Boxing stance and footwork is an important part of learning the correct punch technique – because the power from your punches starts from the floor – in your leg muscles. It is transferred from your legs up through your core and finally into the arms before striking your opponent. In this tutorial we will learn how to use our entire body to throw a boxing punch.
When throwing the back hand – your power punch… you want to keep your back foot grounded and on the floor. As you punch your hips and knees follow through bringing your body weight forward. While in your boxing stance your heel should already be slightly raised – but it comes up further when you punch – to the point only the palm of your foot is in contact with the floor which you press off of.
This is important for exerting force into the floor so that you can continue to generate power and drive force into your punch.
Often beginners will slip with their back foot – you lose that opportunity to generate force when you do this. You are also potentially screwing up the combination as you are no longer in a stable position.
With the lower body covered lets focus on the arms and hands now. You want to fully extend your arms to get maximum range with your punches – so you do not need to move in so close to your opponent to strike. Using the hips and knees will help you reach your opponent by bringing your hand closer.
When you have your hands by your face your palms are slightly inward. Having your hand inward better protects your face because when your palms are rotated out it leaves a gap. But when you punch – you want to rotate your palms down so that your knuckles are horizontal to the floor. The moment your punch is finished whether it lands on your opponent or not you want to quickly retract your hand back to your face in the same line that you threw it. As you are retracting you are bringing your palms in.
Often people will drop their hands to chest height before punching – this is yet another movement that can be eliminated to make the punch faster. Same issue is often observed with once they are finished punching – drop the hands to chest then bring it to the face. Eliminate that extra movement.
Strike from the face – retract to the face – no extra movements.