Since I was a kid, I’ve heard that a push—whether it be in the form of a good old two-handed push, a “push-punch,” or a “push-kick”—is a weak technique because pushing hardly does any damage, especially compared to a snapping type of strike.
In this Bruce Lee’s Fighting Method vid, the narrator says that when kicking the heavy bag, “If there is more push than hit, the sound will be a weak thud.” The narrator then continues by noting the difference between a true kick and pushing type of kick: “In both kicks, there is force exerted, except the hit will do the damage and the push will just knock the opponent down innocuously.”
I’ve seen western boxers and boxing coaches emphasize how push-punches are less effective than snapping punches. I’ve been around many martial artists who talk about how their punches and kicks are like bullets—the opponent doesn’t move back much after being hit (the way they would if they were pushed) but instead drops straight to the ground from the impact (the way they would if they were struck by a bullet). And I’ve heard people comment on how the pushes in tai chi, for example, never seem to really hurt anyone, despite how far the recipient of the push seems to “fly” backward.
So with all these expert opinions, why am I a fan of the push? Simple: I think the push is underrated, misunderstood, and trained and used incorrectly. Consider the following:
- A push (in particular, a two-handed push) can be an excellent way to create space between you and your opponent—space that might just give you enough time and room to avoid further confrontation in a humane way. (Also, if it ever came down to a jury, I also suspect that a two-handed push might be viewed more favorably than a punch, kick, or choke in terms of whether you were using excessive force.)
- A push (including a push-kick or push-punch) can help to measure the distance for and/or create space to deliver a more powerful follow-up strike. If you watch the legendary fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, I think you’ll see they push-punch and use both hands to push each other, sometimes to set up a snapping punch, at other times to clear space to rest for a moment, and maybe even to judge the distance between each other. (And yes, I am aware that boxing is a sport and that in an MMA match or streetfight, standup grappling and takedowns come into play, so a push might not work in the same way.)
- Depending on how you train, execute, and apply it, a two-handed push could be used to deliver a maiming or even fatal injury because of exactly the reason why most people think it’s weak—it sends you back rather than down. Although “dropping” someone might be ideal, sending someone back can be devastating, too, especially depending on what’s behind them (read one of my previous blog posts to see what I mean).
- Most people don’t train to push—and so most people don’t know how to push. There’s a push—and then there’s a push. If you think a push will just knock you down (and you think that getting knocked down can’t do any damage), I encourage you to read my earlier blog post I linked to above.
- Some of the best boxers in history (and who are also considered among the hardest hitters) use what I would argue are push-punches to knock people down or out in a devastating way:
- The sound a bag makes when you hit it tells you a lot … or maybe it doesn’t. Do you find the cracking sound some people make when hitting a heavy bag to be impressive, almost like the sound of someone shooting a gun? The problem is that the sound that you hear when someone shoots a gun has nothing to do with the sound of the bullet’s impact with an object—it’s mostly the sound of the explosion when the bullet leaves the gun (and sometimes also the sound of it passing you at supersonic speed). It might sound good to say, “When he hits the bag, it sounds like a gun going off,” but the reason why the two sound similar likely have little relation.
Hopefully, you now see why I’m a fan of the push—it can be a very effective weapon. But there is another reason why I’m a fan: water boxing (and some other arts like xingyi) have refined the push, making it more powerful and useful than you might think. Interested in finding out more? Come check out a water boxing class.
