Power Generation

Spoken to him a number of times
and got an invite to go train, so going to have a look.
first one is a taster session. but should be interesting....

Interesting and popular topic. Every instructor seems to have their own version on how to generate power. I just couldn't buy into how different everyone could be, seeing as only a finite number of methods are effecient in any situation. Therefore I looked for a convergeance of opinion. For me, all the legitimate heavy hitters all follow a similar principle: they drive the force from the ground, put their body in first and then drive the attacking tool through last. This is exactly the same principle behind any throwing or hitting action in sport be it golf, baseball, tennis, shot put etc. The only difference is that your attacking tool cannot be telegraphed in the same way, but that shouldn't be an issue as the main force is being generated by everthing but the attacking tool.

Everyone I know who I have felt hit hard follows this principle, but they all seem to articulate it in a different way.

I couldn't agree more Jamie.

This is what all powerful strikes have in common, minor variation between people but the basics are as you say ... not surprising really, you have to engage the larger muscles in the kinetic chain first so that they can ulimately contribute as much kinetic energy as possible to the effective striking mass down the kinetic chain with each major link in the chain adding some more energy with the muscles involved for that link... all "piggy-backing" on the energy transferred from the links before. And as you rightly point out the conditions at the time of the strike will dictate exactly how you go about this .. how much can you afford to telegraph the shot? ... which target are you going for?... how restricted is your striking by range and body position? etc. etc.

When I teach power generation I like to keep it as simple as I can and I teach the basics, basics that everyone who hits hard uses

Staying relaxed
The more relaxed you are the heavier/harder you hit, only tense the muscles you need, for example with a slap you get a lot of power from the whipping motion in your hand, holding your hand in a specific shape only reduces power tensing parts that you just don’t need to

With the palm heel locking your wrist back and keeping your arm straight will cause problems if you hit slightly wrong there’s no give, keep relaxed with your arm slightly bent with your hand relaxed as long as its lifted higher than the forearm and the hands relaxed the fingers will fold and you will hit with the heel.With the punch you’re only tensing what you need to at the last minute

Aggression and violent intent
without this you’re just going through the motions it makes a huge difference, fights are won every day with this, with no training at all, every time you strike visualise it you might only get one shot to save you or your friend/family, you’re not hitting a pad your hitting an aggressive attacker intent on violence make every shot count if you don’t it might be your last

Footwork
how many fights/violent confrontations do you see that are static you need to be able to hit hard from any angle while on the move, when your stood still it’s all in the hips, when your moving there’s only a couple of options for power and there very natural you can step and hit or use the drop step or any mix of these

Often when someone’s stepping and hitting they still drop their weight at the end of the shot, I found through training I started using both of these even before I knew anything about footwork, say with a pre-emptive its important to hit through the target moving your weight in the direction as much as you can, the more you accelerate the harder it is, just pushing someone hard to the head will move them back, do that with force and there off balance taking impact, with little chance of striking back with any effect

Breathing
The way you breath makes a very big difference in the power you deliver, breathing out is the key to power, there are two basic ways to use the breath with both of these try to breathe in before moving

one is a long slow relaxed sigh, breathing out right through the strike it’s a very heavy shot but not that fast, if you try to do this fast it doesn’t work to well because your breathing out right through the strike(your core muscles are tensing slowly right through the movement)so you’re not relaxed right through the strike

the other way which I prefer is the short sharp explosion of breath on impact of the strike very fast an very explosive, because you’re not breathing out until impact your core muscles aren’t tensing until impact the more relaxed you are the harder you hit the faster you move

breathing goes hand in hand with aggression and staying relaxed if you strike with too much aggression your tensing up, but focus the aggression/intent on the impact, like a pressure cooker building up at your core at blast all that aggression out on impact
Again like the footwork people use different variations of these e.g. breathing out a bit as they strike then blasting the rest out on impact

It’s only later in training that I explain about the hip movement if it’s needed because using with the basics above people use the hips anyway in their own particular way they prefer, to me it has to suit the individual because everybodys different

Karl