There are various styles and forms of the Martial Arts. Our belief is that from all of these, there are constants that can be pulled out and placed into individual styles.

This develops a personal set of moves that are comfortable, practical, and highly effective.

March 2008 - Hand Speed Tip
Items Needed - 1 empty paper towel roll, thin string or thread, tape...and a thumb tack.

If you're looking to increase your hand speed, try this.

Take an empty paper towel roll and attach a string to the end of it with a piece of tape.  Hang it at face level somewhere in your training area with a thumb tack above.

Now, you've got this thing hanging...and you're goal is to punch it.  Sounds easy...but wait...you have to unravel the cardboard with ONE hit eventually, so this is also going to develop your patience as well.  Below are the points you'll need to be aware of in order to successfully complete this initial step of hand-speed training:

1. Do not hyper-extend your elbow.  Leave 1/8" in the snap.  That simply means stop before full extension.  You'll be throwing a lot of punches, so this is key to avoiding injury.

2.  Only strike with your first 2 knuckles.  They need to cause the object to unravel as opposed to your full hand.  This is also develop your focus.  The first 2 knuckles should only be used with striking any object, protecting the other knuckles from the initial strike.  Once these two do the job in that fraction of a second, the others act as clean-up and finish through.  You never want to hit with your smallest knuckle of the hand first. 

3.  Learn to be methodical and do not punch like a madman!  You are looking for the one hit, not multiple at this stage.  This has to be done slowly and will take  time. It will happen when you least expect it.  Even if it takes 500 tries your first time...the rest become easy until you end up with that one hit that does it all.

Give it a try....let us know if it worked!