Strength and Conditioning coach Eric Wong of EricWongMMA has done it again. The first time he broke down Anderson Silva’s fantastic front kick knockout over Vitor Belfort and this time he breaks down Junior Dos Santos’ overhand right that KO’s Cain Velasquez. Below is a step by step breakdown of the overhand right. If you would like to read the entire article head over to Eric’s site.
BIOMECH BREAKDOWN: The Overhand Right
STEP #1 – Lead with a Step Jab
This does a few things.
It gives you forward momentum for more power behind the punch.
It gets your opponent to either a) block or b) counter with the lead hand.
Most guys don’t have the speed to slip a good jab (other than Anderson Silva).
It’s also difficult to counter a jab with a right hand because it’ll either be too slow or get blocked by the jabbing arm/shoulder, if thrown with the shoulder high and chin tucked of course.
So you know your opponent is either going to block/parry or counter with their lead hand, which will keep you relatively safe vs. simply leading with the overhand right.
STEP #2 – Plant Your Front Foot
This comes naturally after a step-jab, but I want to communicate the importance of this for power.
There’s a misconception among beginners that a jumping right hand is a powerful punch.
Well it’s not, because you’re missing 2 critical components:
1) Without being planted on your front foot, you cannot generate any rotational power through your core.
Try it right now – get in your fight stance, stand on your back foot, and throw a right with good rotation. Now compare that with standing on your left and doing the same. See what I mean?
2) When you plant your foot after forward momentum, you create the whip effect in the sagittal plane of motion (the plane of motion where you march your arms like a soldier).
It’s like the olden days when seat belts in the backseat of your car were only around your lap – if your Dad braked suddenly, you’d get whipped forward. Same thing happens when you plant the foot then throw the punch – you create that whip.
STEP #2b – “Wind Up” Your Right
As your front foot is landing, your right hand should be winding up.
The term winding up is perfect, because it’s a rotational wind up: down, around, then BANG.
It’s the circular motion of the wind up that allows you to generate max power in your punch.
Just like throwing a fastball – if you started with arm up and tried to throw, you’d get no velocity. You’ve got to go through a big circular motion to get the speed on your pitch.
STEP #3 – Core Rotation and Drop
Finally, to get the most power possible, you rotate and drop through your core, with your head ending up lower and to the side of where it started.
To get more speed for the rotation, you use the lead jab and pull it back as fast as you threw it out – another reason why it’s great to set the overhand right up with the jab.
