Everything you need to know about Bruce Lee’s One Inch Punch

The one inch punch was popularized by Bruce Lee who was famously filmed showing its effectiveness back in the day. Since then, it has become a thing of legend where martial arts circles are concerned. Whilst it is certainly something that can be used to hurt someone, it has also been given mythical status in terms of what it can do as well.

In this article, we shall be separating myth from reality and looking at just how effective the one inch punch is. As is often the case in martial arts, the one inch punch often balances itself between a practical self defense technique and a fancy gimmick that looks flashy but isn’t actually effective. Read on for more information.

How strong is the one inch punch?

According to Anthony Lee (who had trained under one of Bruce Lee’s students), he recorded that his own one inch punch had a measured power of 69KG in force. In comparison, a regular punch recorded by Lee was 148KG. In other words, the one inch punch was almost half the power of a regular punch.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise either. Scientifically speaking, punches generate power by movement and angles. As the one inch punch is so close to the opponent’s body, this means that by its very nature, it’s incredibly difficult to generate any significant power as the fist can’t be loaded or hit with a significant angle. At the same time, its power is still fairly impressive for what it is – given the circumstances.

Often, you may see people flying back from the force of a one inch punch during a demonstration, or bricks being broken due to its power. This is usually due to a degree of compliance from the person being punched, whereby they intentionally fall back to add effect. Similarly, sometimes bricks or wood can be positioned to create extra leverage, making the punch seem harder than it actually is.

Does the one inch punch work?

The one inch punch works by standing opposite your opponent. Here, you should clench your fist, just like you would if you were to throw a regular punch. Whilst your forearm is extended, you should then throw the fist into the chest of the opponent.

The idea of the one inch punch is to generate maximum power whilst standing incredibly close to someone. This ties into Bruce Lee’s philosophy of close-range fighting. As Bruce Lee was a student of Wing Chun – this meant that many of his techniques were fought from a close distance. For example, in Wing Chun, practitioners are taught to block, divert, and throw strikes whilst standing directly opposite their opponent within slapping distance.

Arguably, the intention of the one inch punch wasn’t to be used in everyday life. Instead, it was an example of the innovation used by Bruce Lee. It also showed what was possible by putting your mind into developing a skill. In many ways, you could say that this summed up the life and career of Bruce Lee, who was known for pushing boundaries and creating new ideas.

How do you do a one inch punch?

Like all punching moves, the one inch punch requires technique and is a skill that can be developed and honed over time. In other words, if you were to record your power when first throwing one inch punches, then this power could be increased over time.

To perform a one inch punch, there are several fundamental steps to follow. Firstly, you’ll want to position your fist one inch away from its target. You’ll then want to adopt a side-on angle from your target, just like Bruce Lee used to do with your knees bent.

When throwing the punch, you’ll want to clench your knuckles tightly and thrust forward with your hips and shoulder which will add more force into the punch. As you do this, you’ll want to finish by thrusting your forearm forward, resulting in your fist hitting the target. After landing, you should then retract your fist quickly to increase even more force.

As you can imagine, throwing the punch looks incredibly easy – but actually doing it effectively with significant technique and force is something that is all together different.

What is the purpose of the one inch punch?

Theoretically, the one inch punch could be used in a self defense situation. If you were grappling from a close range where you can’t withdraw your arm back far enough to create adequate power, then you could opt for a one inch punch. In MMA, you will often see one inch punches all of the time. The issue is that these are poorly executed during the heat of the moment.

In fact, you could argue that without the correct positioning and setup that the one inch punch cannot be hit effectively anyway. In other words, whilst both people are moving and grappling, it would be almost impossible to hit with any noticeable power.

Having said this, it could be used as a cheap shot. Whilst we don’t condone cheap shots when fighting, it’s certainly something to consider if you feel under threat. With enough time and space, you could hurt someone with a one inch punch. If hit to the chest, this could wind someone, or if hit to the face it could knock them out as well. Remember, you’d still need your opponent to be standing very still to be able to perform this punch which is highly unlikely during combat.

The one inch punch as a gimmick

Despite the previous examples, for the most part the one inch punch is honestly a bit of a gimmick. Basically, it looks cool and fancy but isn’t easily adaptable to a real-life situation. For instance, if you’re fighting then there’s not really much of a time or a place to implement an effective one inch punch. Typically, fighters will be using more realistic, appropriate techniques instead.

At the same time, the one inch punch is still an interesting example of innovation from Bruce Lee and proves that techniques and skills can be developed if you’re innovative enough. If nothing else, it also makes for a cool party trick as well!

Conclusion

Over the years, the one inch punch has lost the magic that it once had. Remember, it was made famous during a time when martial arts was still considered underground by mainstream culture. So, to see people like Bruce Lee using his punches to break wood would have been a real spectacle at the time.

Even though the one inch punch is impressive and demonstrates technique, it is also a bit pointless in a real, self defense situation. So, even though it should be respected for what it is – the chance of actually relying on it in the real world is not very common. Sadly, for most fighters, the one inch punch isn’t really worth investing time into as there are more practical techniques worth pursuing instead such as throwing jabs or calf kicks instead.

If you’d like to learn more about Bruce Lee’s interesting techniques, then check out this book here.