Current Events > For fighting, are speed and power different?

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I was watching The Boys.

a train is the fastest man alive. So fast he can run through a person and turn her into pulp. How is that not power?

wouldnt a punch from homelander have to be as fast too then?

can a powerful punch be slow?

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I boxed for 4 years

a beginner mistake is trying to punch as hard as you can.

speed is power. More velocity more power. You want your punches to be quick and snappy while punching through.


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baby_yoda posted...

can a powerful punch be slow?

Absolutely. Speed and power are not the same and can be independent of one another. Take Bob Sapp for example, he was immensely powerful in the ring, but he had no hand speed. So his entire fighting style revolved around literally barreling through his opponent because one punch from him was enough to disorient, and even incapacitate. The best fighters find a way to develop the two equally, ala Mike Tyson. Tyson was also powerful, and had the speed to match it.


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gna647 posted...

I boxed for 4 years

a beginner mistake is trying to punch as hard as you can.

speed is power. More velocity more power. You want your punches to be quick and snappy while punching through.

can you do the punch quick but not hard thing in the punching bag too?


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Crono99 posted...

It's just basic physics really. The faster an object is, the more it weighs.

so a train has super strength too?

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Speed in fighting is more or less talked about as "The between when you start your attack and when it lands". The actual velocity of a strike is a significant contributing factor to the force. These are two difcerent things.

You can throw a slow punch with a lot of velocity. This usually means increasing the distance of the punch so as to increase the time over which it can accelerate--by "cocking back" your punch, for instance. However, despite being "faster" at the end of the punch, it is not as "quick" a strike overall. Thus, sometimes "power" can be slower despite having more velocity.

With that said, most martial arts like Boxing stress generating as much velocity as possible within as short a frame as possible by using the most efficient body movements possible. Even still, the difference in power between strikes, like a jab and a straight, will still be apparent due to the natural biomechanics of the strikes themselves.

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Crono99 posted...

It's just basic physics really. The faster an object is, the more it weighs.

Uh....

I mean....

No?

The HOTTER an object is the more mass it has due to the higher interal pressure of the more excited atoms smashing into each other. But even on inhuman scales like the inside of a cooler sun compared to a hotter sun, this difference in mass is almost inconsequential.

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baby_yoda posted...

can you do the punch quick but not hard thing in the punching bag too?

Punching power can he adjusted by how much of your weight you put behind the shot. At minimum, the weight of your arm will be applied, but it's possible to contribute greater effective mass by rotating your hips and shoulders into the punch, and driving into the punch using a solid base for your feet. There's no practical way to measure this contribution, but by removing these components you could make a snappier jab with less impact. Also by avoiding stiffening your fist and muscles when making contact, as your arm will less efficiently transfer energy if it isn't a rigid unit when it makes contact.

For fighting purposes, this is generally a bad idea though.

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baby_yoda posted...

I was watching The Boys.

a train is the fastest man alive. So fast he can run through a person and turn her into pulp. How is that not power?

wouldnt a punch from homelander have to be as fast too then?

can a powerful punch be slow?

Kind of. Like have you seen those slow moving hydraulic presses? Homelander could do a slow punch that would just squish a person if they were up against a wall/on the ground or he used his other arm to stop them from just being pushed away.

While speed and mass are largely what determines how much power there is in a punch, strength affects how well you can continue your punching when you meet resistance.

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A-Train has super strength. He was pulling a train

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Force is just mass*acceleration. Without accounting for how the force is applied, or the material applying it, a slow meaty arm can equal out to hitting as hard as fast skinny arm.

In practice, one of the factors behind weight classes is that lighter weight humans can't put out enough speed to match higher weight punches after a certain point.

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