How To Punch Harder Using a Wall

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Howdy. Ando here from SenseiAndo.com. Today,
I want to talk to you a little bit about alignment. Specifically, how your body lines up behind
your striking. It’s a fact that if your body is not lined up properly, and you hit something
or someone, you’re just going to hurt yourself. So, if you’re a karate guy, or a Tae Kwon
Do, kung fu artist, and you’re spending a lot of your training time striking in the
air, be careful with that. There’s a chance you may be just practicing bad habits. You’re
only getting better at throwing bad punches. And that’s why, if you’ve seen my other videos,
you know I’m a big fan of hitting bags, or pads, or willing partners. But what if you’re
not in the dojo? What if you’re not in the gym? What if you’re at a hotel, or just at
home, or your crazy ex locked you in a closet? Is there still a way that you can practice
throwing stronger, harder punches? Well, of course there is. And I’m going to show you
one of those ways right now. If you’ve ever been part of a traditional
karate class, I’m sure this has happened to you. You stick out your punch and the instructor
comes by and then pushes on the front of your fist to test your structure. If there’s a
little bit of a bend in your wrist, then it’s going to buckle all the way. If your shoulder
is not locked into your body, then your whole arm slides out of joint. If your hips and
your knees aren’t lined up properly, then you get knocked off your stance. Well, without
an instructor around, the next best thing you can use to test your structure is a wall.
Now, I’m not telling you to punch the wall, but I would like you to push on it. Because,
if you think about it, a punch is really not much different than a push. The only difference
is that you’re shifting your weight faster and more explosively. So, here’s what I want you to do. I want you
to pick a punch. I’m going to pick a straight right. Put your knuckles on the wall and line
up your body behind it as if this is going to be the greatest knockout punch you’ve ever
thrown. Or maybe you’re imagining you break 100 flaming boards. I don’t know. Whatever
makes you smile. Anyway, once I get my knuckles on the wall, now I’m just going to lean into
it a little bit. Now, the nice thing about the wall is it will not lie to you. If there’s
a weak link in your body, you’re going to feel it right away. So, I’m going to go through
my checklist anyway. I start off with my wrist. Make sure my wrist feels strong. Make sure
my elbow feels strong. My shoulder. Make sure my waist, my hips, my knees, my ankle. Every
part of your body should be driving forward into this wall and you should feel stable
and balanced. Now, of course, on a flat wall, you’re not limited to just practicing your
straight punches, you could also throw forward elbows, you could throw your uppercuts, heck,
I even use my head and push on the wall just to make sure, from hair to toe, I’m lined
up. Once you feel pretty confident and solid in
your strikes that you’ve chosen, the next step is to add a pulse to your pressure. So,
in other words, you may start off just giving one long, steady push to really pressure test
your structure. Once I have that body feel, I’m going to start on and offing, if that’s
a word, I’m going to start pulsing the pressure into the wall, so that I’m getting better
at locking in my body more quickly, because that’s going to lead me to stepping away from
the wall, so that I don’t need the wall, and just see if I can maintain that same feeling
in my body. The minute that you feel you don’t have that connection, if you start shadow
boxing or you’re doing your kata and you feel you’ve lost that connection, hop back over
to the wall, it only takes one or two, you’ll feel it right away, then go off the wall.
Make sure it still feels the same. By going back and forth, you’ll be tuning up your body
better than ever. Even better, try to find yourself a pillar,
or a post, maybe inside of a doorway, anything that’s going to give you a corner to play
with, two surfaces. That way, you’re not just limited to shifting your weight to the wall,
you can shift through the wall. This is going to open up a much fuller range of your power
and you’re going to start adding circular techniques. I can add my hook punches this
way and cross the line. I can add my body hooks. I can add more circularity to my elbow
strikes. I can put in the big overhand right. I highly recommend that you include every
strike that you know into the wall drill. That’s because in martial arts, there’s
nothing worse that a cocky air-puncher. Once you’ve tested out all your techniques, now
it’s time to spar the wall. Get your pulses ready and just throw, go through your list.
Go through your hooks, your straight punches, your hooks, the big overhand right, your elbows.
Just don’t expect to win. Remember, the key here is not to slam this
wall like it’s a makiwara. Don’t think of this as conditioning your knuckles, think
of it as conditioning your whole body. Now, don’t get me wrong, big knuckles look really
cool. I don’t have them, but they look cool. But what doesn’t look cool is throwing a real
punch in a real fight, breaking your wrist and falling down because your alignment is
off. So, do yourself a favor, make proper alignment your number one goal, and then you
can add as much speed and power on top of that as you want. And that’s it. My advice the next time you
feel like your training has hit a wall… hit a wall. If you liked that tip, don’t
forget to hit subscribe. And for more martial arts talk, I’ve got podcasts and articles
over at SenseiAndo.com. Get over there, get on my email list, and you’ll get everything.
Until next time, punch hard and keep fighting for a happy life.

