My only problem is that this is actually boxing and the vertical punch was rather popular in boxing before the widespread use of heavy gloves, people just forget that boxing existed before 1950. Plenty of manuals touches on the use of the vertical punch to protect oneself from breaking your hands. One such text is "Self Defense for Gentlemen and Ladies" by Colonel Thomas Hoyer Monstery.
And wing chun (the vertical punch Comes from it) IS around for longer so maybe it IS simply that principle that work are used and even rediscovered later. Btw wing chun was an answer to pak mei (a style looking like wing chun but different) because traditionnal kun fu Monk have been wiped out by thé former practitionner. Anyway it IS like the use of elbow, it IS efficient so lot of MA use it :) Btw thanks for the piece info !
There is a book titled the straight blast in it the author describes the mechanics of the jkd punch she says that Bruce took the punch directly from those texts from John l Sullivan
@@genebrohan2401 vertical punch is the bread and butter of Wing Chun. However the body mechanics of Bruce's one inch demonstration punch, can be found in Dempsey's book.
I do jkd and Muay Thai so this video (and Mike's previous video about lubing up the jab) are totally my type of content. Love seeing y'all analyze jkd stuff in other contexts especially kickboxing. Great vid, thanks Ed and Mike!
@@metrolinamartialarts checkout analysis of Pacquiao's set-up jab. it's vertical most of the time. the elbow is flared for defense. and the other half of the time its used to pull down the opponents guard.
Wing Chun guy here, great explanations! Another useful thing about the chain punch is how your rear hand is always available, so you can "easily" use it for blocking, parrying, grapling, framing, trapping or whatever without letting go of the pressure from the punches. It takes some getting use to and a lot of failed attemps in sparring until you get the hang of it, but it's VERY rewarding once you get it right. The best way to think about it is instead of imagining it as "a chain of punches where I can replace a punch with something else to adapt to/take advantage of the situation", imagine it as "a chain of moves alternating your arms quickly and going foward to pressure the opponent, and if the opponent isn't doing anything particulary threatening, those moves will be punches". It gets to a point that when two guys that are really good at this spar against each other at my gym, only half of what they're doing with their arms are punches during a chain, the other half is a bit of everything!
I am so happy to see JKD/Wing Chun getting some love. I've practiced wing chun for 7ish years now, and there is so much garbage and hate (some of it deserved) on UA-cam, it was discouraging that very few were properly and humbly representing. To see this is a breath of fresh air.Thank you
Old school Boxers used vertical punches all the time. Carlos Monzon and Hector Camacho are 2 names that come to mind that used vertical jabs in their arsenal.
I want to say those guys used straight lefts and right more than a vertical jab. The difference is range. The simple straights dint see much use anymore, but they slot in distance between the the jab/cross and hook/uppercut ranges.
Most Boxers use straight punches once they learn that they land quicker with more efficiency plus the old school guys used them, as for them not being powerful enough for knockout punches Joe Louis would disagree as he used vertical punches when he knocked people out.
I love the vertical jab, instead of a normal jab thrown from a neutral balanced position, it's like a power jab thrown with the weight on your front-foot, but unlike the power jab it's fast & snappy like a normal jab. So many different jabs, really is the best punch.
My friend used a straight blast in a boxing match against someone twice his size and it was probably the most effective shot he landed the whole time. Still make fun of him for that but it was pretty cool.
Bruce Lee’s inspiration for this was Jack Dempsey, jacks Championship fighting book covers the “vertical fist” punch which is a straight jolt or blast, not a jab. It does require the whole body to generate enough power and Jack uses the drop step concept to make it work, almost like a small fall forward exploding like a battering ram. The vertical angle creates a better power transfer “pure” punch according to Dempsey, and in the bare knuckle days this would better protect the knuckles from damage. As a former wing Chun practitioner of many years the chain punch I see as a technique to practice to learn mechanics, speed l, centreline control etc not as particularly effective as a “move”. Not enough power realistically because you can’t get the body “falling” fast enough with each strike, only the good first strike can do enough damage especially if your in a grappling mma self defence context not just hitting fast for points etc. Some WC schools train people to fight and finish with chain punches unfortunately which I believe is not the point of them originally, and the JKD idea of it was to take the first punch the straight jolt be able to throw something powerful and stunning enough to damage from the lead hand without telegraphing, followed by whatever else you have your tool box, not walking people down with chain punches.
Bare knuckle Boxers used vertical style punching Dempsey was born in that era but grew up in the early gloved era, so anything he has to say is worth taking into account if you want to improve your punching ability.
Love this content. My wing chin school used the chain punch to bring the guard up for a kick just like this video demonstrated. We were also taught to get to the outside and then press the 45 degree angle in with the chain punch. Contextual, not just blasting out chain punches straight in and asking for a pivot/hook punch counter.
I've always looked at JKD Jab (vertical punch)as a mixture of western and eastern boxing. Since Wing Chun is known as "Chinese Boxing". The vertical punch is displayed perfectly in the Floyd vs Cotto fight. Floyd couldn't get his traditional right hand off so he used the vertical punch. In some instances the Philly Shell will lead you to Bong Sau- Lap Sau. Great video!!!👍🏾
You have to understand that every single Kung fu was considered a form of what we know as the translation of boxing from Chinese. Wing chun isn’t THE Chinese boxing it’s literally called wing chun kuen which means beautiful springtime boxing but that doesn’t mean it was the only Kung fu to be considered a style of boxing. In ancient times boxing meant fighting to the death and it was only softened after boxing moved out of Europe after it was brought over from Greece
@Branson Roth preaching to the choir. Martial arts and History is what I know. I was only being specific to make a point. In correlation to the video mentioning boxing and Wing Chun/JKD. Not to leave other styles of Kung Fu or any other styles of Martial arts out for that matter. Not that deep to me. But thanks for the input.
Yeah it's also mixed with Jack Dempsey's powerline and gravity step punches. Wing Chun punches are good, but unfortunately most WC people although they practice their punches, by punching with their legs and hips (through proper alignment of the elbow and the fist), which is how boxing teaches punching, from the legs and the whole body, but when WC people fight most seem to use windmill like "arm punches". Like with the one-inch punch they trained to use their whole body and generate power from floor, but they don't seem to spar much or put that concept to use when they're punching And believe me I started with Wing Chun which lead me to JKD/MMA
So punching vertically is anatomically convenient to transmit more of the power generated by the body weight into the punch at a lower speed. That is a good approach when not using gloves, as it protects the hands, and makes the punch very penetrating. When using gloves, it is best to generate power through speed, and punching horizontally makes it easier. That is why you see more vertical punches in traditional martial arts that were developed without gloves. Gloves changed everything! Pd. As an experiment. Try pushing som heavy object with your fist and see what works best for you
Used chain punches in sparring, but mostly to force people to cover up before angling off and throwing a more serious shot at the side of their head etc. Sometimes, I've used it as a "finish" once I've forced an opponent to drop their arms, or open their guard. It's not a technique to enter with though, every time I've tried it, I've been countered. Their attention needs to be somewhere else beforehand. If throwing the punches bare fisted, the rounded bicycle method of throwing chain punches is highly likely to skin your knuckles super quickly. I prefer to throw them in a horizontal teardrop pattern, so the fist lands with the knuckles flat, and is withdrawn downwards in a straight line at 45 degrees to the ground before re-chambering for the next blow. Too many of the people I trained with tore their knuckles apart on leather pads because they had a more circular punching pattern, literally smearing the skin of their knuckles across the target before recovering that hand. Effectively, they were sanding the skin of their knuckles. If smooth leather pads do the damage I witnessed, I don't want to see what clothing, facial hair or teeth would do. An added bonus to punching with the teardrop pattern is that it's structurally better for sending your opponent backward, penetrating their guard and taking their initiative than the more usual elliptical/circular pattern. More aggressive, and less "pat a cake".
