Following Up Your Power Punches By Cain Velasquez
There is certainly a mastery to refining your striking techniques, you need to master the ability to stay focused and keep yourself covered up while trying to land shots of your own. Once you have your opponent hurt then follow up and put them to the sword.
The days of running into your opponent recklessly are nearly dead and buried, most fighters take a much more conservative approach. Being more patient and calculated means while you're keeping safe you're also saving more energy for when you need it.
There are different ways to stay safe like traditionally keeping your hands up, especially when you come in for a punch. There are other ways of keeping safe like not telegraphing to your opponent, meaning don't show them what you're setting up. Stay on the move but stay relaxed and then move quickly when you come in for attacks.
Just remember to stay covered up even when you come in for the big power shots. When you're stepping in with momentum, all it takes is a counter punch from your opponent and you might be eating canvas!
In this video Cain Velasquez shows us his systems for staying safe, and following up his punches to leave himself in good positions to finish off the fight.
Who Is Cain Velasquez?
Cain Velasquez was a former kickboxer and wrestler winning multiple wrestling tournaments before joining the UFC. He is a former 2 time UFC heavyweight champion holding a professional record of 14 wins with 3 losses. Cain has had high ranked wins over great fighters like Antonio Silva, Brock Lesnar, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Junior Dos Santos. After retiring from the UFC Cain became a professional wrestler for the Mexican Lucha Libre promotion AAA before making his start in the WWE!
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Check Out Cain Velasquez In The Video Below!
In this video Cain Velasquez talks about how he likes to stay safe in a fight, he doesn't show his opponent what he is about to do. He stays calm and relaxed and covers up with his hands and elbow. He stays on the move, because it’s always harder to hit a moving target. When he is ready to go in for a power shot, he goes in fast but still keeps his guard up.
You need to be fast and when you throw your power shots you need to explode driving your momentum forward with your legs. Now that you are in close you have a couple of options, the first one being you can roll back under your opponent and pull back out of their range. The second option is once you have identified that you have them hurt, then follow it up and step in changing your angle to land more shots, but stay protected with your hands up.
It’s all about the right body positioning, if you can move your body to the right spots then landing your power shots will be a lot easier to accomplish. Always keep your eyes wide open so you can see what's coming, a good way to train this is to practise on the heavy bag by keeping your eyes open at the point of contact.
Another great way to train this is to spar very lightly so that you and your partner are just tapping each other. Doing this will help you practise your timing without taking heavy damage, all while your eyes are open to evaluate the dangers or avenues for attack.
Now that you understand the concept that Cain Velasquez is showing you, practise this with your partners and then you too will be following up your power shots with tremendous force!
Learn More From UFC Legend Cain Velasquez!
If you like this fundamental concept that Cain Velasquez is teaching you and you want to learn more from the former UFC Champ then take a look at his series Fundamentals of Power Punching by Cain Velasquez Available exclusively on Dynamic Striking!