How to use stretch shortening cycle for power?

Don’t overthink it. Punch properly instead it’s as simple said as “Hips move the shoulders” although learning to do that will be a task.

 

The key is to not let your hands get in front of your hips don’t lose sight of it being a movement of the waist/hips (a violent twist) but also press down hard on the leg the weights being transferred to.
So for example you’d press down on the left leg if you’re throwing a right and vice versa with the exception of the jab.
The jab gets its power somewhere else as I understand which I can try to explain - a quick tip is to think of your jab like a fencers sword,
You push off the rear foot for power and coordinate with the left shoulder and a quick quarter turn of the waist/hip.
Your lead foot will come off the ground very briefly when you push off the rear foot, the order of contact is your punch hits the chin then your foot hits the floor.
The motion of punching, moving, everything it starts at the floor but keep in mind the “putting out a cigarette” cue when punching is perhaps misunderstood the pivot doesn’t start the punch.
Your hips turning will make that feel natural or perhaps necessary as resisting it I don’t think is good for your knees.
Also consider your arm will have a small amount of bend in it when you land - you extend your elbows through them so to speak that is what punching through the target is as I understand and it should be done even with a jab. Don’t punch at the end of your reach if you intend to hurt someone.
Think of perhaps a Knife? Sword? Spear? you wouldn’t just pr1ck something with just the tip if you intend to damage - I hope that was a good analogy? Lol Disclaimer I am not a trainer, just trying to help so I’d ask @greynotsoold @Rockin1 @Saintpat @Pat M for advice on this one In case I have misunderstood or missed something. I’d advise you also watch Joe Louis to see what I mean about punching through the target and using your hips.

 

Thanks for the shoutout @Journeyman92 — I don’t know the term ‘stretch shortening cycle.’ If I saw it illustrated/demonstrated I’m sure I’d probably recognize the concept, but those words aren’t part of my boxing nomenclature so I’m not sure what @Thirdtonunn24 is describing here.

Some thoughts on power, however …

You’re right on punching through the target. We’d say ‘do you want to touch his nose with your glove or do you want to flatten his nose by trying to drive it into his face?’ Same would be true for any target (body, chin, whatever). For more power, when say hitting a heavy bag, and to drive your first through the surface of the bag and a few inches inside it.

Hip rotation is generally where it starts, with the shoulders (and arm and fist) being driven from there rather than the fist carrying the arm/shoulder/hip along for the ride, if that makes any sense. The more body mass behind the punch, the more weight it carries.

Then there’s the matter of ‘what are you hitting them with?’ Emanuel Steward talked about how Thomas Hearns had like 12 KOs in 150-odd amateur fights. When he was turning him pro, he realized Hearns always hit with a loosely opened fist … he didn’t close his hand to make a hard fist. Such a simple concept but so important. Our terminology in teaching this was ‘do you want to slap him with a wet fish or do you want to hit him with a brick? Close your fist and hit him with a brick.’

Within that, we’d talk about carrying the fist more loosely and and close it as the punch travels. If you’re balling your fists up as hard as you can for the entirety of every round, you’re creating muscle tension through your body and you want to be loose, so as you throw the punch close it so it’s tight at the point it’s reaching the target. We’d use the example of a gun (I’m in a place where gun culture is pretty big and more young adults had handled a firearm than hadn’t, usually because hunting is pretty big in the area) — you squeeze a trigger, you don’t jerk it. So you gradually close the fist as you go — squeeze it — rather than snap it closed.

Speaking of snap, hitting the punch at proper extension — what we called tail-end punches, which is at the end of arm extension basically — is the wheelhouse where the most power is. Which means regulating distance and finding yours relative to that wheelhouse as your most effective power punching zone. The end of a punch, where it lands, is a bit like the crack of a whip … you don’t want to just lash someone with a whip, you want to crack it, and that means gauging distance to catch them at the tail-end of the punch for maximum impact.

The key to the whip effect is hand rotation, you want to snap the wrist and rotate the hand at the end. Generally, you want your palm facing sideways when the punch starts (so your right hand is around your cheek and the inside of your hands is facing that cheek) and you rotate that (while tightening the fist) as the punch travels so that at the very end you snap your wrist and the palm is facing down upon impact at the end of the punch. This is the same concept really as a bullet spinning down the barrel of a gun … picks up speed with the rotation — any episode of Forensic Files where they get into ballistics illustrates how a bullet rotates.

All of the above biomechanics really work within a very simple physics formula: acceleration + mass = force. That’s Sir Isaac Newton and it’s a non-negotiable law of the universe. So acceleration (not just speed, but the 0–to-60 element of the punch getting faster each inch it travels toward the target) and how much of your body you get behind it (mass) dictates the force with which it lands. There’s no getting around it, and grasping this should inform all teaching on how to achieve it.

