practice. seriously, that's about all there is to it. practice good form regularly intermingling makiwara and punching bad training.
Power requires speed. Two things will enable a fast punch. 1. Clean trajectory ie. no excess or incorrect movement of arm, head, body etc. 2. Correct tension - be relaxed through the technique and tense at the end of the technique. Excess tension at the beginning or through the journey of the punch will slow you down. All the tension and focus should be at the last split second of the punch - this includes entire body. This is also the moment when you exhale and kiai - using your abdominal tension to connect your whole body to the punch. So, practice your punch for both technical correctness and correct tension. Hope this helps (and makes sense). Barba
i would just say make sure ur punching with your hips, use ur hips to turn ur body and make ur whole body add the power, its kinda hard to explain hopefully someone will know what im talking about and explain it better, of course i dont study karate so im not sure how u learned to punch but i would think punching is punching for the most part
Lift weights. Big heavy weights. EDIT: lol, that sounded kinda meat-headed-ish Increasing neuro-muscular coordination via progressive overloading is one of the fastest ways to increase your punch power. If you dont want to gain much size, watch your calorie intake. You should still be able to vastly increase your strength whilest gaining minimal weight. A great strength to weight ratio will increase your potential speed like nothing else.
There's quite alot you can do without touching weights (although if you get a chance it wouldn't hurt if you train them properly). Your power isn't generated by your arms. In a punch the upper body stabilises more than anything. The key is using your body effectively. I'll go from a kihon perspective: First off, check your stance. Do you have a solid base? You need to make sure your knees aren't wobbling when you execute a technique. You need to be solid. Make sure your stance is wide enough so you're not wavering from side to side. If your base isn't solid it doesn't matter what you do to improve your punches; they will always suffer. Secondly remember hip rotation! Most of the power in a punch is generated from the base and from the rotation in the hips. And the only way you can rotate effectively is to have a solid base to start from. Do a punch at half speed and power and feel what your hips do. when you finish a punch, the knot in your belt should have moved from facing the middle to a diagonal position. Eg, a left hand punch will result in your belt knot facing the right diagonal. Don't over extend your arm. Your shoulders should always be in line. If you over-rotate or over extend your centre of gravity changes and you'll find that you can be pulled off balance easily. Try a punch where you over rotate, and just get someone to pull on your fist. You'll have to work to maintain your position. Remember your spare arm does a lot of work too. That fist should be coming back at the same speed that your punching arm is extending. Doing that will help you rotate your hips for maximum power. Your arm should be tight in to your body. Your elbow should be facing directly behind you, not sticking out to the side somewhere. Basically practise punches but make sure you can check off all these things on a list. When you ensure all this is going on in the execution of one punch, you'll find you have a solid punch with much more power behind it, and that's even before you hit the weights. A strong arm is nothing without good technique. You can tell I'm Shotokan, can't you?!
Got a dog? Watch a dog using its whole body in a tug of war, or when shaking a ball or water off its fur. Apply the same principles to your punches. If you really want to punch hard concentrate on twisting diagonal movements.
Punching power in pretty much comes from the hips and shoulders and triceps. More strength gives you the potential to punch harder (you can exert more force) so pressups is a good start. You want to do situps/russian swings for the lower body side of the punch too and for the core conditioning. As for biomechics and aim: Aim to strike through the target rather than hit the target. This actually makes quite a difference. Practice putting your weight behind the punch rather than just using your muscles. You need to make sure you have a stable base from which to throw the punch and a decent line of motion that the punch should Ideally follow to get the most power. THe other thing is the make sure it is a swift and explosive motion, not a simple motion. There was a karate video about this somewhere but I dunno where.
Don't waste your time punching the air, which is only useful for kata. It teaches more bad habits than it cures. Use a balance of two kinds of practice: 1) heavy bag, preferrably with just wraps or glove liners. 2) sparring and drills vs. live, resisting opponents. Either wear bogu and go full force to the body (my preference) or 1/2 force with no bogu. Read that article about boxing and brain damage before you decide how hard to hit to the head!
practice on putting everything into your punches as it has already been said and focus on a point 2-3 inches past your target. also, at the end of your punch there should be a whip/snap.
I did TKD for 6 years and Western Boxing for 6 months. I learned more about punching (and became better at it) with the 6 months of boxing than all the years in TKD.
TKD punches and drills: Reverse punch (high, middle, low) Verticle punch Clockwork punching drill Jab, R cross combo (sparring)
