Impact training: Hitting stuff!

The other day a student asked me what was the best way to train for self defense. I had to think about it because technically we are always training for self defense, be it Kata that introduces body movements and dynamics of technical expression, kumite that introduces the actual exchanges of basic techniques in a controlled mannor or Kihon that shows you proper form and function….but the answer was simple…go hit something!

One of the biggest mistakes that students make in martial arts is lack of impact training! Really I have seen so many people that look very impressive doing Kata, have kumite skills that actually intimidate others and have basics that look like art…but get them into a fight and they jam up! They hit someone and they freeze, its like “DAMN that’s what it feels like” or “Wow, that’s got to hurt”. Or worse yet they throw their beautiful Mawashi Geri Jodan, it lands…and the attacker is like “That’s it”? Some times beauty does not translate into power!

One of my Juniors takes this very seriously and has three Makiwaras in his front yard…lucky for him his neighbors and family don’t have him locked up…and trust me that might be an option…but he IS doing the one thing that I would recommend to anyone wanting to begin learning how to apply the techniques that we are teaching….start hitting things…not just anything mind you but things that you should be hitting…like a punching bag or Makiwara.

It is shocking how many people get to black belt and have never really hit something with power…and a very large eye opener for them when they do. Someone that has struck a bag or post knows what it is like to have the energy come back at you and often knows what happens when you don’t use completely perfect form.

It is ironic that we spend so much time on form in Karate and not much on actually using it. While we use Kumite as a further expression of form, we still don’t actually use any impact in our kumite…well not on purpose…and that means that we don’t actually “use” the form we are so hard at work on. Its kind of like owning a gun, learning how to aim it, load it, pull the trigger…with no bullets to actually use! All of our skills become a bit of a very beautiful and dangerous dance. Add some impact training on pads and bags ext and you are now pulling that trigger and applying the training.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think the ability to hit something is about 90% of the game, I can not tell you how many times I have been hit at work…not where I work now but when I was doing security or working the door at a bar…and the guy had poor form and I just knew it was not going to hurt as bad as he thought it would! The reason we train so hard on form is two fold. First off we need to have good form in order to take advantage of the mechanics of the body. If you have poor form and throw a punch for instance you may do more harm to yourself than your attacker, and how do you defend yourself with a dislocated shoulder? The other reason is we have to hard wire in the proper form so that at a seconds notice we can call upon our form to generate power into a punch to defend ourselves! The repetition not only teaches us physically how to do the techniques, it also makes it natural so we don’t have to think! So, all those reps you are doing…very important!

As for impact training, its also important! Like I stated earlier, I have seen so many people use a punch or kick for the first time on the street, or in an altercation jam up because they really have never hit anything with power before. They may have jabbed at a mitt or thrown a sloppy punch at a bag “testing” the waters, but they never really hit anything. The results were never very good. They ran the gambit of “Deer in a head light” to “Shock and horror” to going “blank” and none of them turned out very well! Most of us don’t run around hitting things growing up, a few rough kids may have but most of us try and avoid fights….and that is a good thing! Impact training however, should be a part of anyone’s training that wants to learn Karate for more than just a good work out…and even then….Impact training is a great work out.

When you hit something in training you need to remember that what you are doing right now is more than likely what you will do when the time comes to hit something, so focus on form, proper techniques and start off stationary! If you have weak wrists, DON’T WRAP THEM! The thing is that you won’t have wrapped wrists on the street…if your wrists are weak…make it a “Call to arms” (pun intended) to train them so they are not weak and you can hit things without damage to them…and that goes for the arms and shoulders as well. Now, line up and have a punching bag, makiwara or target that won’t move to much when you hit it….

For punching

Now that you have your distance for a good reverse punch, start off slowly, keep your spine straight and slightly leaning forwards, push thru the back leg into the ground and rotate your hip slowly into your target. Extend your arm and twist before you make impact (unlike combat punching, if you are hitting a “real” makiwara with rope or rice stalk twisting to late when you first start will cut up your hands and keep you from training…wait till the hands are conditioned to do that). Once you make impact you need to push for a second or two thru the back leg, up the body and into your hand….Look past your actual target and think of pushing into it.

After training slowly like this for a while, start to speed up, remember your target is about two to four inches behind the actual makiwara, or into the punching bag. Don’t strike the surface of the makiwara and let your hand bounce off the pad or hit the surface of the punching bag….far to often we keep “sondome” in mind when hitting equipment and we don’t benefit from the training.

A common problem we see with people who are hitting the makiwara for the first time is the single arm problem. They forget form and go for a hard punch with just their arm. They forget that good form is the key to true power. Throwing a perfect and powerful straight punch takes good form.

For kicking

For kicking I usually recommend a heavy bag or a kicking shield to train with. You can use a makiwara, but normally I reserve this for people with GREAT form because you can miss slightly and hurt hour foot and shin. Line up according to what kick you are going to train (front kick dead on and Mawashi obviously a tad closer, for pads have the angle right). Now throw the kick, but start off with out using full power and using the top of your foot for round kicking. The reason for this is the toes, I have seen a few dislocations from people trying to hit with the ball of the foot and using less than perfect form.

