Angles of Attack

Like most striking styles, we teach a variety of punches in Mo Duk Pai. The straight punch. The hook punch. The uppercut. The back fist. The full back fist. In the end, they are all ways of hitting from different angles using the same striking surface – the top two knuckles.

To send that message to the students, we had them do some focus pad work with a couple of simple rules. For the striker, you have to hit with only the top two knuckles and you have to keep your feet planted on the ground. For the pad holder, you move around your partner in a circle, offering as many angles as you can while keeping the pad (height wise) between the top of their head and their waist.

In the end, the hope is that students will (to paraphrase Bruce Lee) get the idea that a punch is just a punch.