The One Inch Punch

The One Inch Punch

The One Inch Punch is believed to be one of the most powerful punches in martial art.

In the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships, Bruce Lee performed the One Inch Punch. Bruce stood upright, his right foot forward with knees bent slightly, in front of a standing, stationary partner. Lee's right arm was partly extended and his right fist approximately an inch away from the partner's chest. Without retracting his right arm, Lee then forcibly delivered the punch to his partner while largely maintaining his posture, sending the partner backwards and falling into a chair said to be placed behind the partner to prevent injury, though the force of gravity caused his partner to soon after fall onto the floor.

His volunteer was Bob Baker of Stockton, California. "I told Bruce not to do this type of demonstration again", he recalled. "When he punched me that last time, I had to stay home from work because the pain in my chest was unbearable."

The One Inch Punch was brought to popular knowledge in the west by the martial artist Bruce Lee. This technique, however, was not invented by Lee.

The One Inch Punch is a technique from the Chinese material art which uses "fa jing" (translated as explosive power) to generate tremendous amounts of impact force at extremely close distances.

It is commonly believed that the One Inch Punch skill comes from kung fu style of Wing Chun; however, it is present in many styles of Southern Chinese material arts. As a general rule, Southern Chinese martial arts rely mostly on hand techniques from very close quarters (as opposed to Northern Chinese material arts which focus more on kicking techniques from medium to long distances). Because the Southern styles martial artists were often fighting nose-to-nose with their opponents, they had to