Gather a lot of people together, and you’re bound to hear a lot of opinions. Take the question ‘what’s the best fighting style?’ – That’s sure to lead to a healthy debate! However, when it comes to the notion of the quickest way to end a fight, there’s a clear answer. Actual fights have proven what works time and again, and it’s a method that’s favored by street fighters and anyone who’s trained to fight for real. We’re talking about a good simple punch to the head.
No matter where you are in the world, there’s very little individual variation in human bodies when it comes to structure. The neck is always going to be more vulnerable than the shoulder, for instance. And no matter where you’re from, the quickest way to end a fight is with a punch to the head.
With this in mind, you should make sure that your punches are delivered with power and to the most delicate parts of the head, like the nose, behind the ears and the chin. All of these will guarantee at a minimum complete disorientation and very often unconsciousness. UFC fights require the contestants to cover their fists for two related reasons: the amount of damage a good punch can deliver, and the amount of damage your own fists may suffer. Boxers keep running into that problem; with all their glove practice, their hands aren’t used to hitting hard surfaces. Even though they can come out on top, it’s very often with damaged hands of their own.
To this end, it’s best to practice with a style that lets your hands apply force so that they can withstand the battering your fist takes when it makes contact in an actual fight. You’ll need a heavy punching bag, but don’t go with traditional boxing gloves; instead, use lighter MMA-style gloves and continue practicing your usual punches. After you’ve got used to those, go down another level to leather work gloves. Cut the fingers off so you can make a fist with those gloves and thus you can practice your strikes without much between your hand and the target.
A good punch to the head is the quickest way to finish a fight, but the head is a hard target, and it’s best to harden your hand before you need to deliver that punch. Bare-knuckle boxing is a painful but effective way of doing this. You don’t necessarily need to start punching brick walls to begin with, but starting with a punching bag will definitely toughen up your fingers.
There are many things you can do to improve the chances that your first punch of the fight will be the only one you need. Training for power is great, but it should also be combined with exercises that improve your speed and endurance. Shadow-boxing is a great exercise for improving both speed and endurance. You can also use a speedball for these purposes, which will also help you work on your punch accuracy.
Any thoughts on the subject? Ever tried going with lighter gloves or bare knuckles against your punching bag?
