Punches.

Description: Slow jabs, hooks and upper cuts.

Motions trained:Raising the arms, dropping the arms and dropping/raising the body.

Main muscles used:
Other muscles:

How to do it: For all of these Get into position by having your arms up, one foot ahead of the other and facing the front. Go for smoothness, not power.


Lead jab: Get into position.	Extend your lead arm, throwing out a slow jab. Return to starting position.


Rear upper cut: Drop your weight and drop the rear shoulder at the same time. Turn to the side slightly to accomodate this.	Come back to square as you throw the punch upwards. You can also practice this as a straight shot to the ribs.	Return to starting position.


Lead hook: Turn the lead side slightly away from the centerline, raise the elbow so it will be behind the punch.	Turn yourself back as you throw the punch.	Return to starting position

How to work up to it: Throw slow punches with no weight.

Ramping it up: Don't ramp it up with more weight, mix up and add more/various punches. This sequence was chosen since it has the way to throw these best. So try something like a jab + hook off the front (that's a standard boxer's combo and it works great).

Get a heavy bag and hit it. A couple of one minute rounds can be a great thing for endurance. Mix and match up the punches.

Do's and don'ts: Don't go for speed! Going fast will hurt your elbows and the idea here is to work you deltoids. Indeed, you can hurt your elbows by using 1 lbs gloves and going too fast. Aim for smooth. Really what you are practicing is not punching as such, but ways of moving so that if you get hold of an opponent's limb, you can move it. It so happens that these motions are also useful for punching. Another reason you don't want to do these as if they were punches (as Wim Demeere so well pointed out) is that the actual force vectors for throwing a punch with a weight in your hand screw up a real punch. So even if you have rugged enough joints to handle throwing weighted punches (do be sure to break that date with Lois Lane before trying this) you will find your punches all over the place afterwards. You have been warned.

Comments: Think of pushing the weights and always find the path to keep the weight supported at all times. This will get you solidly behind your blows and will ultimately lead to really solid punching.