How to Punch (FightWrite™)

I haven’t taught y’all how to punch. Yes, I’m leading with that because it shocks me. How have I overlooked this? That is what we will cover today with FightWrite™ on the WD Blog. We will learn how to punch. So, make yourself a space on the floor and get ready to rumble.

(CSI Myths To Avoid (FightWrite™)

But, first, before we start throwing hands, let me announce the winners of the free copy of Fight Write, Round Two. Yes, winners. Plural. Why not? According to one TV channel that began celebrating this Christmas the day after last Christmas, it’s already the season of giving! The winners are Rachel Y. of Virginia and A. Writer of Arizona. The second is the private sort, and I respect that. Thank you to all who entered. I hope the book helps you accomplish your writing goals.

Making a Fist

In order to punch, we need to know how to make a fist. When I teach my Fighting for Writers class, I first ask the attendees to make a fist and hold it up. You go ahead and do the same now. Make a fist, the type of fist that you would make to punch somebody’s lights out.

Look at your fist. If your thumb is up like an apple stem or if you can see the fronts of your fingernails against your hand, congratulations. You made the same mistake most people do and are completely normal and have the opportunity to learn something new!

Here we go. Hold your hand the way you would if you were going to shake someone’s hand, fingers together, thumb away from the fingers. Roll your fingers down slowly. Be especially mindful to fold them as completely as you can at the middle knuckle. Keep rolling the fingers down, keeping them tight enough that your fingertips are tucked into your palm. Your fingernails should be down into the meat of your palm and hard to see. If your nails are long, this won’t be possible.

With your nails settled into your palm, you should be able to relax your fingers and them still stay fixed to the palm. This will create a nice, flat plane across the tops of the fingers. Now place your thumb just over the pointer and middle fingers between the top and middle knuckles. The thumb doesn’t do anything in the punch so it just needs to get out of the way. Don’t let it point up like an apple stem and don’t reach it over. Just let it sit where it naturally goes. If the thumb is up, it can be injured in the punch. If it is reaching toward the ring and pinkie fingers, the knuckles of the hand will round.

If you are not sure if your fist is correct, here’s another way to go about making it. Point with your less dominant hand. Open the dominant hand wide. Now lay that pointing finger over the top pads of the palm of your dominant hand, just below the fingers. Wrap your fingers around that pointer finger as tight as you can like you are grabbing a stick tightly. See how your fingernails are hidden in the bottom of your hand and there is a flat plane across the tops of your knuckles? That’s what you want.

At this point I have some good news and bad news for you. The good news is you know how to make a proper fist. The bad news is the fist is the smallest part of the punch. The body creates the force of the punch. The fist just delivers it.

Fight Stance

In order to punch productively, we need to stand in a way that allows the physics of fighting to work its scientific magic. This way we stand is known as a fight stance. For punching, stand tall with your feet shoulder width apart. Pivot on your heels to turn your toes, and body, about 45 degrees away from your dominant side. So, if you are right-handed, or “orthodox fighter,” your toes, knees and body will be pointing about 45 degrees to the left. If you are left-handed, or “south paw,” your toes, knees and body will be pointing to the right. This fight stance will provide the body the stability and balance it will need to not only throw a punch but create the force of it.

Soften the knees to settle your weight over the balls of your feet. Now, exhale as hard as you can until your back rounds over. Hold your back in that position. Keep breathing though! Breathing is super important and worth the hype. Now, tuck your chin as if you are holding a tennis ball under it. Don’t touch it to your neck. Just keep enough space to hold a tennis ball.

This will have you looking a bit upward toward your opponent. Seems kind of crazy but it’s very important to have your chin down in this position.

Bring your fists up. Put your forward, nondominant hand in front of the cheekbone. Your dominant hand will be beside the jaw line on its same side. The elbows will point down. Now pivot on your toes so that your hips and shoulders rotate together as one. If you feel a little off balance, rotate less or move to a carpeted area where there will be more friction between your feet and the floor. You need to be able to rotate enough that the forward side of your body can be completely sideways.

