Punching Skill does not only mean throwing out a fist and hitting the target. Accurate, fast and powerful punching is only one aspect of punching technique. Besides this, thorough punching techique also includes the body pose and position during a punch, the path of executing and retreating the punch and the power generating skill.
In Jeet Kune Do, the most frequently used punch is the forehand straight punch. This punch is fast because it takes the shortest path to the target. This punch is accurate because it follows a straight path. The punch is energy efficient because it does not makes you lose body balance.
The forehand straight punch is fired from the ready position. The movement path of it is a straight line in front of the nose. Punch directly to the direction where your nose points to.
One big advantage of Jeet Kune Do is that you can do a grea forehand straight punch while having a good protection of yourself. You can protect your body and restore the original position quickly in case of misses.
In contrary, traditional martial arts punch from the waist. This action would expose the body which may be attacked. After the punch is done, it stops on one side of the body while the other side, especially the face, is exposed while the fist is retracted to the waist.
In the diagrams, you can see the differences between the punches of Jeet Kune Do and traditional martial arts. For Jeet Kune Do, the hands can protect the face, as well as both the left and right sides of the body. For traditional martial arts, only the right side is protected. And the Jeet Kune Do punch is faster than the traditional one. In action photographies, we can see that the Jeet Kune Do punch is completed while the traditional punch is still in the process.
Bruce Lee demonstrated that Jeet Kune Do punch is much faster than the traditional punch because of the much short distance between the punch and the target.
While punching, the fist should be kept vertical rather than horizontal like traditional martial art. By doing this, the punch is able to hit further away. In the photos, we see that Bruce Lee has hit the opponent while the opponent couldn’t even touch him.
The jab of Jeet Kune Do is the main weapon, it is fast, accurrate, long range, does not disturb the body balance and provides good protection.
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