<snip>

Rand was practicing the jab, and it wasn’t bad exactly, but had no power behind it, and her aim was off. A combination of holding her fists too close together, and her shoulders being very stiff. “A little awkward. I don’t know how else to describe it. It just feels…unnatural.” She tilted her head to the side both ways easing the cramp in her shoulders. “I know I’m doing something wrong because if I actually hit someone my knuckles aren’t lined up right.”
Yeoman Rand

Ford nodded. “There’s nothing actually natural about the way humans fight,” he said, looking closely at her stance and hands. “You’re tense - relax. You’re actually fighting against moving right now. That’s all we’re working on right now is the movement - we’ll get to how to add more power behind it later.” He looked at her shoulders again and then her hands, and reached toward them, pausing a few inches away.

Now that Ford had pointed it out she realized how stiff her shoulders were and how rigid her stance. She took a slow deep breath and consciously relaxed each muscle in her body. She listened, paying close attention to everything Ford was saying. Concentrating on the movement rather than trying to get all the parts at once.

“May I?”

COS Ford

She nodded, “Oh, of course.” He was the instructor and if he was going to show her how to fix what she was doing wrong she was willing to let him. She was totally oblivious to the fact he was probably being cautious to make sure she didn’t panic, she was simply intent on learning what he was teaching.
Yeoman Rand

Ford grasped her wrists in his hands and shifted them, widening them apart. “There. Keep your hands about… shoulder to chin height. Keeps your arms and elbows in a good place.” He showed her what he meant, keeping them there made it easier to move them lower or higher as needed.

She moved through the jab a few more times. It wasn’t natural, as he said, but it was smoother and easier. It took a couple times before she was able to pull her arm back without checking to make sure she’d pulled it back to the right position. After a couple more jabs she seemed to have the rhythm of it.

He watched her try out the punch a few more times, nodding. “Much better. Having a target will help,” he grinned.

He stepped up to the front again and opened a bag, pulling out square pads with a loop on the back, passing them out to every other person. He slipped one over his hand, pad on his palm and held it up. “Wear it like this, and hold it about chin level to your partner.”

He held the pad out for Rand to hit, then spoke again. “You want to be hitting the target before you finish extending your elbow. Otherwise it’s just a love tap.”

Rand jabbed at the pad her arm fully extended, but she was happy with the fact her first two knuckles made contact like he’d explained earlier. She adjusted her distance just a bit so she wasn’t having to reach for the pad the next time.

He turned back to Rand. “Okay, let’s see how this goes.”

COS Ford

Rand nodded. She seemed oddly relaxed in this setting compared to days before at the observation lounge. The people around her and the activity not seeming to bother her. She jabbed at the pad stopping when she made contact rather than following through. You want to be hitting the target before you finish extending your elbow. Otherwise it’s just a love tap. So she needed to hit it but keep going? And before he could correct it she jabbed again this time following though till her arms was fully extended. It made a satisfying smack against the pad. She grinned to herself. It would knock anyone over, but it might surprise them.
Yeoman Rand

Ford was watching another student when she hit the pad with a smack! and he turned to her with a grin. “There we go!” he said to her, and braced again. He let everyone get about ten good solid hits in before he called out for them to switch partners holding the pad.

“Do you want to take a quick break, or get some more in?” he offered to Rand.

“I’ll keep going unless you need to check on everyone else.” Rand was no slacker and was happy to keep practicing, she also knew it wasn’t fair to keep the instructor’s attention simply because there was an odd number.

Once he was satisfied everyone had done enough on that side, he called out again.

“Now, let’s switch things up - try it with your dominant side in front, jabbing with your dominant hand. Do about ten again. Watch your hands - you’ll need to be holding them in slightly different positions than we were the other side.” He looked around, checking all of their positioning before nodding. He held the pad out for Rand.

“Remember, we’re focusing on the motion - we’ll add power right after this,” he told her, bracing for the next punch.

COS Ford

She switched her stance and the first jab was all sorts of wrong and she flushed, embarrassed, but quickly corrected herself and sent several jabs at the bag with a resounding “smack.” Her last one her wrist was flexed incorrectly and her aim off from tensed shoulders. Lucky for her it scrapped her knuckles along the canvas of the pad, rather than sprain her wrist, with a dull thud rather than a smack - it would sting later - but she finished out the set.
Yeoman Rand

Ford grimaced at the sound and saw the redness on her knuckles. “You’ll be all right,” he said, “but that is going to hurt later. I have a handwrap if it gets bad.”

He held out his right arm parallel to his chest, fist palm down, to show her what had happened. “You want your knuckles parallel with your forearm,” he said, running his left hand across the flat wrist. “If it’s not…” he cocked his wrist back and pushed, then cocked it down and pushed. “… you can get pretty hurt. I told you, nothing natural about the way we fight,” he chuckled.

He stepped back up to the front of the room and waved one of the security crew to him with a pad. “Now, let’s talk about power generation. This is simple physics, f=ma, force equals mass times acceleration. What we’ve been doing is accelerating the mass of our hand, maybe our arm, to generate that force, but we can do better.”

He stood in a basic boxing stance so they were on his left and demonstrated the jab a couple of times. “Now, I want to add some more mass behind this punch, so I’ll push my shoulder and hips into it.” He showed them a slowed down jab, rotating his shoulder and hips at the last second, then demonstrated on the pad - the sound difference was immediately noticeable. “An easy bad habit to fall into is moving the shoulder first - this gives away what you’re doing and is easier to react to, since your hand isn’t moving yet. Always move your hand first.” He showed the punch off from both sides of his body, then sent the security member back to his partner.

“Practice this slow a few times; I’ll come around and correct anything I see needs it.”

He returned to Rand and slipped the pad back on. “Questions before we try it out?” he asked her.

COS Ford