How To Punch & Back Fist in Kempo Karate

Video Transcript

"Okay, so we learned some basic blocks, hopefully you'll be able to block things that are thrown at you. But you're going to have to need to defend yourself, you're going to have to learn to throw something back. So that's where hand techniques come in. Okay, back to our training stance because it's the easiest way. I always teach beginners from a training stance. Even though it's not that practical, it's practical so that you can focus more on your arms while your legs are getting in shape. Okay, your first basic punch, chokuzuki, thrusting punch. From here your hands are already cocked back. All you need to do, is you need to extend. I'm doing my right hand. You notice that my hand is upside down until the last possible second, where it torques over. You're striking with the first two knuckles. If you're ever decide you're going to do board breaking, it's very important that you make sure that you're aiming with this because you don't want to be breaking a board with a pinkie and your ring finger because the structure of the hand is weaker at that angle. You actually want to hit here. So you want to make sure your elbow is slightly bent, you do not want to lock your elbow out. You'll develop tennis elbow when you start hitting really hard. As the other hand comes out to punch, this hand comes back. Once again, remember, it's a grab and this one's punching. It doubles the force. Right, if you're just punching somebody straight, yeah it can hurt, if you're really hard. But if you're pulling them into it, it's like two cars coming into a head-on collision. Chokuzuki, thrusting punch, this can be done high, jodan level; chudan level, medium. If you're going chudan level the best target for this is the solar plexus. The solar plexus is that soft spot where, you're floating ribs meet, right underneath your sternum, a Xiphoid process. Right there, is a soft spot. If you were a kid and you were playing on the playground and you ever fallen down on your tummy you knocked the wind out of you, you know what it is like to get hit in the solar plexus. You can knock the wind out of them and take the fight out of someone really quick. Chokuzuki or gedan level, low level. It's not as effective, the angle when you're standing straight up and your opponent's standing straight up. But when they're down there on the ground and you're going low, it's very effective because then you've got gravity helping you out. Chokuzuki. From here there's another fist technique that I like, is an uraken, or a back fist. This one comes up across; the elbow is blocking your chin. Now contrary to popular belief the most vulnerable part of the human body is not the groin, it's the throat. Because if you get hit in the groin the worst case that can happen is you're sterile you can't have kids. If you get hit in the throat, worse case scenario, you can't breathe, you die. So you want make sure that you're protecting your throat. So you want to bring your elbow up, this extends. You're hitting with the same two knuckles, but you want to add a little bit of a wrist flick like if you're a pitcher throwing a baseball that last wrist snap at the end of it. It's like a whip. Hitting with these two knuckles, the temple, one of the softest parts of the human skull. It's a very vulnerable target. There's the vagus nerve that comes, there's a bunch of nerves that come out around the face, you hit somebody there, you don't really need to hit them that hard to stun them and you can follow through with another combination."