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Copyright © 2004 by Kobus Huisamen. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.
Pictures by John Yoo.
To the trainers who made the most impact in my career: Steve Kalakoda, Henk Pelser and Ivan Hippolyte.
Fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee?
No, thank you, I’d rather sting like a hammer!
In this section, we come to the beef. Now that we’ve worked on strength and on technique in the previous chapters, we will work on power striking.
Punching
Let’s start with our old and trusted friend – the punching bag.
Choose one punch that you will work on for about 2 to 4 weeks. When I started with this, I started with the hook punch and worked on it for 8 weeks.
I can promise you, I have a very hard hook. All my knockouts by way of punches (save for one) came from hooks – both left and right.
I looked very carefully at three people and tried to use what I saw as basis for my hook and then adapted it for my own body.
I looked first at Mike Tyson. I noticed how he moved forward quickly and then swung his head and body from side to side, throwing with all his power.
Then I looked at two of my stable-mates in Steve’s gym. They were Mike Bernardo and Miyan.
Miyan was very powerful. He would pivot his body into every punch. Every time he punched, a loud boom sounded through the gym – burying his whole fist in the bag – making the bag bend around the glove.
Doing that to a heavy bag!
I remember asking him if he actually hits human beings. I could just see him taking people’s heads right off.
I also looked at Mike Bernardo, who would strike the bag with a similar technique, but with much more speed and follow-up punches.
So I practiced my hooks the same way. I started with the same technique as theirs – turning my whole body into the punch – pivoting on my feet. I would punch and punch until my shoulders and hands hurt.
Then I’d take a rest and would punch the bag to a 30-degree angle and keep it there for a minute with punches from the right hand and then another minute with the left.
The next day, I would punch at it using the forward movement – similar to Mike Tyson. And eight years later – I still do it.
The key is to punch with full power repetitively. Get your body used to punching with power only. I’ve totally stopped to punch without power, like light jabs, etc. Even my jabs are hard – I have gained at least one victory by knockout by means of a left jab to prove it.
Oh, yes; scream.
Make a sound every time you punch, it motivates you and it builds your aggression throughout the session.
Steve used to shout: “I can’t hear you; I can’t hear you!” We bellowed like animals and it seemed that every punch was harder than the previous one.
After some weeks, my elbows and forearms started to hurt. Then, I’d switch over to speed training for a week or two and also lay off the heavy bench presses for a while. I’d be fine again after that.
I did the same with my straight punches. I worked with hard-hitting Jan Nortje and he made sure that my distance was correct and that I leaned well into the punch.
We punched continuously. Jan also worked on getting my back leg to propel my body forward into the punch. So the action would start with a push from the back leg, the body moving forward and the hand snapping out at the last moment.
Uppercuts are punched similarly to hooks – just upwards. With an uppercut, your power comes from the hip. Push with your leg and thrust the hips upwards into the punch.
Important tip:
When you train power punching – wrap your hands well and use heavy gloves of no less than 16 ounces in weight to protect your hands. Some guys who were prone to knuckle injuries, also wrapped a piece of polyurethane over the knuckles inside the glove.
Kicking
Power kicking is trained in much the same way as punching. It is a matter of many repetitions with full power.
The most important kick to have power in is the roundhouse. Of course it is good to have power in many more kicks, but this is the most important kick. This kick is used more than any other in fights.
I train power in all the kicks, but focus on the roundhouse. The roundhouse is used for leg kicking, body kicks and high kicks. In all three variations, the technique is similar.
Follow the steps as shown below. Make sure that you lean into the direction of the hip pivot; make sure, also that you step into the kick.
There are three very important elements in kicking with power:
1. Step into it at a 45-degree angle
2. Lean your body past the front of the kick
3. Power your hips around and at the same time pivot on your bottom foot.
Figure 1: Kicking with the right leg. Step forward with a 45-degree angle, while the body leans 90-degrees away and the hips swing over at an arch.
When you kick, make sure that the hips turn first, and that the leg follows the hip. Then slam into the target with your shin. It has more power (impact) than the foot. I use my foot only for high kicks – simply because my shin can’t reach.
Keep kicking. Oh, yes, – don’t forget to shout.
