How To Throw A Jab

The best way to describe how to throw a powerful jab is to compare it to whipping a towel or bull-whip. If you can imagine the soft piece of cotton slowly slinking along in no big hurry, then suddenly, at the last split second, the tiny end of the towel changes direction. The violence at the end of that motion is all too well known by many a football player and boarding school alumnist!
Trying to throw any punch by simply using arm power will not get you the results you want but it will tire you out very quickly. Imagine floating in space and swinging a punch; The force pushing you backwards would be as much as the punch itself because you have nothing to anchor your power to, nothing to push off. We, on the other hand have the whole earth to push off, so use it!
Any time I demonstrate a punch in the gym I start with the feet. You should either be pushing, turning or a combination of the two. At least one of your feet should always be planted in the fighting stance to give you something to anchor to. If you let both feet turn, you will not be balanced when you fire out more than one punch. I see so many big guys beating the crap out of the punching bags with no proper foot positioning. When you are fighting in the ring, it is be much different because there are so many dynamic forces at work; pushing, pulling getting hit, hitting him or missing a punch, take down attempts etc. Having one foot always strongly based on the ground is necessary as you can see.
Allt that being sai, here are the basic fundamentals of the jab:
1. Push off the back foot.
2. rock the head forward and up as though you were trying to head-but your opponent.
3. at the last second, the hand snaps , from the face strait out and slightly uppward.
4. The shoulder replaces the hand to protect the chin.
5. snap the hand back to the face.






The next posts I will show the rest of the punches as well as a great way to put them together with balance, speed and power.