There are Two Kinds of Punches

The first punch is a thrusting punch. To do a thrusting punch imagine a train running into something and not stopping. Simply, it hits, and there is no back off, and the punch goes through.

Now, the problem with the thrusting punch is…what happens to all the cars behind the locomotive? They all stack up, collide and become a mess. Thus, the unstoppable power of a thrusting punch 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.

A snapping punch is the second type of punch. Imagine a jackhammer striking cement, but only impacting once and then holding off. It hits, damages as much as possible, and then retreats.

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, committing it to the action, using your entire weight, 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 risk little, but don’t always do the damage you wish to. The main point here is the fact of committing weight, a thrust punch commits weight, but takes fifty per cent of the shock back up the arm, the snapping punch gives less weight, but 95% of the weight will be left in the body of the opponent.

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.