I Know Nothing....and I'm Okay With That

Thrust punch....one of the most "basic" techniques that we learn right from the beginning of our training.

This is one of those things that, as a new martial artist, seems pretty simple in your mind. It's something you tend to think you "get" right from the start. I thought I got it. I was so wrong.

As part of my fine tuning with Da Mu Hsing, I've been working on really establishing that last second rotation in my thrust punch. I was playing around with some different things, when I realized that my other hand, the opposite, yet equal hand, was an issue. I was incorporating it initially, but it almost "petered" out during that last portion of snapping it to my waist. As if it became irrelevant...or forgotten...or that I was already moving on to the next move in my mind. Maybe all of these.

Either way, when I started to truly focus on making sure I was snapping back to my waist just as intensely as I wanted to strike out...it became a moment where I suddenly realized that I have never actually thrown a true, proper thrust punch. And the clouds parted and the angels sang. Two years, and I just now have felt what a thrust punch is actually supposed to feel like. I was excited and humbled all at once.

I love these kinds of "discoveries". They are usually things that I've done over and over...and that I've received instruction on over and over...and I think "yes, I know this". But then one day I actually FEEL it, and I realize I knew nothing....and I'm okay with that.

Malinda Ferris