Punching technique and skill is the most influential contributor to punching force.
That’s easy to say but how easy is it to improve?
Well, you’ve got to be careful. Depending on your experience, changing your technique could be detrimental to punching force.
So what’s going to give me the most bang for my buck? Improving punching technique or getting stronger?
We think that improving your ability to produce force using strength training is a more effective way to punch harder.
Training
From our own research, we think that a few things contribute to punching force. These include lower and upper body strength, acceleration and mass of the core muscles.
To develop these characteristics we use sprint, resistance and Olympic weightlifting training. These methods improve hip extension forces that are important contributors to punching, throwing and striking activities.
You can also punch harder by improving the way muscles, joints and limbs co-ordinate with each other (contraction sequencing). And by improving effective mass by developing core muscle strength and punch specific movements.
Bang for your Buck
There are many different ways to improve punching force, but this doesn’t mean train them all at once.
In order to improve, you must focus on 1-2 particular areas in order to improve punching force.
Massive improvements estimated punching force have proven that maximal strength training is effective in becoming faster, stronger and punching harder.
Systematic and Deliberate Practice
Everything we do at Boxing Science is aimed to follow systematic and deliberate practice… But why?
Systematic – done or acting according to a fixed plan or system; methodical.
Deliberate –done consciously and intentionally.
This means that there is always a reason behind all our training methods, and we always have a plan to what it will progress to.
We start our athletes on the road to developing maximal strength – but we don’t expect people to start squatting as much as possible straight away. We structure our training programs with progressive exercises that develop the movement and strength foundations so maximal strength training is performed safely and effectively.
See our example flow chart below:
Conclusion
- Your punch needs to be hard. A hard punch occurs when you’re able to generate a lot of force in a short space of time.
- At impact, a hard punch has a lot of ‘snap’. To get snap you’ll need to create something called ‘effective mass’.
- How hard you punch isn’t fixed. It can be trained by developing technique and physical training.
