If you use a makiwara as part of your martial arts training, or you are thinking about it, this technique will also carry over into your real-world fighting. By using this method of putting your weight into your punches, you can triple the power behind them. Read on to find out more about this little-known technique

When training with your makiwara, not only is it important to build up the strength in your fist, but you also need to learn to put your whole body behind a punch. The makiwara can be a great tool for this as well. Not to be confused with just pushing someone, using your body weight to enhance a punch can mean the difference between hitting someone hard and completely knocking them off their feet.

When you use your makiwara at home, practice sliding your back foot up slightly at the moment of contact. Your feet should not be stationary duing your training, because a huge portion of the power from each punch actually comes from your feet. By driving that back foot forward just a few inches at the exact moment of the strike, you can draw from a huge amount of power that the arm alone can't generate.

This is a great technique for all fighters, but it really levels the playing field for smaller people. You can easily take down a bigger opponent if you learn to use the power in your entire body when punching. This sliding motion of the feet take all of the mass of the whole body and channels it up the legs, through the torso and shoulders and out through the end of your fist. Your front foot slides just an inch, a fraction of a second before the punch, and your back foot comes up and does the heavy hitting.

Remember, when you are practicing this technique on your makiwara, make sure that you are not just pushing the striking post forward. You will still punch it just as hard, but then the back foot drives your fist up, through the target just that little bit more, causing much more damage to the striking point. In order to gain this power accurately, you need to use it in conjunction with your weekly makiwara practice. The makiwara is the Swiss Army knife of fist training tools and if you use it to its fullest potential, you can develop the punching power of a freight train no matter what size you are.