Improve your striking technique with these basic punching drills from San Shou Kung Fu.
Drill 1
This first one is pretty simple. Concentrate on generating power fromt the hips as you snap back into the horse stance
for the second strike of two, and at the end of each barrage.
Drill 2
This second drill takes the same method of generating power from the hips as you snap the body back into a horse stance
and applies it in a more realistic context as the second strike in a combination.
Drill 3
Definitely the most important of the four drills given here. This teachhes you how to combine the movements of the upper
and lower body for maximum efficiency and power. In the first three parts - jab, cross punch, and quick 1/2 - the pulling withdrawal
of the fist to the guard position should be in harmony with the backwards jump, just as the strike was in harmony with the
forwards jump. In the fourth part the relationship in movement between the arm and the body is identical, but rather than
pulling the arm back you are pulling the body forwards; it can help to imagine that you are literally doing this, as
if you are holding a rope with your striking arm and pulling the body forwards. From the conclusion of the strike the fist
should not move at all, but the rest of the body should move forwards into the second strike.
Drill 4
The final drill is a combination of the hook and cross punches. It demonstrates a different application of the same priniciple
learned in drill 3. At the conclusion of the initial hook punch the lead arm is brought back to the guard position as you
step again into a cross punch. But in actual fact the fist is not brought back at all, but rather this movement is used to
help pull the body forwards into the second strike, making it very powerful and also giving you more range than you could
normally get from a 2 punch combo, so that it your opponent moves backwards and dodges the first strike, you will certainly
get them with the second.