@Adam A. Lol You are not supposed to shift at all in boxing, from a technical stand point and to not get knocked out of of a counter cuz shifting make you lose stability and it's easy to use timing against you I reccomand you to take proper boxing class if you can my friend, it helps a lot for your understanding of principle of fighting i learn a lot from it
Thanks, @Adam A., that's something I didn't know. I suspect it would still have some of the same shortfalls as the Wing Chun roll punch though, even if it covers more ground and could be more powerful. Shifting footwork is neat, and I do use it while sparring too (currently boxing). However, because I'm always the little guy, I've noticed a few vulnerabilities to doing so. When switching stance, you inevitably square off to your opponent before the next punch hits them (only for a fraction of a second, but you do). If your hands and elbows are low at that point, as with the rolling punch, almost any straight punch from the opponent is going to hit you meaningfully, or stop you in your tracks. I have eaten enough jabs to the face to have learned this lesson. So while shifting footwork/changing stance helps with chasing people, you'll likely want to do it once to catch the opponent by surprise, or be able to actively/passively defend yourself on the way in. I find it's not really possibly to actively or passively defend yourself WELL when throwing the rolling punch as intended (The Cantonese name for it is pretty clear - The straight charging punch [native speaker FWIW]). 1) You're committed to throwing follow-up punches at the same target and using the same angle; 2) your elbows are pointed down, meaning you can't hide behind them like you can with a boxer's jab/cross; 3) Because you're charging forward, you're never fully extending each punch, so you can't protect your body with a bladed stance; 4) While using rolling punches, it's almost impossible to move your head and body in a way that makes it harder for your opponent to hit you (e.g. peek-a-boo, Dempsey Roll etc.) So in my mind, it's a technique you use when you're already winning an exchange. e.g. You've made them cover up, and you're trying to keep them that way, or they're tired, and you're pressing the advantage. I've found the rolling punch not to be something to charge at someone with unless their attention is elsewhere. At least not in my experience. You might catch someone by surprise the first couple times, but after that, if they're a smart fighter, there's quite a few ways they could nullify its effectiveness: angle off; kick low; straight kick to the chest; duck under and throw a lead hook etc.etc. I mean all of this is a bit "what-iffy" anyway. If you can pull it off in sparring, or have seen someone do so against a resisting opponent, more power to you/them. Just sharing my experiences. The rolling punch needs to be set up carefully, and has a very specific use.
Wing chun guy here. Another thing about the chain punch is that the rear hand follows the bridge that the lead hand established. So if your first punch lands, your next punch follows the same path to target. No need to hack another trail through the jungle.
I have 4 years practicing JKD in the only JKD school in México aprooved by Jerry Poteet and im loving these videos. The way you're analizing everything is just awesome. Im also loving how @hard2hurt is accepting and liking JKD stuff.
Jkd as It is is awesome, but to mix it with other martial arts, like I do (tradicional kung fu and sanda/sanshou/wushu) its just beautiful the infinite options of technics.
The time i spent with Mayweathers gym most of his guys used that vertical punch while moving to the side away from the counter jab. If someone practices something enough...theyll make it work 👍🤜
Old school 19th century boxing used the vertical fist for the left lead. It arose out of bare knuckle boxing because if you hit someone in the head with the vertical fist, you are less likely to break your hand.
I find a great way to use the vertical punch is to cut across the oponents jab/ cross (with the propper footwork) and land a hit on them mid combination. The vertical punch (as opposed to a regular boxing punch) i think has a better way of cutting of the others punch instead of trading punches. This is a nice extra tool to have in your sparring toolkit, love this techenique. Also wanted to say that it is great discovering your channel, coming from the inosanto kali/ JKD liniage. I recognize alot of things in your videos, yet there are plenty of extra instights to be gained. Exited to see whats next from this channel! Cheers from Belgium
You have to talk to Light Burley and his 52 blocks to talk about defense to the center line punches. cross guards and his skull and bones and even the simple closed door elbow block is fun to do. I think wing chung and JKD are most fun in the context of working with the simple system of blocks that you play with with chi sao.
I used the repeated wing chun punches as a small blitze to close distance and force their guard up. Then mix it with dirty boxing guard pulls to land hard hooks. Works pretty well in a small blitze before they can figure out how to react for me
The Vertical Jab in boxing was shown to me by stepping forward when you throw it and keeping your arm stiff to go thru the guard using your body weight never found it akward
Sounds almost like a regular jab but without the corkscrew twist in the end. Boxers don't neither stand with a straight back with chin high up in the air after a strike.
I've actually used the Jik Chung Choi in Muay Thai sparring to wipe away my opponent's guard and follow up with 1 or 2 shots. Its a really underrated technique. People think its supposed to be like in the Ip Man movies where it's a thousand punches a second where the guy doesnt defend himself but the rapid fire bicycle pedal mechanics have their place and use. Loved the video!
@@thomasmuntzer1004 instead of using the mechanics with punches start with a slapping down of your opponents hands and come over the top with follow up punches
Very nice technical demonstration, thank you a lot. I do thai boxing and i noticed something that works with most opponents is applying pressure and blinding the opponent by just pushing the jab hand against them guard and use that range to place an high kick. Good to know i can use one inch punch to add MORE pressure or disorient the opponent.
Like everything, there are layers to the forms. The chain punch "can be" used as a rapid fire punching method, for sure. But, other uses are also there that people seem to forget about. The chain is an example of the principal of pushing AND pulling. The form is teaching you to push and pull simultaneously, it's teaching you to use your triangle, it's teaching you to punch fast, etc. Look at the siu nim tao, it repeats everything on both sides to save time in training. One could argue that the chain blast is not even real, and that it's just one punch practiced on both sides. Do a chain punch with 1 hand only you'll see the mechanic of punching and retracting are still there. Also, in the form, every movement can be interpreted as an attack, as you could use this same energy with fingerjabs, palm strikes, etc. On the issue of vertical fist, just look at Jack Dempsey, read his book. For more examples, take a bong sau, hugely misunderstood, just take a bong sau and turn your hand into a fist instead. There you have a spiral energy that ends in a horizontal fist. The form puts you into every direction and angle possible.
I once pulled off chain punches in a match. It is absolutely contextual. I think it was the square and circle button with the forward movement button on my controller to launch it.
WC guy here.... i really love this topic, really glad that you guys talked about this.... one of the biggest misconception about the WC straight punch is that it is thought (or taught) that the chain punch should be done like making a thousand hits in 2 seconds, that's not how the WC speed is applied....The speed that is derived from chain punching helps you to transition into other moves..... I love the point where you guys mentioned that throwing regular jabs to set up a vertical one, to mess up with the boxing guard, that's a good tactic. i sometimes spar with my student that way really love your work, keep it up guys!
Bas Rutten talked about this in an old Eddie Alvarez fight... I think vs Shinya Aoki? If I remember correctly his statement was "if you punch vertically like that, you make your punches invisible." His point was more to the reduced "tell" via a shoulder roll of a more traditional punch though.
Have you guys ever looked at Shorinji kempo vertical punch? Guys put their whole body behind every punch. There's a huge focus on pivoting their feet and hips into the punches, even on manuals they enphatise this.
A different perspective on the WC chain punch is not to bicycle. Instead the hitting hand hits in a straight line and then drops to retreat, which opens a path for the next straight punch from the other hand. This method requires less space to land punches and allows the body alignment the straight punch offers.
Yeah, i like how they adapted it for boxinf gloves, but it definetly has more damage potential in MMA gloves or bare hands where it can be tighter and more of a straight blast
For me, the most important thing about the longfist lead (as opposed to a traditional jab) is that it adds another inch or two to your reach; other than a finger jab (which is even harder to land and might break your fingers), its your longest hand technique. If you spring off the back foot for the longfist lead (like the fencing analogy in JKD) then you can throw a decent punch from way outside what most people perceive as punching range. Since my preferred range is trapping/infighting/clinch, I rely on the longfist lead to close. If it lands great, I'll pull it back and fire a shovel hook with the same lead hand as I close, but, honestly, I really don't care if it lands or not, I just need it to seize initiative and let me close past the longer ranges I don't want to be at. As for the chain punch, I find that its good for two things. First, finishing at trapping range after you've broken through. Hit the guy a bunch in the face? Surprise, it works. (Also you can easily substitute palm strikes, short baton strikes, or knife strikes for straight blast punches with the same motion.) Thats kind of obvious though -- after you've broken through there's nothing that doesn't work. Second, if you're at punching-to-trapping range and you don't know what else to do, then you can chain punch to keep the initiative while you look for an opening to trap or clinch or whatever else you want to do. Point being, like the video says, you've got to understand what any technique is good for and use it in appropriate context. Not go looking for magic bullets.
