 So in today's episode, I kind of want to go over some concepts of forming and teaching a proper punch. I see this a lot and run into this a lot, especially when working with very young students. You know, we have a young kids program, so punching doesn't come naturally to them, so there's a lot of tips and techniques we work with them to improve their skills and even beginning adult students. So in this video, we're just going to go over some fun drills that I use to teach a proper punch. So I want to preface this by saying that not every art is going to punch and strike the same way. You're going to find these types of punches, mainly in boxing arts, striking, especially Japanese Okinawan, traditional striking martial arts. So some of these drills may not apply to you and that's fine if they don't. Maybe there's some ideas here you could use and if not, I would actually like to hear your suggestions. So if you use something different or if you got completely different strikes, please leave a comment below so maybe we could do a future video on that. So I would love to hear your thoughts on it. So when teaching a punch to a brand new student, especially a child, you got to teach them the proper way to punch. Kids, naturally, a lot of times just want to I see a lot of this brand new kid walking in the front door, they're swinging like this. So there's a lot to correct right off the bat. First, forming the fists, we teach them to take the hand, roll the fingers down and lock it with the thumb because I can't tell you how many kids do this or they do this and you do this, everyone knows you punch like that, you're going to break your thumb or you're going to hurt yourself more than the other person. So we teach them roll it down, roll the fingers, lock it. The second thing is we teach them about locking the wrist because you can have the tightest, greatest punch in the world, but if you don't have the proper alignment in your wrist, you're going to hurt yourself. So we teach them to stand in front of the mirrors and kind of aim at themselves, like aim at their face or even aim at their chest and we tell them use the first two knuckles so you're not going to punch with the whole hand, you're going to use these first two knuckles right here. So you're going to aim with those knuckles, tighten the wrist, thumb underneath and you want to imagine a straight line going from the middle of your knuckles straight down your arm. That gives you that support, that brace and support behind that punch. If you get a bend to that wrist when you strike, you're going to hurt yourself, possibly break your own wrist. And also, and kids do this a lot and even adult students again is they have a tendency to want to lock that elbow out. So we teach them to keep that bend in there because you want to have some shock absorption. If you lock that elbow when you strike, you're going to shock this joint and over time you're going to do some damage. It's going to hurt. Roll, lock, tight fist, tight wrist, aim, line down the center, slight bend to the elbow. That gives you a good solid bracing formation for a punch. Kids, understand this but it takes a while for some of them to grasp it and use it on a regular basis. So when we're having to do punching drills in class, I'm watching closely because there's so many times you're seeing them doing punches and little by little you start seeing this. Or you see this, the half fist. I'm real big on that. If I see a kid in class doing punches and I've got their fist up open, I'll come over, I'll slap and I'm like, no, you tighten that fist up because you punch like that, you're not hurting them, you're hurting yourself. And of course, obviously for obvious reasons why this is dangerous, it's so easy to snag, so easy to break. Get that thumb in there, tuck it in. This is the striking surface, not this, not this, and certainly not this. You're going to have an open hand, you might as well do palm heels and slap on them because you're going to hurt yourself that way. So how do we correct this? One, we drill it into them over and over and over. We have them repeat it. We have some minor clots, we call sets, which isolate different concepts. So we do have a punching set and we have a blocking set. And they kind of illustrate a lot of the same topics with the fist formation. You know, blocking sets are, you know, a lot of our blocks are fists or hammer fist strikes. So it kind of has a very similar mechanic to it. But the first thing I teach them is, well, okay, one with blocks, maybe I'll give them markers. So this way with the markers, they're holding onto something and they're locking it in. So that way they've got something physically in their hand that they're holding onto so that if it loosens and they drop it, they know they've failed. So they hold onto that. And also with our blocks, they can actually use that to aim because we typically block towards a 45 degree angle. So when they can aim with it, they can aim their blocks and actually try to imagine hitting with the hammer part of their hand and they're stabbing the target, whatever they're trying to block with. Same thing with punches, you know, they can just hold on to it and still use it. And if they let go, then they're in trouble. And obviously, of course, when they get really good with that, we upgrade them, you know, then we let them go at it with each other. Just kidding. But someday, see, you're tempted. Another possible tactic is, you know, I even had one, I've been working with a student recently, too, and he's got this big issue. He's a great student. He's got great form, but he's got this habit of loosening up his wrists and his fists. So I had him do the pen trick. And we do a blocking set. So he goes up and out, down, back. When we just push down a block, I just have him actually push the pen to the floor. So at least he's using that as a mental drill. Alternatively, get something like marbles or erasers. Make them fill them up in their hand and