When I read that headline, which compared a hard fist to a shotgun blast to the face, I laughed, and I groaned. I laughed because it was so over the top that it would pull in tons of readers. I groaned because it is so far away from what a real Powerful Punch is.
The headline came from one of these internet pages. You know the ones I'm talking about. They hit you with the headline, then splash you with 'Gee, I'm like you,' and if you give me money you can kill the bullies.'
Now, aside from the idea that killing, even of a bully, is not a great thing to do, there is the misrepresentation of what a punch is. Do you know how much power comes out of a a discharging shotgun? Do you know how much roid rage you'd have to store up inside yourself to actually knock somebody in the face as hard as a load of buckshot?
And, if you were fighting ten morons, would you be able to get that much rage, and keep it going it through hitting ten guys in the face? Can you see that this shotgun power idea is not really logical? Can you see that it plays to the emotional child hiding inside, offering a solution that is pure comic book?
I've written probably a hundred thousand words on how to punch. I've written these words in taekwondo articles and kung fu books, and, beyond that spoken a few hundred thousand words on the subject in martial arts DVD courses. So let me give you the real skinny on what a punch is.
Proper body alignment. Developing intention. Using as little energy as one possibly can.
Go on, read that last paragraph again, because it says it all. On one of my courses I teach a fellow how to punch. No, it's not three months of only punching, it is only five minutes of how to punch at the beginning of some twenty odd lessons, and concentrating on how to actually accomplish those three concepts I mentioned in the last paragraph.
The hitting part of the lesson lesson is four minutes and fifty seconds of working out, until he understands what I'm showing him, and the next lesson is four minutes and forty seconds of instructing him, and then four minutes and thirty seconds until he understands, and so on, until he finally does his perfectly aligned, intense, effortless fist the first and every time. Personally, I don't think teaching somebody how to punch somebody in the face like a shotgun blast is very much fun, or even very nice; I would much rather instruct somebody on how to make a powerful punch with little effort, a perfectly aligned body, and the correct information of what a punch is.
The headline came from one of these internet pages. You know the ones I'm talking about. They hit you with the headline, then splash you with 'Gee, I'm like you,' and if you give me money you can kill the bullies.'
Now, aside from the idea that killing, even of a bully, is not a great thing to do, there is the misrepresentation of what a punch is. Do you know how much power comes out of a a discharging shotgun? Do you know how much roid rage you'd have to store up inside yourself to actually knock somebody in the face as hard as a load of buckshot?
And, if you were fighting ten morons, would you be able to get that much rage, and keep it going it through hitting ten guys in the face? Can you see that this shotgun power idea is not really logical? Can you see that it plays to the emotional child hiding inside, offering a solution that is pure comic book?
I've written probably a hundred thousand words on how to punch. I've written these words in taekwondo articles and kung fu books, and, beyond that spoken a few hundred thousand words on the subject in martial arts DVD courses. So let me give you the real skinny on what a punch is.
Proper body alignment. Developing intention. Using as little energy as one possibly can.
Go on, read that last paragraph again, because it says it all. On one of my courses I teach a fellow how to punch. No, it's not three months of only punching, it is only five minutes of how to punch at the beginning of some twenty odd lessons, and concentrating on how to actually accomplish those three concepts I mentioned in the last paragraph.
The hitting part of the lesson lesson is four minutes and fifty seconds of working out, until he understands what I'm showing him, and the next lesson is four minutes and forty seconds of instructing him, and then four minutes and thirty seconds until he understands, and so on, until he finally does his perfectly aligned, intense, effortless fist the first and every time. Personally, I don't think teaching somebody how to punch somebody in the face like a shotgun blast is very much fun, or even very nice; I would much rather instruct somebody on how to make a powerful punch with little effort, a perfectly aligned body, and the correct information of what a punch is.
About the Author:
I teach the correct punch in the Three Month Black Belt course. Head on over to it at Monster Martial Arts.