Landing The Rear Overhand With Gabriel Gonzaga

The overhand punch is one of the most brutal punches we can throw; as you probably have seen, it has a one-punch knockout power, and humans have used this type of punches in different variations of swings since the beginning of fighting.

The overhand and the swing resemble each other as both have a simple goal - to come over to the opponent’s hands. The human tendency to perform an “Oh NO” reaction (extending their hands in front of them to block something) is perfect for landing the overhand/swing as it makes them vulnerable for anything coming over their hands.

Although being such a natural punch to throw, many athletes struggle to learn it as it is different from a usual swing that comes over the hands and different from a straight punch that penetrates through the guard.

To understand the overhand, we need to think of a hook combined with the motion of the straight punch. We want to take our head off the centerline while the opponent throws a punch, and as the opponent’s arm extends, I slip and rotate my body like I’m throwing a cross, but I flare my elbow over his elbow so I can come over the top and land the overhand.

Suppose you want to see good examples of effective overhands. In that case, you can look at low-level matches in boxing or MMA, where the fighters extend their hands a lot which is optimal for the overhand, and thus the overhand is famous for its many knockouts on the lower-level competition.

In this video, Gabriel Gonzaga will show us how to land the rear overhand after feinting a cross to the body.

Who Is Gabriel Gonzaga

Gabriel Gonzaga is a Brazillian Mixed Martial Artist and a UFC veteran. Gonzaga began his career as an accomplished BJJ competitor before transitioning to MMA and entering the UFC; Gonzaga is famous for winning against Mirko Cro Cop with a knockout using his own signature lead leg head kick. After retiring from MMA, Gonzaga fought in professional boxing and bare-knuckle fights.

Faking Low and Landing High With The Overhand

The video starts with Gabriel’s trainer telling us that we will learn a drill to improve the rear overhand on the pads; we will begin slow and then increase the speed and power as we get better.

We start by drilling the cross to the body, notice that we perform a level change, and only then throw the straight right hand to the body from a position that keeps us safe. After a couple of right hands to the body, our opponent is used to the move, and now we can step forward and change our level but punch high with the rear overhand instead of low.

Notice that we must step forward the same way as we go to the body when we go to the head, We must make him believe we are going to the body if he doesn’t think we are going low he will not react the way we want and we will not be able to land the overhand.

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