Straight Punching: "To chicken wing or not to chicken wing"

[Sören]

Hello,

after i wrote my experience with Sagat in a seperated post the last weeks of my training  were pretty much consumed by a minor part of the techniques learned by Sagat.

This regards the positioning of the elbow within the extension of the arm when punching straight. Within the MTL there are a lot of sessions were Sylvie talks about chicken winging and that this is (was?) a problem with her punching technique. Chicken winging describes the part of the arm movement of a straight punch where the elbows flares out to side. This could mean that the tip of the elbow should always face down to the ground or have a maximum angle of 45 degree to the ground. But within my training and after reviewing my sessions with sagat i would argue that there is definitly room for lifting and rotating the elbow upwards at the very end of the arm movement. For reference i added a 3 minute cutout of my training with sagat where it is all about the straight cross and with lots of corrections.

The best feeling and the most feedback (from my body and from Sagat) i got while training was when the tip of my elbow "looked to the side" and not downwards.  I would also say that the wrist feels more supported when the driving force at the very end of the movement comes from the elbow. You can even try this with overrotating the fist like Chatchai Sasakul. The moment the thumb turns downward the elbow automatically rotates and points to the side.

What are your thoughts on the positioning of the elbow? For my part i never thought much about it until this year.

[Sören]

For anyone interested after reading the first part of my post: In the meantime i trained with a boxing Coach who learned his foundation in the Kronk Boxing Gym in the U.S. (partly with trainers at an international Level). From his point of view you can and should rotate the elbow upwards, as long as you dont flare out too early.