I was wondering if theres any website or any stores that sells anything to measure the impact of a punch, like a less fancy version of what they use in those documentaries. thanks.
well if your doin it for fun, yea go to game arcades and have a go. If your doing it for some kind of martial arts or self defence, i suggest you develop your technique and speed, the power will follow on. Yes power is important, but if you can actually land your punches with generally fast speeds, power shouldnt be much of a problem. A way however to see improvements in the power of your punches, try punching a heavy bag and measure it by the movement of the bag.
Not to sound funny but, if I hit someone (which requires "land(ing) your punches with generally fast speeds" [T][K][D]) and they fall down, then I know much punch was powerful enough! Other then that, I have no idea how to measure the power and speed of your punches.
http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55088&highlight=slam+man Start at post 22 or so
i was looking for one of those things that tells you how many pounds of pressure oyu hit with like in the documentaries.
"punching a heavy bag and measure it by the movement of the bag" Sorry but I don't believe in this. With the hardest strikes the bag shouldn't actually swing much. If you really dig one in the bag should bend or dent and not really move. Some swinging will occur for sure but it's far easier to make it swing with a pushy slow technique that won't hurt anyone than a fast and penetrating shot. Aside from that I'd try some body boxing and see if you can put someone down with a body shot. They can also tell you if your shots have impact. It's one of the annoying things that you can't feel your own strikes or how you grapple so you can never truly know how you perform..especially compared to others.
Power I don't know of a cheap way to measure power. I believe they use a pressure calibrator for PSI and a radar gun. This helps them get the numbers needed to calculate a Pascal to measure Newton’s of force in a strike. The arcade thing really won’t be able to do anything close to a true measurement of power and it’s very true that hard hit will barley move the bag. It's because of the way the power was distributed to the bag. I hate to say the only cheap and effective way is practice and hit people in the stomach, avoid the liver and the sternum, when you hit them with a good shot they won't fly back. Their knees will buckle and then will go straight down.
I'd recomend for fun arcade or maybe get some hook and jab pads, get a friend to hold them while you punch, then your friend can tell you roughly how powerful your punch was.
Well aside from actually hitting someone you mean? Get someone to hold a pad or something similar against their midriff and then belt it. They should be able to give you an impression of the amount of power coming through. If you have brave(!) friends ask them to let you punch them hard once in the frontal stomach area while they are tensed and prepared. This will also allow you to feel what it's like to hit something solid other than a heavy bag. I was (very briefly) a member of a MA club where part of the practice was to punch each other as hard as possible in the solar plexus. I don't recommend doing this btw.
I don't know if this is what you are looking for: http://www.centuryfitness.com/webap...501&categoryId=13551&parent_category_rn=13518 I have never used it so I can't comment on how it works.
Board or Brick breaking. As you become able to break through more stacked directly on each other, your punches are getting stronger, faster, and more powerful. A second method, which takes a little more mathematical and physical understanding, and an assumption that you have a good punching technique (e.g. no pulling your punches at the last millisecond) is to tape a meter or yard stick to a wall at your average punching height (make sure it is level), then video record yourself throwing several punches in a row. Play back the video (preferably using a computer) in slow motion, and you can mark the time of the start of the punch, the time of the stop of the punch, and the distance that the fist travelled. Velocity = dx/dt (change in position divided by the time it took to move from point 1 to point 2) From velocity you can calculate force and pressure. I actually wrote a short paper for a graduate classical mechanics course. That's all I've got beyond buying the expensive stuff. Hope it helps, Brian
i agree it can be fun to figure out how hard you punch. But in terms of self defense i'd put the power of a punch behind accuracy and being nontelegraphic. Ideally in the form of a preemptive strike.
while your winding up for a power punch, a good MA ist will have hitten you 3 times. worry about accuracy,non-telegraphic, and speed in your punches.
Punching power is measured in KOPP. This stands for "knock outs per punch". For example, Chuck Norris has a KOPP relating of Squid 11. In real terms, this means with one punch he can knock out eleven giant squid. A shaolin monk has a KOPP of diamond 50, meaning he can smash 50 diamonds with a single punch. Get the idea? The way to test your punching power is to throw punches and see how many people you can knock out with a single strike. James
