You Are Born With Punching Power

[Howlin Mad Missy]

Can a non-puncher 'learn' to become a puncher?

Discuss.

[ICB]

Can a non-puncher 'learn' to become a puncher?

Discuss.

Well Thomas Hearns had a pretty low KO percentage in the Amateur's, whether thats to do with the Pro's suiting him more. Or whatever i really don't know.

Kelly Pavlik also said that when he was in his teens, he wasn't a big puncher and he was more of a boxer. And that he only started to get punching power as he started to become a man learn better punching technique ETC.

Whether or not this is all true i don't know but there two good examples, worth discussing about. I've noticed alot of these "Non Punchers" are fighters that don't sit down on there punches.

Take Pernell Whitaker for example he was always on the backfoot and had a pretty low KO ratio, but when he planted his feet he could hit as that showed when he dismantled Diosbelys Hurtado.

[Scrap]

You can be taught to punch hard.

[Chris Nagel]

I believe that punching power is more about proper form than anything else. It'd explain why one guy can take someone's head off with a right hand, but can hardly knock over a coat rack with his left hook. It's about quickly getting the momentum of one's body into the fist at point of impact.

Any beginner can learn to punch harder, there's no question about it. On a different note, can a guy like Pernell Whittaker become a puncher? It's very unlikely. There are habits, or better yet as Scrap put it, "psychodynamics" which make changing how one fights difficult as it's ingrained into the muscle memory. How would you overcome this? You'd have to ask Scrap, that's his field of expertise.

[leggy]

well i think some boxers are natuarally quicker some are natuarally stronger etc

[Howlin Mad Missy]

Wayne McCullough, Manuel Medina...turn them into fearsome punchers?

Does it relate to technique/strength/fast/slow twitch fibres?

What are 'natural' punchers doing that others aren't?

[Von Milash]

long story short: yes.

[Von Milash]

Missy, I'll give you an example of how baseball players increase their throwing arm strength. They stand on the warning track of center field with a bucket of baseballs and throw them as far as they can towards home pate. Then they ice their arm.

They do this daily until they are where they need to be.

It's that simple.

[ICB]

I believe that punching power is more about proper form than anything else. It'd explain why one guy can take someone's head off with a right hand, but can hardly knock over a coat rack with his left hook. It's about quickly getting the momentum of one's body into the fist at point of impact.

Any beginner can learn to punch harder, there's no question about it. On a different note, can a guy like Pernell Whittaker become a puncher? It's very unlikely. There are habits, or better yet as Scrap put it, "psychodynamics" which make changing how one fights difficult as it's ingrained into the muscle memory. How would you overcome this? You'd have to ask Scrap, that's his field of expertise.

Chris when Pernell Whitaker planted his feet he could punch harder than you think. He stunned iron chinned Julio Cesar Chavez numerous times, his KO win over Diosbelys Hurtado was one of the most devastating KO's i've ever seen.

He floored Wilfredo Rivera heavily with one counter shot, Destroyed Jake Rodriguez in 6 rounds a fighter who went the distance with a prime Felix Trinidad. And theres many other occasions aswell, like i said he was mostly on the backfoot moving away.

And its hard to get power into shots moving backwards, yes he often fought on the inside but that was mostly body shots and quick flurries. In/Out kind of work from Pernell Whitaker.

But when he stood his groud and come forward and really planted his feet, he could change a fight around with 1 punch. As he did against Disobelys Hurtado, Wilfredo Rivera.

His KO ratio is deceiving he may look like a non puncher, but thats because he was always mostly in control of a fight. And never really had to take a risk or come forward, but when he needed to come forward in close fights against Wilfredo Rivera, Disobelys Hurtado, you could actually see he did have underrated punching power especially to the body.

[Scrap]

Punching Hard is Having the Head in the right place, and whats in it having the right program.

[Bomp]

I believe that punching power is more about proper form than anything else. It'd explain why one guy can take someone's head off with a right hand, but can hardly knock over a coat rack with his left hook. It's about quickly getting the momentum of one's body into the fist at point of impact.

Any beginner can learn to punch harder, there's no question about it. On a different note, can a guy like Pernell Whittaker become a puncher? It's very unlikely. There are habits, or better yet as Scrap put it, "psychodynamics" which make changing how one fights difficult as it's ingrained into the muscle memory. How would you overcome this? You'd have to ask Scrap, that's his field of expertise.

Chris when Pernell Whitaker planted his feet he could punch harder than you think. He stunned iron chinned Julio Cesar Chavez numerous times, his KO win over Diosbelys Hurtado was one of the most devastating KO's i've ever seen.

He floored Wilfredo Rivera heavily with one counter shot, Destroyed Jake Rodriguez in 6 rounds a fighter who went the distance with a prime Felix Trinidad. And theres many other occasions aswell, like i said he was mostly on the backfoot moving away.

And its hard to get power into shots moving backwards, yes he often fought on the inside but that was mostly body shots and quick flurries. In/Out kind of work from Pernell Whitaker.

But when he stood his groud and come forward and really planted his feet, he could change a fight around with 1 punch. As he did against Disobelys Hurtado, Wilfredo Rivera.

His KO ratio is deceiving he may look like a non puncher, but thats because he was always mostly in control of a fight. And never really had to take a risk or come forward, but when he needed to come forward in close fights against Wilfredo Rivera, Disobelys Hurtado, you could actually see he did have underrated punching power especially to the body.

I agree. Pure boxers like Pernell and Floyd may not 'appear' to be truly destructive punchers, but that's because more often than not they're concentrating on bringing there bodies back to the 'neutral' position straight after throwing to be prepared for whatever happens next. Inevitably such a mindest will add some eccentricity to the punching motion (i.e. the opposing muscles already pulling back) and taking something away from the blow. Baseball pitchers don't have to worry about bringing the arm back and aren't limited by this, and some punchers like Nigel Benn applied the same to their swings.

Like any sport, there's a spectrum of how gifted a guy is, however you can only really compare naturally ability when the boxers being compared have the same level of technical ability.

[Leo]

Some of your punching power is a matter of raw strength and a plethora fast twitch muscle fibers, but technique matters a lot.

Read "Championship Fighting: Explosive Punching and Aggressive Defense" by Jack Dempsy. IMHO it contains a lot of wisdom that has been lost over time and is no longer taught by many contemporary boxing trainers.

If you read it and find it helps, could you please post your results? It might help others and would make for some interesting reading in any case.

[bleuken]

i believe its both nature and nurture. nature in a sense that they were born to have a strong punch because of their physical strength and structure of their bones on their hands and nurture due to correct and constant practice, punching hard can be learn by hard work too.

[RozzySean]

Missy, I'll give you an example of how baseball players increase their throwing arm strength. They stand on the warning track of center field with a bucket of baseballs and throw them as far as they can towards home pate. Then they ice their arm.

They do this daily until they are where they need to be.

It's that simple.

Interesting factiod - Sandy Koufax broke down the biomechics of pitching himself, stetching out the process on paper, breaking down step by step. From this he figured out how to generate the most arm speed by turning his pitching motion into a a double catapult.

But not everyone has the body the be able to generate that kind of motion with way he did to give him that kind of velocity, and not everybody has hands as big as his that allowed him the throw that overhand curve so sharply.

It's a combination of techique and genetics. Anybody can be taught to hit hard, just like anybody can be taught to throw a baseball 70 mph. Not everybody can be taught to throw 90, just like not everybody can develop truely great power. Somebody with amazing athleticism might be able to throw a ball 70 from jumpstreet, but they will never maximize their velocity without proper technique. Punching power is the same.