How to strike with power!

How hard can you hit? good question, but how do you hit hard while moving back or sideways or even when your being attacked, power can come in many forms, poison comes in little bottles as I was once told.

One of things we will look at is the Force = Mass x Acceleration example which is one of the most over-used terms by martial arts instructors and one of the most understood, unless you know about general physics you might believe this to be right but in fact the main ingredient is timing with out that it doesn’t matter how fast or heavy you are if you don’t hit the target its useless, the other is accuracy depending on your discipline, for this blog we are going to talk about kick boxing and mma.

When a Kick boxer hits an opponent the aim is to knock them out, by making their opponent’s head accelerate rapidly, the opponent’s head decelerates rapidly because it is attached via muscles to the neck. The brain has inertia (it keeps moving), and collides with the inside of the skull causing trauma, dysfunction, and perhaps permanent damage.

This could be achieved by a punch or a kick, the knockout is not caused by the acceleration of the brain, It is caused by the collision of the brain with the inside of the skull, the thing to remember is that this is one way to achieve the knockout, another would be to not move the head as much but to create a shock wave effect into the centre of the brain with a technique such as a kick or elbow.

A really good subject to research would be momentum and impulse.

This seminar will also cover how to wind your opponent and weaken them before you try to knock them out, most people try to hit the head first and go for the win straight away, sports fighting is a purley tactical affair with two opponents like a chess game, fitness and stamina will play a part but if you know how to slow them down and weaken the arms so they drop things can become a lot safer and easier in the fight.

MSD will be holding a how to strike with power seminar at the full time academy in Bishops Cleeve, not only will this be a striking session to improve your striking capability it will cover many other techniques on how to stop your opponent.

Punching vs Kicking

Have you ever wondered about this, boxing against taekwondo? Well don’t, all you need to think about is what you need to do to improve on, don’t get caught up in thinking that one style is better than the other and start to practice that style, stick to what you do, that’s called DICIPLINE.

Just sit down with a cup of tea and think about what you are most natural at punching or kicking, and then from there you can start to plan the next part of your journey into the depths of martial arts.

So if you’re a natural kicker then the thing to work on is punching and if you a natural puncher work on your kicking try and get your technique and movement to feel that they are on par with each other, or ask your coach to watch and get some solid advice on what to do next to move forward to reach that equal level with hands and feet.

Now the beauty of having hands and feet as goods as each other is when it comes to sparring you can use whichever you like to suit your opponent if they opponent is shorter you can work the kicks and if the opponent is taller try and get inside with your punching.

If one or the other is a weak area then your whole sparring/fighting will be limited, punching and kicking go together in kickboxing as elbows and knees should go together in mma and Thai boxing.

To truly get the most out of any art you have to work all areas, the hard bit is when it comes to sparring and actually practicing your weak areas and not relying on your strong ones, you don’t grow new leafs by cutting down the trees so why would you restrict your growth by sticking to one skill.

I hope this helps with your training and to round of your skills, I think the title should read punching + kicking.

Next weeks blog will be on neutralizing your opponent, should be interesting.

See you on the mat.

Team MSD

100 Rounds of sparring

100 rounds of sparring………..

Congratulations to all the martial artist who took part.

On Sunday the 14th of September Kick boxers and Karate students all took part in a charity event in aid of Winstons Wish, everyone that entered completed 100 two minutes rounds back to back, over three and a half hours of sparring.

All sponsorship money will be in soon so will update you on how much was raised, this was the first charity event that we have held in the new academy and it was fantastic to have a padded floor to spar on, last time we did this gruelling event was on a hard floor, blister city.

Working through cramp and exhaustion students pushed them selves deeper into their darkest places to find the will power to keep going, not easy when you have someone throwing kicks and punches at you, only one bloody nose, some sore nipples from the t shirts and sweat.

If you are looking for a challenge and would love to raise money for a fantastic charity then please get in touch and ask about how you can join in and help to make some children’s lives a whole lot better.

Team MSD