How To Set Up The Overhand With Gabriel Gonzaga
The overhand right is a signature punch of a ton of different fighters and there's good reason for it. It’s a powerful shot that has a ton of knockout potential, especially if your opponent doesn’t see it coming. The arcing angle of the punch and the way that you move when throwing it is a great way to put power into a shot.
All that combined with the torque makes this shot probably the most powerful one that you can throw, at least from a biomechanics perspective.
The one problem is that the overhand is usually a punch that has a lot of telegraph. This means that just throwing it naked without any setup isn’t going to work most of the time.
That’s why you need to put some work in when it comes to setting up the strike. That’s why we have one of the hardest hitters in UFC history to show you how.
In this video, Gabriel Gonzaga shows us how he likes to set up the overhand punch using reach straights to the body.
Who Is Gabriel Gonzaga
Gabriel Gonzaga is a Brazilian Boxer and BJJ Black Belt. He has competed in the UFC and fought in the promotions heavyweight division. Gabriel is a fighter with a ton of knockout power, not that anybody needs to be told that. Gabriel has victories over a ton of big names including the legendary Mirko Cro Cop, who he knocked out with a head kick
How To Set Up The Overhand Right
The video starts off with Gabriel Gonzaga's coach talking about how you should drill this technique. You should start off slow when you drill at first, once you get the hang of it you can add some speed. Once you finally get the technique down with some speed, you can finally start to add power.
The actual drill itself that is shown in the video is pretty simple. Gabriel first goes to the body with his rear straight. Remember that when you are throwing a rear straight to the body that you want to set to the outside with your lead foot.
After landing the rear straight to the body a few times, you want to make that same step to the outside but this time you are going to throw the overhand.
This should catch your opponent off guard, as they will be expecting you to to go to the body if you set this up properly. This should hopefully have your opponent drop their hands when they expect you to go to the body. If this happens they will be wide open for that powerful overhand.
Make sure that you twist your hips and sit into the punch so that you can get as much power into the overhand as you can. This will increase the chances of you knocking out your opponent.
Learn More From Gabriel Gonzaga
If you like this technique breakdown and want to learn more from Gabriel Gonzaga and his coach then you should check out his complete tutorial series “Working The Power Punch by Gabriel Gonzaga” Available exclusively on Dynamic Striking!