When it comes to the last resort of defending yourself in a real situation against an aggressive, violent and  determined attacker there is no getting away from the fact that you will have to do enough damage to them to stop them long enough to make good your escape. One of the best ways to do this is with concussive strikes to the head. The ideal targets are the chin, the jaw line and the temple. Under stress though anywhere on the head is good! Hit hard and repeatedly until the threat is over. I prefer when possible to use the palm strike or the elbow to prevent damage to small bones of the hands and wrist. But whether you choose to punch, use an elbow, or your palm heel the basic mechanics of generating a highly impactive strike are pretty much the same.

Everything starts with the legs, imagine you are in a left lead stance looking to strike with a right palm heel. Transfer your weight to your right leg and explosively push off the ground with your right foot. It is the large muscles of the quadriceps and the glutes that are doing most of the work here. You should start relaxed not tense. Push off the ground explosively like a sprinter. This will accelerate your body mass forward in the direction of the strike, the more speed you can give your body at this point the better! Next as your weight is transferred to your lead leg rotate your torso towards your target, these core muscles are the next actuators in the kinetic link that are recruited. Again make this movement of the torso as explosive as possible, as your shoulders come close to being square on with the target, recruit the shoulder, pecs and then the triceps - again do this explosively. At the point when you begin to recruit the muscles controlling the arm you should be up on the ball of the rear foot with your weight having been transferred as much as was safely possible to your lead leg.  Keep the elbow in close to the body not out wide. Aim to hit two inches beyond the surface of the target and recoil back to the starting position at the end of the strike. Always ensure that you plan to begin the recoil before you elbow reaches full extension to prevent damage. You should always begin each strike with your muscles as relaxed as possible. The arm is the last link in the chain to be activated this sequencing allows all the larger muscles in the body to contribute as much energy as possible to the strike. Each link in the chain “piggybacks” on the work done by the larger link preceeding it, riding the wave and adding more energy to it. As you strike exhale sharply, there is a reason for the kiai of the martial artist, it helps to contract the core muscles of the torso more explosively. Boxers also exhale sharply with each strike .. emulate this.

Practice your strikes on the heavy bag or on the pads with partners. Once you have the principles down pat you can vary things by striking from closer in or with less telgraphing . The principles of muscle activation are the same you will just have shorter distance and less time to play with. This means you won’t be able to transfer as much weight but you will still be transferring some weight (as much as possible under the circumstances) and exploding forwards as much as is possible to maximise power. This way you will learn to strike with power even from very close range. Remember, move the biggest links in the chain first!

I hope you find the post helpful, practice and enjoy!