Lock elbow out when punching?

[jspeedy]

Try a simple experiment and let science decide. Do a simple front break fall, try; falling frontward onto your chest with your arms 1)completely locked out or 2) not completely locked out, see which feels stronger.

Yes, a punch is nothing like a breakfall but find an advantage to locking out your limbs while transferring force with them.

[MMAMickey]

Please don't fall forward with locked out elbows. Breaking your collarbone to prove us right is a bit far.

[sy_lavery]

Excellent, we have a clear consensus. Thanks all

[Torakaka]

I can't imagine anyone would ever seriously advise hyper-extending your elbows, like extending your elbows so that it puts strain on them, every time you punch. I do know, however, that people typically do not straighten their arms when punching for fear of straining their elbows (especially in shadow boxing). Getting people to straighten out their punches is almost as hard as getting them to rotate their hips.

[MMAMickey]

The problem is, throwing full speed and fully extending your punches in shadowboxing creates a risk of injury to muscles/joints, roughly equivalent to chronic injuries caused by kata. That is unless you separate speed and power, and therefor change the technique.

Personally I feel the strain on my shoulders when I throw at full extension in shadowboxing. To combat this I often slow the techniques down, however I appreciate that you are a fan of high intensity shadowboxing.

I am interested in how you combat this problem, or if you even consider it a problem at all.

[Torakaka]

The problem is, throwing full speed and fully extending your punches in shadowboxing creates a risk of injury to muscles/joints, roughly equivalent to chronic injuries caused by kata. That is unless you separate speed and power, and therefor change the technique.

Personally I feel the strain on my shoulders when I throw at full extension in shadowboxing. To combat this I often slow the techniques down, however I appreciate that you are a fan of high intensity shadowboxing.

I am interested in how you combat this problem, or if you even consider it a problem at all.

I have zero issue with straining my joints when shadow boxing and my shadow boxing is always at fight intensity (or as close to fight intensity as my level of conditioning/laziness currently allows haha). The key is keeping all tension out of your arms and simply allowing them to fully extend, rather than forcing full extension. Of course, it often takes a pain in the ass coach barking at you to even realize you're not fully extending your punches (it did for me). I guess the most difficult thing to get a hang of is the idea of being totally relaxed while doing something high intensity.

[Uncle Skippy]

I've told students to extend their punches so that the arm is straight so that they use their reach. I make a BIG point of telling them not to 'push' into the punch; pushing tends to lead to overextending the punch, hyperextending the elbow, and leaning forward. Make it a strike, not a push.

I've also had to grab on to the back of students' belts and pull back to get them to move into their proper range for punching; I'll maintain that grip to keep them at proper range during pad rounds so they get a feel for it. This seems to give them the chance to extend their punches instead of crowding the pads. If they don't adjust, it will be a couple of months of very rough sparring classes.

[goodlun]

I am just going to go out on a limb here and suggest not locking out any of your joints while practicing martial arts, your opponents on the other hand...
Ok to sum up you do want your punches straight but your elbow shouldn't be "locked" sounds like good advice to me.

[Torakaka]

I think it should go without saying that if you're doing something that hurts your own joints you're probably not doing it right.

[Permalost]

I can't imagine anyone would ever seriously advise hyper-extending your elbows, like extending your elbows so that it puts strain on them, every time you punch. I do know, however, that people typically do not straighten their arms when punching for fear of straining their elbows (especially in shadow boxing). Getting people to straighten out their punches is almost as hard as getting them to rotate their hips.

The "locking" the elbow thing is something that you'll see in kata competitions and that sort of thing. Strikes in a lot of forms kind of shoot out then stick in space when they're fully extended, rather than retracting the strike the way a person would in boxing etc. I think it's mostly an old aesthetic preference. It's kind of a moot point outside of a context where you don't leave the arm hanging out there. It makes sense that styles that pause in the extended position would formulate some weird rules on what the elbows should be doing.