Executing The Power Karate Punch

Executing the power karate punch. Like all karate practitioners, we all want to increase the power of our punches.  This is due to our  training as a karateka. We are always striving to improve and get better.

WE PUNCH WITH TOO MUCH TENSION 

When anyone starts training in martial arts or boxing, you feel that if you tense your muscles when throwing a punch. That this would in somewhat give you more power as you hit your intended target. But this could not be further from the truth.

Tension will actually slow your body down. You see when you hold tension in your fists, arms, your whole body is drastically decreases your punching power. When your muscles are tense, it takes longer for the stimuli and impulses to go travel from the nervous system to the nerves and muscles.Therefore, by being relaxed while throwing your punch, you’ll find that its speed is increased dramatically.This in turn also makes your punches weaker. This how you learn to execute the power karate punch. 

I think of throwing a punch like a whip. The power of a punch  first begins in your feet (like when you flick your wrist to begin the whip power, it’s slowly grows it until it reaches, then end with a loud crack). It’s momentum slowly moves up your legs, then as you twist your hips the momentum has increased as you added more power. Moving up your obliques towards your shoulders. Then start to add the strength from your shoulder to add more power. This in turn lets velocity of power travel down your arms. Finally as flick your wrist all that stored up energy is transferred into your intended target. (Crack of the whip).

OTHER PROBLEMS WITH TENSION (executing the power karate punch)

We discover that if our bodies are  tense, we get exhausted a lot quicker than normal. This means that our muscles become overworked, and therefore, you burn your stored energy supplies. But when you let go of tension and rigidity, you can train for longer periods of time. Getting rid of that ‘tension’ in your karate, will make a big difference not only in your endurance but also your stamina.

One thing I have always be vocal about in my posts is that your body and mind must work together. Otherwise everything becomes unbalanced and unnatural. In other words if you have tension in your body, you will have tension in your mind. You see if a  mind is riddled with tension it will not flow, adapt, or react quickly and effectively.

This will result in delayed reactions, and delayed reactions can put you in a dangerous position during a real encounter. The best thing I have learnt in martial arts is to learn how to relax during a fight.

 

BIOMECHANICS OF KARATE PUNCHES

One of things we maybe unaware of as karate practitioners. Is performing our techniques, in this case, the punch, with the proper biomechanics. Bad posture, poor ergonomics, and improper form or technique can cause bad body mechanics. Which will result is poor speed, power, and stability.

A poor understanding of the proper biomechanics of the Karate punch will not only significantly diminish the quality and the effectiveness of our movement itself. But also the good health of our articulations, tendons, muscles, and body as a whole.

I came across a great article about this,  if you are for looking for more detail http://haweakarate.org (enter this website, go to menu, into shodan shinsa essays and look for understanding the biomechanics of the karate punch (Tsuki).

BREATHING CORRECTLY 

There are many benefits from learning how to breathe correctly whether it’s learning a martial art or playing sport. Here are the best reasons.

MENTAL BENEFITS 

• Helps to concentrate and focus,
• Gives more mental clarity and alertness,
• Helps us calm down the mind,
• Helps to control our emotions,
• Helps feeling more energetic.

PHYSICAL BENEFITS

• Helps fight fatigue,
• Increases physical endurance,
• Helps to let go of pain,
• Helps with the proper biomechanics,
• Increases posturing and ‘rooting’,
• Helps create acceleration or explosiveness,
• Helps to transfer more mass into your punch,
• Makes you punch (or any other strike) faster and more powerful,

The Types of Breathing Exercises in Karate  

• Diaphragmatic Breathing:

This type of exercise starts by breathing deep into the lower belly four times using diaphragmatic muscles. Students are instructed to breath in through the nose and exhale through the mouth. Every inhalation and exhalation should be deep to the maximum, to make the abdominal muscle contract and relax with each breath.

• Ribcage Breathing:

This type of breathing is achieved by breathing in deeply four times while using the ribcage muscles, leading to the expansion of the ribcage. Inhalation should be done through the nose, while exhalation through the mouth. This type of breathing should be done carefully not to confuse it with diaphragmatic breathing.

• T-Spine Breathing:

In this type of breathing, students are expected to breath four times while pulling air towards the back. This type of breathing can be challenging to new students. If done correctly, the student should feel his/her thoracic spine expand with each breathe. The inhalation should be done through the nose, while breathing out through the mouth.

• Chest Breathing:

This is last type of breathing in Karate and is the easiest; it entails breathing in deeply using the standard method. If done correctly, the chest expands and shoulders stay raised while inhaling through the nose. During exhalation, relax to let your chest and shoulders to rest.

PRINCIPALS OF POWER

Scientists state the formula for delivering a powerful punch is an  important formula: F= MxA.

