Expert: Alan Kahn - 2/5/2004

Question
i was woundering if u could help me. im trying to find out the force of a punch. no specfic punch. by an average person. not elite nor first timer. any infomation would be usefull. thank you

Answer
Hello Elie

that is an interesting question. I was reading a Medical journal ( I work in a hospital setting) several months ago, and found these measurements, which I posted to a similiar question about left hooks and punching power on the RossBoxing.com forum:

"...I got the fact that the hook is more powerful than the Straight Punch from an actual kinesiology research study published in a medical journal. I did not get to read the entire study, just the abstract - so the actual results may have been altered by who the punchers were...ie, trained boxers or just randomly picked university students. Anyway, Seems like I remember the Jab was 3 or 4 foot pounds, the Straight punch 5 or 6 and the Left Hook was 12 foot pounds of force delivered."

There is another link below that may also help.

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Click on this link for a large report on Boxing,

http://www.ama-assn.org/meetings/public/annual99/reports/csa/rtf/csa3.rtf

about half way down is this concerning boxing punch power.

"...One kinematic analysis of the mechanical properties of a boxing punch from a professional heavyweight estimated a peak force on impact of 0.4 ton delivered at a velocity of 8.9 meters/sec, which represents a blow to the head approaching 0.63 ton. The latter is equivalent to swinging a padded wooden mallet with a mass of 6 kg at 20 miles per hour.22 Force is transmitted to the skull (causing transient deformation), which can cause contact trauma or focal contusions in the cerebral hemispheres beneath the point of cranial impact. Observational and cross-sectional studies have found that serum concentrations of enzymatic markers of central nervous system neurons and astrocytes are significantly elevated in boxers immediately after completing bouts, perhaps signaling acute damage to these cell types and disruption of the blood brain barrier.23,24"
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I have done some extensive web searching and have not yet located any precise figures on this.  but I know someone has published some papers on it.  I hope this at least gives you some idea of what you are looking for.

thanks for your question and ask again if you think I can help you.  

sincerely,


Alan Kahn
author, The Speed Bag Bible