Monte wrote:
When you hit someone, power starts with the ball of your foot, goes through your hips and then out through your tight fist. A lot of people try to generate power just with their arms, and that's not enough. Women have more lower body strength than men, so tapping into that is important for women's self defense. Specifically, the hips.
Power starts in your legs, hips and core ... the normal force reaction provided by the ground is transmitted through your feet to your legs, but that doesn't actually provide any power. It just allows you exert more than your body weight in force without being moved yourself due to Newton's 3rd law, and only with upward blows. Any lateral blow (or even the lateral component of oblique angled blows) is much more likely to accelerate the puncher because the reaction force in this direction is provided by friction, rather than the normal reaction of a solid plane like the ground.
Your arms do not generate the locomotion to drive any punch. Your arm muscles, the bicep, tricep and flexors being the primary muscles, can only flex your arm at the elbow. Rather, most people try to punch with only upper body muscles such as the deltoids (shoulders). When the lats, upper body posterior muscles, core and hips move together in harmony, then you generate significantly more power, whether its the dominant hand cross, uppercut or the hook. The kinematics of each blow is different, but the muscle groups used are the same.
It is for this reason, I do not suggest anyone untrained to use these types of punches. Just developing a left hook by itself takes months and months of repetition, against a heavy bag, with a trainer holding focus mits, and finally against a live sparring partner. It takes this time to develop the speed, twitch and power in these muscles, to do so consistently and harmoniously, and accurately place the shot where it will do damage. It's even more difficult to develop the left hook after the right hand - these two are a staple for boxers because they set each other up. Think about all those details - are you going to be able to do that in an instant, without all the months of muscle memory developing amateurs put into learning those shots? As an unpracticed person, you will find these punches to be slower, more telegraphed, less damaging for the effort and worst, likely to put you in a clinch which is the worst possible spot (except from on the back) for the smaller person.
Rather, rake the eyes and nose, try to break fingers if they get close. This is much more likely to succeed. If the worse happens, and they do grab you in a clinch, a headbutt is a very powerful tool, as are knees and elbows which work better at this range.
But hopefully, you won't have to do any of that. Kirra, hopefully, that ring will just be the last price to get rid of something negative in your life and the start of something positive. Best wishes -!