Truuuax

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TheSuplexor

so you stand southpaw??? you do any striking martial arts???
and of course PRACTICE!!! it should get stronger everytime

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ebeljj

If you think your arm's getting weak try some bench press and curls. That should start to even them out strength wise.

Kin

While, as someone else said, lifting weights can help with your punching power... The effect isn't very drastic, compared to some other things you could do.

If I were you, I'd look very carefully at my technique when I throw punches with my left hand. Questions you should be asking yourself are:

- Am I remaining loose until the moment of impact, or am I tightening my muscles prematurely? ( Though I'm sure you know this, I'll say it just in case you don't; if your muscles are taut during a punch, there are two groupings at work. One grouping is trying to extend the arm while the other is trying to retract it. They will counteract eachother, and the punch will be craptacular. On a hand that you're not comfortable with, its very easy to do this accidentally.)

- Am I torquing my hips and shoulders? Due to lack of coordination on your unfavored side, its possible that you're not turning your body into the punch, thus detracting from its power.

- Am I punching the target, or punching through the target? Again, because you're admittedly less coordinated with your left, its possible that you're not punching through the target, which results in a considerably weaker punch.

- Am I chicken-winging? A straight punch should come directly from the fighting stance. Sometimes people accidentally lift their elbow off to the side (like a chicken wing) when punching. This makes a punch alot weaker, due to bad alignment.

Anyway, if you could ask yourself those questions, watch for these potential mistakes it would likely do you some good. Also, ask an instructor about it. That person would likely be able to recognize such tendencies, and help you ammend them.

Onganju

The replies above cover pretty much everything, but I'll throw in a bit or two to help out.

Concentrate on proper Technique and Form. Punching is easy right? Not really. Most people don't know how to punch correctly, or in a way to actually maximize the amount of force generated. Get the Technique down first, everything else will come with it.

Repetition, repetition, repetition is the only way to learn how to use your off hand. You have to make a conscious decision to work your left hand. Do't tie up your right arm that's a little too drastic, and isn't accurate to simulating a fight position. Just keep your right hand glued to your cheek.

Get an instructor to watch and critique your form. A trained eye will see a lot of things you won't notice. Just a few minutes will go a long way.

You can also take a look in the I Need More Power! thread. It has a bit of useful information and references some readily available source material.

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brownpimp88

Wow, I don't understand this, are you a right-hander in southpaw? Why else would you be jabbing with your right? At first, my left was fairly weak aswell, but after hitting the bag constantly with my jab, and working on my techinque, I find it hard to throw my right without leading with my jab. Practice makes perfect.

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Kin

It's quite possible. Personally, I'm a lefty who generally fights from an orthodox stance. Some people just like to do that.

Though, I do like your point about doing combination attacks, it'd still be good for him to feel powerful on both hands.

Regiment

I fight with a right handed southpaw, such an awkward bastard lol. We did Jeet Kune Do together; jkd teaches you to fight with your strongest side forward.

Kin

I always found that to be an interesting thing about JKD, the choice to fight with the power side forward. Do they advocate working intensly off of lead-side striking, then?

Regiment

I just woke up so my message wasn't clear at all . I'll rephrase, me and a mate both did jkd and then moved over to kick boxing and Muay Thai, he fights southpaw but is right handed, i fight north paw and am right handed. Sorry about that lol.

Anyway, the teacher always says that it's always better fighting stronger side forward. When first getting into it, the footwork, which is a massive part of jkd, is easier stronger side forward but after fighting north paw in kick boxing, it'd be hard for me to go back to fighting like that. Stronger side forward might also be better when it comes to trapping as well, but i'm sure one of the Wing Chun people on here would be in a better position to explain that.

But my mate is an awkward fighter to spar with, you'll throw a jab out just to open him up and he'll immediately shoot in with a long right hook that just feels so much more powerful. He does tend to favour his jab over his cross as well.