I learnt a different concept/application for straight blast. The punches should travel on a straight path and through the target and only move downward enough on the retract to allow another fist to have enough room to go through. And while it can be used to overwhelm... the other idea is if one has connected, as they are the trajectory is very straight and narrow, there is an open window (for perhaps a second or two) for consecutive punches to land. The other advantage of vertical punches is at very close range, such as elbow range, they can still generate substantial power compared to a horizontal punch. Also with quick "snapping" jabs, there is less movement in the shoulder area, therefore less visual cues, compared to a horizontal jab. Other than this, the trapping to control and counter is one of the best elements of the JKD/WC systems. Roberto Duran made good use of similar techniques.
the sun punch is especially useful in close quarters and striking low because the arms can compressed close to your core and you can hit with almost the same power as hitting high.
Thank you guys for this quality content. I'm on year twelve of balancing my passions for martial arts and practical self defense and every little bit helps. It never occurred to me that I ate too many hooks in sparring because I jab vertically, I just knew I struggled with hooks and learned covering and head movement to compensate. One thing it did teach me though is that if your hands are up palms toward your face you get just as much rotation power out of a vertical jab as an orthodox.
4:25 In vertical fist striking. In general. Try to lock your elbow out and drive it in like a bolt or spike. Keep your arm high enough to block your jaw from the side a bit and your guard hand (WU SAO) should push out with it, and be at about elbow range to guardthe face.
@@metrolinamartialarts I understand. But trust me. You probably haven’t seen it done this way. Spike effect is pinky to elbow like a bolt. The bigger the forearm and velocity? The more damage it does. I do agree. I’m not saying that’s the only right way. But just a possibility maybe you haven’t seen before 💯🤛fantastic show by the way I subscribed
I activly box and i utilize vertical punches often. When i do im not going for the K.O , so it dont need to be very powerful. I like to use it as you shown in the video , to split the guard. I land it often in sparring and there is kind of a sweet spot with it , the trick is to aim for the wrist. Even when the opponent is not sweaty at all it still gets through. Also i like to slip with it to give me another layer of defense for whatever counter that could be coming simataniously. Also i will throw slipped right hands with glove mostly vertical but with the thumb downward. That punch slides in nice too and my head is well off the center line , but what i really like about that one is i get to really turn over my fist as it slides in .(like corkscrews inbetween there guard. Then ...lol this is what i love about the "sweet science" if and when opponent puts there gloves/forearms together to get a solid block up the middle thats when i feint and turn into a hook. The thing i learned after boximg for all these years and i would think the same gos for other martial arts too: there is no 1 all be all answer to anything. I like most of these topics lcy mike gos over in these videos. Very intereating stuff
I've trained in jkd and I've always been using the vertical fist straight lead in sparring. There's people from muay thai and mma in my jkd place so I would say it's just as effective as the normal jab.
Dude, your content is a fucking godsend. I'm a wing chun guy, and I see this MASSIVE rift between my community and JKD guys. But seeing you preach and apply the exact same principles that my sifu and sihings have been teaching me for half a decade, but applied differently, is really cool and refreshing. I've been told that JKD done right is "wing chun applied in a modern fight," and I got to experience that when I finally started sparring against kickboxers, and it's really dope to see your content demonstrate the same thing. PS: Also I have used the chain punch in a live sparring environment! My buddy is an Irish boxer and we both have very fast hands. In our bout we were constantly trading blows to the nose, trying to outsmart each other's timing. He would always get me with a rapid-fire cross after a jab, and I would always get him with a flurry of wing chun chain punches. We had to end the fight early because our noses started bleeding 😂
New to Wing Chun, and have struggled a bit with some of the popular impressions of what chain punching and straight punching can do. I like how you are demonstrating it here. It seems obvious that it relies on an economy of motion to land first and faster even if it has less power, to help keep an opponent occupied, moving back, and off guard for whatever you might be setting up next. But so many WC guys seem to think it should work on its own as some never ending stream of super punches!
My boxing coach taught me to jab with my elbows shooting straight out from my ribs and to turn the punch over at the last second. Flared elbows are easier to read and defend.
Great video! I like the way you guys worked with it and showed where this technique shines. I think the tight vertical punch works even better with mma gloves or bare hands, it works best in small spaces. Boxing gloves take up alot of the space and force you to do that bicycle wheel motion whereas a smaller glove or bare hands allows you to straight blast to the center and really do some damage. I was taught Jit chung choi as a follow up or finishing combo once you've gained entry.
I've also noticed that Manny Pacquiao would land punches knuckle up like that. I'm sure we could also observe some of his old fights and pickup on how he lands them successfully.
Its so unfortunate that JKD is incomplete as a martial art. Bruce Lee was trying to incorporate the strengths of many martial arts into it but he passed too early. 😢
He actually fully understood where he wanted to go with it if you’ve studied his writings. He ended up making it a concept for personal liberation in martial arts towards the end. He closed his schools before he passed away. His surviving students all took a different approach of teaching what they were taught though.
IMHO, the many practitioners of JKD must--and I say must--study the grappling arts, Muay Thai, etc, and bring in those things to their sparring sessions. Eventually, we should be able to complete this otherwise near-perfect street fighting self-defense style, as Bruce Lee was doing before he tragically passed away.
jeet kun do was bruce lee's personal style. everyone else was supposed to make their own style based on his philosphy, with movements that synergized with the individual.
excellent Video and explanations! Suggestion for further videos: the application of the vertical jab/straight lead without gloves in self defense scenarios. Of all punches it is the one that has has worked most effectively for me as an entry; on the street as well as in scenario training situations
The other thing too is that barehanded it’s hard to do a high guard without shifting. That’s why many MMA people use long guard or cross guards to stifle or block rather than high guarding. JDK being a mix martial art probably has that in mind.
My chain punch story. Sparring with a TKD friend, he was completely unprepared for it, letting me get in so many hits. Unfortunately, on the next round I was completely unprepared for his spinning leg sweep, which floored me! Good times.
i have used the vertical jab on various ocasions in muay thai sparring and boxing sparring without doing a day of JKD in my life, i just wanna go between the gloves so my training partner goes tighter on the guard and i can go body.
I trained in the Vunak/Joe Maffei lineage of Jeet Kune Do, and the way they taught the straight blast is that is the whole purpose is to get the guy going backwards so that you could land a modified Thai plumb, rake the eyes, and then start head butting and elbowing away. This is tricky against a trained guy because they typically won't back straight up and pretty much everyone knows the plumb now, but against an untrained opponent it's still probably one of the best ways to create pressure and do major damage.
Old-timey bare knuckle fighters used a vertical fist. Isshinryu still uses it. The neat thing with Bruce Lee’s fighting system is that he held his strong side forward and used the jab like a rapier.
I don't study JKD but I use the vertical punch a lot in sparring, I like it because you can throw it off weird angles and it's really useful when you are getting pressured.
Huge respect to Ron Balicki and Greg Nelson both too! I hear that Mr. Balicki also has some serious blade skills and trains regularly with both Steven Seagal and Inosanto.
Jkd is not about punching with vertical fist. It is about body mechanics. Observe the fist when trowing while slipping. It san be in horizontal or diagonal position.
I more use chain punch like if he throws a straight and you step 45 then punch on the other side of the punch you can then blast in. Plus, I dnt even really use it like that I mostly use it to train alternating quickly with other moves.
I throw vertical jabs sometimes but not with the step shown here. Vertical jabs are harder to see because we can't react very quickly to depth changes. Since the shoulder has not moved and my elbow is not flaring out, the punch is harder to see coming at you. I mix it up with regular jabs.
Vertical Punches work better for bare-knuckle boxing as it's harder to fuck your hands up on someone's face, what you can do with boxing gloves isn't necessarily realistic. It has a greater reach than all other straight punches. Think of it more as a setup punch, think more fencing than boxing. lunge forward at speed and likely it will hit. Boxing gloves make it easier to block strikes due to them making the mass of your hands bigger. The vertical Punch would be easier to slip through a block than a horizontal punch.
Another option if they catch and trap your vertical punch between their forearms and elbows is to use the trapped hand to hook their arm while pulling it to turn them; then shooting a cross or hook to the exposed side.
Great Punch techniques and the best explanation I have seen yet as to how to properly apply them! Mikey you did it pretty well too for the first time! :-)
Manny Pacquiao uses vertical jabs alot in quick succession in order to pierce a person's guard which is how he managed to land so many combos, I did it during sparring as well with my partner covering up and the vertical jab kept on opening his guard which helped me land combos
Marcos Maidana likes to use the vertical jab. My trainer taught me to throw it if someone is covering up with a highguard. You can throw it inbetween his two gloves and often it can break through and hit his nose. Then you can throw powershots after you split through their guard it will make it harder for them to block your punch because theyre caught odf guard.
