Expert: Alan Kahn - 3/23/2004

Question
Dear Sir,
        you have helped me a lot in past and i managed  to become champion in my state . thank you.
        now i am going to ask you an awkward question and i hope you will help me.
         i want my to strengten my face ,so i can absorb toughtest punch of the oponent , i am a welter weight boxer and you  can understand how tough the punches are .
          can you tell me some exercise where i can aborb the toughest punch on my face
          i hope you will guide me again
        thaking you!
                          danish

Answer
Hi Danish,

I understand your concern for your ability to take a punch. You Welter weights can throw some heavy leather! But Your face is not really the issue. Your FACE is not so much at risk from a punch as your BRAIN is. The problem is that the force of a punch translates into skull movement that puts pressure on the brain inside the skull. think of a hard fist trying to get inside your skull as it connects, and your brain trying to get out. The brain can be bumped around inside and cause minute(small) types of damage to the tissues. There is NO way to train for that or toughen the brain to collision, because to create a progessive workout of hitting your head or "taking punches" to get used to it, Could cause damage itself. The muscles of the body repair and get stronger from being torn down slightly in training. Nerves and Brain tissue do not regenerate in that type of training, and you can lose feeling and function from too much abuse of those types of tissue.  Look at Mohammad Ali. His face took incredible punches. In fact, Besides his depth perception, which was extradinary ( He could slip punches better than any heavyweight..) His greatest asset was to "take a punch". He had an Iron Jaw! He was never afraid to get knocked out. Even when Ken Norton Broke his Jaw, Ali never fell. So, He could take a punch like no one else.  Now try and talk to him. Near impossible. the man can barely walk and speak, due to repetitive brain injury and related Parkinsons disease. His Face took the punch, but his brain paid the price. Pretty disasterous Price for an old man to pay, don't ya think? In his finest hours of later life, our man can barely communicate. What a waste. A brain beaten way to many times, due to fighting long after he could slip the punches any longer.

Now, I happen to work in a medical center as a rehab therapist ( My real day job..) I talked to several doctors and especially a Neurologist (Brain-nerve specialist) about your question ( to toughen the ability to take a punch) and they all agree the best way to do that is to slip them and react quickly to disapate ( release ) the force of the blow away from your brain. You do this by "Giving with the Punch" such as letting the head and body turn with the force. To accept the full force into your face and skull directly is to invite injury later in life, and perhaps Knockout in the ring. Brain injury from a knockout can show up later in life. The key is to slip the force off your face and skull. The best you can hope for is to turn a very powerful punch into a slightly glancing blow. You can do this with some regimented practice. To do this, You may want to practice "giving" with a group of easy punches. Have a partner lightly throw a slow single punch or slow combination, let it connect your jaw or face and try to get off the fist and turn the force of the punch in another direction. Do this with the punches you know are devastating, like a Hook or uppercut. see it coming and "give" with it to let the force just glance of you. Do this for maybe three sets of 10 punches or combinations. when the fist touches you, "give" in the natural direction and draw the force for your counter during the reaction.

Avoidance is the best thing to learn, and then learn to release the punch without accepting it's full force. That is what our neurologist said, and that trying to take harder and harder punches in practice will only invite injury to the face and brain.

Perhaps the best thing for you may be to learn how to "stick and move" unpredictably. Create a bob & weaving pattern that your opponent cannot figure out. Being totally unpredictable make you much harder to hit, and the punches that get in will only be glancing. Maybe learn to go southpaw, then natural, switching leads etc., to drive the other guy nuts in trying to mount an offense. Occassionally, that lucky one may tag you, but if you are in top condition and can "slip" it's full power you may escape the next one. There are few "one punch" knock outs, and most come from a succession of punches. If you can avoid the succession, than one should not be a major problem. I am assuming here that you do NOT have a glass jaw, and lets face it, you wouldn't be a state champion if you had a glass jaw in awesome welter weights.

I hope this answer makes sense, for allowing someone to hit your face/head harder and harder in practice will not help your ability to take the big one, but can lead to unwanted face or brain damage.

Good luck in your efforts and CONGRATULATIONS on being the CHAMPION in your state! Hey dude, I am really proud of YOU! YO' Adrian, YOU did it!    You have now earned the respect and the right to truly be a Role Model for others. Please do Yourself and the sport proud by being someone we all want to emulate. I hope to see you in the "Big Time" soon, either Olympics, ESPN, Showtime Boxing or HomeBox office. Wherever it leads, good luck and don't hesitate to ask again if you think I can still help you.

sincerely,

Alan Kahn
author, The Speed Bag Bible
speedbag@hot.rr.com