Improve Your Punches Now /Chop Damage Follow-Up

Improve Your Punches Now

Chop Damage Follow-Up

by Keith Pascal  Keith Pascal <info@advantagemartialarts.com>;


Imagine that you are about to make contact in a fight. The
aggressor is about to either hit or be hit. For whatever reason,
you can't hit.

So, it's going to have to be a hit.

As your enemy approaches, your body can be either moving or
planted, still. If you are settled into position, that's one thing,
but what if your attacker is catching you mid-motion?

You could be stepping in toward your enemy, retreating, stepping to
one side or the other, ducking, or jumping. Can you think of any
other possible movements?

Today, let's discuss stepping into your opponent. (Next time, we
can talk about mid-retreat hitting.)

For the sake of this argument, and because I don't want to deal
with a variety of possibilities in a short article, let's assume
that you are stepping in with a punch.  Agreed?

It can be any punch, from the left or right, high or low, forward
hand or rear hand/ Okay? You are stepping forward, attacking with a
punch -- that's really all we know, at this point.

You still have a free hand, right? This will be your chopping hand.
You'll strike with the bottom edge of the hand, "karate chop" style.
Where will you strike?


Good question. Time for an exercise ...



Grab a partner. Work at half speed. You both step toward each other
at the same time. He or she deals with your punch. And you chop
.... chop for an opening. Chop for a weapon coming at you (an
punch), or just chop to create a mess.

Do this over and over. Find a couple of good angles, that seem to
work no matter how your opponent is dealing with your initial punch.

Are you with me, so far?

Now, I have two adjustments for you to make. Let's make your
punching more efficient.

First, get quicker with the chop response. We have talked about
this before. Start  your chop motion AS your opponent starts to
deal with your first punch.

That's the first adjustment. Make the follow-up earlier.

And my second piece of advice is to be ready with the hand that
punched first for a follow-up hit. In other words, for this
particular exercise, you could punch left-right-left, where the
right hand chops, OR it could be the opposite sequence,
right-left-right, where the left hand does the chopping.

In either case, the middle strike is going to come early in the
sequence. Its job will be to mess things up, and distract. After
that shot, you'll immediately follow up with another punch ... and
then maybe even start a series of straight blasts.
Let's continue this discussion, tomorrow.

Have fun practicing,



Keith