Mixed Martial Arts gladiators circling the octagon, searching for the chance, and, BAM, somebody is punched out. The roaring crowd, the price of the ticket, the cost of good brewski, it is all worth it if you can see a good knock out. What most people don't realize is that a good knock out, given a little thought and hard work, is actually easy.
Four decades ago, in Kang Duk Won Korean Karate my instructor told me that A tight fist is a heavy fist. Man, that was just what the doctor ordered! Just curl the fingers into iron bands, tie them together with a thick thumb, and, zingo bingo, you have yourself a board breaking fist.
The trick, of course, is to be totally relaxed before, and to be totally empty after. This is the idea of focus, and if you understand it you can knock an opponent all the way out. Hard to do it the way they put fists in gloves before a fight, but there it is.
Think about it like this, a radar station is searching for incoming targets, it is looking, and what would happen if the radar screen suddenly filled up with static? The radar operator wouldn't be able to see, he wouldn't be able to find the incoming targets for the static. So when you make yourself empty, and make your fist empty, you are trying to get rid of the static, make it so you can see what is going on around you.
Then, your perceptions picking up the path of an incoming fist, the emotion, the very intention of the attacker, your fist will move faster because it is empty, and it will hit harder when it becomes tight. Muscular tension will not bind your motion and slow down your fist, and it will fly fast, your radar will better help it find the target. The moment of truth and your fist gets tight, and that increases the weight and mass of the fist, making it hard enough to knock somebody unconscious.
So there are two things a fighter, whether in the UFC or on the street, must do if he is going to get knock out power. The first, of course, is to be empty, loosey goosey, not tied in place by his own muscular tension. This frees the inner radar to pick up the attack, and enables the MMA fighter to move faster because he is not thinking of his body as weighty and heavy.
The second thing is to tighten the fist upon impact, and loosen it immediately afterwards. This is real microsecond stuff here, but it is guaranteed to work. The energy focuses, the power comes to bear, and that which was empty and quick suddenly becomes full and heavy.
If you are an MMA fighter in the UFC or strikeforce, or even a spectator, think about the physics I have described here, and figure out how to use them in your strikes. Empty/full is actually a classical concept from traditional Karate, and it is used extensively in the ancient Shaolin types of kung fu like Hung Gar or Choy Lee Fut. Emptiness and focus, these are the keys that will lay anybody out for the ten count! - 30300
Four decades ago, in Kang Duk Won Korean Karate my instructor told me that A tight fist is a heavy fist. Man, that was just what the doctor ordered! Just curl the fingers into iron bands, tie them together with a thick thumb, and, zingo bingo, you have yourself a board breaking fist.
The trick, of course, is to be totally relaxed before, and to be totally empty after. This is the idea of focus, and if you understand it you can knock an opponent all the way out. Hard to do it the way they put fists in gloves before a fight, but there it is.
Think about it like this, a radar station is searching for incoming targets, it is looking, and what would happen if the radar screen suddenly filled up with static? The radar operator wouldn't be able to see, he wouldn't be able to find the incoming targets for the static. So when you make yourself empty, and make your fist empty, you are trying to get rid of the static, make it so you can see what is going on around you.
Then, your perceptions picking up the path of an incoming fist, the emotion, the very intention of the attacker, your fist will move faster because it is empty, and it will hit harder when it becomes tight. Muscular tension will not bind your motion and slow down your fist, and it will fly fast, your radar will better help it find the target. The moment of truth and your fist gets tight, and that increases the weight and mass of the fist, making it hard enough to knock somebody unconscious.
So there are two things a fighter, whether in the UFC or on the street, must do if he is going to get knock out power. The first, of course, is to be empty, loosey goosey, not tied in place by his own muscular tension. This frees the inner radar to pick up the attack, and enables the MMA fighter to move faster because he is not thinking of his body as weighty and heavy.
The second thing is to tighten the fist upon impact, and loosen it immediately afterwards. This is real microsecond stuff here, but it is guaranteed to work. The energy focuses, the power comes to bear, and that which was empty and quick suddenly becomes full and heavy.
If you are an MMA fighter in the UFC or strikeforce, or even a spectator, think about the physics I have described here, and figure out how to use them in your strikes. Empty/full is actually a classical concept from traditional Karate, and it is used extensively in the ancient Shaolin types of kung fu like Hung Gar or Choy Lee Fut. Emptiness and focus, these are the keys that will lay anybody out for the ten count! - 30300
About the Author:
Al Case has analyzed Karate for 40+ years. He has written hundreds of articles for the magazines, and had his own column in Inside Karate. You can pick up a free ebook at Monster Martial Arts, or get the straight skinny on hitting harder at Punch 'Em Out
