How to absorb a punch!

Here I show you how to absorb a punch, the right way, using your body weight and balance. Keep in mind that you will still get hit, and that contact will be made. However the amount of contact will be limited.

You cannot effectively learn how to absorb strikes with self-punching. First, the biomechanics for generically striking your own body are not possible. Second and more importantly, your psyche is too involved in the process of giving and receiving. Consequently, the exercise is not honest. Self-striking with empty hands and select weapons does have interesting legitimate benefits, but again, this subject is for a different thread.

A simple drill on how to absorb a punch, learn to connect your breathing to absorbing a strike: When first learning to take a strike, breathing is emphasized upon impact to both learn to control fear and prevent an “internal” punch from trapped air in the lungs or abdomen. The exhale on contact is initially emphasized as it is a natural inclination to breathe out to release tension (In time, the inhale and exhale are used interchangeably. Do not rush this! Interchangeable breathing is a matter of time and experience. Unrealistic or rushed expectations generate hidden tension spiritually, mentally, and physically. Be sure, a strike will find that tension!).

The natural exhale impulse is incorporated into a low-level drill where a sustained push on the abdomen is used instead of a strike. The individual is directed to think of himself as a working bellows or air bladder. When I push on his abdomen, my action pushes the air from the individual’s lungs. If the individual breathes of his own accord ahead of my action, I stop him immediately and do the drill again. This is an important distinction.

If an individual later uses muscular tension from his diaphragm to force the air from his body either out of synchrony with the strike’s timing or the air expelled is disproportionate to the strike’s force, the resulting tension will act as a conduit for the energy of the strike to resonate to other connected parts of the body. So, the first step to learning to breathe properly when absorbing strikes is to learn how to breathe from a push. If you think about it, strikes are just high energy pushes executed in a shortened time interval (This concept will also improve your strikes.).