Now there’s so much more to it — effective punching is more important imo than power. Mixing the speeds and angles so you catch an opponent with punches when he’s off balance, not braced or, best of all, doesn’t see the punch is going to result in the punches being more effective much more than ‘how hard was the punch’ ultimately. If you throw a 1-2 well so the jab obscures the right hand coming behind it and he doesn’t see the right hand, it’s going to do more damage (the punch you don’t see is always the one that gets you, even if you landed a harder punch that he saw coming). I liked what Sean O’Grady often talked about on Tuesday Night Fights — don’t bring the power at first, let your opponent get used to getting hit and figure ‘ok, this guy isn’t a big puncher’ so he doesn’t feel urgency to avoid every punch … then lower the boom and it’s too late for him to adjust.

That’s a bunch of thoughts on power. Don’t know if it helps or not.

 

No worries Pat - I knew I missed something important. Closing your hands before contact.
@Thirdtonunn24 Bob Fitzsimmons said to envision you’re drowning and trying to snatch a rope to save yourself, you close your hands at impact Blackburn spoke of “catching flies” for the same reasons. This part is tough in my opinion - closing your hand so close to impact is beyond me.

 

I saved so I didn’t lose it and added a bit, but yes that’s a big one.

And don’t forget the hand needs to return as quickly as possible generally along the same path as you threw it to hit the guy so you don’t get hit right back —- as Gil Glancy said, ‘don’t wait for the receipt,’ or as another trainer I knew used to teach it, ‘act like you’re trying to snatch a $100 bill (especially with the jab)’ if you grab it and don’t get it back quickly, he’ll just snatch it right back.

 

I’ll add this: for my money, working on power is best achieved on the heavy bag. It gives you the best feedbackk by how it reacts to your punches so you can adjust technique.

If you’re kind of pushing the bag around, you’re probably not hitting it on the tail end — you’re, in short, too close to achieve max impact. If you’re denting it a little bit and can make it buckle, you’re getting it.

You can also get a good feel for how many knuckles you’re putting on the target (a hard fist should result in more of your knuckles and thus a ‘brick’ hitting the target), proper rotation (are you snapping your palm down at the tail end of the punch or is it only half-rotated when you land), etc.

 

Looks like from a google search the ‘stretch shortening cycle’ terminology is a fancy phrase for ‘snap’ and proper extension, haha.

I like the words of the late, great football coach ‘Bear’ Bryant: “The same things win that have always won: We just have a new set of excuses when we lose.”

 

The SSC produces more power by two methods.

One... when you lengthen a muscle quickly, it will immediately try to contract without you even trying. This allows you to produce force with less effort. Or allow you to produce more force than from a still position.

Two... the lengthening of the tendons produces kinetic energy that makes them return back to their shortened position more forcefully, just like a rubber band.

The easiest way to experience the SSC is straight high jumps against a wall. The calves, quads and the glutes all lengthen as you dip to power the high jump.

But the amount of lengthening (dipping) and the speed at which you change direction to contracting the muscles plays a vital role in the amount of power produced. If you dip too far, you lose momentum, or the kinetic energy you just stored in your muscles. And if you stay dipped too long, you also lose that momentum. But if you do it too quick and too short, you don't produce as much power as you need.

You must dip fast, the right distance, and then switch directions immediately to produce optimum power. But if we use these parameters for optimum punching power, you're gonna telegraph the punch. So there is the trade off between loading up the punch vs getting it off fast.

Which is why jabbing, feinting and combination punching are so important. Jabs can hide you loading the power punch. Feinting from side to side can also hide the loading. And throwing combinations can additionally multiply the load of each ensuing punch because the force generated by the first punch can load the second punch with even more force which can load the third punch that much more. Or, say you miss with a right hand but follow up with a left hook. That left hook has been doubly loaded from the from the force of shifting the right hand's momentum back in the opposite direction to throw the left hook.

 

Do you think I should workout hips for the power like Earnie Shavers did?

 

Just punch properly and you’ll hit as hard as you were meant to in my know nothing opinion.
Moore had Shavers hit a tire with a sledge hammer for power - add a few rounds of that in maybe? I won’t pretend to know better than Moore but I’m not sure if that’ll help.

 

Fedor did that too.

 

Treasure trove of info right here, if I had anything to add if u do S&C I would recommend doing two hand kettlebell swings. Nothing beats hitting the heavybag as hard as u can with good technique for developing power but if u aren't able to put a heavybag in your home like me, having a good weight kettlebell that is light enough that you can swing it explosively and not get injured and heavy enough so that it is a little bit of a challenge for 8 reps per set (give or take) is great for the days u cant make it to the gym (if u cant have heavybag at home of course)

Ive been also experimenting with this technique called plyo push ups which pretty much a clap pushup where your feet dont come off the ground but Ive been doing it with minimal bend of the elbows because its hard on my elbows and ive had tendonitis on my elbow recently

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and this thing that is similar to a jump squat that some people call Masai jumps that's inspired by the Masai tribe who can do it really athletically.

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I'm super convinced based on my results that those do a lot if not the most for your stretch shortening cycle bodyweight wise as in something u can do before heavybag or fight

The key things for these two workouts is utilizing the rebound effect or bounce and using it to drive off, very similar to the stiffening of the fist right before a punch and that short but fast driving off the legs to generate force that is translated into the fists