There are three main things you need to focus on when you train your punches. These are form, speed and power. Each plays an important role in your punching and all three work together to ensure you won’t get injured, that your punches are powerful and that they are effective. If you lack in any of these three areas your punching will suffer. Form Form or technique is all about body position and what happens with your body during a punch. Each punch requires you to use your body in a different way. It is essential that you work with a trainer to learn the proper techniques for throwing punches. In all punches your hand, wrist and arm should be kept aligned and straight to avoid injury. A jab is a punch that is usually followed quickly by another punch. Since it rarely stands on its own it is not a very powerful punch, but it does need to be fast. When throwing a jab you are twisting at the waist. A cross requires a lot of strength coming from the hips. Your hips start the move and help put the power behind the punch. A hook also draws strength from the hips, but the body moves all at once, so being able to move your arm and hips in sync is essential. For the uppercut you are driving up power from your legs to connect powerfully with your opponent’s body. Speed Speed is something you will work up to. When you start out you will simply be working on form since you do not want to throw a fast, hard punch with the wrong form and injure yourself. Once you get the proper form down you can begin to try to speed up your punches. A perfect way to help train your punches for speed is to make use of resistance bands. These bands work against your body, making it have to work harder to throw a punch. Once you remove the bands you will notice a difference in just how fast you are able to throw a punch. Using a band or even just hand weight while practicing your punches will really help you speed them up. You also will want to work on your foot work to help with speed. You should practice exercises that will help you learn to be lighter on your feet. Plyometrics are great for this and as a bonus these types of exercises will also give you a great cardiovascular workout which will give you more stamina when fighting. Power Everyone wants to throw a hard punch that will knock an opponent out. Power requires work and determination. You not only have to work on putting more power into your punches, but you have to build your muscles up so you have something to draw that power from. You need to lift weights, along with doing leg exercises and exercises that build your core muscles. Remember power for your punches are coming from different parts of your body, not just your arms, so be sure your whole body is strong, so you can get the power behind your punches that you want. Learning how to train your punches is just a matter of some hard training. You have to work on all the aspects of throwing a punch so you not only have fast and hard punches, but good all around punches. Your goal should be to have perfect form in every punch and to constantly be working to improve your speed and power.
