Learn To Strike Fast And Hard

“In the course of a street fight, there are going to be occasions where blows will be exchanged. It is therefore logical to develop well-timed, fast, powerful, and explosive punches and blows.”

– Phil Giles

I agree with the quote above that Giles wrote in Street Tough: Hard-Core, Anything Goes Street Fighting Fundamentals. Learning to hit, and hit fast and hard, is an essential fighting and physical self-defense tool. With practice and training, you can learn to make your blows fast, powerful, and explosive.

For many, punching has been effective in real fights, and for many, learning to punch correctly and training in effective striking, including closed fist punching, can and should be done. However, I also know that it is easier to break your hand with a closed fist, and for many people, an open hand blow is more effective and can be thrown with less risk to the thrower’s hand. Therefore, I think everyone should train with the open hand palm heel strike, and some should also train with closed fist strikes if they want to add these blows to their striking arsenal.

With both, it’s important to use your body and weight with the strike and not rely on your arm power alone. This can be achieved by stepping with your strike, twisting and driving with the waist and legs, or sometimes by shifting your weight. Most formal training curriculum will teach these various ways to put your weight and motion into your strikes.

I strongly recommend you learn various strikes from a qualified instructor, but if that fails, at least find a good book or video that can help you learn. Then you must practice! Train for both speed and power. Various drills can be performed to make your strikes faster, and good old heavy bag training can help you increase the power of your blows.

Striking techniques are some of the basics that you must master if you want to be a competent fighter and have a better chance at physically defending yourself. But learning them isn’t enough. You must train so you can strike fast and hard.

If you are looking for a great primer on self-defense that teaches the basics of striking, check out the DVD set Streetfighting Essentials in Alain’s DVDs.