A straight punch with a step forward?

ryoishin wrote: »

Like a normal karate or tkd straight punch. if your in a stance you step forward with the back leg so that becomes the forward leg and punch with the same hand as the leg that stepped forward.

Just to add something to what Cowzer said.
Very easy to see coming as it's so telegraphed. You see it used a lot in traditional clubs, as you said in Kata. In fact these lunges are so slow you could actually "block" them, and traditional blocking is something that never works under real conditions.

Now stepping with a punch, ie - a cross, for example is excellent. Works great in sport, and in Self-Protection. It will not only let you cover more distance, but will totally amplify you power. If it's done correctly, and at the right range - they wont see it coming. Virtually all the strikes we teach are accompanied by convulsive forward moment. However, in this type of motion your front foot will always remain at the front. Unlike the lunge punch usually seen in Kata and forms.

Just look at the way Rodney King does it!

Charlie3dan wrote: »

Is it the punch that is at fault or the lack of training?

Well, lets let science decide. Get a couple of good lunge punchers into a boxing ring, and see how that get on (full contact of course).

Probably not too well when the opponant is going full speed, and then trying to knock you out.

But don't take my word for it - test it under pressure.

I'd use it and teach it to set up the left kick from a regular (righty) stance and the odd time throwing an overhand you'd find your right foot stepping forward. I think people are getting bogged down in the sort of forward lunge punch of Kata and patterns which is pretty useless, but you have to remember that Kata are someone's sort of stylistic adaptations of what really happens in a fight.

pearsquasher wrote: »

I've teaching beginners in Bujinkan and this punch is involved, amongst others. I don't explain to them every reason why it's used because it's unexplainable in words. Over time, like with most other things I've learned and am now passing on, the practicalities and function becomes absorbed through dedicated training. This way of learning - by doing - is a major feature of the type of martial art that I do and it's highly rewarding and lends the student the responsibility of practicing diligently to reveal the "secrets" to themselves. Really, there are no secrets... only revealed understanding through training. (sorry for the cheezy lingo...... what can I say... it's the nature of it all!)

That sounds cheezy alright! I also have to say that if someone who was teaching me couldn't explain to me the how and why something worked I would call bullsh1t. It's true that "practise makes perfect" and the more time I spend wrestling on the mat grappling the more I begin to understand what BJJ is all about, so in a way I can relate to what you're saying there. The difference is that everyone I really learn from knows how to put into plain English (sometimes plain Polish, Finnish, or Portuguese ) the hows and whys. I find that the best teachers tell you the whys and leave the hows more or less up to you.

Revealed understanding through training is something I think we can all relate to though.