Shalom everyone. Today’s week’s technique review is hammer punches, hammer strikes. So, again I trust that you have seen the techniques in the curriculum. Here just reviewing, adding some about common mistakes.

So I want to focus first on hammer forward. So we understand that the hammer strike forward needs to be as fluid as early as possible. So, if I’m striking and first opening to much cannot be a first strike. So if I’m doing something like this … It was a combination. That is, do something like that. The moment I’m here recoiling, I’m doing this wave or maybe just say, a moment before the strike, I might open a bit more to strike the second one. However, the shoulder range, if I would like to strike from here, then I would do like this motion upon an enemy, aggressor, attacker … He is the attacker, we’ll see this. So, what should I do about this? Should do a quite narrow wave type of action, something like this … So it’s not so much open. So, in this case, naturally the strike will be a little bit weaker but if we train on the power drills to enhance impact, enhance power, meaning energy, meaning mass, velocity … Moving the mass and velocity.

Here, contracting the abdominal muscles, contracting the glutes, sending the shoulder forward. Here working on pressure and relaxing. Pressure and relaxing and becoming stronger. My brain knows how to activate maximal torque units in all the muscles that creating the kinetic chain here. So I’ll be much stronger in the strike. That’s the idea. So when we look at the shoulder range, we see that the first strike we cannot open. We cannot go back. We must do it a wave-like action that is much more forward. So pay attention to this.

When we talk about attack sideways, for example. Something like this one. So it’s just a simple combination. So, when we start, the assumption is hands are already up for the basics. Later, of course, I can attack from here. If I attack from here and the opponent, enemy is at this distance I will not raise the hands so much, probably I’ll do an uppercut that is another tool we have. So, my hands are about here or if I’m in this position where at first I give a kick and now I’m sideways going in to attack. Striking from here will be a reasonable hammer. That’s the idea. Medium range. Now the question is, how do we maximize impact? So we have to maximize kinetic energy and momentum.

If you learn a little bit of physics and mechanics … Investigate it, it’s good, you’ll know more. Then you’ll be better, you’ll know more. You have to practice and understand and feel it in the body and do exercises. That’s the idea. So, of course, the concept is that everything moves. Integrate all the sections in the kinetic chain and now the elbow moves sideways and then always on the elbow and the arm is … And the fist is doing this projectile, yes? Moving in an arch and hitting the target partly from the side. Okay, part front, part side. That’s the idea. Now, here again we have to generate a lot of destructive energy. So I’m shifting the weight and I’m turning the body and I’m sending the shoulder in this direction. So we have the ability to create much of a path through the target. With highest pitch possible and with rigid areas, strong areas. That’s the thinking.

So, usually the straight strikes we’re pressing forward. Of course the body was creating a torque but mainly forward and the back shoulder was a bit lower, here it doesn’t exist like this exactly. What happens is the shoulders are powerless because it’s always on the strike. And now we are working with the glute of the back leg creating cross action with the abdominal muscles and pressing strongly. Now, if I were to do only something like this, the elbow did not pass the target and the strike will not be so strong in penetrating. The elbow must pass the line. With the strike itself, you can strike better. It’s very similar, if you think about it, this is the elbow and that’s the fist, that’s the knee, that’s the foot or the shin.

So with a roundhouse, it’s exactly the same thing. We must pass. If we do not pass, we end here, if we pass we continue. So we would like to penetrate through. What’s important is that you keep pressing with all the muscles in the kinetic chain. You keep pressing into the target in this rotation manner until you pass the target, until you start the recoiling. As long as I’m not recoiling yet, I cannot relax the muscles. The back let must still be pushing. The glute and the abdomen must still be working. Muscles of the back still need to be working. The triceps need to be working when we are striking. That’s the idea.

So this was about the hammer sideways and the hammer backwards is very similar but in this case remember that if the strike is in this direction, where the weight to go. So the weight must go in the same direction, that’s the whole idea. So if I’m striking a target which is behind me, my weight, if I’m striking with the right hand and the fist is going to my left, my weight should go to the same direction to my left. So when I’m striking I need to push with the right, the hip area is pushing me backwards, the back is pushing me or pulling me backwards however we call it and then the weight, the mass moves in the correct direction. Sometimes we see common mistakes. People are shifting the weight to this leg. So imagine, the strike is there and the weight is going there. Punching like this all the time. So remember, shift the weight in the direction of the strike. Unless it’s a retreat attack, that’s something different, of course it’s much weaker in this case. Thanks for listening. All the best. See you on the next one. Ciao.