Controlling power when punching

[Big Game]

Thanks guys for the advice. I had thought about the wall thing before I posted. I think I will try that.

[JerryLove]

For the sake of selfcontrol you should first try to relax. Being tense is cause for hitting too hard. Being relaxed and loose will let you work on speed without hitting your partner too hard.

 

Tension is resistance, resistance limits power. The hardest punches come when relaxed.

 

Unless you are referring to the mental state and arguing that the skiddishness of anxiety is causeing it and he should calm down.

Relax! Control comes with repetition, repitition, repitition-the muscles first need to develop memory before you can concentrate on control.

 

I disagree. Instinct comes from repitition... and repeating "control" (hitting litely) will cause you to hit litely under stress.

Eventually you will be able to control your techniques to the mm without even thinking about it!

That's not control, that's consistancy. And for a fighting art, being consistantly light is counter-productive.

[delta1]

J Love- you are right on the money with your replies!

 

Brick walls- might work to an extent. But you risk injury, and the certainty of pain or injury if you misjudge and hit it hard might cause you to develope some bad habbits (which monkeygirl alluded to). I'd use the wall to learn to judge max commited distance of a punch with different stances and stance changes. But if you're going to hit the thing, use a sheetrock wall and prelocate the studs. Sheetrock is easier to repair than your fist.

 

Attatching tennis balls to string- drill or poke two holes in the ball on opposite sides. Thread the string through the holes and tie knots on both sides large enough that they won't pull through the holes. Alternatively, I just found some that were prestrung with light weight bunjee chord in the pet section of the local Dollar Store. All different colors and with fancy loops, so I strung them together in twos and threes so I have targets at nose, solar plex and groin levels (you can do this with the home made ones also). But these with the bunjee chords can be mounted and used like double end balls. They're great!

 

Another advantage of the paper or balls over a wall is you can hang them in an irregular pattern and move as you work on them. So you are learning striking control with fotwork and stance changes, and your targets are constantly in different positions. A lot more like what you'll face when sparing.

[Yoshimitsu]

The tennis ball idea seems to be a really good one. I'm going to buy some this weekend, maybe check a pet store for some premade ones but if not I have use of drills and I can make my own. Thanks for the idea.

[blitzcraig]

they've pretty much summed it up. And if that doesnt work and you keep hitting or kicking to hard, then your seinsi might make you stand infront of the class and kick you in the head with his "supurb" control like he did to this one guy in my class.