Movement Training for Fighters: Spinal mobility for KO power!

Coaching the creation of power in a fighter can be a daunting task. Some people seem to understand it instinctively, while others struggle to grasp it for years. For along time a fighter who couldn't produce power was simply told to alter their fight plan and focus on their other strengths, and wisely so. But as I progressed as a fighter and a coach I began to realize the intangibles of punching power didn't have to remain mysterious to the athletes. 

Strength has rarely been the missing link in generating power for the fighters I have trained. If anything the strength athletes I teach are often the hardest to teach the skill of power, their bodies often to stiff to properly produce it. The real issue is almost always a lack of understanding about the most basic capacities of the human body. Sport specialization training and the over reliance on body building style strength condemning are often the specific culprit. Both of these types of training can leave an incredible amount of the body's potential range of motion and range of abilities unused and atrophied. Often fighters began to develop muscular imbalances, mobility issues, and injury because of alack of variety and balance in the training regimen.

The answer for me has come in the form of movement training. Movement training is about awakening the dormant movement abilities of the athlete and refining the quality and awareness of movements in general. The result is almost always a more graceful fighter, one who can move smoothly, quickly, and with seemingly little effort yet maximum efficiency.

Before movement training these kinds of fighters couldn't be trained, couldn't be created. These athletes were always naturally gifted and those who weren't had to simply look for other options. Think of the natural grace of boxers like SugarRay Robinson, Roy Jones Jr, or Pernell Whitaker. Or the smooth execution of MMA fighters like Anderson Silva, BJ Penn, or FedorEmelenanko. These fighters all instinctively displaced a wide degree of body mastery that can now be taught.

Enter the Spinal Wave

Maximum punching power requires the mastery of a subtle skill known as kinetic linking. This is the process of drawing power from the ground and moving it up through the body with precise timing. If done properly almost every muscle in the body aids in the development of punching power and a very small person can create a very large amount of power in an explosive burst. Bruce Lee was famous for this kind of striking. 

A wonderful movement exercise for beginning to unlock this own ability within your body is the spinal wave. A favorite exercise of Conor McGregor, who claims to do these every morning when first getting out of bed. This exercise will warmup and bring your awareness to a series of small muscles surrounding and supporting your spine. These muscles assist the spine (your CENTRAL column of support) in transporting force and power across it and on to your shoulders, arms, and fists were it can do its real work. 

In order to perform:

Be sure to start off slow and easy, not just to warm up (but yes definitely to warm up), but also because when you perform the movement slowly you can really get a feel for what is happening. And this is how you will develop a repeatable skill than can truly be applied at your discretion.  So in short, be MINDFULL of what your doing and how it feels so you can perform it safely and so your mind can learn to repeat the pattern at will.

1. Stand tall but relaxed, feet shoulder width in a basic neutral stance.

2. Now begin trying to make waves of movement travel up your spine by moving the hips forward, quickly followed by the abdomen,  chest, shoulders, neck and head.

3. If done correctly it will feel like you have turned the spine into a gentle undulating whip like rope. This video shows the wave like motion in action.

4. There are variations of this such as lateral, side to side motion. Also you will see some people moving their shoulders and arms in wide rhythmic patterns along with the spine. This may look funny but by moving the arms and shoulders in rhythm with the spine you will only strengthen the effect.

After performing this mindfully for several repetitions, try to throw some punches on the heavy bag andsee if your spine is easily transferring energy like in the exercise, or if it is stiff and rigid. If it stays stiff and rigid then the power of your lower body is likely barely effecting your overall punching power because it never gets past the spine. 

Now lets be clear that when punching your back won't make this exaggerated spinal wave, it will be much more subtle and will stay much closer to its power position throughout the movement. But the spinal wave is a great way to train the mind and body to sense the flow of force running through the body and begin the process of learning to direct it intelligently.