Where’s Your Elbow?

I’m going to talk about punching.  I’ll go out on a limb and stipulate that everyone who trains wants to punch harder.

Most people focus on muscle.  Nothing wrong with muscle, especially when you want to look good at the beach.  But I argue that muscle shouldn’t be our #1 priority for better martial arts.

Of course, stronger muscles are always better.  Push-ups, bench presses, Kettlebell exercises – these are all good and will help you punch harder.  But keep in mind that strength and fitness training are a long-term project, and you need something you can use today, not six months from now after you’ve completed your own personal Rocky training montage.  Also, if you rely only on strength for a strong punch, as you grow older you will likely lose much of that strength.  Unlike a scheduled competition, we have no idea when it will be necessary to protect ourselves.  Who’s to say you won’t have a violent encounter on your way to work tomorrow, or at the Chuck E. Cheese for your grandkid’s birthday party 30 years from now?  It’s great to be strong and in shape, and you should work on that.  But better mechanics will make your punches harder, no matter how strong you are.

A lot of factors go into punching, but in my experience the one that gives the biggest bang for the buck is elbow awareness. Knowing where your elbow is (more accurately, your mind telling your elbow where it should be) is important for all our techniques, but I think punching is the most obvious.  And luckily it’s one of the easiest to correct.

One thing about Karate people is that they punch a lot.  You would think that means they punch harder than other martial artists, but that’s often not the case.  Why not?

Much of the problem stems from the fist rotation.  Let me be clear…I am NOT saying that rotating the fist is wrong.  I AM saying that many do it incorrectly.

The fist is in full rotation so it must be correct...right?

Much of the time we punch, we are punching air.  Most Karate people understand that the rotation isn’t supposed to happen until the punch is in the last few inches of travel, and in my experience most people do that…when punching the air.  The problem with the full rotation punch is that we get the idea that our fist should be completely rotated at the point of impact.   Because we want to have that fist rotated at the time it strikes, many of us unconsciously rotate it too soon, and that causes our punch to be misaligned and lose power.

Wrong - the fist is perpendicular to the target, but the forearm and elbow are not behind the line of force and are not supporting the fist.

No matter what kind of punch we’re doing, the forearm and elbow need to be directly in line with the fist.  The elbow should be bent at the point of impact(how much depends on the distance from the target), but it must be directly behind the fist, supporting the structure of the punch.  Notice the picture above, which shows that the elbow & forearm are at a different angle of attack from the fist.  In this case, the full rotation disconnects both the elbow and the wrist, sapping power from the punch.  And yet this is how many Karateka punch!

The elbow and forearm are aligned on the angle of attack, giving the punch structural integrity. Also note that at this range, the fist isn't rotated at all. Hmm...that's exactly how we punch in kata, isn't it??

Another way of thinking about it: imagine that your wrist is solid bone – treat the wrist as if it’s not a joint at all.  Imagine that your fist, wrist, and forearm are a solid steel drill bit.  The punch should act like a drill – driving forward while drilling through – and you don’t want your drill bit flexing in the middle.

The weight of the drill is behind the bit...just like your elbow should be behind the punch

That all sounds a bit complicated.  Here are the Cliff’s Notes:  just keep the point of your elbow down.  Rotating the wrist is fine as long as you don’t rotate that elbow out too.  Let me restate that because it’s important – do not rotate the point of your elbow out.  Doing so destroys the integrity of the punch, and robs your power.  Don’t believe me?  Test it.

Get in your strongest stance.  Hold your arm about 75% of full extension with the point of your elbow flaring out (forearm and upper arm will be on the same plane, parallel to the ground).  Have a partner push against your fist, through the line of the forearm.  Your partner should push firmly and steadily (rather than jerking – we’re just testing integrity along the attack line of the punch).  See how well you can resist.

Take a strong stance and hold your elbow out to the side. Resist as your partner pushes firmly and steadily

Now, keep the same angle of bend in your elbow, and simply drop your arm so the point of your elbow is down.  Do the same test.  Which one works better?  And which one looks more like how a punch is taught in Karate?

Do the same test with your elbow down by your side. Isn’t that a lot easier?

Most Karateka already know this…it’s not like it’s anything new or groundbreaking.  It’s exactly how we’re trained to punch all the time.  The problem is that most people don’t do it when really hitting a target – they rotate the fist too soon, flaring out the elbow and allowing power to “leak” out of the unsupported joint.  So the simplest thing you can do to increase your punching power is to quit rotating that fist.  Punch with a vertical fist for awhile.

This isn’t anything radical.  Karate has always included a vertical fist punch (it’s called tate zuki in Japanese).  It’s just not as commonly practiced as the full rotation punch.

Vertical fist punch - notice how the elbow is down, putting the forearm and elbow in line with the fist.

The vertical fist style of punching naturally aligns your wrist, forearm, elbow, and upper arm behind your fist.  It connects your joints in a natural way (think about how you swing your arms when you walk…are your elbows in line with your fore- and upper arms?  Or are they flared out to the side?)  It also makes it easier to keep the punch perpendicular to the target.

Rotating that elbow out makes it much more difficult to connect your joints, it tends to make your wrist collapse, and can also make it more likely to produce a glancing blow – all things that rob power from your punch.

Another bad punch; another picture with state of the art graphics!!

Going back to the full rotation punch – if you do it correctly, your elbow will not flare out.  The punch actually is exactly the same…it’s just that the wrist (and ONLY the wrist) rotates a bit at the end.  It does take more practice though, in my opinion.  So, keep practicing the full rotation punch, but also practice that vertical fist punch – and work to make them the same.

There are a lot of other things you can do to effectively hit harder.  But start with knowing where your elbow is.

Fist/forearm/elbow all on a straight line to the target - regardless of the amount of rotation in the wrist.