Upper Cut from Passive and Fighting Stances

Technique Review

Hi everyone. Shalom. We are with today’s week review, and the technique is uppercut. Different elements, and of course, common mistakes. Usually when we teach the uppercut, and you saw this in the curriculum in P2, we first go down, then we come up. Why? Because the level of the fist is more or less the level of the target. So to hit from down to up, I have to be down first and then come up. That’s it, simple.

So in the passive stance, you are sending the sternum towards the knee, and then come up. When you go down, keep the hands here. When you start rotating to come up, then you would like to have the shoulder in the center of the target, you then drop the hand a little bit and come up.

Some common mistakes people are doing, the fist is not aligned so much. We would like to align the fist better. Remember, the direction of the forearm should be the direction of the knuckles and the direction to the target. So if I’m in horizontal, hook, angles and uppercut. Elbow below the two ankles, or in the same line, let’s say, of the movement. That’s the idea.

If you look at boxers, many times boxers do with the pinky forward. For them it’s great, they are doing this with a glove, and usually it’s okay. If they do this one, also good, meaning the palm towards them. For us this can be horrible. Why? Very simple. The two smaller knuckles will hit the target, and it’s a reasonable attack, the bones will break. So we are definitely with the palm towards us. And strike, dangling forward.

Why dangling forward? Because when there’s impact, and you’re going upwards, the target will move a little bit, and you deliver part of the destructive energy into the target. So what to do? You see the direction? The direction of my forearm, that’s the direction of the strike. So I’m going that direction, this direction. So just say towards the ear, more or less. This is the basic upper cut. And we are starting from here.

Then it’s from the fighting stance, and what I really want to talk about is from the passive stance. So imagine a situation that you have to attack from here, to your opponent. So what can we do? Obviously strike to the groin, and start moving. That’s one option.

But from this short distance, striking to the head. The earliest strike, what can reach first is the fist in the uppercut. So from here upwards, without going down. Why should I go down? The fist is down, the palm is down. I just go up. So, a bit of straightening the knees, lifting a bit the heels, straightening the body, working with the back muscles, even arching a little bit the back, and this will give you a good attack to the chin.

After that one, hammer for example, can be a good continuation. Sometimes if it worked very well, maybe a straight strike. So anyhow, you’re going up, go down. Good. Go up, go straight. Go up, go down, other hand. That’s the reasonable combination. That’s not the only ones. We can do this, and kick. Okay?

Overall, find the best combination that you feel comfortable with. But also remember, something that you do not feel comfortable with, meaning it’s not so natural, if you do it in good rhythm, meaning early attacks, it’s also not natural to the enemy. So it’s not natural to you to do something, probably it’s not so easy to identify it.

For example, doing something like this is not so comfortable. Doing even something like this is not so comfortable, because I’m already high to give the knee from here, it’s not so strong for most people. But it’s not expected in this case. So, work on combinations.

We talked about the basics of the uppercut. We talked about from the passive, and we talked a little bit about combinations. Train well. If not, how can we be good? Thanks. All the best. Cheers, guys.