You can do this with your backfist, too; the only difference is that you rotate your upper body away as your arm extends and your knees bends. Throw out a couple strikes that miss your opponent by a mile, then sink your knees, lean in and whack him.
You can even combine your backfist and reverse punch. Set him up with one or two backfist misses, and then sink, extend and hit him with a quick one-two, a backfist and reverse punch combination.
Try not to laugh too hard at his look of surprise.
4. BOXER’S JAB
The jab may have originated with the “sweet science” of boxing, but karate people are free to use it too, though few do. I’m not talking about traditional karate’s straight punch, which is about as sneaky as an out-of-control Mac truck with a stuck horn. Yes, the karate straight punch can be extremely powerful, but it’s harder to sneak in than is the more versatile, easy-to-deliver and disarming boxer’s jab.
The jab is most often delivered from a high stance, a boxer’s stance, a position that allows your footwork to be fluid, light and highly mobile. It’s a stance that makes for easy and quick movement in and out of range, which allows for more opportunities to set up your opponent.
This technique is especially popular in those styles that are reality based, although not too many years ago there were only a few karate fighters who knew how to defend against it. The first time I tried the jab against karate people outside of my school, it was like shooting ducks in a barrel. Each time I popped one, my opponents would flinch as if startled, and only a few of them blocked it, or even tried. Today, however, more fighters are familiar with the jab, and the only people who have problems with it now are those who don’t include it in their personal arsenal or practice it in their style.
Historically Speaking
Just as many kung fu systems were created from watching animals, birds and even insects fight, early boxing most likely copied the way cats and bears slap and cuff their enemies. Historical boxing records show that before the jab came along, early fighters relied on swinging and hooking their blows. As boxing evolved, straight hitting was discovered and fighters found they could hit faster and more accurately with straight shots than with circular ones. They also found they could better maintain their balance, since it was safer to snap their punches straight out and back than it was to make over committed swings.
How to Jab
Let’s take a look at the mechanics of the jab and see how using your hips is so important to delivering a fast and powerful blow.
Assume a left leg forward fighting stance with your hands up near your head. As your left fist travels forward, turn your left shoulder and left hip no more than a quarter turn to your right until your arm is fully extended. If you turn so far that your entire left side is toward your opponent, as if drawing a bow to launch an arrow, you have gone too far. More is not better.
Technique: Jab
Assume your on-guard stance and snap your left arm straight out making sure to keep your elbow pointing downward. Rotate your upperbody about a 1/4 to the right. Snap it back on the same path.
Don’t let your right arm hang down like a dead grape on a vine. When you launch your left jab, snap your right arm back to a place near your chin. Though this may be a boxer’s jab, the karate principle still holds that for every action there is an opposite action. Snap your right hand back fast, and watch your jab go out even faster.
Your jabbing fist rotates until your palm is facing the floor at the point of impact. Some fighters hit with their thumb side up and with their fist turned downward slightly to make impact with their index and middle knuckles. You might want to experiment with this to see how you like it.
With either method, your arm travels in a straight line and strikes through the target, not at the target. If you are punching a guy in the neck (a safer target for your fist than his bony old chin), think of punching all the way through his Adam’s apple to his back collar. It’s the same thinking process for breaking a brick: You don’t just hit the top of the brick, but you think all the way through.
The jab is a light and easy movement. But if you tense your shoulder, fist and arm prior to hitting, it will be stiff and slow. Practice the jab until it becomes a natural, almost casual movement. Experiment with lifting the shoulders as the Muay Thai fighter suggests on page 32, #1, “Shoulders” to see if you like that method. Practice hitting the air, hitting a heavy bag, a handheld pad, and a training partner’s open palm. Then work your jab into your sparring. Your ultimate goal is to have a jab that is quick and powerful without apparent effort. Here are a few ways to use it.
Jab to Make your Opponent Nervous
As you move around stalking each other, keep popping jabs at your opponent’s face. It doesn’t matter whether you jab in an attempt to hit, or jab just to make your opponent flinch. Your objective is to keep him nervous and thinking about defense rather than thinking about attacking you.
To Disrupt your Opponent’s Setpoint
Use the jab every time he sets himself to throw a technique at you. As the two of you spar, you see him get set to launch a punch. To disrupt his plan, lunge forward with your lead foot and snap a quick jab into his face.
Strategy Tip: Jab to Disrupt your Opponent
While sparring, you detect your opponent begin to advance.
You disrupt this with a quick jab to the side of his face and …
Take advantage of his nicely exposed neck and punch it.
Jab to Set up your Opponent
This technique works especially well with the high/low and broken rhythm principle. Gary Sussman, my senior student and a 3rd-degree black belt who has been with me since 1982, loves to combine high/low with broken rhythm. “I like to jab high and then kick low,” he says. “First, I’ll jab at my opponent’s face and let him block it. Then I’ll jab at his face a second time, and again I let him block it. My third jab is a fake that goes out only enough to make him commit his block. When he does, I slam a kick into his groin or against his knee. The concept is simple: I set a rhythm with the jabs and then I break it.”
Jabbing the Body
Not a lot of fighters jab to their opponent’s body, but I have seen guys get hit there and crumple to the ground unable to continue fighting. Here is how to do it with power.
Boxers believe that the jabber’s body should be behind the jab (as shown at right) whether it’s to a high target or a mid level one. To jab hard to a low target, you need to lower your body so that your left shoulder is at a level with your opponent’s solar plexus. Bend your lead leg slightly and your rear leg a little more as you rotate your shoulders, and drive your fist into your opponent’s gut. Be sure to snap your other hand back to the side of your head. Since being low and close to your opponent is not a desirable place to loiter, especially if your jab didn’t hurt him, follow up with additional techniques or scoot yourself out of there.
Add the jab to your repertoire and you will be happily surprised at how well it works - though not half as surprised as your opponent.
5. HOOK PUNCHES
The hook punch is another hand technique rarely found in karate styles. This is an unfortunate omission, since it’s a devastating blow