How to throw a punch

Let’s talk physics. A punch isn’t so much hitting as it is launching your fist as a projectile. Just like a bullet from a gun, the fist is accelerated by a force acting in a straight line. Unlike a bullet, which is accelerated by the controlled detonation of smokeless powder, a fist is accelerated by the combined force of many different muscles acting in a single coordinated motion. What’s surprising to many is that few of these muscles are in the arm. A favorite quote that comes from bioengineered mercenary Tyr Anasazi (played by Keith Hamilton Cobb): “the punch should begin at the soles of your feet and end at the back of your opponent’s skull.” A good punch starts from the feet, involves muscles in the legs, hips, core, chest, shoulders, and, finally, the arms. Relevantly, the technique used to deliver a good punch is the same technique used to deliver just about any strike, which is why we start people on the punching bag right away in our Combatives and Women’s Self-defense classes.

“The punch should begin at the soles of your feet and end at the back of your opponent’s skull.”

-Tyr Anasazi of Kodiak Pride out of Victoria by Barbarossa.

Anatomy of a punch:

A punch begins by you driving off of your same-side foot. This starts generating forward momentum using the incredibly powerful calf muscles (soleus and gastrocnemius), quadriceps muscles (rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus intermedius, and vastus medialis), and hamstrings (biceps femoris, semimembranosus, semitendinosus). The calf muscles extend your ankle, quads extend your knee, and the hamstrings extend your hip.

Next, your punch gains power by the twisting of your hips. This adds rotary motion to your shoulder and arm, whipping them forward using your hip rotators (gluteus medius, gluteus minimus, piriformis, tensor fascia latae, adductor longus, adductor brevis, gracilis) and core muscles (transverse abdominis, internal oblique, external oblique). Your hip rotators drive your hip forward and your core muscles amplify that rotation through your abdomen.

At the same time that your legs, hips, and core muscles are generating this rotary power, your shoulder girdle and arm muscles are working to generate their own power AND to position the arm so the combined power from all the lower muscle groups transfers to your fist. To accomplish this, your scapula is rotated upward (trapezius, serratus anterior) and protracted (pectoralis major, pectoralis minor, serratus anterior) launching your shoulder forward. Simultaneously, your humerus is extended (posterior deltoid, latissimus dorsi, teres minor) positioning your upper arm.

After all of this, finally, your arm muscles come into play to finish the motion. Your arm is straightened (triceps brachii), your forearm is pronated (pronator teres), and your fingers flexed (flexor carpi radialis longus, palmaris longus, flexor carpi ulnaris, flexor digitorm superficialis, flexor pollicis brevis) to deliver the strike.

That’s a lot of muscles involved in such a simple motion and we didn’t even include all the other muscles that have to engage to maintain postural and joint stability, e.g. the leg muscles of the opposite leg. The point is that a little coordination and technique can turn your fist into a powerful projectile that gets momentum from nearly every other muscle in your body.

Most people don’t know how to throw a proper punch. This is good news. This is one reason that women taking our Women’s Self-defense classes are able to overpower their opponents - they hit harder. This happens because we teach how to use all of your weight and how to coordinate all of your muscles together to maximize the power of your punch (or kick, or hammer strike, etc.).