Secrets of Hand-Speed in the Martial Arts

Along with power, speed is something striven forhave fast reflexes, you can react faster. If you
in virtually every martial art style--especially afterhave slow reflexes, all the physical speed in the
the popularity of Bruce Lee and his super-humanworld will do you no good simply because the
quickness. And certain martial arts like Taekwondoattack has already connected with you before
and Wing Chun kung fu are known for their swiftyour brain processes its reaction. The only real
techniques. But how do those studying these artsefficient way to develop good reflexes is to
develop this speed?practice, spar with a partner, and to always have
First, it is vital to understand that a considerablean alert mindset.
amount of speed is inherent; you are born with itThe last and most important of the major
and will naturally develop it. But, speed can mostcomponents in speed is good old' fashioned hard
definitely be developed further than one's naturalwork.
ability, even if they are slow. Right now, we areYou are not going to get anywhere in the martial
focusing on hand/arm speed.arts without being willing to dedicate a lot of time
Something that is not always well known andand effort. Repetition of a technique, provided
often looked over when speaking in terms ofyou are not compromising correct form, is the
learning how to punch is retaining looseness insingle best way to gain not only speed, but power
your limbs until impact. This allows you to propeland precision as well.
the arm faster and with more power drawn fromTips: When working out, use a full range of
the legs, which is much stronger than yourmotion, and try doing burst exercises that will
shoulder. This will automatically make you fasterstrengthen the explosive, springy muscles in the
once you have mastered how to "snap" thebody. This contributes to the snap and explosive
technique. Using looseness and snap will make youpower that makes martial arts techniques so
much faster, especially when your hand rebounds:deadly.
allowing you to launch another strike quicker thanIn order to use your speed to add to power, do
usual. A way to test if you can snap your strikesnot pull your punches. Add speed by adding your
is to take a rubber bracelet on your arm, or ifbody weight behind it, which, in turn will add
you practice with a long sleeved uniform, punchpower to your punch. This sort of power in
and see if either makes a strong, distinct snappingexplosiveness will penetrate the body and cause
sound.more damage. This is NOT pushing, which is much
Another key component is proper technique anddifferent than a well executed strike.
body mechanics. One thing that separates martialPremeditating a reaction to a certain scenario and
arts techniques from the movements thatpracticing it physically and mentally in constant
untrained brawlers make is that martial artsrepetition will drastically increase both your
techniques are trained to not be pulled backreaction time (reflexes) and the speed and
before launched and to utilize clever bodyefficiency in your actions.
mechanics to put power into strikes that have aSome people are more partial to certain strikes.
shorter travelling distance. Make sure that, whileThey can naturally execute them easier and with
training speed, you are striking correctly andmore speed and precision. Experiment on all the
never compromising in that area. It may feeltechniques you know and find these techniques
more efficient, but in the long run, if a movementand constantly train them. These could be the
is not being done correctly, it will hurt you moremost versatile and powerful tools in your arsenal
than help.as a martial artist.
One's reflexes also contribute to speed. If you