100 Replies to “How To Punch Harder Using a Wall”

  10. I've been learning boxing(self-taught) for about 3 weeks now. watching you and fightTIPS has improved my form and my balance as well as technique. You're awesome. Keep up the good work.

    Reply

  11. Ok so houses in the philippines have concrete walls instead of wooden walls, and i'd punch the hell out of those. I waltz in and punch an american wall with 5 strikes, only reason there isnt a big fat hole in the wall is because as i'd punch, it'd collapse the layers down to one another- now there's this weird mushed up concavity in a wall where my right knuckle fits perfectly in

    Reply

  13. For me to punch stronger we just would get apples and start punching them when you burst the apple you are strong

    Reply

  19. Hmmmm. Interesting. I punch and kick harder using a wall by pinning my attacker against the wall first. Works best with solid masonry, steel bulkheads, hardwood plank, or log cabin construction. If you get lucky, they'll hold their breath and you'll hear this loud, popping sound on impact. But I prefer to use gravity + (their) body mass + (their) momentum to help them get intimate with the floor/ground. Again…concrete, pavers, bricks, asphalt, and gravel work best; but hardwood works nicely too.

    Reply

  20. First time i ever decided to punch a wall, i got a cuts all over my knuckle cause under the paint and plaster is a layer of metal… i don't think i wanna try that again

    Reply

  27. Don’t worry guys this is a PRO TIP!
    I have anger issues and likes to fight and no worries my parents know if I punch the wall I was angry (: TRY THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK if you have Hispanic parents !

    Reply

  31. Ok that works too, and I don’t have a house now it’s on the ground

    I accidentally serious punched it.

    Reply

  32. A few weeks ago I got angry and punched a wall my skin got all ripped off and it took two weeks just to stop bleeding I don't think that was a smart move but my confidence in throwing punches has increased beyond my expectations because of that and I feel that I have a thicker skin now

    Reply

  34. I still remember once I was so stressed and angry that I punched the wall and my arm just went numb and there's a small crack in the wall…if it's a hollow wall then I'm dead lol

    Reply

  39. my wall in my bedroom is literally dried up ice cream, you can even use a card board minecraft diamond sword and make a dent in the wall

    Reply

  43. I was like about 2 years ago very agresive so i punched walls so many times stone walls metal walls wooden door but one day i was angry so i punched (bare hands what i did always) to a metal plate so i broke my hand…😭 but i can still fight but my fist isnt the strong one i know before but i get very much information about your videos! Thank you for that, keep going!

    Reply

  51. I thought that the wall could be cracked…. Then, i realize that my screen cracked last evening….😂😂😂

    Reply

  55. Actually im punching the wall always, now i have red wrist hahaha. (Sorry im not great in english)

    Reply

  57. This isnt good, because u can broke Your cnuckles. The small cnuckle Can get easily destroyed. long time ago, i accidentally throwed an punch into the wall. I had the first knuckle almost broken. But after the knuckle broke , i had fight against opponent in boxing.

    Reply

  71. Wow thanks Ando. I’m seriously grateful for your teachings and time on your channel. I hope one day, we can spar! Much love and respect.

    Reply

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