Punching incorrectly can lead to fatigue and loss of power. Hard stiff punches can send harmful vibrations right to your spine and head, resulting in headaches and dizziness. Soft, springy punches redirects the vibrations to manifest in the hand, resulting in saved energy and no headaches.
[Purpose]
After several years of being dissatisfied with my punching method, I found a new way. The old way would make my brain rattle in its box, causing me to get dizzy and act stupid or zoned out. The newer method springs into action without shaking my brain. Its faster, uses less energy, and advocates impulse force rather than pushing forces.
[Disclaimer]
This method is something that was not taught to me by any instructor. I developed this on my own because I was relentless at finding a solution to my punching problems. Other people my not care about the head vibration. And some may even attempt to get used to it. This is my own opinion about how to punch and it is not meant to be an authority of how to punch.
[History]
My first exposure to wing chun punching came from a book, endorsed by Ip Chun. The manuel gave step by step instructions on how to do the siu lim tao. I liked the punches, the vertical punches, but unfortunately they always rattled my noggin, giving me a pain in the neck and/or a headache. Keep in mind, that I am punching the air. My kung fu brothers either weren't bothered by the head vibrations or they simply swore off punching and just used kicks instead.
Eventually I got a real teacher. He taught me to punch in a straight line from my sternum to my opponents nose. The vibrations went away, but my shoulders burned. I figured that it was normal. How could you punch without using the shoulder muscles? Doing push up and loads of punches would make my arms tired and my punching speed as fast as a slug and as powerful as a paper tiger.
My punches felt powerful. They felt strong. Hitting the focus mitts humbled me by showing that I have to work on my power. Not only that, I need to work on my endurance.
My pinky knuckle would eventually blister and bleed. I was punching at an angle. if I were to hit perpendicular to the target, I probably would be fine. But because I was always punching upward, the fist would slide up upon Impact.
I did not like how my skin was getting hurt. So instead of punching with a vertical fist, I used a diagonal fist instead. The same posture as an easy curl bar. My skin was saved after that change, but I still lacked power and I still fatigued quickly.
I didn't figure out a solution until I stayed over at my friend's Charles and Stuarts apartment. Stuart was watching videos of his master doing fighting applications. All it took was three words to get the gears to start turning. three words to set into motion a theory that I would test and retest and eventually embrace. "His punches vibrate..." was the keen observation he made. Did he know what it really meant?
How could the vibration be worth anything? I've seen a number of youtube masters demonstrate the vibrating punch in the air. their claim was that it was more powerful. I basically called it bs. But like a good scientist, I decided to create a hypothesis and test it out. If the vibrations is bs, then the scientific method should flush it down the toilet.
{If the vibration happens in the head, the energy is recoiling back into the body, but if the vibration manifests in the hand, the energy is in the perfect place to escape into an external body.}
Above is my theory. Now the only thing left if to somehow make the vibration happen in my hand. I started by throwing karate style punches. The ones that have the elbow down and palm up and then twist at the very last moment. I noticed that when I would punch like this, my head would shake side to side. yeah, it was unpleasant.
Eventually I figured out how to make the vibration happen in my fist. But let me clarify what I mean by vibration. The karate punch ends with the palm side down, but begins with the palm up. The punch would teeter totter around the palm side down. When the hand rotated to the palm side down, it would bounce back and attempt to go back the opposite rotation, but then it would reverse and again, and then again and again, until the energy was dissipated. This vibration could only be done with a loose fist, causing it to be impractical for punching.
The Shaolin Weng Chun forms taught me something about how to be soft. The most common movement is a double chop down. This would create a tug on my head that would also give me a headache. Sifu simply said to get used to it. I refused to get used to it. Everytime I did the form, I did so without an abrupt stop. This mindset trained me to bounce back my punches, much that same as a yoyo would return.
At first I could only do it with elbow down. I found it by accident really...It wasn't until a few moments after did I realized I felt no headache, no vibration, and no fatigue. Push ups ended up making it MORE powerful and MORE springy. Clearly this punch was using a different set of body mechanics that the ones I was using before.
It finally made sense. All those ppl claiming that they "don't use shoulder" were right.
[Instruction]
Shoulder are using to aim, not to derive power.
Power comes from the triceps. Doing lots of spring punches should fatigue the triceps NOT the shoulders.
You should never have to pull back your hand after executing the punch. There is a specific point at which it can bounce back. If you go too far, your bones will collide and that is bad.
Once you feel the springiness, try it on a wooden dummy. If you are doing it right, the wooden dummy will bounce away from your hand as opposed to maintaining contact. But not only that, the recoil that you will receive from the impact should either be absent or manifest in the hand. If you feel the vibration in your head then your springy punch needs work.
Your punch needs to be like a rod with a chain attached to one end with a steel ball at the end of that chain.
[Conclusion]
Spring punches feel good.