Vertical jab used to be in boxing, especially before Queensberry rules and gloves. Hand break was a real thing back then (well, still is) and it wasn’t smart to hit hard and go for KO, but hit vertical to the soft parts of the face and try to break the skin, nose, eyes, make them bleed etc. Jack Dempsey talks about it in his book (which I think Bruce Lee must have read). Also maybe it’s easier to teach than a correct jab, which is a hardest thing in the world (like boxers spent their whole career perfecting the jab) and if you start to flair your elbows against any boxer you’re basically just a punching bag at that point. Beside that, I’d would imagine Bruce using hands mainly to set up kicks anyway.
When I trained in Jun Fan I was told parts of it were from Savate as well. I think it was some of the kicking technique in Jun Fan class which were different than the kicks in the Muay Thai class. This was like 2010 since I trained it last so it's been a minute
I've actually found I'm more likely to land with the correct knuckles and less likely to injure myself with a vertical punch. Though I was trained to do horizontal punches
Alex Periera throws vertical punches in the way of Jack Dempsey. It masks hooks pretty well because they look so similar. I don’t see the WC straight blast working with boxing gloves at all though.
This is in my opinion the absolute best strike in all of fighting. It’s quick, effective and literally sets up an endless number of follow ups. More strikes, kicks, takedowns if you snap their head back. Plus 80% of gyms don’t train for this so it’s effective.
I think my most common use of a vertical fist is when throwing a sort of upward jab after bobbing/slipping to that side. Generally used against a tight guard to slip through and catch their chin, passing just under the bulk of their gloves. Combined with the sort of upper body twist they do in the video, you can get some decent power out of it while circling the back leg to catch a better angle. Prone to a counter, perhaps, but great against a turtling opponent.
Depends on where you want your head to be, I suggest mixing up Vertical and Upsidedown. (upside down being a horizontal punch turned over even more) Vertical punch is great for leaning towards the same side as punching arm; an 'upside down punch (thumb pointed down) is great for leaning the other way. Either way your going off the center line. -how to know which to do? It depends on which opponents counter you are trying to avoid. also, like you guys touched on, Vertical is a bit more protected against shorter fighters and body blows, but the Upside down is more protected against taller fighters and head shots. (TLDR.... left jab: Vertical = lean left, Upside = lean right and away.)
Yeah if you can muster up enough power and speed to do that chain punch it could be just as deadly or deadlier than accommodation but that goes with any kind of punch as well any kind of style of punching if you're fast enough and you like a certain type of punching cuz it's either cool or it's just whatever was available to you at that moment if you're at a certain distance you know go for it and hope for the best
i always use this as a straight hard vertical spear punch, how jack dempsey instructs in his book. he says to lunge forward and calls it a 'straight jolt' and it can blast through peoples guard pretty easily. i use this to counter with both hands and it works well to cut through punches.
My most memorable use of Jik Chung Choi was when I sparred an MMA friend. He got the best of me 8 out of 10 times, so I was super proud it worked! He out weighed me by 80 or so pounds but I was able to catch his chin enough to make his head turn and get a solid hook. I set it up with some jabs and a Muay Thai roundhouse to the thigh. It really is about timing. It's also effective against slower fighters, especially adding in some elbow flows to keep the opponents flurries from landing. Mind you, these were mainly fellow martial arts friends and not professionals. Still, feels good when the traditional techniques work against modern practitioners.
If you want to learn the best way to straight blast look no further than Paul Vunak. There are jkd guys then there PFS jkd guys. I trained with Vunak and the way we straight blasted was done methodically. Good info by these guys.
I use the straight blast all the time in sparring pretty successfully. I waiting for them to throw a cross. I parry it with my left hand and at the same time throw the right followed by immediate left. I normally throw 4 or 5 in a row before throwing front kick. Works well most times. You have to be very explosive when doing this technique! Commit fully to it and your running forward at the same time.
A couple of thoughts here. Firstly, as for the use of the vertical punch, Lee put a lot of emphasis on the set-up- we call it entering. It was a study all its own as far as I can see. Unless you were just assured of landing it, there was a lot of stuff to get it positioned to deliver what somebody called a 'scientific sucker punch'. So just throwing it without the proper set-up, including angles and footwork, not to mention the low kicks to get the guard down, etc., is iffy. And the centerline is useful if you follow Dempsey's powerline theory and keep your elbows in and not flared. I am sure Lee read that book, he read all he could find about boxing. Some of us aren't Lee or JKD groupies but use a vertical fist for other reasons. Mine is plain old overworked hands, having used vibrating hand tools, along with other injuries. It hurts to throw horizontal anything with my right hand and having had a rotator cuff injury in my left shoulder I am like that little dude in 300 that can't raise his shield. So I go dominant hand forward, leaving the left to guard. Not optimal, but not all of us are looking to get into an MA ring or whatnot. I suspect most viewers are people that just love combative arts and use it for a primary exercise with some application. Thanks for this one, it fires us up to train and that's something good all by itself!
Ive always found the hardest I land a chung choy/ power jab is the 3rd strike of a jab/ cross / jab combo. people get way to accustomed to seeing the j/c/h it throws them off
I've landed the vertical jab in a traditional jkd stance (southpaw), bridged across a traditional jab on a pro boxer, I think just because he'd not seen it before ..I was surprised as well😁
That Chung Choi you showed seems wrong to me. Chung Choi should not be a circular "hammering" movement. In fact it is a straight punch chain, meaning the directionality should follow a straight path. After the first punch, that punch gets slightly lower to make space for the other one, which will go straight to the target. In the meantime the other had already come back to cover the solar plex/center line. From there, the last punch will get slightly lower to make space for the next one, always in a straight line, only for that previous one to go back close to the solar plex/center line defence position, and so on and so forth. What drives the punches, their direction and their trajectory, is the elbow. It's like a rocket, where the elbow represents the backburner/propeller, all helped by the lats muscles and the whole body structure (as you guys well pointed out). The circular "hammering" movement will only help scratching your knuckles, nothing more. Generally speaking, the straight blast is not the beginning of an action, it's the goal (Paul Vunak demonstrated this many times). In order to go for the straight blast, you have to prepare the way for it by doing something else and open the way. It's one of the principles of Wing Chun that have been kept in JKD as well: if the way is open move forward (or, in other words, go for it). Loved the video by the way, you guys are great!
My only problem is that this is actually boxing and the vertical punch was rather popular in boxing before the widespread use of heavy gloves, people just forget that boxing existed before 1950. Plenty of manuals touches on the use of the vertical punch to protect oneself from breaking your hands. One such text is "Self Defense for Gentlemen and Ladies" by Colonel Thomas Hoyer Monstery.
And wing chun (the vertical punch Comes from it) IS around for longer so maybe it IS simply that principle that work are used and even rediscovered later.
Btw wing chun was an answer to pak mei (a style looking like wing chun but different) because traditionnal kun fu Monk have been wiped out by thé former practitionner.
Anyway it IS like the use of elbow, it IS efficient so lot of MA use it :)
Btw thanks for the piece info !
There is a book titled the straight blast in it the author describes the mechanics of the jkd punch she says that Bruce took the punch directly from those texts from John l Sullivan
Dempsey advocated and wrote about the use of the vertical fist.
@@genebrohan2401 vertical punch is the bread and butter of Wing Chun. However the body mechanics of Bruce's one inch demonstration punch, can be found in Dempsey's book.
Jack Dempsey has a book on it also.
I do jkd and Muay Thai so this video (and Mike's previous video about lubing up the jab) are totally my type of content. Love seeing y'all analyze jkd stuff in other contexts especially kickboxing. Great vid, thanks Ed and Mike!
Good combo of Arts to be practicing!!
@@metrolinamartialarts checkout analysis of Pacquiao's set-up jab. it's vertical most of the time. the elbow is flared for defense. and the other half of the time its used to pull down the opponents guard.
"Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is uniquely your own.” - Bruce Lee
Wing Chun guy here, great explanations! Another useful thing about the chain punch is how your rear hand is always available, so you can "easily" use it for blocking, parrying, grapling, framing, trapping or whatever without letting go of the pressure from the punches. It takes some getting use to and a lot of failed attemps in sparring until you get the hang of it, but it's VERY rewarding once you get it right.
