How to Hit with Power

"I am a firm believer in heavy bag and percussion training. I do not like my fighters to train on a bag that weighs less than 80 pounds. The bag should have a firmness consistent with that of softened rock. In other words, whatever the filling, the bag must be quite dense. A fighter must condition his hands, feet, elbows and knees to the shock of impact. Otherwise, all other preparations for combat become useless. When properly conditioned, a fighter has no apprehension about unloading a full-power strike on the opponent. Poor conditioning leads to a fear of injury.Kinetics must be studied and understood intimately by the fighter. You can be the quickest tactician alive, but if you don’t have anything behind your strikes, you will generally lose to the more powerful opponent.Each type of strike must be broken down and analyzed for the fighter to understand how the maximum efficiency of the blow can be attained. I walk my fighters through movements over and over again, making adjustments to their body alignment. The implication here is that the coach must truly understand what he’s doing. Guessing is best left outside the ring or platform."

Kuoshu Winning Secrets
By Mike Patterson (First printed in Inside Kung Fu Magazine - August 1997)