Guest Writer: Punching Tips

Date: Mon, 9 May 2005

I’m taking a short break this week, so my newsletter is being written by a guest writer. Enjoy.

In my April 20th issue I talked about opening up to outside sources. Well, I'll be good to my word. For this issue we're lucky to have Keith Pascal as a guest writer. Try his tips below and get an instant boost to your martial arts. We did the baseball bat drill in Kung Fu class the other night and it was hilarious - I mean highly instructive!

Now I'll turn it over to Keith.

Hi Rob,

Thanks for asking me to contribute to your KungFuFightingTips.com ezine.

I have enclosed two tips from my ebook, 'The Punch papers: How to Punch Harder, Faster, and More Efficiently.'

Both are what I consider survival tips -- the exercises won't help you to develop killer punches -- you need to read the entire collection of articles in The Punch Papers for that. But the drills definitely help someone learn to important components of mastering punching in the martial arts.

The first exercise helps the martial artist to recover quickly and start punching accurately, after being dazed in a real martial encounter. The second drill helps eliminate a terrible habit that many amateur martial artists haven't overcome.

Let me know what you and your readers think...

Tip: Baseball Bats Aren’t Just for Swinging

by Keith Pascal (© Copyright, 2005)

In our feature article, we talked about some “what if’s.” Well, what if an attacker pops you in the head, and you feel addle-brained for a minute or two?

The chances are that your attacker won’t wait for you to “collect your thoughts.” The blows will just keep coming.

How do you practice for this?

Well, let’s borrow a pep-assembly activity and what is also an exercise from a local Thai-boxing teacher. You’ll need a baseball bat.

Hold the bat vertically, with one end on the ground. Now, touch your forehead to the top of the bat. Hold it there.

Got it? One end of the bat is on the ground, and your forehead is touching the other end. The next step is to run circles around the bat. While the bat is in the same spot, you quickly run around and around — about 10 to 15 times.

As soon as you are done running, you drop the bat and immediately start either punching or kicking at a pre-arranged target. You could punch at a focus glove, a heavy bag — anything that can “safely” serve as a target.

In high school pep assemblies, the students run around the bat, and then have to continue in the relay race. It’s fun to watch them swerve all over the place.

We are using the activity to simulate getting your brains rattled by a strong punch or kick to your head.

Spin around the bat for awhile, then see if you can punch or kick with any accuracy.

End note: Can you see how beneficial it is to be able to punch accurately while you are dazed and unbalanced? Most practitioners who read this tip won't bother actually spinning and punching. Don't just read -- practice!

Tip:

Never flinch at a punch again

by Keith Pascal, © Copyright, 2005

When I started classes with Steve Golden, (original Bruce Lee student mentioned in the chapter earlier in the ebook), I had this terrible habit of flinching.

Every time someone threw a punch at me, I blinked my eyes. I don’t know if I unconsciously thought that what I couldn’t see couldn’t hurt me, or if it was an autonomic response, like when I flinch when a hammer makes a very loud striking sound. Either way, I flinched.

So, Steve put one of his instructors in front of me. And had him punch at my face. He never actually hit me; he’d always stop just a fraction of an inch in front of my nose, eyes, or chin. He did rapid-fire punches, over and over and over again.

And when I came back to class the next week, he started up again. While he practiced his punches, I practiced not flinching. Eventually, it worked. My flinching stopped. Yet again, I found that repetition has a lot of benefits.

Of course, then Steve trained me to properly respond to a punch — it wouldn’t have been a good thing to have me just stay motionless, while my attacker pounded my face in (look Mom, I didn’t flinch).

So, if you ever need to stop flinching, just get someone to punch at you. A minor point: get someone who has some “punch control.” No bloody noses, please. Remember, I said that Steve had one of his “instructors” punch at me. Yes, definitely choose someone with a lot of control.

Good job, Keith!

Like I said, we tried the baseball bat drill in class and had a lot of fun with it. If you're interested in reading the complete Punch Papers, Keith has been good enough to offer the whole set at a discount to my subscribers. To get your copy and learn over 50 other ways to become a punching expert, click here.

Until next time, train like you mean it.

Rob LaPointe