The best way to think about it is instead of imagining it as "a chain of punches where I can replace a punch with something else to adapt to/take advantage of the situation", imagine it as "a chain of moves alternating your arms quickly and going foward to pressure the opponent, and if the opponent isn't doing anything particulary threatening, those moves will be punches". It gets to a point that when two guys that are really good at this spar against each other at my gym, only half of what they're doing with their arms are punches during a chain, the other half is a bit of everything!
Nicely put. That's the actual application...it lets you keep both your hands out to defend yourself and to be poised for the next technique.
Icy Mike is becoming a Martial Arts Master while getting other channels clout. It's dope and I'm along for the journey.
Lets start a movement to call him Grandmaster Icy Mike - it honors his rap history AND his status with Mike-Fu or Icy-Do 😄
I am so happy to see JKD/Wing Chun getting some love. I've practiced wing chun for 7ish years now, and there is so much garbage and hate (some of it deserved) on UA-cam, it was discouraging that very few were properly and humbly representing. To see this is a breath of fresh air.Thank you
Old school Boxers used vertical punches all the time. Carlos Monzon and Hector Camacho are 2 names that come to mind that used vertical jabs in their arsenal.
I want to say those guys used straight lefts and right more than a vertical jab. The difference is range. The simple straights dint see much use anymore, but they slot in distance between the the jab/cross and hook/uppercut ranges.
Most Boxers use straight punches once they learn that they land quicker with more efficiency plus the old school guys used them, as for them not being powerful enough for knockout punches Joe Louis would disagree as he used vertical punches when he knocked people out.
I love the vertical jab, instead of a normal jab thrown from a neutral balanced position, it's like a power jab thrown with the weight on your front-foot, but unlike the power jab it's fast & snappy like a normal jab.
So many different jabs, really is the best punch.
My friend used a straight blast in a boxing match against someone twice his size and it was probably the most effective shot he landed the whole time. Still make fun of him for that but it was pretty cool.
Bruce Lee’s inspiration for this was Jack Dempsey, jacks Championship fighting book covers the “vertical fist” punch which is a straight jolt or blast, not a jab. It does require the whole body to generate enough power and Jack uses the drop step concept to make it work, almost like a small fall forward exploding like a battering ram. The vertical angle creates a better power transfer “pure” punch according to Dempsey, and in the bare knuckle days this would better protect the knuckles from damage. As a former wing Chun practitioner of many years the chain punch I see as a technique to practice to learn mechanics, speed l, centreline control etc not as particularly effective as a “move”. Not enough power realistically because you can’t get the body “falling” fast enough with each strike, only the good first strike can do enough damage especially if your in a grappling mma self defence context not just hitting fast for points etc. Some WC schools train people to fight and finish with chain punches unfortunately which I believe is not the point of them originally, and the JKD idea of it was to take the first punch the straight jolt be able to throw something powerful and stunning enough to damage from the lead hand without telegraphing, followed by whatever else you have your tool box, not walking people down with chain punches.
Bare knuckle Boxers used vertical style punching Dempsey was born in that era but grew up in the early gloved era, so anything he has to say is worth taking into account if you want to improve your punching ability.
I think Bruce Lee's vertical fist was mainly inspired from his wing chun training
Love this content. My wing chin school used the chain punch to bring the guard up for a kick just like this video demonstrated. We were also taught to get to the outside and then press the 45 degree angle in with the chain punch. Contextual, not just blasting out chain punches straight in and asking for a pivot/hook punch counter.
I've always looked at JKD Jab (vertical punch)as a mixture of western and eastern boxing. Since Wing Chun is known as "Chinese Boxing". The vertical punch is displayed perfectly in the Floyd vs Cotto fight. Floyd couldn't get his traditional right hand off so he used the vertical punch. In some instances the Philly Shell will lead you to Bong Sau- Lap Sau. Great video!!!👍🏾
British Barelnuckle boxing uses vertical punches. You may wanna check it out
You have to understand that every single Kung fu was considered a form of what we know as the translation of boxing from Chinese. Wing chun isn’t THE Chinese boxing it’s literally called wing chun kuen which means beautiful springtime boxing but that doesn’t mean it was the only Kung fu to be considered a style of boxing. In ancient times boxing meant fighting to the death and it was only softened after boxing moved out of Europe after it was brought over from Greece
@Branson Roth preaching to the choir. Martial arts and History is what I know. I was only being specific to make a point. In correlation to the video mentioning boxing and Wing Chun/JKD. Not to leave other styles of Kung Fu or any other styles of Martial arts out for that matter. Not that deep to me. But thanks for the input.
Yeah it's also mixed with Jack Dempsey's powerline and gravity step punches. Wing Chun punches are good, but unfortunately most WC people although they practice their punches, by punching with their legs and hips (through proper alignment of the elbow and the fist), which is how boxing teaches punching, from the legs and the whole body, but when WC people fight most seem to use windmill like "arm punches". Like with the one-inch punch they trained to use their whole body and generate power from floor, but they don't seem to spar much or put that concept to use when they're punching
And believe me I started with Wing Chun which lead me to JKD/MMA
So punching vertically is anatomically convenient to transmit more of the power generated by the body weight into the punch at a lower speed. That is a good approach when not using gloves, as it protects the hands, and makes the punch very penetrating.
When using gloves, it is best to generate power through speed, and punching horizontally makes it easier.
That is why you see more vertical punches in traditional martial arts that were developed without gloves.
Gloves changed everything!
Pd. As an experiment. Try pushing som heavy object with your fist and see what works best for you
Used chain punches in sparring, but mostly to force people to cover up before angling off and throwing a more serious shot at the side of their head etc. Sometimes, I've used it as a "finish" once I've forced an opponent to drop their arms, or open their guard. It's not a technique to enter with though, every time I've tried it, I've been countered. Their attention needs to be somewhere else beforehand.
If throwing the punches bare fisted, the rounded bicycle method of throwing chain punches is highly likely to skin your knuckles super quickly. I prefer to throw them in a horizontal teardrop pattern, so the fist lands with the knuckles flat, and is withdrawn downwards in a straight line at 45 degrees to the ground before re-chambering for the next blow. Too many of the people I trained with tore their knuckles apart on leather pads because they had a more circular punching pattern, literally smearing the skin of their knuckles across the target before recovering that hand. Effectively, they were sanding the skin of their knuckles. If smooth leather pads do the damage I witnessed, I don't want to see what clothing, facial hair or teeth would do. An added bonus to punching with the teardrop pattern is that it's structurally better for sending your opponent backward, penetrating their guard and taking their initiative than the more usual elliptical/circular pattern. More aggressive, and less "pat a cake".
......or you might just have a good jab
@Adam A. Lol
You are not supposed to shift at all in boxing, from a technical stand point and to not get knocked out of of a counter cuz shifting make you lose stability and it's easy to use timing against you
I reccomand you to take proper boxing class if you can my friend, it helps a lot for your understanding of principle of fighting i learn a lot from it
Thanks, @Adam A., that's something I didn't know. I suspect it would still have some of the same shortfalls as the Wing Chun roll punch though, even if it covers more ground and could be more powerful.
Shifting footwork is neat, and I do use it while sparring too (currently boxing). However, because I'm always the little guy, I've noticed a few vulnerabilities to doing so. When switching stance, you inevitably square off to your opponent before the next punch hits them (only for a fraction of a second, but you do). If your hands and elbows are low at that point, as with the rolling punch, almost any straight punch from the opponent is going to hit you meaningfully, or stop you in your tracks. I have eaten enough jabs to the face to have learned this lesson. So while shifting footwork/changing stance helps with chasing people, you'll likely want to do it once to catch the opponent by surprise, or be able to actively/passively defend yourself on the way in. I find it's not really possibly to actively or passively defend yourself WELL when throwing the rolling punch as intended (The Cantonese name for it is pretty clear - The straight charging punch [native speaker FWIW]).
1) You're committed to throwing follow-up punches at the same target and using the same angle; 2) your elbows are pointed down, meaning you can't hide behind them like you can with a boxer's jab/cross; 3) Because you're charging forward, you're never fully extending each punch, so you can't protect your body with a bladed stance; 4) While using rolling punches, it's almost impossible to move your head and body in a way that makes it harder for your opponent to hit you (e.g. peek-a-boo, Dempsey Roll etc.)
So in my mind, it's a technique you use when you're already winning an exchange. e.g. You've made them cover up, and you're trying to keep them that way, or they're tired, and you're pressing the advantage.
