Considering the problems of punching stated before, how do you have to punch when you attack your opponent? The answer is that you have to punch straight at him. There's some merits of punching straight. The first one is that your opponent cannot notice your attack because he can see only a little change in your pose like <picture 4>. If you punch straight your opponent can see only your fist's getting bigger. And it will take your fist less time to reach your target, for the straight line is the shortest one. Then let me explain this kind of punching in more detail.

In the straight punching your fist must move following the straight line between your fist and your target. In this case what you have to control are three movements; <1> of your fist <2> of your elbow, and <3> of your waste. At first you have to focus on the second; the movement of the elbow. Your elbow have to trace exactly the fist. I mean, your opponent should not be able to see your elbow while you punching. See the <picture 4> again. At the right part, you cannot see his elbow. When you keep your elbow in the trace of the fist, it will push the fist naturally, thus you can put your weight on the power of the fist. Therefore, the elbow should push the fist and its shoulder should push the elbow.

Compare the pose of <picture 4> to that of <picture 4-1>. You can see bigger difference between two poses of <picture 4-1>, which is less in <picture 4>. The bigger the difference is between the poses of start and end of a motion the easilier the opponent can react and the earlier he begin his defending. The good motion of attack enables the opponent feel difficult to react and defend.

You've watched only the pose of upper body, and let me explain in more detail about this punching. The whole motion of this skilled punching is like <picture E1>In this picture, you shall see the turning of the waste as he punches and he keeps his elbow dropped down, which enables his fist move straight. Otherwise, his fist come to swing slightly. And let me point out that his upper body flips as he punches, which move his trunk forward. His moving forward is the origin of the power of his punch. Every attack requires one's trunk and center to move forward in order to get efficient power(See PPT ch.30). In order to move your whole body forward you should put walking in the simple motion. One punch should include one step walking even when it does not appear apparent.

Next, the following picture shows the bad pose and motion of punching. In the picture you can see his upper body and his waste didn't turn fully, thus he cannot go forward so far as the man in <picture E1>. And compare the front pose of <picture E2> with the pose of <picture E1-1>. In <picture E2> you can see his upper body between his two arms but only a little in the pose <picture E1-1>. That you can see his upper body between his arms implies that the part can be attacked with ease.

And compare the distance between the fully stretched fist and the front foot. The distance is farther in third pose of <picture E1> than in the first pose of <picture E2>. The difference says how you can approach your opponenet in a simple motion of attack. The farther the better, for it means you can attack the farther opponent suddenly in a given time. The distance is the first important factor on competition. As you can approach the farther opponent suddenly when you want you can get the Taekwondo distance(PPT ch.20), controling the whole of competition.

To avoid a serious misunderstanding I have to point out that the pose of <picture E2> is more similar to a basic pose of Taekwondo(Apkubi momtong jirugi) rather than anothers. But the pose has some important differences which seem trivial, especially to beginers. On the other hand, I should emphsize that the poses being explained now beloings to the first step of evolution and those of Taekwondo to the last. So you should not be confused with the similar looks of originally different poses.