http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdkGO61WhWw
Hat tip to Mokuren Dojo for this clip.
Compared to kungfu, karate, and taekwondo, boxing had the way more powerful punch.
I was surprised at how effortless the boxer punched. Notice how much effort the other martial artists put into their punches. It’s fairly obvious from that effort that they couldn’t do that kind of punching consecutively with any hope of having the same power.
But the boxer is so smooth and effortless — it looks like he could do that many times in a row.
And check out the animation they provide of the force NOT coming from the arm, but from the FEET. So can we please get rid of this myth that boxers are “just using arm” but we IMA guys are superior because we are supposedly the only ones that use the body? That’s blatantly false, as this clip shows.
Another myth bites the dust.
9 responses so far ↓
1 Aboroth // Jun 27, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Wow! Now that was interesting! The kicking segment (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DQE3CwZxQw) is also pretty cool.
It’s a good point about IMA not being the only with whole body mechanics, although I (personally) never thought boxing was “just arm”.
I don’t mean to be the whiny IMA guy with the god complex but the kungfu guy is a Wushu guy (they introduce him in the Speed episode as “three-time national wushu gold medalist Alex Huynh”)… It would have been more interesting if he were am IMA guy or even a traditional CMA guy
2 Roman // Jun 28, 2007 at 5:59 am
I have never underestimated boxing. They’re probably the best in punching. They don’t do zhan zhuan nor push hands. They achive the same result other way. But the main question for me (when I choose MA for me) is - how about summarized skills - leg/knee/hip/shoulder/elbow/fist/head skills. Or how about weapon skills. Traditional boxing focuses only on empty protected hand PUNCH and block against punch (spending almost 100% time on this) when oriental martial arts are suitable for free-of-rule fight. Take a look at this skill - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0yA0thdHB8.
I doubt any super buper heavy boxing champ will hold this.
But anyway, the punch shown on video is very impressive!
3 omni // Jun 28, 2007 at 7:45 am
I wouldn’t take too much to heart what national geographic has to say about this - it wasn’t extactally scientific
4 james // Jun 28, 2007 at 7:47 am
“A perfect flow of energy through the entire body… the energy then travels up the leg twists through the hips and transfers in the large muscles at the back chests and shoulders
Like the coiling and cracking of a whip the energy multiplies through leverage as it flows through the body travels out through the arm and fist and snaps into the opponent”
New age energy flow?
5 chessman71 // Jun 28, 2007 at 8:48 am
Again, what surprised me was his level of relaxation as compared to the other styles and the fact that they clearly demonstrated him using whole body power. That fact that everyone in the room outpunched the wushu guy wasn’t a surprise for me.
Although I will say this: I think the wushu guy has had some traditional training. I recognize the way he’s punching. I was taught to punch that way in choy lay fut.
6 Jack Rusher // Jun 28, 2007 at 11:40 am
I boxed and wrestled before I came to CMA, and I’ve since trained some Muay Thai. My observation is that the mechanics of a hard punch aren’t very different in any of these systems, though they differ greatly with regards to “weak” punches (the CLF scraping punch v. the boxing jab, for instance). Likewise, I’ve never seen a good puncher who didn’t exhibit both whole body power and relaxation, no matter his style of choice. In fact, I’d say that all elite athletes find a way — either through natural inclination (i.e. talent) or careful training — to combine what CMA terms internal and external skill.
As for this particular video — leaving aside technique — they got a roomful of guys of wildly different sizes/strengths to hit a force meter only to discover that the smallest guy threw the weakest punch. Science!
7 Hakchigi // Jun 28, 2007 at 11:57 am
Thanks for the posting of this…
I think another scientific fact is obvious -if your training focuses on a particular aspect, then that’s where you’re going to excell. So boxers will be great punchers -effortless, powerful, relaxed because it’s what they do -they’ve no need to train on kicks, take downs or wrestling. Mind you, I wonder how MMA fighters would have gone in the study.
8 GrahamB // Jun 28, 2007 at 3:13 pm
I love the way everyone thinks that video animation of the power coming up the body is somehow scientific
Er, guys, that’s not science, it’s a video game!
I don’t think the power he’s using does come up as cleanly from the ground in one unified wave as the animation would indicate. He says himself, for instance, that he feels it come ‘from the hip’. Of all the punchers he definitely has the most whole body movement though.
Also, for a scientific test wouldn’t the *same guy* have to punch in all the various different ways? I wonder how that guys would do using the jung fu puch, for instance- I’m guessing a lot better than the Kung Fu guy did.
That boxer was very good - like you say, very relaxed. Does that mean every boxer punches exactly like he does?
If that boxer could do a good Pi Chuan I’d love to know how much force he could generate with his Pi. I’m guessing it would be a LOT.
9 William // Jul 6, 2007 at 12:23 am
A good article is the one on Jack Demsey Master of XingYi by Brian Kennedy and E. Guo, his methods resemble the tactics of Xing Yi and he was a western boxer.
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