"Elbows in" v. "Elbows out"

[Ken Meeks]

After Tuesday evening's class, I went home and looked in the mirror to see if I was keeping my elbows in when I threw a jab and a cross. I was certain I was, but as Mr. Bronson said, guys think they know how to throw punches and therefore don't listen; whereas females listen to learn the correct technique. What I saw staring back at me was surprising.....I was still winging my punches. When I then corrected my punch, I felt like an old rock-n'-sock 'em robot because by keeping my elbow in, my wrist could not rollover. I then remembered that we roll our wrist at impact only for the purpose of tearing skin, but the punch makes contact the instant before the wrist rollover.

I then looked at the vector of the arm during the "elbow in" punch v. the "elbow out" punch. By keeping the elbow in, the vector line from shoulder to fist remains straight. When the vector line is straight no power is lost to angles. When the elbow wings out it creates several angled vectors. Because power is lost at each angle, the punch is less powerful.

Finally, by keeping the elbow in, one's opponent is slower to react because the opponent's eye has more difficulty seeing something coming straight at them than something coming at them in an arc. Also, an arc has to travel a greater distance than a straight line, so the winged out elbow takes a fraction longer to strike than the elbow in.

.........the learning process continues.

On another note, my muscle memory for empty hand parrying (sp) is better after a summer of stick drills. Giddy-up!

[Joseph Bronson]

It is so very nice to see one of my students take the time to discover why I teach the material the way that I do. Thank you Ken!