Extend the arm on the side of your body that is forward. Keep a bit of a bend in the elbow. You want to be able to punch the target without stepping forward and before your arm has reached its full length. Be sure that you don’t rotate so much that you show your opponent your back on your forward side. You want to rotate only until the forward arm can point straight at the opponent. It’s not likely you will over-rotate on your dominant side so don’t worry about that.

Throwing a Punch

Now, find a point on the wall out in front of you far enough away that you can extend your arm but not touch the spot. Pivot on your toes and bring your fist straight out on the side that is moving forward toward that point on the wall. So, if my left shoulder is moving forward, I will extend my left arm, if my right side, then my right arm. You want to bring the fist forward at a speed that would allow the fist to make contact just as you reach maximum rotation. Go back and forth until you get the rhythm aiming your fists toward the target.

One more thing: As the fist moves, turn the hand over so at the point of contact, the thumb is pointed down. This protects the elbow. Honestly, sometimes the punch happens so fast you don’t get a full rotation and that’s OK. It’s just the habit/muscle memory you want to develop.

When you throw your forward hand, you are throwing a jab. When you throw the back, dominant hand, you are throwing a cross. Go, you!

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Posture Protects You

By the way, did you straighten your back or bring your chin up as you got your punch rhythm? Yeah, you can’t do that. That position protects you as you attack. With your back rounded your abdominal muscles will be engaged. They are what is pulling you forward and rounding out your back. If an assailing punch gets to your stomach, your muscles will be engaged and ready to protect your vital organs.

Your elbows being down will be protecting the sides of your ribs. All you need to do is do a side crunch to dip the elbow down to cover the assailed area. When you dip, bring your head down with the arm. Imagine there is a little pole about the width of your hand long between your jawline and the fist in front of it. Unless you are punching, if the hand moves, the head should move with it so that the jawline doesn’t pull down on or away from the little imaginary pole that attaches it to the fist.

Your chin is down to protect the entire mandible bone. A solid punch to any part of the jawline can drop you like a bag of wet dirt. I can talk about that in another post. For now, keep your chin down! This position allows the shoulders to protect that vulnerable area. When you throw a jab, you’ll notice the shoulder protects the jaw on that side. When you throw a cross, the same happens. You are protected on both sides.

The Physics of the Thing

A punch starts at the feet. Friction between the balls of the feet and the standing surface allows the body to stay balanced as the feet move. The pivot in the feet creates torque in the hips. That torque throws the shoulder forward which, in turn, throws the fist. That is why it is called “throwing” punches.

The faster this chain of events, the greater the potential for force. What we know as a “hard punch” is actually a punch with great force. Force is the product of mass x acceleration. The mass in that equation is your body. The acceleration of the strike, or, the fighter’s ability to take the fist from a resting state to max speed, combined with the mass of the body creates the force of the punch. So, to punch “hard” you don’t actually punch hard. You punch fast.

Proper punching technique allows the fighter not only to make the most of physics and its chain of events but also get as much of their body weight as possible into the mix. And, yes, the more mass a person has the greater their potential to create force. That is why fighting has weight classes.

I go into the physics of punching more in Fight Write, Round Two. I also show how much faster a smaller fighter will need to punch to equal the punch force of a much larger fighter. And if you are writing a character who is into combat sports, that’s information you need. I have three chapters dedicated to combat sports characters.

Until the next round at Fight Write on the WD, let me leave you with two thoughts. One: Now that you know how to punch, use your powers for good. Don’t go around punching things. You, and your character for that matter, are likely to break your hand if you punch without having the hand wrapped/taped tightly. Binding the bones of the hand together securely is actually more important in protecting the bones of the hand than a glove is. I can explain that in another post as well.

Two: I’m incredibly thankful for WD and all of you who support Fight Write. Next time someone asks you what you do for a living, tell them that you are a unicorn rancher. The face they make is the one I generally get when I tell people that I teach writers how to write fight scenes. I absolutely love what I do and the writers I work with. For the record, I suspect I would love unicorn ranching too.

Happy Thanksgiving all! Get blood on your pages.