tell them they have to hold on to every single one. That if they drop one, they fail. So even the slightest little grip might loosen them up. Make sure they hold on to that tight and they lock it in because you don't want any gaps coming out from underneath. Lock that thumb in there, hold it in place. So once you get them to the point where they understand and can deliver the formation of the punch properly, then it's on to the next challenge that I see again, especially with the kids, is when they start the punch, they either lock out their elbow again or they try to rush through the strike. So if we're doing like two or three punch combinations, instead of doing, they're going, like they're worried about rushing through it as opposed to the power and technique. As far as bending the elbows, sometimes I'll have them hold their punch out like this and I'll walk around the room and I'll give them a nice little shock and I can tell which students are locked out because if they're locked out and you hit them, they actually rock back in their stance. If they have the right shock to it, they have a little bit of a give. So I try to really stress that importance of giving that bend to that elbow. You lock it out, you're going to hurt yourself. Now, Mr. Zach, the awesome guy behind the camera, say hi Zach. He actually shared a tip with me before this video about Wing Chung, some technique they use. Wing Chung has a series of chain punches and he says it's very easy to get that lock out by accident to snap that elbow. So the tip he gave me was what they'll do is they'll actually point. They'll practice pointing for a little bit and like subconsciously, it takes away that tendency to lock out and snap that elbow. Extra bonus tip. Again, anyone else out there, if you have a different art or another way of doing it, I would love to hear it. These are great ideas to share. Okay, so now once we get them focused on that, there's one drill I love to use with them to help them with their formation. And that's where these puppies come into good use. These little hand weights and I have a funny story to share about that, but like I will have them hold these weights and they're pretty small. They're four pounds. There's two pounds, one pound, so they range. And especially with the small kids, give them like a one or two, even a four pound. And the whole idea is we get them to stand in their horse stance and we want them to do slow motion punches with these. So they get the full rotation. They're holding on tight. So they have to have that grip because if they don't have that lockdown grip, they're dropping us on their foot to get that little fear in them. So they have to have that death grip, tight fist. They slowly rotate out, form it, and they'll bring it back. And we'll have them do this for a couple minutes slow. So that way they're actually focusing on the technique and they don't want to rush to this because they can't really control it trying to rush through it. These weights are also good too for blocks. So not only just your punches, it's also good for actually with the blocks. If I had them before, Amy with the pen, I tell them, stamp, stamp the corners. Stamp the corners. And then of course they can do the rotational for the out. And you know, it's actually a bit of a workout. And I love letting them let go of the weights, putting the weights out. And afterwards you can see like the techniques are sharper and faster. They can feel the snap because now that weights off, but they've practiced the technique. Now it's kind of a funny story. When I started to do this with them, you know, I pulled out a bunch of weights, you know, I'm trying to gauge the size of the weight of the kids with different size kids. So I'm like, okay, well the one, two, three pounders for the smallest kids and, you know, the six, seven, eight pounders for the bigger kids. So and of course they're all cocky about it. I give them a four pound weight and they're all like, Oh, this isn't heavy, Mr. Dan, come on, let me have a bigger weight. Especially one kid in particular kept hounding me for a heavier weight. I'm like, no, this is fine. Start with the four pound, he wanted the eight pound. I'm like, start with this and we can upgrade from there. So of course he's in line. He's like showing off. So then I have them go into their horse stance. They weren't expecting this. They thought they were just be curling. They were holding it like this. I had them hold punches out there like this. I had them hold their blocks out here like this. After a couple minutes in this horse stance, I noticed he was going, most of the class was actually going, they were like struggling because this was a unique position for them. And they were kind of, you could tell they were kind of struggling to hold it. It was new. And so I went to the one kid, I'm like, all right, you want the eight pound weight now? He's like, no, no, I'm good. I'm like, no, you sure? He goes, no, I'm good, Mr. Dan. So it was funny. None of them were cocky after that because they realized it wasn't an easy drill. So they did that. We did that for maybe 15 minutes. You know, we had them hold it. We had to do slow punches. And I'll tell you right now afterwards, they were flying after that. So I personally liked it as a technique. And I like coming up with different ways to show them, especially the children, because concepts, concepts like the erasers, you're not going to do with the adults, but it's a good idea for the kids. So, so that's kind of ways I teach proper punch and drills for children and just general concepts for new beginning students. So if any of you out there again have any ideas, I like to hear what drills you use, any different strikes. If you've got different drills, different punches, different strikes, share it with us. Leave it in the comments below. Also, thank you again for watching to be sure to subscribe, click the bell, join us on Patreon, support the channel, and we'll see you next time.