Garden Pond Pump

When learning the martial arts, especially if you want to be effective, you need to learn the differences, the gains and limitations, of the two kinds of punches. Knowing these punches will dictate and proscribe your combat strategy. Knowing these punches will effect your training and enlighten you as to the True Martial Arts.

A thrusting punch is the first punch. To do a thrusting punch imagine a train running into something and going right on through. Simply, there is no back off, the punch hits, and the punch goes through.

Now, the problem with the thrusting punch is...what happens to all the cars behind the train? They all collide, stack up, and become a mess. Thus, a thrusting punch, while in theory the unstoppable force, does risk becoming a mess.

Once delivered, a thrusting punch, is now entangled. The body behind the punch, unless the legs have moved the whole body forward, risks becoming unbalanced. Thrust, and you are forced to commit your body to the action, and possibly be overcommitted.

The second punch is a snapping punch. Imagine a jackhammer striking, but only once. It hits, leaves its weight, and backs off.

Now, the problem with the snapping punch is that there has not been enough weight behind the punch. Weight is not fully committed to the punch because the body hasn't move into the action. You have your balance, but the punch didn't strike as hard as you might have wished?

Now, a thrusting punch is a strategy involving moving your body, using your entire weight, committing it to the action, and god help you if you miss because you're going to be out of place and unbalanced. The snapping punch is a strategy where you don't always do the damage you wish, but you have not risked a lot. The main point here is the fact of committing weight, the snapping punch gives less weight, but 95% of the weight will be left in the body of the opponent, a thrust punch commits weight, but takes fifty per cent of the shock back up the arm.

So we have to continuously assess which is better, the thrusting punch, or the snapping punch. Each punch has bad points and good, and you're going to have to gauge balance versus stability, commitment versus noncommitment, weight versus speed, weight left in the body versus weight backed up the arm, potential follow ups, positioning, and so on and so on. When you're done exploring all these possibilities, however, you're going to have the right punch for the right situation.