Does the force of a punch rely on the mass of your whole arm?

I understand that force is Mass x Acceleration, but when meassuring the force of a punch what is the mass that you meassure. Is it the entire arm, just the fist, something in between? Just wondering, not planning onhitting anything any time soon.|||The mass involved in a punch is what is -moving-. Training, stance, etc. are all involved in enabling you to get more mass moving faster at the target. Beware "chi" based magical thinking.





And "energy" is a better concept for punches: Mass * Velocity * Velocity.





%26gt;Overall, poor punch relies on arm mass, while good punch draws the mass from the ground.





Only your body is moving with the punch. Only your body can supply mass. Good technique makes for a better punch, but not by drawing "mass from the ground".





%26gt;A good punch channels qi energy from the ground all the way through the body, coming out at the end of the fist and going into the opponent's body.





"qi energy": A mystical form of "energy" that cannot be measured by science. More moving mass %26amp; More Velocity





Being able to do that is where martial arts training comes in.|||Is how firm your stands is when you deliver the punch.


Punches are weaker for those who have poor stands, meaning have poor sense of center of gravity.





While people who can use their center of gravity can deliver a stronger punch.





Overall, poor punch relies on arm mass, while good punch draws the mass from the ground.|||A good punch channels qi energy from the ground all the way through the body, coming out at the end of the fist and going into the opponent's body.





Bruce Lee could perform a 1-inch punch, that is, he only moved his arm an inch but knocked the opponent over. That's channeling qi energy, a main principal of the martial arts.





The answerer who wrote about stance also has a good point.





Frankly, I don't care what the force of the punch relies on. If I succeed in knocking out the attacker, the force was sufficient. And I'd probably use a palm strike since it's easy to break your knuckles punching someone. But that's just me.|||that qi that the other answerer explained is called kinetic energy. Basiccaly you push off the ground with your leg and then the energy goes through into your arm.|||this short video will show you about it from a purely physics angle (the systema way)


http://youtube.com/watch?v=zby9nV2vMfM|||use your body as a whip; if your throwing a right cross - then the power starts in the right foot, pushes up thru the thigh, then your core does a short, fast twitch toward the target, which then sends that energy flowing up thru the right pec, to the shoulder and moves the right arm towards your target and boom, in a nutshell that is.|||Actually, the force of a punch comes from the hip. That what we know as starting the punch from the floor going all the way through the body is torque. In order to deliver a good punch you have to rotate your hip all the way, of course your mass and size of your muscles will help, but basically what will do the damage is how much you rotate your hip. The more you rotate your hip the more damage you will do.