My trainers are always telling me i throw my left hook wrong, when i throw my left hook my hand is always facing towards the opponent, and they want my hand facing straight down, but for me, when ever i try throw it that way, it feels alot less powerful, and in general just feels awkward. Ive still been practicing "his" proper technique, but i prefer the way i throw it already. should i keep trying to change it or just go with comfort?
The problem is you wont be turning your punch over by keeping it 'vertical'. Its best to keep palms to the floor and learn a short sharp pivot movement, not a swinging winding up motion. Its hard to pick up but when it clicks, you'll see how you turn you body weight over the punch and through the target.
I throw my left hook with the thumb facing up. My right hook I throw with the palm facing down. What I found is that my left wrist is very inflexible, and it's impossible to throw a hook with any kind of range, I can only throw extremely tight ones. That said, throwing hooks with the palm down will give you more power and snap.
For years I've been unable to throw it with my palm facing down. It definitely has an awkward feel, feels like I'm gonna break my knuckle, and without a doubt has less power for me. My palm-facing-me left hook is possibly my strongest punch. The palm down technique also has never worked well for me due to shoulder bursitis, and throwing the hook that way seems to aggravate things.
Mid-range or from afarI throw it palm facing inwards. I'm long armed, the closer I am the more likely I am to throw it palm downards.
GET YOUR MECHANICS CORRECT, THE POWER & SPEED WILL BE THERE... I think everyone, who boxed more than a few days, had that challenge trying to master it, and what really helped me was to focus on shifting body weight... and yes, I feel your frustration. Even though I was told a thousand times not to focus on delivering power, I couldn't help but focusing on 'how my power weakened on a hook'(power from my arms... bad idea). As the other vets have told you in the forum, practice short hooks w/elbow tight to your lats and do focus on 'exaggerating' on shifting weight from left to right in a form your coach showed you, and always 'DO' try to create more torque by churning your fist.
There is no actual evidence to suggest that the palm-down hook is more powerful than the thumb-up hook. None. Everyone is taught to do it that way, but whenever I've asked guys to do it thumb-up on the pads for an exeriment, they've always commented that it feels alot more powerful for them to hook with the thumb up. Just to add a bit of evidence in there, this video shows 5 guys who are all known for their devastating hooks.. They all hit thumb-up. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiqaAehf1VA[/ame]
nice video.. so its looking like its okay to hook with thumbs up from a distance.. but i shall still practise palms down for in tight. thanks gents!
I throw it with my thumb up or diagonally up/in most of the time (when I'm leadig with it or throwing it from a distance. Sometimes when I'm in close I throw the palm down version. I think of it as stabbing them, while the other one is more of a 'rip your face off' motion. Palm down you really have to rotate hard and dig in.
My trainer taught me the punch with the palm down, but established that I'm most comfortable throwing it thumb up. And it turned into my best punch, so all in all, perfect the technique first (arm angle, follow-through), then find the most comfortable way to throw the punch.
With the palm down you could be able to find your "power line"....that from your shoulder to your pinky knuckle....Dempsey described that in his book..... And maybe it´s just a impression, but I feel like my hook became faster with that too.....
logically, a palm down hook would reach its target faster because the way palm down hooks are thrown. You can't recruit as much shoulder power so it's thrown less wide in my experience. This means it'll hit faster, but not as solid. That being said, if you're good at throwing them palm down, hitting fast on the inside can have just as much devastating effect as a solid thumb up hook.