>>4 Sorry to hear that anon. There's a few ways a punch can go wrong. The first and simplest is by scuffing your knuckles across the target. Everyone does this all the time when they're first starting martial arts. I've lost count of how many scabs I formed and then tore open by scuffing my knuckles. Something helpful to keep in mind for this is that you want to strike with either the top 2 knuckles (index and middle finger), or the bottom 3 (pinky, ring, and middle). Those knuckles should hit the target and dig in, then come straight back to your face for defense, no sliding across the target. The second way that a punch can go wrong is by closing your fingers over your thumb when you make a fist. NEVER DO THIS. It may not happen on the first punch, or the 100th punch, or the 1000th punch, but eventually you will break your own goddamm thumb by doing this. Finger bones and joints are fragile, and easy to break if a relatively small amount of force is applied in just the right way. And your thumb is NOT meant to have the full force of a max strength punch bending that knuckle joint, which is exactly what happens if your thumb is inside a closed fist; it's in the force load path. If your thumb is outside of a closed fist, then landing a punch doesn't transmit any force at all through the thumb. The next way I can think of for a punch to go wrong is by not holding your wrist locked and steady enough. So basically, you connect with the target, but you hurt your wrist like hell in the process. There's probably a few others, but those are the ones that come to mind immediately. As for my own feels: >spent the past several months (on and off) working on punching form >get to a stage I'm decently happy with >spar with training partner >he's much better and more experienced than me, but I land a few good hits >coach sees us sparring >"Anon, your footwork looks like shit. We're going to need to fix that." Life is suffering.

>>11 Good punching advice. I used to box as a kid and the tfour biggest things I was taught were >strengthen your wrist, because anything that bends will eventually break >the thumb-inside-the-fist-thing, never ever fucking do that >the 2 or 3 knuckle rule, it's critical for follow-up strikes because you have a consistent "base" and know where your hand is at all times (hard to describe but I liken it to having a consistent picking technique while playing guitar, or learning to type via Home Row) >don't try to punch through your target. Learn the distance and learn to "snap" your punches so you connect at the last possible instant. This is why "getting inside" is so critical in boxing if you're on the defensive; someone who can't fully extend their arm can't fully bring their strength to bear on you

>>4 >>11 Anon you really should use boxing gloves for heavy bag work. Seriously, in the beginning the most important thing is to train consistently and you cant do that if you keep hurting your hands or wrists.

My ankles feel much better after running barefoot in the beach sand, I tried running on the sidewalk but my ankle started hurting again after a few minutes of running with just my socks on. Running shoes cause the same problem, I am gonna try running on the grass more because the beach isn't practical during the weekends.