for best time to attack. During inhalation no fast response is possible, also a hit has more effect. So during sparring the exhalation should be unhearable, but nonetheless correctly and forcefully.
A very forceful breathing technique is the Kihap, a loud cry. It is important that the Kihap is from the stomach not your vocal chord. Often you could find students (even high graduated) who use their vocal chord too much for Kihap. This is not very good for your vocal chord and even not very effectful. A correctly done Kihap could have the following effects:
* Fighting your own fear.
* Get more power into your technique.
* Maybe frighten an opponent.
* Makes you less injurable,
" -Klaus Steinberger (
http://www.bl.physik.tu-muenchen.de.../tkd/node8.html)
Finally, many martial arts have a different technique when punching and they "all" work. But to get the most of the punch you should follow boxing's example and don't start the punch too far back beacuse you are loosing speed for the punch and it takes more energy to deploy it.
i found this article, its pretty good if you want to get better technique on your punches
