tjwingchun1

What you need to be careful of is the alignment of the joints as you are hitting things, the structure you were using in weightlifting is probably slightly different to that while punching and when energy is put in the system it will search for weaknesses and if the elbow and knees are out of alignment they will become excessively stresses, my advice would be to retrain the punching process gradually, relaxed at first with little power so that you can feel where the weaknesses are and relearn how to bring the joints into the strongest structure through the collision of contact. Take care and keep smiling TJ

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Sorry not replied earlier but have been busy doing website stuff. There are several methods involved in creating a powerful punch the first is training for muscle strength and this is from the first third of Siu Lim Tao, the exercise of pushing the wrist out along the centreline in a Fook Sau position then drawing it back to the Wu Sau. The slow tense movements not only develops the muscles of the shoulder and the arms, the circling (huen sau) develops the forearm muscels which hold the wrist strong through the punching contact. I think differently to most as I believe the whole of the shoulder unit should be in tension, so what we are doing is a dynamic tension exercise while the elbow is being trained to come in behind the structure of the punch. The second section of the form deals with learning to express the energy that you have from the first by practicing relaxation into tension in the last 6 inches of techniques, this is applied in your basic punching, with time this will evolve into tension at the point of contact or the "Inch Punch". Once the understanding of the mechanics shoulder unit is developed, the next exercises that needs to be addressed are the turning stance and the stepping stance from the second form Chum Kiu. These are isolating the muscles that operate the drive of the legs and the turning of the hips. From Biu Gee we learn the lifting energy from the floor and the extension of the shoulder. Wall bag training and Dummy work give us knowledge of reactant energies. You learn from the wall bag training not by hitting the wallbag hard but by being aware of the involvement of the muscles and the feeling of tension through the point of contact. The Wing Chun punch is a mixture of hard and soft energies, the initial contact is soft, that is depending on the weight of the arm only and the velocity that it is travelling, the secret to a heavy punch is to simultaneously bring in the twitch energies of the other components, leg/hip/stomach/back/shoulder. Once you have understood these individually from the exaggerated abstract movements of the forms you put them together to give you a weapon that can be used without seeming to move, kinetic energy has nothing to do with how far something has travelled only how fast a mass is travelling. I know it is a bit confusing if you don't know Wing Chun but ask and I will endeavour to inform. Take care and keep smiling TJ

If anyone wishes to open this debate I can explain why exactly that Wing Chun uses the bottom three knuckles as opposed to the big two that Karate and Tae Kwon Do use, the details of punching dynamics and the process of combining the various kinetic energies to re-create the 'mystical inch punch' of Bruce Lee.