Techniques>Punches>Fore-fist/straight punch

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Fore-fist/straight punch

Intro

The fore-fist or straight punch is the first punch that beginning students are taught in many of the martial arts. It is a straight-in punch using the lead hand with the hand held in a clenched fist.

Performing the punch

Beginners usually learn this punch by standing in a horseback or sitting stance and punching in the following manner:

• The hands are held in clenched fists.
• Both arms are held straight out in front of the body with the palms turned downward with the arms extended with a slight bend in the elbows.
• The punching fist is pulled to its corresponding hip as its fist is rotated outward into a palm upward position. The elbow stays directly behind the fist, don’t let it swing outward.
• The punching fist is punched straight-forward to the full extension of the arm with a slight bend in the elbow as the forearm and fist rotate inward to a palm downward position. As the punch is thrown, the elbow stays behind the fist, driving it to the target.
• The fist is kept in the palm upward position until just before impact when the fist and forearm rotate inward.
• The wrist is kept straight and locked.
• As the punching arm is traveling toward the target, the elbow of the extended non-punching arms pulls its fist directly backward to its corresponding hip as the fist and forearm rotate outward, so the fist stops at its hip with the palm facing upward. The powerful retraction of the non-punching arm adds its reaction force to the force of the punching arm. 
• The point of impact of the fist is the base knuckles of the first two fingers.
• At impact, the punching hip snaps into the punch and concentrates all the power in the arm and body on the moment of impact.

This way of punching is used to teach students to use a full range of motion and to learn how to twist the wrist and snap the hips when punching. It’s used in training and in performing patterns, but this way of punching is never when sparring. In sparring, the punch is thrown from a fighting stance from the guard and it’s quickly retracted to the guard. The punch still uses the hip snap and the action/reaction forces, but the movements are smaller and more refined.

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