hip no more than a quarter turn to your right until your arm is fully extended. If you turn so far that your entire left side is toward your opponent, as if drawing a bow to launch an arrow, you have gone too far. More is not better.
Technique: Jab
Assume your on-guard stance and snap your left arm straight out making sure to keep your elbow pointing downward. Rotate your upperbody about a 1/4 to the right. Snap it back on the same path.
Don’t let your right arm hang down like a dead grape on a vine. When you launch your left jab, snap your right arm back to a place near your chin. Though this may be a boxer’s jab, the karate principle still holds that for every action there is an opposite action. Snap your right hand back fast, and watch your jab go out even faster.
Your jabbing fist rotates until your palm is facing the floor at the point of impact. Some fighters hit with their thumb side up and with their fist turned downward slightly to make impact with their index and middle knuckles. You might want to experiment with this to see how you like it.
With either method, your arm travels in a straight line and strikes through the target, not at the target. If you are punching a guy in the neck (a safer target for your fist than his bony old chin), think of punching all the way through his Adam’s apple to his back collar. It’s the same thinking process for breaking a brick: You don’t just hit the top of the brick, but you think all the way through.
The jab is a light and easy movement. But if you tense your shoulder, fist and arm prior to hitting, it will be stiff and slow. Practice the jab until it becomes a natural, almost casual movement. Experiment with lifting the shoulders as the Muay Thai fighter suggests on page 32, #1, “Shoulders” to see if you like that method. Practice hitting the air, hitting a heavy bag, a handheld pad, and a training partner’s open palm. Then work your jab into your sparring. Your ultimate goal is to have a jab that is quick and powerful without apparent effort. Here are a few ways to use it.
Jab to Make your Opponent Nervous
As you move around stalking each other, keep popping jabs at your opponent’s face. It doesn’t matter whether you jab in an attempt to hit, or jab just to make your opponent flinch. Your objective is to keep him nervous and thinking about defense rather than thinking about attacking you.
To Disrupt your Opponent’s Setpoint
Use the jab every time he sets himself to throw a technique at you. As the two of you spar, you see him get set to launch a punch. To disrupt his plan, lunge forward with your lead foot and snap a quick jab into his face.
Strategy Tip: Jab to Disrupt your Opponent
While sparring, you detect your opponent begin to advance.
You disrupt this with a quick jab to the side of his face and …
Take advantage of his nicely exposed neck and punch it.
Jab to Set up your Opponent
This technique works especially well with the high/low and broken rhythm principle. Gary Sussman, my senior student and a 3rd-degree black belt who has been with me since 1982, loves to combine high/low with broken rhythm. “I like to jab high and then kick low,” he says. “First, I’ll jab at my opponent’s face and let him block it. Then I’ll jab at his face a second time, and again I let him block it. My third jab is a fake that goes out only enough to make him commit his block. When he does, I slam a kick into his groin or against his knee. The concept is simple: I set a rhythm with the jabs and then I break it.”
Jabbing the Body
Not a lot of fighters jab to their opponent’s body, but I have seen guys get hit there and crumple to the ground unable to continue fighting. Here is how to do it with power.
Boxers believe that the jabber’s body should be behind the jab (as shown at right) whether it’s to a high target or a mid level one. To jab hard to a low target, you need to lower your body so that your left shoulder is at a level with your opponent’s solar plexus. Bend your lead leg slightly and your rear leg a little more as you rotate your shoulders, and drive your fist into your opponent’s gut. Be sure to snap your other hand back to the side of your head. Since being low and close to your opponent is not a desirable place to loiter, especially if your jab didn’t hurt him, follow up with additional techniques or scoot yourself out of there.
Add the jab to your repertoire and you will be happily surprised at how well it works - though not half as surprised as your opponent.
5. HOOK PUNCHES
The hook punch is another hand technique rarely found in karate styles. This is an unfortunate omission, since it’s a devastating blow that can easily drop a street attacker. In point fighting competition, however, you might find it difficult to get the judges to call it since it’s harder to see than the more obvious reverse punch. Additionally, because it’s rarely seen in point competition, you might run into judges who won’t count it as a point no matter how accurately or obviously it’s thrown.
There are two kinds of hook punches: the lead and the rear. Both require considerable practice to perfect, but are well worth the effort. They can be sneaky and get into openings that other hand techniques can’t, and they can be extremely powerful when executed with all the correct body mechanics.
Front Hook
Assume your fighting position with your left side forward, arms in an on-guard position and your front heal slightly off the floor. Some fighters like to hit with their palm facing downward, others prefer their palm facing back toward them. No matter which method you like, be sure to make contact with your two, large knuckles.
Think 90. Keep your punching arm bent about 90 degrees as you rotate your hip and foot in the direction of your punch. Your front foot twists 90 degrees to the right until your toes are pointing to your right side, as you simultaneously twist your hips about 90 degrees in the same direction. Your rear foot twists the same way, but only about 70 degrees. Under the stress of a real fight, you may not twist your lead foot all the way to 90 degrees, but your hips should twist as far as possible to maximize the impact of your punch. When practicing in the air, stop your left hook punch when it’s even with your right side, and simultaneously snap your right fist back to your right ear.
It’s all these factors working together that provides power to the hook.
Technique: Front Hook
Move to his outside as you block his punch.
You can easily pop him with a lead hook. In this case, I’m throwing a downward hook to his neck because he’s tall. You could just as easily hook punch his liver.
Rear Hook
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