I've found the rolling punch not to be something to charge at someone with unless their attention is elsewhere. At least not in my experience. You might catch someone by surprise the first couple times, but after that, if they're a smart fighter, there's quite a few ways they could nullify its effectiveness: angle off; kick low; straight kick to the chest; duck under and throw a lead hook etc.etc.
I mean all of this is a bit "what-iffy" anyway. If you can pull it off in sparring, or have seen someone do so against a resisting opponent, more power to you/them. Just sharing my experiences. The rolling punch needs to be set up carefully, and has a very specific use.
Wing chun guy here.
Another thing about the chain punch is that the rear hand follows the bridge that the lead hand established.
So if your first punch lands, your next punch follows the same path to target. No need to hack another trail through the jungle.
I have 4 years practicing JKD in the only JKD school in México aprooved by Jerry Poteet and im loving these videos. The way you're analizing everything is just awesome.
Im also loving how @hard2hurt is accepting and liking JKD stuff.
Jkd as It is is awesome, but to mix it with other martial arts, like I do (tradicional kung fu and sanda/sanshou/wushu) its just beautiful the infinite options of technics.
I still like practicing the vertical punches, if I ever get into kickboxing I should try some of it out for sparring.
Thank you for sharing ☺️.
You should! You should spar because it pressure tests you and you should use it because it's a fun punch 👊
@@metrolinamartialarts It is a fun punch, I do it a lot every time I watch martial art movies 😂.
The time i spent with Mayweathers gym most of his guys used that vertical punch while moving to the side away from the counter jab. If someone practices something enough...theyll make it work 👍🤜
I use it a lot. Great for splitting right through the guard once they get use to your normal jab.
Old school 19th century boxing used the vertical fist for the left lead. It arose out of bare knuckle boxing because if you hit someone in the head with the vertical fist, you are less likely to break your hand.
I find a great way to use the vertical punch is to cut across the oponents jab/ cross (with the propper footwork) and land a hit on them mid combination. The vertical punch (as opposed to a regular boxing punch) i think has a better way of cutting of the others punch instead of trading punches. This is a nice extra tool to have in your sparring toolkit, love this techenique.
Also wanted to say that it is great discovering your channel, coming from the inosanto kali/ JKD liniage. I recognize alot of things in your videos, yet there are plenty of extra instights to be gained. Exited to see whats next from this channel!
Cheers from Belgium
You have to talk to Light Burley and his 52 blocks to talk about defense to the center line punches. cross guards and his skull and bones and even the simple closed door elbow block is fun to do. I think wing chung and JKD are most fun in the context of working with the simple system of blocks that you play with with chi sao.
I used the repeated wing chun punches as a small blitze to close distance and force their guard up. Then mix it with dirty boxing guard pulls to land hard hooks. Works pretty well in a small blitze before they can figure out how to react for me
1:39 good idea hard 2 hurt. On how to make it more powerful.. stop by sometime
The Vertical Jab in boxing was shown to me by stepping forward when you throw it and keeping your arm stiff to go thru the guard using your body weight never found it akward
Sounds almost like a regular jab but without the corkscrew twist in the end. Boxers don't neither stand with a straight back with chin high up in the air after a strike.
I've actually used the Jik Chung Choi in Muay Thai sparring to wipe away my opponent's guard and follow up with 1 or 2 shots. Its a really underrated technique. People think its supposed to be like in the Ip Man movies where it's a thousand punches a second where the guy doesnt defend himself but the rapid fire bicycle pedal mechanics have their place and use. Loved the video!
Exactly!!
what do you mean "wipe away". Because i do not see it being effective the way i imagine it.
@@thomasmuntzer1004 instead of using the mechanics with punches start with a slapping down of your opponents hands and come over the top with follow up punches
Very nice technical demonstration, thank you a lot. I do thai boxing and i noticed something that works with most opponents is applying pressure and blinding the opponent by just pushing the jab hand against them guard and use that range to place an high kick. Good to know i can use one inch punch to add MORE pressure or disorient the opponent.
Like everything, there are layers to the forms. The chain punch "can be" used as a rapid fire punching method, for sure. But, other uses are also there that people seem to forget about. The chain is an example of the principal of pushing AND pulling. The form is teaching you to push and pull simultaneously, it's teaching you to use your triangle, it's teaching you to punch fast, etc. Look at the siu nim tao, it repeats everything on both sides to save time in training. One could argue that the chain blast is not even real, and that it's just one punch practiced on both sides. Do a chain punch with 1 hand only you'll see the mechanic of punching and retracting are still there. Also, in the form, every movement can be interpreted as an attack, as you could use this same energy with fingerjabs, palm strikes, etc. On the issue of vertical fist, just look at Jack Dempsey, read his book. For more examples, take a bong sau, hugely misunderstood, just take a bong sau and turn your hand into a fist instead. There you have a spiral energy that ends in a horizontal fist. The form puts you into every direction and angle possible.
1:14 the vertical fist is used bare handed that’s why you’re having trouble FITTING IT IN.
Phrasing? Are we not using Phrasing anymore?
I once pulled off chain punches in a match. It is absolutely contextual. I think it was the square and circle button with the forward movement button on my controller to launch it.
🤣🤣🤣😅
WC guy here....
i really love this topic, really glad that you guys talked about this....
one of the biggest misconception about the WC straight punch is that it is thought (or taught) that the chain punch should be done like making a thousand hits in 2 seconds, that's not how the WC speed is applied....The speed that is derived from chain punching helps you to transition into other moves.....
I love the point where you guys mentioned that throwing regular jabs to set up a vertical one, to mess up with the boxing guard, that's a good tactic. i sometimes spar with my student that way
really love your work, keep it up guys!
Benny the jet has a carving punch which starts off as a vertical but then rotates on contact, strengthening the structure on impact.
the vertical punch is also used in Issinryu Karate , i learned it in high school and I think it is really fast
I like how you are explaining setting it up. Using a jab, then slipping it in.
Bas Rutten talked about this in an old Eddie Alvarez fight... I think vs Shinya Aoki? If I remember correctly his statement was "if you punch vertically like that, you make your punches invisible." His point was more to the reduced "tell" via a shoulder roll of a more traditional punch though.
The vertical punch is a boxing punch. A great book that covers this is "Championship Fighting" by Jack Dempsey.
Have you guys ever looked at Shorinji kempo vertical punch? Guys put their whole body behind every punch. There's a huge focus on pivoting their feet and hips into the punches, even on manuals they enphatise this.
A different perspective on the WC chain punch is not to bicycle. Instead the hitting hand hits in a straight line and then drops to retreat, which opens a path for the next straight punch from the other hand. This method requires less space to land punches and allows the body alignment the straight punch offers.
Yeah, i like how they adapted it for boxinf gloves, but it definetly has more damage potential in MMA gloves or bare hands where it can be tighter and more of a straight blast
Thanks, excellent.
All that Ballroom dancing really paid off Bruce.
For me, the most important thing about the longfist lead (as opposed to a traditional jab) is that it adds another inch or two to your reach; other than a finger jab (which is even harder to land and might break your fingers), its your longest hand technique. If you spring off the back foot for the longfist lead (like the fencing analogy in JKD) then you can throw a decent punch from way outside what most people perceive as punching range. Since my preferred range is trapping/infighting/clinch, I rely on the longfist lead to close. If it lands great, I'll pull it back and fire a shovel hook with the same lead hand as I close, but, honestly, I really don't care if it lands or not, I just need it to seize initiative and let me close past the longer ranges I don't want to be at.
As for the chain punch, I find that its good for two things. First, finishing at trapping range after you've broken through. Hit the guy a bunch in the face? Surprise, it works. (Also you can easily substitute palm strikes, short baton strikes, or knife strikes for straight blast punches with the same motion.) Thats kind of obvious though -- after you've broken through there's nothing that doesn't work. Second, if you're at punching-to-trapping range and you don't know what else to do, then you can chain punch to keep the initiative while you look for an opening to trap or clinch or whatever else you want to do.
Point being, like the video says, you've got to understand what any technique is good for and use it in appropriate context. Not go looking for magic bullets.
