How do you connect your lower body to your punch?

In martial arts, if you are rotating your hips / waist to punch, how do you connect your lower body or legs to it? The upper body and lower body seem separate and disconnected when you punch like that.|||Your upper,mid,and lower abdomen muscles are what connect the upper and lower body.


When punching,at impact,your abdomen tenses making the connection between upper and lower body.


A well developed abdomen is a must for delivering fully effective punches.


Back in the day as students we often were struck in the abdomen with a broom stick when doing our punching drills.


Just as we punched,it came,"Wam", very quickly you form the habit to tense your abdomen when delivering a punch.|||Extend your arms and just rotate your hips.


You can see that your arm is moving along with it(that's how you use your hips).


When you want to use your legs, just step in, push your leg off the floor as your punching.





It'll be easier if you watch how your teachers punch.


They can teach you step by step on how to punch.|||cross your legs at the groin, this scissored leg stance allows you to rotate your torso into a powerful punch at chest level.|||In addition to turning your torso %26amp; hips, step forward with the foot that is on the same side as the hand delivering the punch.





This adds the momentum of the entire body above the stationary foot.|||there are many many different ways to deliver a punch. Different styles have different theories. I guess you mean left leg front stance and punch with the right fist.


Basically, the force is come from the whole body and not the arm only. The right leg thrusts on the ground and create a reactive force to the foot, the knee, the hip, the waist, the backbone, the shoulder, the elbow and the hand. The left foot is like a pivot point, stand still and relax. The whole body rotates to the left - backbone as the axis. All the muscles must be relaxed before the impact so that the energy can be transferred from the ground/friction to the hand without any resistences/loss of energy in the muscles or bones. The whole body tighten at the point of contact and relax right away the punch is delivered. Before you can do that, your mind/intention must visualize the move and focus on the target.





A punch is not just a punch if you learn more.|||Here's how I teach people to connect whole body to punch. I would have them stand at a bag with their hand out as if they're punching. I would ask them to push on the bag as hard as they could without pulls their hand back or steps.They usually would put their whole weight into it then I would tell them that's how their punches are suppose to be at time it connect. That usually get them to understand faster but still I do have to correct their technique but it help cut HUGE loads of work off and teach them faster.|||there are a number of methods, there is the pushing from the foot/ankle, the "falling step". start by practicing peice by piece, this is actually the kind of thing a coach or teacher is better to teach you than another fighter.





start with just getting used to pushing yourself forward (nine demons actually has a great idea- its how i showed a freind of mine why he was hitting the heavy bag wrong when he was just "flailing his arms").





I personally think it might be easier to do it without the weight of the heavybag at first, just practice to drive with your legs, then when you feel you got that, work in the hips (don't even use a fist yet), then pop the shoulder, then put the hand out- you should feel all these things at once, if you are solely concentrating on your hand/fist you are probably doing it wrong and leading wtih your hand/fist.





try it in front of a mirror- you will look silly at first, but you will pick it up quicker IMO if you first break down, then practice the parts seperately, then work on putting them together from the "ground up".|||If you want to connect your lower body to your punch there are a couple of things you have to do. First, is make sure you are in a proper fighting stance. By that I mean, make sure your lead leg is planted and your rear leg foot is pointed towards your target not off at angle. It is imperative that your rear leg heel if off the ground and you are on your toes. When you throw a technique whether it is a jab, or cross you want to be sure to not only pivot your hips but also rotate your you heel into the punch.





For example (if you fight orthodox, not southpaw), when you throw the cross be sure to rotate your body to the left almost hiding your left shoulder from the opponent, really turn into it. Press off your right toes and really turn the right heel into the target. You'll feel energy flow up through your leg into you hips and out through your fist. You have to really work at extending your body through the punch. I acheive this by making sure I try to turn into the punch as much as possible. The more you hide the left shoulder the deeper the punch will be. The more you rotate from the ground up, the more powerful it will be.





Hope this helps!!!