The principle of a punch.

I was sparring with a friend who isn't a martial artist but likes to spar as a method of keeping in shape. He likes to box and he has pretty quick hands when he's on the bag. A majority of my punches connected to the body and punches to the head made it past his guard without him blocking until the last second when it was already too late. Although he did make contact on me (after all I'm not a superstar Martial artist) it almost felt like I was anticipating his movements I didn't read it at the time but thinking about it now there were things that I noticed that gave me a warning sign.

It wasn't just with my friend that I noticed this. I have sparred with a lot of people who's main sport is boxing and the results were more or less the same. I was either evading or blocking a majority of the attacks that were thrown.

So this got me thinking. Have I reached to such a level that I do not have to think of blocking or evading and my body just goes into auto pilot or is it a natural progression to people who do martial arts. Do martial artists (and when I say martial artists I include Boxers) have a sixth sense.

Without even knowing a member of Warrior Dynamics showed me a video on YouTube. This video had similar video in the suggestions and coincidentally that video answered my question. 

It's all down to how you throw the punch. Its common for some Boxers to telegraph there punches. Not saying all Boxers do it but it is a prevalent trait. It also explained why I made more hits then my fast punching friend. While he either rolled his shoulders before he punched or recalled his arm before he throw a punch, my brain was reading his movements. I became aware of which arm was going to try and hit me. Due to my Wing Chun background my movements tend to be forward, punching from the centre line. This alone gave me the advantage.

So the principles behind punching is how you punch. The less tell tale signs you use the better fighter you will be.

Ian