Bruce Lee's One Inch Punch Link removed - Moderator Bruce Lee is legendary, as is his One Inch Punch. From only an inch away, Lee could project a man from standing still to flying across the room in a fraction of a second. The One Inch Punch is not meant to be used in a fight, and Bruce Lee never claimed it was. But the techniques and principles behind it can be used to add massive amounts of power to almost any strike in any style. Without further ado, here is the technique break down of Bruce Lee’s One Inch Punch. Principle One - Rotational Power Behind A Linear Strike Take a very close look at Bruce Lees back leg. (Check out the video above for a much better look!) Before he begins the punch, he turns his knee inward, while his foot still faces sideways. This may be the most important part of his technique. Throughout the duration of the punch, Lees back leg straightens. Because his foot is facing mostly outward while his knee faces inward, straightening his leg rotates his hips towards the direction of his foot. Even though the power is rotational, it transfers into a linear motion by feeding into Lee's front leg, which does not rotate. Most importantly, his fist stays in a straight line throughout the duration of the punch, feeding off of the speed and power of rotational forces. Principle Two - Exponential Kinetic Energy Imagine a fireman's hose being turned on full force. The same way the water flows through the hose, the power of the One Inch Punch flows through Bruce's back foot, into his hips and shoulders, and finally into his hand. Lee begins by taking his power from the ground, just like Link removed - ModeratorBas Rutten's Roundhouse Kick. But instead of rooting himself to the ground on one foot for rotational power, Lee uses his back leg to push off and his front leg to root himself to the ground. Each movement builds on itself, accelerating the weapon. The entire body is involved. Principle Three - Body alignment Novices attempting the one inch punch will often turn their bodies sideways, over rotating and losing most of their power in the process. Do not turn your front foot inward as you punch. Your shoulder should never move near your center line. Simplicity is the key here. No gross, overly drastic movements. Let the principles that are meant to generate power do their work, and keep the rest of your body out of their way. Daily Decrease In his demonstration of power, Bruce Lee once again teaches us his maxim of daily decrease vs daily increase. The punch itself it simple, but its power building principles are ingeniously executed. Until next time!Link removed - Moderator
Hi there. We dont allow personal links to blogs etc, especially not on first posts like yours. Hence the removal. Please view the Terms of Service again on your top right of the page. Also feel free to introduce yourself in the Introductions part of the forum Thanks!!
ModernMArtist, you do realize that that particular type of 1 inch "punch" is actually just a push? And not an especially impressive type of push,either.
oh snap! let's do some ki striking baby! [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPVHax-20Yk"]Hapkido Grandmaster Preforms Ki Strike - YouTube[/ame]
Can I disagree? I would say the technique accelerates over a short distance so it is a strike. Admittedly I believe it to be not a great strike but does demonstrate some useful principles. If it were me, I would less external rotation and add in stepping power with the lead foot to get a more effective strike. I think Bruce Lee was playing around with fencing footwork, rather than boxing.
Okay a few things... The short power can be used for striking or pushing. It's a method of creating torque without loading up. The difference is really how far away you start from the target. At or very near contact will always end up being a push because you don't have the same distance to accelerate. Bruce is standing side on because it makes it easier to add hip torque without shifting the stance and because he needs to absorb the excess momentum from the strike by using the front leg as a brake. It's excess because he is neither shifting his stance nor stepping forward. The short power is driven by either: The drive of the quadriceps translating the mass of the torso forward Hip rotation from leg drive or shifting the stance Or both of the above together Also Bruce is cheating a bit here. If you watch closely he retracts the hand just a bit before driving forward. It makes it easier because you get more distance to drive and isn't so noticeable to most people.
He's certainly not resisting but that's not the point of the demo. The other person is simply a mass whose inertia you are overcoming and driving through.
