So when you learn to play music you spend how much time practicing chords before diving into learning a whole song. Tradtionally, the learning of any craft or art was an endeavour that took years upon years of painful, tedious, and yes boring practice of the basics. I understand the modern demand for instsnt restlts....and the "gotta have it now mentality"......but thats not how I learned or how I teach.
YES....you should spend months kicking and punching air before attempting to strike an object. YES....you should progress to striking a "karate post". Hit wiki for "makiwara" if you are interested. And there IS physiology and science behind these ancient methods...ever heard of Wolfs Law? The properly trained fist undergoes permant physical transformation through this type of rigorous training. I realize that there are examples of grossly deformed knuckles out there.....this is not what is meant. Yes, knuckles get bigger and some calous's form....the fist takes on a square apperance. I stopped hitting the makiwara 20 years ago...my fist is as strong as ever.
I failed to mention in my original post that in addtion to the striking training discussed....that you must ALSO rigorusly strengthen your hands, wrist and forearm. Bruce Lee was fanatical over this. Finger push ups, thumb push up, rope climbs, grip work.......ALL of this is equally important. This is how it was done all the way back to the Shaolin temple and Bodiharma.
If you take the time to train properly, you get stronger, little by little, every day. If you train the way of hand wraps and heavy bag pounding, every day you get weaker and eventually you break. your choice.
And yes^...I do believe a well trained Karateka can punch better than a boxer. In a bare knuckle bout, I bet you too know whos punch will hold up longer.
