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brians
brians's picture
Training to Hit Hard -- suggested Progression

Being able to hit hard in an essential practical karate skill. Good striking power is imperative for both (physical) self-defense and for combative sports.

Here is a suggested 4-step impact training program for learning to hit hard:

See this article for more detailed instruction on the 4-step impact training program for power generation / hard hitting.

I am happy to hear your comments!

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

Hitting still targets, moving targets, from restricted positions, and as part of live / unpredictable drills are all important. That makes for a good check list, but I’m not sure we can call what is shown a “progression”. Perhaps it would have been better to show a single technique (i.e. a cross) taken through the process?

One key observation I would share is that the targets are not moving when hit. The holder moves, and then is generally still while the striker hits. A true moving target will be just that i.e. moving forward, backward, to the side, rotating, etc. while it is being hit. I see this quite a lot when people do pad drills. They will move around, but then be fixed while the impact takes place, before moving again. The holder and target should be moving while the impact takes place.

The restricted positions one is often missed out and your list of suggested postions is good. A couple of videos on that topic:

 

All the best,

Iain

brians
brians's picture

Hi Iain! Thanks of the suggestions!

I agree -- it is important to hit truly moving targets, rather than "move, pause, hit"!!!

BTW, a really fun set of impact drills to to do is in and around the car. Have someone holding a pad sit next to you, and hit. Now try it with you in the front seat and the holder in the back seat, and vise-versa. Now add grips so you can control the attacker while hitting them. Practicing hitting someone standing outside the car when you are seated inside the car is also fun.

A progression of the car drills is to have the "assailant" hold a weapon such as a practice knife or gun, and a pad.

Another position that is often overlooked and, in my opinion, very important from a self-defense perspective is being to hit hard from the starting position of being bent over, e.g., after you have been hit, pushed, or shoved.

Cheers,

Brian

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

brians wrote:
a really fun set of impact drills to to do is in and around the car. Have someone holding a pad sit next to you, and hit. Now try it with you in the front seat and the holder in the back seat, and vise-versa. Now add grips so you can control the attacker while hitting them. Practicing hitting someone standing outside the car when you are seated inside the car is also fun.

Sounds fun! I’ve never got my students to go into the car park, get in their cars and do this (although that may be an idea when the dark nights receded), but we do replicate it with the chairs as shown in the above video. The car itself is more realistic of course, not to mention all the improvised weapons to hand that could be used in slow sparring drills.

brians wrote:
Another position that is often overlooked and, in my opinion, very important from a self-defense perspective is being to hit hard from the starting position of being bent over, e.g., after you have been hit, pushed, or shoved

I agree. Off balance and dizzy are good to so long as they are done safely.

All the best,

Iain

karate10
karate10's picture

 Key component is the hips. With the strikes, be mindful of your target and also be aware of your movements, balance and hip turn.

BTW, to Iain, excellent videos and I'll keep that in mind, especially If I end up going for a plane.

brians
brians's picture

Iain Abernethy wrote:

Sounds fun! I’ve never got my students to go into the car park, get in their cars and do this (although that may be an idea when the dark nights receded), but we do replicate it with the chairs as shown in the above video. The car itself is more realistic of course, not to mention all the improvised weapons to hand that could be used in slow sparring drills.

The "seated in a car" position is a bit differnet from sitting on a chair, becuase (especially for the driver's seat), your mobility is highly restricted. It is very hard to bring the power of the legs to bear in generating uppower body strike power, as you would when standing up, or when rising from a chair. Rotation torque and/or "spinal wave" are two ways to generate high level of power in such highly restricted positions.

Kind regards,

Brian

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

brians wrote:
The "seated in a car" position is a bit differnet from sitting on a chair, becuase (especially for the driver's seat), your mobility is highly restricted. It is very hard to bring the power of the legs to bear in generating uppower body strike power, as you would when standing up, or when rising from a chair.

I think you’ve misunderstood what I’ve said and shown in the video. When using the chair to replicate cars / public transport, we don’t permit the person to stand or rotate fully to one side – as per the video – because that would defeat the purpose of the exercise / drill. Sometimes a chair is not just a “chair” :-)

The chair can be used to replicate park benches, cinema seats, bus seats, being in a car, being behind a desk, and so on. You just need to impose additional restrictions.

All the best,

Iain

sarflondonboydo...
sarflondonboydonewell's picture

 I concur with the thrust of the thread; hitting hard from different positions, the drills illustrated are food for thought. Picking up on the striking from sitting etc I remember buying a book years ago  Practical Karate book 6: Self-Defence in Special Situations: by Nakayama and Don Draeger, which looked at a sitting in a car etc. Living in central London I don’t have a car; my transport is  tube; train and bus but not the Boris bike! So I totally agree with Iain imposing restrictions is imperative. I was very fortunate in the past to have been able to train on the modes of transport and develop techniques and thinking around the restrictions; it does focus the mind when you realise what you can and cant do!!  Seats/rows of seats don’t move, are very restrictive and one can be pushed over them as on the whole the assault is in a very confined space or narrow restricted isle, so very close range striking and grappling skills are imperative; there are also other people around( bystanders who will do nothing; might come to ones assistances or join in depending on what they have heard or what their perception of the assault is about. One has to combine that with depending what station your at and at what time;  were to sit and maybe what carriage to get in and how to scan the train /tube as it comes in ; Stand on the platform without allowing an attacker or attackers to block ones exit or being punched or pushed onto the track( no stepping back!). Positioning is everything! I have some very interesting youtube clips which I use for the odd seminar on self defence on public transport, which illustrates the above points much better than the spoken word.