One of the most crucial elements of this is the pivoting of the foot: The heel comes up naturally and the weight remains on the ball. When you activate these elements in harmony, you maximize your power.

You must also focus your eyes on the target of your punch. Never turn your head away from your opponent.

Speed

Again, you must completely relax your mind, which is the master of your body. The more relaxed it is, the more speed and power you can achieve. To generate maximum speed, you must practice the basic punches - zhi quan (straight punch), bai quan (hook) and gou quan (uppercut) - thousands of times a day. After countless repetitions, your fist will become like a sword: sharp, fast and fatal.

When you practice those punches, you should start with your hand in the front position. Some martial artists believe that is it better to wind up by retracting their fist and elbow, but they actually lose power and time when they pull their arm back. Even a minor time loss can create a window of opportunity for an opponent to strike. Shaolin kung fu teaches you to strike from any position. No matter where your hands may be, you need to explode without warning. Remember that the simplest moves are the most powerful.

When executing a right-hand straight punch, many practitioners focus too much on the right side of their body. A faster and more powerful way involves pulling your left shoulder back with the same intensity you push your right shoulder forward. Chinese martial artists used to practice their punches by turning the arms of a cross mounted on top of a large drilling tool used by carpenters centuries ago. The movement involves a perfectly balanced backward and forward thrusting motion for each shoulder. You can explore additional training methods during sparring sessions by using reaction as your prime motivation. For example, if you are practicing a repetitious defensive maneuver against your partner's offensive action, avoid getting caught up in a playful rhythm. If you are going to fight, you have to be serious about it. You should endeavor to break all rhythmic actions as soon as possible by speeding up, slowing down or faking. Such training will sharpen your reactions and make your punches more likely to land. Timing Another Chinese martial arts maxim: If you practice punching thousands of times over a period of several years, you will have your fighting philosophy. My own fighting philosophy holds that there is no offense and no defense. Rather, they are one and the same. The best defense is offense. Fighting is all about timing, which is all about reaction. Real fights are unlike choreographed sets in that there are no stances and no pre-arranged routines.

If you have the opportunity to punch someone in the head, do it.

If your opponent punches first, you must hope that your reaction skills are sufficient to direct any part of your body - not just your fist or foot - to defend and counterattack simultaneously.

Many fighters who would otherwise wield great skill lose their true potential for power because of timing errors. If you choose to ignore the lessons that stem from their mistakes and allow bad timing to become part of your natural rhythm, you will find it is impossible to fix without starting over.

Since every fight is different with respect to offense and defense, no one can teach you the right time to block or punch.

Now for the shocker: I do not teach my students to block. They just practice punching because, as previously mentioned, the best defense is offense. When Shaolin students practice their punches, they start with both fists in front of their cheeks but slightly to the side. As one fist moves forward, the other remains stationary to defend the face and the chest. Then the most important concept comes into play: As the second fist strikes, the first fist must move backward simultaneously and in perfect harmony. Thus, the block and the punch are always there and not there, for they are one. That is the true meaning of timing. After you've practiced the basic punches and developed your foundation, power, speed and timing, only one thing remains: to get in the ring and spar. More chi! Train harder!

Forms vs. Fighting
Forms are forms, and fighting is fighting. In a real fight, there are no stances and no routines - just the single goal of knocking out the other person as quickly as possible. In the ring or on the street, your opponent will not oblige you by getting into the position or stance you learned to deal with in class.
That is not to say that forms practice is a waste of time. Forms help you develop your speed, power, harmony and reaction, for those are the attributes that will best serve you in a real fight.

Shi Yan Ming

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