That’s, in fact, Isaac Newton’s second law of motion, and it means that Force equals Mass multiplied by Acceleration. What does that mean? Well, basically it means that the heavier and the faster you are, the harder you’ll hit.

MASS

Before you begin to improve your speed or acceleration. You will want to improve your mass. Is essence the more mass you have than more punching power. But what does it mean to improve mass? It doesn’t mean that you’ll have to turn yourself into a body builder.

In order to do this, you need to execute every technique with the proper biomechanics or proper use of your body during a strike. That way, you’ll put much more body weight into your punch, and you’ll be able to generate a large amount of power into your attack.

Being able to use your entire body weight into your punch, or any other strike for that matter will require a lot to time, training and dedication. I often get told my guys in my karate class that I hit really hard for a women. But I guess because I know a bit about boxing it has taught me how to put all your weight behind a punch and not just using your shoulder or hips.

ACCELERATION

By understanding the true reason of why putting body mass into your Karate punch is important. We need to examine acceleration.

Speed is the distance covered by a moving object per unit of time, it’s simply how fast an object is moving. Whereas, acceleration is the rate in change of speed, specifically its velocity. Meaning it not about how fast you hit, it’s about how quickly you increase the speed of your mass, in the shortest time possible. In order to achieve tremendous speed in your punch, your body needs to be relaxed as I mentioned above.

PROGRESSION

Your goal here is to increase the power of your Karate punch, you should first start by developing the proper biomechanics in order to improve your mass. Making sure you are using the proper form or execution of a technique. As this is the base of generating your power. Only when this achieved, would you need to look at improving your acceleration.

EXECUTE THE POWER KARATE PUNCH

One of the important thing that you need to remember, it’s all about transferring the energy through your fist with your entire body.  Here are the essential points to assimilate and techniques to work on in order to increase your punching power.

BIOMECHANICS

As I have stated before, it is vital to understand the biomechanics in order to deliver a Karate punch full of power and speed. It allows the technique to flow perfectly through the body, with minimum friction. Punching power is generated from the bottom of your feet through the hips and into the upper body and finally into the punch. Like a crack of whip.

KEEPING YOUR BODY STRAIGHT 

Whenever you punch stand tall with your back straight, keep your spine and neck fully in line. Avoid leaning forward, as you will lose your balance and effects the strength of your punch. Keep your hips or center of gravity a little bit forward. By keeping your back straight, you allow you movement to pivot along the vertical axis of the spine.

SHOULDERS

When delivering a punch, your shoulders need to be loose and move naturally according to the distance where you give the punch. As you extend the punch, let the shoulder on the same side move forward, and the opposite shoulder moves backward. By having any tension in your shoulders, you lose the punching powers momentum.

It is important to control your punches by avoiding overextending or bringing your shoulder too much in front.  Try to let your shoulders move whenever you punch, whether it is during horse stance punch practice, kihon, kata or kumite.

HIPS

In order to achieve massive power, every element of the punching process is essential. It has been drummed into me, while training in karate. That your hips is probably the most important one in terms of generating power.  It’s basically where all punching power comes from.

When throwing a punch, your hips should engage and rotate along the vertical axis of your spine and toward your intended target. By doing this the twisting action of the hips will give torque and power to your punch.

LEGS

In order to improve the power of your punch, every part of your body must work together, not separately! Your whole body must work as a single unit.

Learn how to use the power of your legs correctly during a punch will create a line of force straight from the ground, through your foot, leg, and hips, upper body and finally into your punch.

The principle behind the use of the legs while punching is that, no matter what position you are in, one leg will pull and the other will push. For example, let’s pretend that you are punching with your right hand: your left leg should pull and your right leg should push. Your feet need to be firmly rooted into the ground, except at the moment of the punch. You should be reasonably light on your feet. Except when you are striking or blocking.

The traction that your legs will generate, combined with the power and momentum created by your hips will result in massive force in your punch. The principle can be applied independently of your posture, it works perfectly well in kiba-dachi but also in zenkutsu-dachi, han-zenkutsu-dachi, sanchin-dachi and kokutsu-dachi.

FINAL THOUGHTS 

Executing the power karate punch is not an easy task and takes a lot of dedication and training in order to get it right. But I truly believe this is something that every true Karate practitioners ought to do. I have noticed that we chamber our hands (hand in below picture closest to body). Karate students tend to have a greater power, but as soon as they are in their guard position. They lose that power.

Go slowly, take your time and make sure to understand and execute every component of the punch the right way. Every piece of your punch must work together efficiently and in harmoniously. This is when Karate truly becomes an art. I have stated in most of my posts that the mind and body needs to works together. But also the importance of been a well rounded martial artist in order to give yourself the best chance of survival.

Power of Sparring