Assume your interview/de-escalation stance: hands out in front, feet on opposite corners of a rectangle, weight distributed 50/50, head over shoulders, shoulders over hips. Obviously, in addition to being used as an initial attack as shown here, this and all the other strikes described can be used as part of an attacking combination.
Move forward toward the target by pushing off explosively from your back foot, and stepping with your forward foot. Start to bring your forward hand to your chest and raise the elbow. Your rear hand should come up to guard your head as you do this.
As you step and bring the elbow out, start to turn your body by turning your foot inward and rotating your torso. This will ensure that your weight is behind the strike.
Keep turning your body so that it is bladed/turned sideways to your attacker. Your weight should still be shifting forward at this point.
As your elbow connects, you should be positioned sideways to your attacker, and your weight should have been transferred into the strike.
Continue swinging/cutting through the target with your elbow and bring your rear foot forward—your weight transfer should naturally pull it with you. From here you can turn back out, either throwing a rear elbow strike with your back hand or a forearm/hammer-fist strike with your left arm. Even if you connect solidly with the target, don’t assume the fight is now finished—your attacker may be drugged, adrenalized, etc., making them somewhat impervious to pain.
Hook Punches
Given the choice, you should look to throw elbow strikes to the head, rather than hook punches. Both are thrown from the same range, and the elbow is a much more devastating striking implement than the fist. However, there may be times when it is impossible to make a good connection with an elbow, making the hook punch a better tool to go with. One example would be when an assailant starts to cover their head with a high guard. In such a situation, your circular elbow strikes will not be able to make contact with your assailant’s head, as they will be stopped by your assailant’s arms. This means you will need a strike that is able to get behind their guard and reach the target. This is something that the hook punch is designed to do.
If a person has their hands up and is guarding their head, throwing circular elbow strikes is likely to be ineffective. It may be better to use a hook punch to get around your attacker’s guard.
Rather than striking with the elbow, bring an arm up and prepare to make a hook punch around your attacker’s guard.
Start to turn your torso just as you would when making a slicing elbow strike; the body movement for both these circular attacks is the same. Bring your arm up—it should have a 90-degree bend at the elbow to get around the arm of your attacker. Your hand should now be positioned to move behind your attacker’s guard.
Keeping the arm in this position, continue to turn your torso to bring your fist toward your attacker’s chin.
As you connect, start to extend the arm, driving your fist through the target. Don’t keep turning the body beyond this point, as you risk turning away from your attacker and giving them your back.
The hook punch is delivered in much the same fashion as the slicing elbow. The body movement is exactly the same: the heel raises, the elbow comes up, the hips turn, and the torso twists. Instead of the elbow slicing, however, the fist is used to punch across the body into the attacker’s head. The only real circular motion of the hook punch is made by the body turning; the arm itself extends in almost a straight line across the body, like a jab that is delivered sideways. It is the turning of the body that makes the arm motion appear circular.
Hook punches work best as one of a combination of strikes; however, for the purpose of clearly illustrating the technique, it will be demonstrated from the interview/de-escalation stance.
Pull your arm back and make a loose fist. Don’t clench your fist tightly at this time, as this would tense the muscles of your arm and slow down its movement.
Imagine that you have a piece of string that runs from your elbow and attaches to your heel. As you raise your elbow it pulls your heel up, so that you can pivot on the ball of the foot. This will allow you to drive your hip into the strike.
Keep turning your body, with the arm bent at the elbow. At this point, all of the power should be generated by the turn of the body.
As your fist connects with the target, stop your body turn and start to extend your arm; think of it as making a jab punch across your body. This will allow you to drive your fist through the target without having to keep turning, which would expose your back to your assailant.
Once you have extended the arm, recoil it and start to pull your body back by sharply pulling your right hip backward.
By continuing to pull the hip back, you should end up back in the position you started from.
If the arm itself were to make a circular motion, rather than be moved by the body, two things would happen. For one, the punch would hit the target at an angle and force would be transmitted in several directions; for a strike to have maximum power, all the force should be directed into and through the target in a straight line. The other problem with the arm moving in a circular fashion is that if you miss, it will pull your body around, exposing your back to your attacker. If the body turns enough to put power into a “sideways” jab, but isn’t pulled around by the arm in a circular fashion, the hips will stay square and facing your assailant.
When you throw a hook punch, don’t swing your punch and/or turn your body too far. If you fail to connect with the punch, you will end up in a vulnerable position. If your attacker pulls their head back from your strike, the momentum of your swing will see your fist travel past them—something that would not have happened had you extended the arm, jabbing it out across your body.
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