I learnt a different concept/application for straight blast. The punches should travel on a straight path and through the target and only move downward enough on the retract to allow another fist to have enough room to go through. And while it can be used to overwhelm... the other idea is if one has connected, as they are the trajectory is very straight and narrow, there is an open window (for perhaps a second or two) for consecutive punches to land. The other advantage of vertical punches is at very close range, such as elbow range, they can still generate substantial power compared to a horizontal punch. Also with quick "snapping" jabs, there is less movement in the shoulder area, therefore less visual cues, compared to a horizontal jab. Other than this, the trapping to control and counter is one of the best elements of the JKD/WC systems. Roberto Duran made good use of similar techniques.
Bas Rutten even said that the vertical fist jab gets between the opponent’s guard easier then the horizontal fist.
I like the way these Guys chemistry comes across in the video. Great Information.
the sun punch is especially useful in close quarters and striking low because the arms can compressed close to your core and you can hit with almost the same power as hitting high.
Thank you guys for this quality content. I'm on year twelve of balancing my passions for martial arts and practical self defense and every little bit helps. It never occurred to me that I ate too many hooks in sparring because I jab vertically, I just knew I struggled with hooks and learned covering and head movement to compensate. One thing it did teach me though is that if your hands are up palms toward your face you get just as much rotation power out of a vertical jab as an orthodox.
4:25 In vertical fist striking. In general. Try to lock your elbow out and drive it in like a bolt or spike. Keep your arm high enough to block your jaw from the side a bit and your guard hand (WU SAO) should push out with it, and be at about elbow range to guardthe face.
If you lock your elbow out you can hurt it.
@@metrolinamartialarts I understand. But trust me. You probably haven’t seen it done this way. Spike effect is pinky to elbow like a bolt. The bigger the forearm and velocity? The more damage it does. I do agree. I’m not saying that’s the only right way. But just a possibility maybe you haven’t seen before 💯🤛fantastic show by the way I subscribed
I activly box and i utilize vertical punches often. When i do im not going for the K.O , so it dont need to be very powerful. I like to use it as you shown in the video , to split the guard. I land it often in sparring and there is kind of a sweet spot with it , the trick is to aim for the wrist. Even when the opponent is not sweaty at all it still gets through.
Also i like to slip with it to give me another layer of defense for whatever counter that could be coming simataniously. Also i will throw slipped right hands with glove mostly vertical but with the thumb downward.
That punch slides in nice too and my head is well off the center line , but what i really like about that one is i get to really turn over my fist as it slides in .(like corkscrews inbetween there guard.
Then ...lol this is what i love about the "sweet science" if and when opponent puts there gloves/forearms together to get a solid block up the middle thats when i feint and turn into a hook.
The thing i learned after boximg for all these years and i would think the same gos for other martial arts too: there is no 1 all be all answer to anything.
I like most of these topics lcy mike gos over in these videos. Very intereating stuff
I've trained in jkd and I've always been using the vertical fist straight lead in sparring. There's people from muay thai and mma in my jkd place so I would say it's just as effective as the normal jab.
Dude, your content is a fucking godsend. I'm a wing chun guy, and I see this MASSIVE rift between my community and JKD guys. But seeing you preach and apply the exact same principles that my sifu and sihings have been teaching me for half a decade, but applied differently, is really cool and refreshing. I've been told that JKD done right is "wing chun applied in a modern fight," and I got to experience that when I finally started sparring against kickboxers, and it's really dope to see your content demonstrate the same thing.
PS: Also I have used the chain punch in a live sparring environment! My buddy is an Irish boxer and we both have very fast hands. In our bout we were constantly trading blows to the nose, trying to outsmart each other's timing. He would always get me with a rapid-fire cross after a jab, and I would always get him with a flurry of wing chun chain punches. We had to end the fight early because our noses started bleeding 😂
🤜💥🤛
New to Wing Chun, and have struggled a bit with some of the popular impressions of what chain punching and straight punching can do. I like how you are demonstrating it here. It seems obvious that it relies on an economy of motion to land first and faster even if it has less power, to help keep an opponent occupied, moving back, and off guard for whatever you might be setting up next. But so many WC guys seem to think it should work on its own as some never ending stream of super punches!
I learned only to do 3 per combination, and this was reinforced from boxing and Isshin Ryu upper body basics.
My boxing coach taught me to jab with my elbows shooting straight out from my ribs and to turn the punch over at the last second. Flared elbows are easier to read and defend.
Great video! I like the way you guys worked with it and showed where this technique shines. I think the tight vertical punch works even better with mma gloves or bare hands, it works best in small spaces. Boxing gloves take up alot of the space and force you to do that bicycle wheel motion whereas a smaller glove or bare hands allows you to straight blast to the center and really do some damage. I was taught Jit chung choi as a follow up or finishing combo once you've gained entry.
I've also noticed that Manny Pacquiao would land punches knuckle up like that. I'm sure we could also observe some of his old fights and pickup on how he lands them successfully.
Its so unfortunate that JKD is incomplete as a martial art. Bruce Lee was trying to incorporate the strengths of many martial arts into it but he passed too early. 😢
He actually fully understood where he wanted to go with it if you’ve studied his writings. He ended up making it a concept for personal liberation in martial arts towards the end. He closed his schools before he passed away. His surviving students all took a different approach of teaching what they were taught though.
It was always meant to be formless
IMHO, the many practitioners of JKD must--and I say must--study the grappling arts, Muay Thai, etc, and bring in those things to their sparring sessions. Eventually, we should be able to complete this otherwise near-perfect street fighting self-defense style, as Bruce Lee was doing before he tragically passed away.
jeet kun do was bruce lee's personal style. everyone else was supposed to make their own style based on his philosphy, with movements that synergized with the individual.
Although jkd will likely never be complete, since it allows room for improvement.
Good on you both for maintaining a straight face. "Once you put it in there, you do not want to pull it out".
It was difficult 😆
excellent Video and explanations! Suggestion for further videos: the application of the vertical jab/straight lead without gloves in self defense scenarios. Of all punches it is the one that has has worked most effectively for me as an entry; on the street as well as in scenario training situations
Ed Cousins and his lineage of boxers/kickboxers/trainers have always taught punching vertically.
The other thing too is that barehanded it’s hard to do a high guard without shifting. That’s why many MMA people use long guard or cross guards to stifle or block rather than high guarding. JDK being a mix martial art probably has that in mind.
My chain punch story. Sparring with a TKD friend, he was completely unprepared for it, letting me get in so many hits. Unfortunately, on the next round I was completely unprepared for his spinning leg sweep, which floored me! Good times.
Sounds like good times!
i have used the vertical jab on various ocasions in muay thai sparring and boxing sparring without doing a day of JKD in my life, i just wanna go between the gloves so my training partner goes tighter on the guard and i can go body.
I trained in the Vunak/Joe Maffei lineage of Jeet Kune Do, and the way they taught the straight blast is that is the whole purpose is to get the guy going backwards so that you could land a modified Thai plumb, rake the eyes, and then start head butting and elbowing away. This is tricky against a trained guy because they typically won't back straight up and pretty much everyone knows the plumb now, but against an untrained opponent it's still probably one of the best ways to create pressure and do major damage.
Old-timey bare knuckle fighters used a vertical fist. Isshinryu still uses it. The neat thing with Bruce Lee’s fighting system is that he held his strong side forward and used the jab like a rapier.
I don't study JKD but I use the vertical punch a lot in sparring, I like it because you can throw it off weird angles and it's really useful when you are getting pressured.
Huge respect to Ron Balicki and Greg Nelson both too! I hear that Mr. Balicki also has some serious blade skills and trains regularly with both Steven Seagal and Inosanto.
He does! They're both awesome
Jkd is not about punching with vertical fist. It is about body mechanics. Observe the fist when trowing while slipping. It san be in horizontal or diagonal position.
I more use chain punch like if he throws a straight and you step 45 then punch on the other side of the punch you can then blast in. Plus, I dnt even really use it like that I mostly use it to train alternating quickly with other moves.
I used tye vertical jab in boxing today and it helped me get through the guard
original JKD call it straight lead, usually with strong side forward, i didn't know JKD concept do it as well, that's interesting
I throw vertical jabs sometimes but not with the step shown here. Vertical jabs are harder to see because we can't react very quickly to depth changes. Since the shoulder has not moved and my elbow is not flaring out, the punch is harder to see coming at you. I mix it up with regular jabs.
Vertical Punches work better for bare-knuckle boxing as it's harder to fuck your hands up on someone's face, what you can do with boxing gloves isn't necessarily realistic. It has a greater reach than all other straight punches. Think of it more as a setup punch, think more fencing than boxing. lunge forward at speed and likely it will hit. Boxing gloves make it easier to block strikes due to them making the mass of your hands bigger. The vertical Punch would be easier to slip through a block than a horizontal punch.
