AboutMarc MacYoung Expertise Street self-defense, crime avoidance and personal safety
Experience I grew up in the streets of Los Angeles in 'situational poverty.' I have dealt with criminals and violent people all my life -- both personally and professionally. I have written 15 books and 6 videos on surviving street violence. I was originally published under the name Marc Animal MacYoung. (Animal was my street name). I've taught police and military both internationally and within the US. I've lectured at universities, academies and done countless TV, radio, newspaper and magazine interviews. I'm a professional speaker on crime avoidance and personal safety. And I am an expert witness recognized by the US court system.
My bio is at
www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/marcmacyoung.html
My abridged CV (Curriculum Vitae) is at
http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/seminarEW.htm
Organizations See CV
Publications Too numerous to list here. My CV (for my expert witness work in court) is at
http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/seminarEW.htm
Question Hi there. I'm just wondering if there's a way of telling you have decent punching power? I don't do any martial arts or anything and just have a heavy bag at home. I'm not someone who gets into fights or anything, but I guess knowing I could deliver a decent punch would give me a bit of comfort should I ever get into a bad situation.
The reason I'm a bit insecure about this dates back to when I was at school many years ago. I remember hitting a guy with a lot of punches and the only thing I hurt was my own hand. Back then I didn't understand the whole ''punching through the target'' physics of punching. I'm a grown man now, and wiser, but I have nothing to test anything on only my heavy bag. I've been meaning to take up a martial art for a couple of years now, but just haven't had much time.
Do you think there's a way of a least knowing you can punch well? I've also been using small weights when punching as well.
Answer Wow, in just one seemingly simple question you've asked about sixteen complicated ones.
The short answer is you know you're hitting hard when the guy holding the bag tells you "Good hit." It does NOT come from you hitting the bag and going "Wow, that felt really powerful!" The reason is feeling like you are really delivering power is a feedback loop that occurs when you're hitting wrong. Because it FEELS more powerful, we think we're delivering power when in fact we're losing it. We're losing it because instead of going into our opponent, it's going into us.
Here's the longer version of what I'm talking about. Take a heavy item like a phone book. Hold it in the flat of your palm out at arms length (straight arm it). See how long it takes before your arm gets tired.
Then take the same book into your weaker arm's palm. This time, drop your elbow to your side, bring your hand and the book near your shoulder and rotate your hand so your fingers are pointing back over your shoulders. Tuck everything in close to you so you look like a waiter/ waitress carrying a heavy tray. I guarantee you you'll get bored before you get tired.
The difference is that in the first, you are using your muscles to hold that pose. We can maintain that posture because our muscles are doing all the work. In order to stay in that position, you must flex your muscles.
The second pose is instead relying on your skeleton and how your ligaments work. When you turn your fingers back over your shoulder, it creates an automatic tightening and locking down of the muscles. But you are NOT flexing them. That is a bio-mechanical reaction to how you have positioned your body. You've created what I have called 'structure.' Your skeleton, ligaments, tendons and muscles are now bearing the load. And they will be able to do it a LOT longer than muscle alone. This is why waiters and waitresses carry trays this way.
This same structural idea works with a punch. Realize this though, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you're holding your body right, your structure will be bearing this 'blowback of force.' And you really WON'T feel like you've hit that hard.
On the other hand, when you are moving wrong, it's going to feel like you're generating all kinds of power. When in fact what you're feeling is your muscles fighting to keep your arm from collapsing.
See our arms are like giant springs. When we push 'out' they want to collapse. They will do so unless we keep on holding them so we can push out.
There are some positions we can put ourselves in where it is muscle alone holding them out and others where it is structure. When we are in structural poses we're better at delivering force (think about how you hold your arms when you're pushing a car -- are your elbows up with your arms bent or are your elbows down with hands, shoulders and elbows lined up?
With the former it feels like you're pushing harder. But it's the latter that gets the car moving.
The problem with training by yourself is this feedback loop. When you're hitting wrong it really feels like you're doing good because YOUR muscles are working so hard to keep the spring from bending. But that force should be going into him, not your arm.
This is why I told you to listen to the guy holding the bag. When HE says 'good hit' THOSE are the physics you want to try to replicate. Do NOT try to recreate the physics where you FEEL like you're really hitting hard because of all the work you're doing to keep your arm in the wrong place. All that does is ingrain moving incorrectly.
Now if you don't mind some homework here are some pages that might help you understand how to develop effective movement so you can RELIABLY develop and deliver power.
Now about that experience you had about things falling apart in the conflict ... whoo boy is that a whopper of a subject. It's generically known as adrenal decay. That's something that is NOT an unstoppable juggernaut, but it sure feels that way the first time you get nailed by it.