Once you have hit something a few dozen times and feel confident then you can start “nailing it”. The advantage to a heavy bag for kicking is that it conditions the shins, feet and legs and it is much more forgiving than a Makiwara. Remember as well that the target is about a foot behind the impact site for a heavy bag.

I want to offer a few suggestions first however. Have someone hold the bag when kicking…or you may have to chase it down and have it stop before you go back to kicking, slowing down your training. Another one is to remember to snap back on your kicks. We all think it is impressive to throw a thunderous round kick into a bag, make a big “Blasting” noise and then slowly draw our leg back…this totally defeats the purpose of the kick recoil and will get you in trouble if you use that kick for a self defense situation as the person may be hurt by it, but they will grab it and you are then in big trouble. Remember this is about applying your techniques with the same form you were training in Kihon Waza reps.

The next thing you need to realize it that it takes time to condition a hand or foot, a leg or elbow to impact. And you should not start off throwing techniques without conditioning your body correctly. The impact site (knuckles or foot) should be slowly brought to full impact power over time, don’t rush to hit something with full power right off the bat. You should start off in phases and work up.

Phase one

Start off hitting a Makiwara or punching bag with about 30% of your strength. At the same time do a lot of straight arm pushups ( a push up with arms straightening all the way) as well as working your spinal muscles (from tail to neck) to allow for better shock absorbtion…check with your instructor about those exercises. You can do this about four times a week safely.

Phase two

Start hitting the Makiwara about 60% and move to doing Knuckle push ups. This along with core training will allow you to hit harder and condition the hands. Cut back to twice a week to give the skin on your hands time to heal as well as the joints. Lots of people recommend different things to condition the skin, from salt water to balms, I say just let them heal on their own.

They will be red and irritated depending on the surface you are striking so keep in mind that ice is never a bad idea.

Last Phase

Start hitting the makiwara about 80-90% of your power and continue to use proper form. Remember that you should give a day or so off between good Makiwara training to let the muscles heal up and the bones to heal up as well. Watch for injuries and make sure that you rest and take care of the skin on the hands if it is damaged. I also recommend taping a towel around any communal Makiwaras to protect against spreading of any virus or infections.

So, what should you hit? Well, most of the time what is available is a punching bag if you are lucky, a Makiwara if you are VERY lucky, but most likely it’s a phone book or punching target. What I recommend is that you buy a heavy bag and stand for it and put it some place out of the way and hit it as part of a home work out. Any Karate club that is stand alone should have a makiwara and you can build on very easily that is mobile, drop me a line and I will show you how.

Makiwaras are the perfect way to build your punch and hit something relatively forgiving and really make your hands conditioned to impact. But the next step down is that punching bag. I don’t recommend bag gloves be used or wrist wraps unless the only time you are hitting something is with them on. Boxers and pro fighters use them because they know they will be hitting their opponent with the same protection they wear to hit the bag,. And a funny thing happens when a pro fighter hits someone without hand wraps and tape…they break their hands because they are not used to hitting without that protection. An alternative is to have a partner hold a phone book, with a cushion against their chest…phone book out, cushion in…and you hit them with that. Problem is that you don’t want to hit the partner to hard or you could hurt them…even with the phone book in place. But its okay for phase one of hitting were you are only using about 30% impact.

Always use good form and focus on slowly improving power, its much harder to hit with all your power and slowly put technique into your strikes after that.

It is one of the most frustrating things that I get bugged bout from my kick boxing and MMA friends. Most of them think that we cannot defend ourselves because we don’t hit each other. Truth be known, if we were to all implement impact training in our personal training regiment we would blow past MMA work out junkies in seconds. We have better form, our technique is focused on in class so much and we have great sparring habits that lead to better understanding of distance and timing than a guy that is used to wailing on pads and bags for 2/3 of his class and then tip taps with big gloves and head gear on for 1/3 of his class, but because we don’t actually use impact training they are more used to getting hit and don’t shut down mentally when they hit someone.

My recommendation is that students focus on Kumite, Kata and Kihon up to about green belt, then start adding some Impact training, be it bag work, Makiwara or pad work. You have to give a reality to your training or you are missing a major component of Budo-shin Karate do, or Warrior spirit training in Karate. Without this spirit in your training you end up doing a dance and calisthenics that may help you keep healthy, but does little for you if you need to use. It.

By Black belt you should be hitting things whenever you can, Heavy bags, Makiwara, Pads should all be old hat to you and you should be able to work your basics for real and use control but intent in sparring so that you and your partner know you “could” use these if you needed to.

In the ‘70’s I remember seeing videos of Karate masters with big calloused knuckles and deformed hands. This is not what I am talking about here. I am not saying that you have to cause major damage to your hands to be any good at impact training, Prudence and intelligence will allow you to avoid this.

While I count impact training amongst the most important form of training a intermediate to senior student can undertake, I also caution you to not jump in on your own, seek out an instructor who understands impact training and can show you proper ways to actually hit something, you would be shocked how many of us don’t know how to actually hit something and how few of us have had to use Karate to defend themselves. Reguardless, Impact training is one of the few components of training I think is missing and would benefit students the most!