In this video striking Coach Charles Martinez teaches a simple way you can use a wall to practice keeping your punches straight and on target. This can be applied to Boxing, Kickboxing and MMA.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Coach Charles Martinez:
Hey guys, this is Coach Chuck from The Arena. During this difficult time, we’re forced to be closed. We want to provide you with some content, simple drills you can do at home, to still work on your technique. Here’s a simple drill to work on, punch mechanics. A very common mistake when throwing, especially the right straight of the cross, or left straight if you’re lefthanded, is to open your elbow and then try and throw the punch.
This motion like A, it shows the punch much earlier. It’s like swinging a stick at someone this way versus this way, right? If I open my elbow, you can really see the punch coming a lot sooner and I lose some of the power of rotation in my shoulder and I feel like I’m doing more tricep extension than I am. The mechanics of throwing the straight, my hip moves, my body rotates, the hand comes straight out, it comes straight back to my face, right? A very common mistake.
A simple thing you can do at home to correct this is getting your rear foot and your shoulder near this wall. If I open my elbow, I’m going to collide with the wall, right? I show the jab, my shoulder rotates, my rear shoulders close to the wall. All the mechanics happen. My right straight shoots straight out, straight back to my face. My elbow flares out and opens, I hit the wall.
All right, so first, just the mechanics of rotation. Straight out, shoulder touches my chin, hand rotates, lead hand stays in my face, straight back. Hip rotates, knee bends, foot rotates, straight back to my face. Then I can start walking. I can throw the jab or I can throw the cross. I reset. My weight is here. My hip is still close to the wall. My hand is still close to the wall.
Then, as you advance, you throw the jab, you throw the cross, on the retraction of the cross, you throw the hook. The hook stops basically at my center line, slightly past, because of the wall, and it resets my fighting stance, right? Very simple. I throw the jab. As I throw the cross, my elbow stays down, it shoots straight out. As I retract, I hook, I’m right back in my fighting stance. Simple drill you can do if you just have a wall at home.
Anything to keep you honest on your elbow, on the straight. Stay tuned, we’ll be providing content daily. Between all the different martial arts, we’ll try and give you different things to work on at home. Also, we’re diligently working on an online training program for TheArena.tv, which is coming soon, and it’s going to provide lots of information for beginners, intermediate, and advanced. Thank you for your continued support and we hope to see you soon.