Another option if they catch and trap your vertical punch between their forearms and elbows is to use the trapped hand to hook their arm while pulling it to turn them; then shooting a cross or hook to the exposed side.
For sure! Lon Sao or Cup Sao are big there
Great Punch techniques and the best explanation I have seen yet as to how to properly apply them! Mikey you did it pretty well too for the first time! :-)
Manny Pacquiao uses vertical jabs alot in quick succession in order to pierce a person's guard which is how he managed to land so many combos, I did it during sparring as well with my partner covering up and the vertical jab kept on opening his guard which helped me land combos
Marcos Maidana likes to use the vertical jab. My trainer taught me to throw it if someone is covering up with a highguard. You can throw it inbetween his two gloves and often it can break through and hit his nose. Then you can throw powershots after you split through their guard it will make it harder for them to block your punch because theyre caught odf guard.
Vertical jab used to be in boxing, especially before Queensberry rules and gloves. Hand break was a real thing back then (well, still is) and it wasn’t smart to hit hard and go for KO, but hit vertical to the soft parts of the face and try to break the skin, nose, eyes, make them bleed etc. Jack Dempsey talks about it in his book (which I think Bruce Lee must have read). Also maybe it’s easier to teach than a correct jab, which is a hardest thing in the world (like boxers spent their whole career perfecting the jab) and if you start to flair your elbows against any boxer you’re basically just a punching bag at that point. Beside that, I’d would imagine Bruce using hands mainly to set up kicks anyway.
When I trained in Jun Fan I was told parts of it were from Savate as well. I think it was some of the kicking technique in Jun Fan class which were different than the kicks in the Muay Thai class. This was like 2010 since I trained it last so it's been a minute
There is Savate in it!
Love the content. First timer! Just sub'd. I just can't get over the rev gear gloves😂
I've actually found I'm more likely to land with the correct knuckles and less likely to injure myself with a vertical punch. Though I was trained to do horizontal punches
Alex Periera throws vertical punches in the way of Jack Dempsey. It masks hooks pretty well because they look so similar. I don’t see the WC straight blast working with boxing gloves at all though.
It could - but not as well as with mma or bare knuckles
I use the straight blast only one I have a really tough opponent sparring. Then transition into boxing.
I don't JKD, but I don't box conventional either. The old school bare knuckle techniques were similar anyhow. I enjoyed this video.
You wipe left and right to block the chain punches. It's a silat technique.
This is in my opinion the absolute best strike in all of fighting. It’s quick, effective and literally sets up an endless number of follow ups. More strikes, kicks, takedowns if you snap their head back. Plus 80% of gyms don’t train for this so it’s effective.
I think my most common use of a vertical fist is when throwing a sort of upward jab after bobbing/slipping to that side. Generally used against a tight guard to slip through and catch their chin, passing just under the bulk of their gloves. Combined with the sort of upper body twist they do in the video, you can get some decent power out of it while circling the back leg to catch a better angle. Prone to a counter, perhaps, but great against a turtling opponent.
Depends on where you want your head to be, I suggest mixing up Vertical and Upsidedown. (upside down being a horizontal punch turned over even more)
Vertical punch is great for leaning towards the same side as punching arm; an 'upside down punch (thumb pointed down) is great for leaning the other way. Either way your going off the center line.
-how to know which to do? It depends on which opponents counter you are trying to avoid.
also, like you guys touched on, Vertical is a bit more protected against shorter fighters and body blows, but the Upside down is more protected against taller fighters and head shots.
(TLDR.... left jab: Vertical = lean left, Upside = lean right and away.)
Yeah if you can muster up enough power and speed to do that chain punch it could be just as deadly or deadlier than accommodation but that goes with any kind of punch as well any kind of style of punching if you're fast enough and you like a certain type of punching cuz it's either cool or it's just whatever was available to you at that moment if you're at a certain distance you know go for it and hope for the best
Great video!!!! The vertical fist is biomechanically superior due to proper bone alight.
i always use this as a straight hard vertical spear punch, how jack dempsey instructs in his book. he says to lunge forward and calls it a 'straight jolt' and it can blast through peoples guard pretty easily.
i use this to counter with both hands and it works well to cut through punches.
My most memorable use of Jik Chung Choi was when I sparred an MMA friend. He got the best of me 8 out of 10 times, so I was super proud it worked! He out weighed me by 80 or so pounds but I was able to catch his chin enough to make his head turn and get a solid hook. I set it up with some jabs and a Muay Thai roundhouse to the thigh. It really is about timing. It's also effective against slower fighters, especially adding in some elbow flows to keep the opponents flurries from landing. Mind you, these were mainly fellow martial arts friends and not professionals. Still, feels good when the traditional techniques work against modern practitioners.
That's awesome!!
Lol starting the video and saying why you suck with a certain thing is sooo hard2hurt 😂
Learning from the man
Good stuff, teaching as well as explaining how things are applied.
Thank you sir!
If you want to learn the best way to straight blast look no further than Paul Vunak. There are jkd guys then there PFS jkd guys. I trained with Vunak and the way we straight blasted was done methodically. Good info by these guys.
0:22 That's where Tony Jeffries would prove you wrong,Mike
I use the straight blast all the time in sparring pretty successfully. I waiting for them to throw a cross. I parry it with my left hand and at the same time throw the right followed by immediate left. I normally throw 4 or 5 in a row before throwing front kick. Works well most times. You have to be very explosive when doing this technique! Commit fully to it and your running forward at the same time.
A couple of thoughts here. Firstly, as for the use of the vertical punch, Lee put a lot of emphasis on the set-up- we call it entering. It was a study all its own as far as I can see. Unless you were just assured of landing it, there was a lot of stuff to get it positioned to deliver what somebody called a 'scientific sucker punch'. So just throwing it without the proper set-up, including angles and footwork, not to mention the low kicks to get the guard down, etc., is iffy. And the centerline is useful if you follow Dempsey's powerline theory and keep your elbows in and not flared. I am sure Lee read that book, he read all he could find about boxing.
Some of us aren't Lee or JKD groupies but use a vertical fist for other reasons. Mine is plain old overworked hands, having used vibrating hand tools, along with other injuries. It hurts to throw horizontal anything with my right hand and having had a rotator cuff injury in my left shoulder I am like that little dude in 300 that can't raise his shield. So I go dominant hand forward, leaving the left to guard. Not optimal, but not all of us are looking to get into an MA ring or whatnot. I suspect most viewers are people that just love combative arts and use it for a primary exercise with some application. Thanks for this one, it fires us up to train and that's something good all by itself!
I'm did Isshin-Ryu Karate, so the vertical punch is my go to punch and god damn, do I love it.
5his is how Mexican boxers jab. I use it because since the shoulder doesn't rotate there is less telegraph.
Check out Bartitsu Lab's video Slavic style knuckle orientation for more on this kind of jab.
Ive always found the hardest I land a chung choy/ power jab is the 3rd strike of a jab/ cross / jab combo. people get way to accustomed to seeing the j/c/h it throws them off
That's always solid
I've landed the vertical jab in a traditional jkd stance (southpaw), bridged across a traditional jab on a pro boxer, I think just because he'd not seen it before ..I was surprised as well😁
That's awesome!
That Chung Choi you showed seems wrong to me.
Chung Choi should not be a circular "hammering" movement. In fact it is a straight punch chain, meaning the directionality should follow a straight path.
After the first punch, that punch gets slightly lower to make space for the other one, which will go straight to the target.
In the meantime the other had already come back to cover the solar plex/center line.
From there, the last punch will get slightly lower to make space for the next one, always in a straight line, only for that previous one to go back close to the solar plex/center line defence position, and so on and so forth.
What drives the punches, their direction and their trajectory, is the elbow. It's like a rocket, where the elbow represents the backburner/propeller, all helped by the lats muscles and the whole body structure (as you guys well pointed out).
The circular "hammering" movement will only help scratching your knuckles, nothing more.
Generally speaking, the straight blast is not the beginning of an action, it's the goal (Paul Vunak demonstrated this many times). In order to go for the straight blast, you have to prepare the way for it by doing something else and open the way.
It's one of the principles of Wing Chun that have been kept in JKD as well: if the way is open move forward (or, in other words, go for it).
Loved the video by the way, you guys are great!
Great video keep them coming !