Maybe you’re thinking of starting boxing, or perhaps you’re trying to master self-defense, but whatever your reason you’ve decided to try and master your punching techniques.
There’s a lot to think about when it comes to improving your punch so it has a bit of power behind it.
There are many factors that will influence the blows that you give, for example, your balance, and your coordination. Underestimating or overestimating the skills of your opponent may also influence the power behind your punch.
Of course, you’re also going to need to build up your strength if you want to punch harder.
The majority of the power of your punch will come from your back and shoulders, so this is going to be the area of focus for your workout sessions.
Throughout this article, we will go through many of the best tips to help you land a hard punch, but just before we jump straight into this, let’s go over some of the biggest pitfalls and mistakes made when punching.
Mistakes To Avoid
These are all rookie mistakes that will negatively affect your punch. If you’re hoping to get some wins and make it professionally, then you’ll need to ensure you do not make any of these silly mistakes.
Leave Your Feet
This is a big no-no. You shouldn’t leave your feet as you throw your punch as you won’t be able to balance yourself correctly.
While leaping off your feet to punch someone might look really cool on tv and in movies, rarely does it go so well in real life. If your feet leave the floor during a traditional boxing match, it’s highly likely you’ll lose.
Wildly Throwing Punches
Wildly throwing punches is helpful to no one except your opponent. They’re easily blocked and it’s likely that they will just move out of the way.
You need to plan and calculate every punch. It should be thought out each time, timed, and placed to perfection.
Telegraphing
You don’t really want to be telegraphing, or cocking your punch. In the time that you have pulled your arm back before throwing the punch, your opponent has had time to anticipate and defend the incoming punch.
The Basics Behind A Powerful Punch
If you want a powerful punch before you do anything else you need to ensure you’ve got the basics down. Without mastering these skills you’ll have trouble landing a punch well at all, let alone one with a fair bit of force behind it.
Speed Doesn’t Equal Power
While speed is an important part of power, it is not equal to it. This means that throwing the fastest punch you can will not instantly knock out an opponent.
You need to ensure that behind that speed there is a decent weight or force behind it. So you really need to put your body weight into the punch.
Move Your Body
Moving your whole body as opposed to just one arm will give you a much harder impact when it comes to your punch.
In fact, if you can move your whole body at the same time (small distances are fine) you can obtain the maximum weight or force to land that knockout punch.
Use Your Legs
To generate the maximum potential of your power, you need to use the biggest and strongest muscles at your disposal. This is why you should always use more than just your arm muscles. Use your legs too.
Stay In Your Range
If you’re having to overstretch your arms to land a punch, you won’t be using your maximum power and so your hits won’t be the strongest.
You’ll find that your punch hits the hardest when it lands just before the end of your range of motion in your arm. So edge a little closer and stay within your range.
Use Different Angles
To give yourself more opportunities and to avoid staying predictable, try to punch your opponent from many different angles. You’ll find you open up space for more powerful punches and thus more potential damage.
How To Improve Boxing Punching Power
Now that you’ve got the basics down you can move on to the next steps to add even more power to your punch.
Plyometric Push-Ups
Plyometric training is a type of training that focus’ on certain exercises train your muscles to exert the highest force possible in small short bursts. This technique increases not only the power of your punch but the speed of it too.
Plyometric push-ups are often overlooked and underestimated as a training technique for power but they serve the purpose well.
The main thing to remember is that you need to keep your core and your glutes tight consistently throughout the exercise.
Work On Your Form
Once you’ve learned the basic principles of how to keep your form you can start to become more adventurous.
Learn your own style of boxing, ensure that you know your reach, and then keep all your punches within this range to ensure a strong and powerful punch.
Train, train, train. And when you think you’ve done all the training you can, train some more. Practice makes perfect and training is where you will create all of your power.
Focus on doing energetic sessions with a personal trainer if you can. You should always focus on making sure your back is straight and your hands are up.
As form improves so will your coordination and therefore your punches will have more weight behind them.
Final Thoughts
To really master a harder punch, you’ll need to be patient and have determination. You need to be willing to try new things and know that there is always room to improve.
It’s important to remember that the most power will come from the correct form and strong muscles. Training is essential to really improve to gain the ultimate power punch.
Comments