2022-04-13

2022-04-13, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Four students showed up for the first class, and things went really well. We started with kihon, as always, and added a few thoughts about how punching works. Now that most folks have got the basic coordination of both hands, stopping at the same time, and in mostly the correct place, I asked them to think more about the path of the technique. It needs to go straight from the chambered position to the target, along a straight line.

I always describe the path of a straight punch the same way. From a proper chambered position, the forearm is like a rocket with the engine pointing out the back of your elbow. Point the forearm at the target and let it fly. Rockets don’t “wiggle around” on their way to the target. (We’re talking about “fire-and-forget” rockets here, not guided missiles.) They go straight from A to B.

The three most common errors I see here are 1) The fist comes around front, roughly to the belly button, before moving forward. 2) The fist rises up, almost to the armpit, flips over, and then moves forward. And 3) The fist “scoops” upward, like trying to punch someone in the groin, changing course at the last minute to reach the intended target. Tonight we worked on the last of those (“scooping”) because it’s usually the easiest to fix. First, I start with a positive message, saying “That’s a really good rising punch, and that’s a technique you’ll learn later, but it’s not the one I’m asking you to do right now.” Then I move to corrective action.

The easiest way to stop a “scooping” punch is to give it a target. Usually, I just hold out the palm of my hand and ask the student to punch straight at my hand, without touching it. Poof! The scoop is gone. If that doesn’t work, I get out a spare belt and hold one end at the “target” - right where I want the student’s punch to end. Then I have another student stand behind the “puncher” holding the other end of the belt so that the belt touches the elbow of the punching arm. Then, I tell the punching student to follow the belt to the target. If the punch “scoops”, it’ll graze the belt, and the student will have tactile feedback correcting the punch along the desired path. Have the student throw a few dozen punches like that and then remove the belt - problem solved!