It's very carefully staged, with the stance of the "victim" and the placement of the chair. It's designed to make it more impressive, there's a showmanship at work that one cannot deny Bruce was a master of. But it also shows an understanding of body mechanics. A different one from the paradigm I'm used to and personally work with, and one that has me still watching the clip to follow the chain. I wish it was a little clearer as I want to see his back heel better. But there is undeniably a good understanding of the development of power and transmitting force there. Mitch
Well I was supposedly taught the punch from a student of one of Bruce Lee's original students. I don't remember his name, but he advertised it as JDK and I took the class during a summer at a YMCA. This was probably around 1985. Anyway, I heard from someone else that they started calling it non-classical Wing Chun rather than JKD, so either it was advertised as JKD just for the class or they changed the name later. Anyway Mitch, I gave the background just so you know I might not remember it right or may have been not been taught everything about the strike. Here goes though: 1) You see the video so you know basically how to start. You want to form a more sharp triangle formed by your fist and two shoulders (e.g., more sideways, but not too sideways). 2) Use your strong side lead and extend your fingers to about where you can touch the target. Better target is chest level, say the solar plexus. 3) You want your arm extended so that the bend at the elbow is at least 120 degrees, I think I was taught about 150 degrees. I won't get into all the components of the strike with the fist. Obviously there is some technique here to roll the fist, but some of this is personal preference depending on if you want to end up penetrating with the bottom three knuckles or the top two. 4) Instead let's focus on the footwork. Let's say right side lead is your strong side forward. So take your right foot and point it at the target while coming up slightly on the ball of your foot. 5) Take your left foot (rear foot) and slightly come up on the ball of your foot. 6) Now this is the tricky part, you are going to bring both heels to the ground as you strike. It is tricky for a number of reasons. 6A) One reason is that you are also pivoting slightly and this causes both heels to flare out to your right slightly. 6B) The second reason is that you want to time it so that you hit the target just microseconds before the heels touch the ground. (In fact the heels may never touch the ground due to you hitting the target.) 6C) And the last reason is that you are straightening the rear leg while allow the front leg to bend more (if you are a fencer, this footwork should be easy since it is the first part of a lunge, but unlike the lunge, the entire movement is over less than 3 inches or so). It should feel like you are dropping your weight down as you strike, and also that your hips are moving forward towards the target. 7) Then recover back so that you can strike again... That's it. The hip component is really important but really, I can't describe it except to say, the less you rotate, the more power you get from the hips, so don't over rotate. Don't know if any of this is really how Bruce did it. :cry:
You can disagree if you want,but that particular "driving the person back" type of 1 inch is generally performed by 1)making contact,followed by 2)issuing. When one issues without 1st making contact there is a different effect,the most visible being that the target really isn't driven significantly backwards.A hit rather than a push. Of course results are also somewhat configured by whether you are issuing through or into the target.Nevertheless I hold to my original statement. I also hold that that's not an especially impressive demo. runcai-you're wrong.Period.It's a very simple thing to learn and do,the only "collaboration" required in a scenario such as this is ,well,just let the guy do it to you.You'll move. @Iron Fist--That's just a regular standing punch-coming from a ways out in left field. @ Ben- No, it won't "always". It can be a strike w/no "pushy" about it,even from an infinitesimal distance. Also, for the way Bruce is doing it here,there's minimal hip torque involved. (Ben) Yeah, that's why I said "generally performed" above.
If you pull the strike and don't hit through the target but that's just poor mechanics. The mechanics are the same for striking and pushing using the short power generation. The difference is distance. That depends on your frame of reference. There is less than if he made some big grandiose motion of twisting himself but that's not what happens in wing chun which is where this type of power generation originates. The frame of reference is tsui ma and there is significantly more hip hip involvement here than one would find if using tsui ma.
Good points. I think it is the rotation of the hip that makes the strike turn into what people are calling a push. I stand that this is more from fencing footwork. What people are calling a push is actually a rapier thrusting deeper to the heart. And while on the subject. Pushing works on the face/head pretty good. If the angles were adjusted, the 1-inch punch would work well on the chin. Big problem is that most are not going to stand there an let you hit them square in the face. They tend to move some.
It doesn't make it into a push. It's just another piece in the power generation. Could be. I don't think Bruce ever learned the luk dim boon gwan but having a brother who fences I can tell you the sport fencing footwork and gwan footwork are ridiculously close.
It is part of power generation but not really a main contributor for power because such a sharp triangle formed (by the shoulders and fist). With a sharp triangle, you don't need rotation for power, you primarily get the power from alignment of the body behind the strike, then from dropping your weight and stepping. The rotation piece is only necessary for alignment of the body properly while dropping weight. Any additional hip rotation doesn't really increase power but does increase range. So I would say that the range of the strike is increased 3-5 inches from the hip rotation. This is the 3-5 inches of extra follow through creates the push with your whole body behind it. Rather than rotation, I prefer actually stepping to add the range and power. I have a friend who prefers the rotation in addition to the stepping, I don't like the technique that much but I've been on the receiving end a few times and the first time it really tricked me and several close calls since then since it hits further than expected. I believe in real fights he has knocked out at least two people with this strike. It is not a 1-inch strike but would be close to it with added step and more hip rotation, and striking to the head. I still stick with my preferences, but can't deny his technique actually works in real situations.
It never is the main contributor but it's second after the first. The main source of short power for power generation is contraction of the quadriceps driving the mass of the torso forward. It's not a drop shot like a lead jolt. The second source of power which is optional is torque generated by the turning of the torso. Extension doesn't make something a push. The ability to drive your fist farther doesn't make it a push. For example I can jab with less extension or more extension but it doesn't change it from being a strike into being a push. Likewise I can give a short push or a push with a lot of follow through but that doesn't change it into a strike. Yes you can. Don't make me get pedantic on you
