Is it possible to punch through a piece of paper

Is this gimmicky and made up for the film or is it actually a decent way to test how snappy your punches are. Michael Jai White was heavily involved in the script and I know he's pretty badass so I was thinking there might be some truth in it. Doubt it.. If it's only held on 1 side I think the only thing you'll be doing is pushing the paper back.

But I'll hang some up tomorrow if I get bored and punch around for a few laughs. What type of paper is it? Regular A4 printer paper? Makes sense to me that it would test the snap in your punches, might try it tomorrow. There is a youtube video somewhere of Kostya Tszyu doing training like that. Fire of Youth , Aug 28, Joined: Oct 26, Messages: 1, Likes Received: 0. Also, it's worthless for anything but a straight lead or a cross, and isn't even all that great an exercise to boot. Tireces , Apr 19, Hapkido , Apr 19, Uhuh, the cheapness of the paper comes into play.

It's basically for speed, as others have said. In theory as the paper moves you shouldn't let it become motionless again. By doing this you work on the agility of your hands. However, the paper can also be used for practicing certain punches. The three inch and one inch punch are regularly trained on paper. Again, it's a moving target so you are allowing yourself to focus and be one with the paper Seriously though, it's a method that martial artists should use because it doesn't hurt your hands and you will notice the effects.

As with all training methods, the more you use it the more effective you will become. Jeet , Apr 20, I personally would find it more benificial practising these techniques on a heavy bag, then my body can get used to the feel of the weight balance when punching through the target.

They say it's best to take your training as close to the real thing as possible, and to be honest, ive no intention of competing against a person less than a mm thick. Though if it works for some people then i encourage everyone to try it. Last edited: Apr 21, Yukimushu , Apr 21, I used this method when I had a seminar with Sifu Dave Carnell. The objective was just with finger strikes rather than actual punching of the paper, and was to enhance the non-telegraphic movemnets of your body.

Also this exercise was to work up the finger strike without actually hurting yourself in the process. Well that's what I concluded with in this exercise!

Try and do a finger strike on a heavy bag It may sound silly, but the paper target is a valid training tool. Peyton Quin, who is a reality based self defense instructor, describes it in one of his books. You can look at it this way, when your fist makes contact with the paper, then the part making contact will nearly instantly accelerate up to the speed of your fist, since it is being pushed by the fist.

The rest of the paper will initially not have moved, but the paper just outside this contact area will experience tension because the neighboring paper within the contact area will have moved slightly and will also start to accelerate.

This tension will basically grow outwards. I think you can say that an upper limit would be near the speed of sound in paper, since that is how fast this tension could propagate.

Making a better guess would probably involve simulations. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams?

Learn more. Can you punch a hole in an A4 sheet of paper with your hand? Ask Question. Asked 7 years, 1 month ago. Active 6 years, 2 months ago. Viewed 12k times. I am talking about punching with the hand and not anything else. Improve this question. Does it make sense to do it in practice? Maybe not. The point is that you need to study impulse forces and material relaxation times -- see a recent post about bullets vs. The line where it is folded is a structural weakness.

The trick even can be done with a newspaper in free fall - an archievement even for an martial arts artist.