Boxing’s power–NOT fundamentally attribute based.
Ok, what I mean by the thread title is this: You read a LOT of stuff about how western boxing and competitive arts in general, rely on physical attributes for performance.
This is, at best, wildly inaccurate, and at worst, utter crap.
I believe the reason that this perception exists is because boxing,
wrestling, etc, are practiced as competitive sports. At high levels of competition, the skill level is high. At this point, physical attributes “make or break.” Your technique will only get you so far without honing your physical attributes to complement your personal style. So, physical attributes tend to be emphasized as much as skill. Because this physical conditioning is so vital to competitive success, some people make the incorrect leap that “it’s more about physical attributes,” forgetting the
long, long hours engaged in repetitive drilling at different speeds to hone technique, timing, flow, etc.
Now, the above is more of an aside, and probably worthy of its own separate thread. But it leads into the next point:
The power in boxing is no more fundamentally attribute based than the power generated in any strike from any art.
I will use as my example, a straight right thrown by an orthodox fighter.
The straight right begins at the rear foot. The foot pivots on the ball of the foot, pushing on the ground, generating torque in the rear leg. This opens up the hip so it is more or less square to your opponent, then the shoulders come around. The spine should be naturally straight, neither bent over at the waist, hunched badly, nor unnaturally stiff. While this is happenning, the right arm is being extended and turned over. At the end of
the movement, the structure created is more or less stiff. That is, a direct push on the fist will be transferred all the way through your body to the rear foot on the ground. I realize that some argue about the palm down or vertical fist. Different argument for a different thread.
I can personally tell when I have executed it really well when, at the moment of contact, I feel a big “push” in the ball of my rear foot.
Now, does the power come from all the massive amounts of strength I’m using? The answer is no. The use of strength (using too much “shoulder”) can compensate somewhat for improper structure, but you will rapidly tire (not to mention be slow). Instead, the power of the straight right comes from
two things–speed of execution, and proper structure at the moment of impact.
Proper structure, as outlined above, comes from proper body alignment, which in turn, creates “stiffness” from the floor to the fist. This structure is stable and does not give. If the structure is not stiff, then it gives at the moment of impact, and power is not transfered to the target as efficiently as it might be, depending on the amount of give.
Speed comes from looseness in the body. If you are tight, you move slowly. It’s that simple. So, in order to optimize your speed, you have to remain relaxed and loose…until the moment of impact, when everything is nice and stiff.
So, the power in the punch comes from how quickly you can align your body to attain that rigid structure. And that speed comes only from being relaxed until the moment of impact. It’s not a matter of muscle strength or just banging away. It’s proper body mechanics.
The above was not meant to say that all punching mechanics are fundamentally the same at their core (I happen to think they are, but that’s a different topic). It does however, demonstrate that the power generation is NOT due primarily to attributes, and rather on executing the proper technique in a bio-mechanically efficient way.
