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Well, there is a lot more than that behind shooting well. What calibre weapons do you use? Any particular guns that you find work well?

Anyway, I am personaly a Tae Kwon Do blackbelt, but somewhat out of training. Really not in good conditioning. So it kinda supprised me when I punched through a drywall while drunk.

Basic advice for that kind of stuff. (Unlike the above, this is all grounded in fact and my personal training)

- Condition your knuckles. The easiest, and probably safest method is knuckle pressups. Simply clench a fist and rest on the two large (first) knuckles of the first and middle fingers. These are what you should be using to punch with anyway. Alternatively, you can use heavy bags and rapid, continuous punching to work them, but this tends to leave you somewhat injured if you go long enough to do real good. The pressups just hurt a bit and you can keep going as long as your arms hold out rather than as long as your knuckles don't split, as happens in bagwork.

- Practice stylised punching with a proper technique. The simplest is a simple switch from the hips. Have one hand resting lightly just above your hip, knuckles facing the ground, and the other raised in a standard punch position, at the level of the solar plexus, knuckles facing up. Swap places, so the punching one returns to your hip while the other comes up to punch in the exact same spot as the first. You should keep your shoulders level. Practice both standing still and moving forwards and backwards, speeding up to get the power.

- Eventualy you will naturaly be able to put the sort of movements stylised in this technique into any snap jab. The important movements are the twist of the fist on the way into the punch, and the countermovement of the other arm. These can become more efficient and less obvious with time and situations.

- In order to speed up the punch somewhat, try keeping the arm and hand relaxed, in a loose fist rather than a clenched one, till moments before the impact. This will allow it to be snapped out quicker and so deliver more energy on impact. It is important to make sure you can clench quickly though, as hitting with a loose fist does more harm to you than the target.

- Always aim slightly behind your target and snap the punch back after impact. Punching right through is tempting, but actualy softens the impact somewhat, and can leave you very open to a counter. A punch should be a sharp, sudden impact, not a push. When you can make it hard to capture the punch on a video camera, you are doing well.

- When hitting a human target, be careful of your aim. The best targets are softer areas. The gut may not do much damage, but won't break your fists. Better is the solar plexus, as there is no muscle in that area, but some nice juicy organs just behind it. A solid hit will always wind and wound. Takes some practice to land in the right spot though.

If you can, kidneys are good. A hard hit is needed, but it pays off. The head should be avoided for the most part, other than very precise blows to the temple or open handed strikes. There is no point hitting someone if it leaves your hand broken and useless, and the skull is stronger than the finger bones.

- Other hand parts are very useful as well. The classic knifehand or 'chop' strike is more or less useless on anything other than an exposed and static neck. However, the reverse knifehand (fold your thumb over into the palm of your hand to create a flat surface from the wrist to the fingers along the inside) can be used to great effect for clothesline style strikes to the chest or neck of an advancing attacker, or when dodging around someone.

The backfist (basicaly main knuckles and back of fist used in a more clubbing motion than a normal jabbing punch) is very handy for hitting the head, particularly to get into the temples. Again, also good when getting around an opponent and hitting the back of the head. Hurts you less than a normal punch if you hit something hard as well.

The palmheel is the favorite of the self defence class. Simply pull your hand back as far as you can and push the open palm into your target. Keep the fingers out of the way and try not to fold them over. Used on the point of the chin or nose it always shocks the oppoenent, and normaly brings a tear to the eye.

There is a bit more to do with the arms, but a lot more to do with the legs, which I will save for later.

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Dual weilding anything over a 9mm is near impossible. Most shooters who use two weapons keep to .22 or other small caliber weapons, which can be fired from a single hand accurately. Larger guns simply don't work unless you about the size of the Govenator.

Most target shooters swear by smaller calibers. They are far better for most purposes, as you don't get the kickback from a larger gun, so can drop more rounds more accurately in less time. A .45 magnum may be a one shot stopper, but you mess up that shot and you don't get a second. A .22 mousegun in the right hands can drop a round in the left eye of the target each time, and be ready to follow it up. A double or tripple tap from a smaller gun works better than a high caliber round from a hand cannon nine times out of ten.Firstly, shut up with the bull. 'Force of the Earth?' Where are you getting this? You can't learn to fight from anime or such things. Mystical bull is just that, bull.

There is no simple technique that will always add power to your punches. Basicaly follow what I said before, and practice with counteractions; twisting your body with the punch and moving the other arm counter to the punch to balance the forces and angular momentum better.

The closest thing to what you are talking about is simply what people end up doing naturaly after several years of training; using their whole body in every technique. You find the ways to shift your balance and weight to add force to the punch without having to leave yourself open or anything stupid.

TKD is a particularly scientific art. The basic concept behind it is that of energy transfer. Nothing mystical. Simply the way of maintaining angular and linear momentum into techniques and moves.

