2026-04-13

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

Over the weekend, I attended a small group training with Sensei Steve Ubl in Escondido, CA, so I brought back a few things that I intend to share. One of them was a drill to improve the transfer of hip power into a jab. Starting from a natural position, the drill involves a jab to the face while pivoting back with the opposite foot to end up 45° off the line of attack.

It turns out most people (myself included) tend to rotate the rear hip back as much or more than they rotate the front hip forward, which results in significantly less transfer of power to the arm. To fix that, I do two things:

1. When introducing the drill, I begin with jabbing in place while rotating the front hip forward and then stepping back with the opposite leg to pivot off the line of attack. I do this because, if you ask students to step back at the same time they tend to do so too early, resulting in allowing the rear hip to pivot back before the punch is complete.
2. After getting the basics of the movement down, I have students pair up, with one student stepping in with a lunge punch to the face while the other student intercepts with this “pivot jab” to the sternum (not the face). This allows the “jabbers” to make some contact to check whether their hips are rotating forward appropriately.