In my opinion, strong punches, particularly swinging punches like 'haymakers' (a WWE style wrestling term by the way, not used in conventional arts) are worthless. OK, you may get some added power, but not much. Most of the effect is in the feel of the thing. You think it is more powerful when you actualy deliver less energy. Most punches are like that. You spend most of the energy working against your own muscles.

A swinging punch leaves you very open, and is easy for a trained fighter to grab or deflect, allowing them to get in and start grapling or landing close range techniques. An outfighter (like me) would probably use the time given to get you off balance and find a good distance from which to start again. You never do anything that gives your oppenent the chance to detemine the range of the fight. For me, I can kick from several feet out, so like having distance. For a Ju-jitsu trained fighter, being within a palmswidth of your target is perfect. If I had them in my range, I would be happy and stand a chance. In their range, I would be dead.

Can we have a bit of honesty? What fighting styles and forms have you studied? Where do you get your ideas from?

Umm...I'm proficient at a large variety of weaponry, but I don't really have any tips for them. If anybody has any specific questions, I'd be glad to answer them, though about:
Tae-kwan-do
Archery
Fencing
Coli (sticks)
I also know a little bit about staff fighting and tonfas, but I'm not really any good at those sweatdrop

Not that I know of- sorry sad The reason that I'm not doing fencing anymore is the same reason you don't want to: I'm definitely more a slashing person then a poke.

The main thing about fencing is that you only score a point if your blade is bent; if you just slash in a sawing motion, then you don't get anything. Also, there was just too much of a set pattern. For example, attack, parry, etc. I much prefer other things were you attack when you want, and you don't necessarily have to parry the other person before you can attack again. That's why I love sparring and taekwando a lot more ^^

Let me know if you find a style with dual wielding, though; if I could learn how to use any weapon, one of my top choices would be dual wielding light swords.

Also, if anybody knows how to throw shuriken or use ninja-like weapons, please post how! Those sound really awesome 3nodding

Darkphoenix - I think styles for dual wielders are optional and its up to you choose whither you use two weapons or one. The only styles I know of where you need two swords are the styles known as "Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryu" and "Twin swordsman".

Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryu is a style of classical Japanese swordsmanship conceived by the legendary warrior Miyamoto Musashi. Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryu is mainly known for the two-sword, katana and wakizashi, kenjutsu techniques Musashi called niten'ichi ("two heavens as one") or nitōichi ("two swords as one"). I think they only have 6 sets of techniques:

1) Tachi Seiho - Twelve techniques with long sword.
2) Nito Seiho - Five techniques with two swords corresponding to the five forms in the Water Scroll.
3) Kodachi Seiho - Seven techniques with a short sword.
4) Aikuchi roppo - Six techniques with a knife.
5) Bojutsu - Twenty techniques with a staff.
6) Jitte to jutsu - Five techniques against a sword.

The other style is the Twin-swordsman style. I don't know if that is the real name of the style or even if it is a real style. But ever since that day I sew that guy take out six people at once with just two practice swords I wanted to do it. I learnd what I could from him within those three days, train me with these heavy metal rods saying something like "If you can get it right with overweight fake swords then you'll all that much better with the lighter real swords." By the end he told me that I could be a good "Twin-swordsman" one day. So, now when ever I get two matching swords (or just two sticks I can use like some) I like to say something like "I am the legendary twin swordsman." rofl , its funny I've been saying that since I was 10yr and I still don't know if its a real style or not.
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Rugged - That is a good way to hold a gun, but I never liked holding them like that. I don't know why I just do. It feels odd to me because I'm use to shooting with one hand. Plus when you hold a gun with both hands like that you can only shoot oneway, strait ahead. In order to hit something off to the side you must trun your whole upper body.

I like to do things like shot from the hip and shoot sideways. Plus I tend to have something in my other hand, like a knife or a another gun or something. I like to have freedom of movement when I do things like that, and holding a gun with two hands limits my movements.
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P.s. Darkphoenix - I don't really know how to use shurikens (never used then that much). But I guess you would throw them in much the same way as throwing knives or at lest a frisbee. I throw knives and daggers, and I played with frisbees and boomerings as a kid. Like they say, "Its all in the wrist."

But shurikens are not really all that deadly. You mainly only use them as a distraction or to slow down someone or just you hurt them so they can't fight back (but not kill). Shurikens are only deadly if you aim for the head and neck area or you have possioned the tips.

I served as a gunnery officer on the HMS Splendid (hunter-killer submarine) so my expertise lies in using Spearfish torpedos and sub-Harpoon surface to surface cruise missiles.

Besides all that. I believe that the Goalkeeper anti missile defense system uses the same calibre rounds as the M203 grenade launcher attachment for the M16. I have often wondered as to the destructive capability of a gattling grenade launcher. biggrin twisted biggrin

I want one of those new .50 cals like on FutureWeapons. I also want an Apache Longbow Delta, but I'm not going to get one of those sweatdrop at least, not until that pilot's licence is mine!