In thiswiki on Bruce Lee they describe this one inch punch. I’m at a loss as to how you could deliver any real power in a punch with only an inch of travel, but it was reputed to be devastating.
How would this work WRT real world physics? Sounds a bit over the top.
Although this may seem like one of the many overblown myths of martial arts, it is actually true. To understand why you need to consider the physics and physiology of punching. While it may seem that the long swing of a “haymaker” style punch is acquiring momentum, the reality is that the fist is relatively light and by itself doesn’t contain that much momentum. If you doubt this, take a softball, which is roughly the weight of a heavy fist, drill a hole though it, insert a rope of roughly arm’s length, and then swing it at a heavy punching bag, watching how little it acutally does to the bag compared to a real punch. The power of a punch comes not from the speed or distance at which it travels, but rather from the core strength of the thrower and the ‘grounding’ (reinforcement) that he provides. In other words, when you throw a solid punch (not just a jab), what you are really doing is using the muscles of the torso and hips to develop the power, and the muscles of the arm mostly direct and reinforce the punch, almost as if lifting a heavy weight very quickly. If you notice, many boxers don’t have heavily muscled arms (compared to a body builder) but they almost universially have thick torsos, glutes, and legs. When a boxer strikes with a solid front punch or upper cut, he is throwing his entire bodyweight into it, which is why footwork is so critical in boxing.
In Wing Chun (or Ving Tsun) gung fu, which is the core of Lee’s Jeet Kune Do, punches are all thrown from the centerline of the attacker; that is, the line of the punch runs directly through the fist in as close to a straight line as possible through the hips and into the legs. The distance of the punch is almost irrelevent in terms of power, and in fact students are taught to move in close to maintain an almost touching distance so as to control the opponent. The striking power of the punch comes from an ability to tense and release the entire body in one concentrated effort.
Stranger
Here’s a video. It’s a little bit longer than 1" counting the follow through.
Here’s the same punch on a board. That’s quick!
Could it also depend on placement of the punch on the victim?
Even a mild thump in the solar plexus can knock the wind out of a person - a softball in the right spot can send a person to the ground - so a decent punch in the right spot might well leave a person in considerable pain for a while afterwards.
Didn’t Mythbusters do this one?
I had always been a bit cynical, but Stranger’s explanation makes perfect sense to me. My take is simply that it isn’t really a punch as most people would expect a punch to be defined. It is a throw. They guy in the video is thrown back into the chair, he doesn’t collapse into the chair due to injury from a punch in the way you might expect a strike to the solar plexus to disable someone. A one inch punch to the jaw won’t break the jaw or knock someone out. Nor is it a killer technique. It doesn’t damage organs. But it can drive someone to the ground.
Stranger’s explanation of the body physics is rather familiar - it exactly describes how a judo throw works. Many judo throws work with complete application of tori’s (the thrower’s) body musculature. The only real difference between the one inch punch and a throw is that the punch has an obvious air gap. When throwing with a judo throw there is (usually) a grip on the judogi, and enough looseness in the grip to allow tori to accelerate into the technique, with a point being reached where the grip locks the force transfer onto uke’s (the throwee’s) body. That looseness of grip is a critical part of a judoka’s technique (and partly, why, counter intuitively, judo translates into the “gentle technique”).
I’ve read Bruce lee practiced with a massively large slide hammer and was just freakishly strong, its a shame we’ll never know how he would have developed in latter life
A one inch punch or more likely three inch punch could be devastating if the neck is fully rotated or arched back but its not something to be applied without some sort of setup
The thing is, I can do better than that and make a normal man (i.e. not built like Shaq) fall over with a zero inch punch. We’d probably call it a ‘push’, though.
I’m sure Bruce was indeed impressively fast and coordinated, and could get more speed in a one inch runup than most people could.
But for knocking someone over, it’s not about how fast the fist is going at contact; it’s how much push the puncher has after the contact. (That’s why martial arts tell you to aim your punch not at the target, but a couple inches inside the target – it makes sure you keep pushing the fist forward even after contact). As Stranger points out, a disembodied fist thrown at someone will not knock them over, even if the fist if moving very fast. It needs the push as well.
It’s clear from the video that he doesn’t just stand flat-footed and move his hand through one inch of travel. His entire body is in motion during the punch and follow-through, so it’s like being hit with 130 pounds behind a single point of contact.
Pretty sure Chuck Norris did him in because he saw Bruce as a threat.
Mythbusters used some Doofenschmirtz poser. The most non athletic martial artist I have seen. Anthony Kelly, he’s a joke. The guy thought he could catch arrows for crying out loud. He couldn’t, the arrows had to be traveling at a very low speed where even I could catch the arrow. I think Adam actually caught one himself. The dumbass tried to demonstrate the the one inch punch and almost broke his own wrist. He had completely the wrong execution and technique. On top of that he only produced 135-175 lbs per square inch of force. Most heavyweight boxers’ jabs produce 250-300 lbs psi. A haymaker from a 280 lb mixed martial produces around 450 to 600lbs psi of force. I don’t have citation for that, but TLC had a special with a bunch of MMA fighters inlcuding Tito Ortiz and Randy Couteur. Randy displaced the most psi of force on the ground with over 1200lbs psi.
So theres that. The only way to really know is if a master in Wing Chun demonstrated it.
Speaking of cage fighters, this is an amusing story.
Darned right it’s longer than an inch. Watch that video carefully. When Lee stops moving, his elbow is about where his fist was at the start - that’s about a foot. Also, look how far forward his hips go. There’s a heck of a lot more than an inch of movement going on there.
something lost in translation perhaps? the punch starts one inch away from the target. i doubt Lee himself ever claimed that he’s only allowed one inch of movement. imo, breaking a plank from one inch away with your bare hands is still remarkable.
My point is that I could easily make the average person fall over backwards with my hand starting an inch from their body if I’m allowed to move into it and follow through by pushing them away – especially given a half-foot or so of hip movement.
well, unless Baker’s words were hyperbole, i doubt you’ll cause enough damage for the average person to call in sick from work because you pushed them to the floor.
My martial arts teacher observed that judo is gentle to the thrower. 
What? Exaggeration when describing a legendary martial artist? Inconceiveable!
Nobody is saying Bruce Lee wasn’t talented and didn’t practice hard. There’s no doubt that he could get much more acceleration of his fist in 1" than I could or most other people could, and the initial impact would probably hurt more from his 1" punch than from mine.
What we’re saying is that the initial impact is a pretty small part of the whole thing, especially in regards to knocking someone over. Remember, the initial impact is like being hit with a disembodied hand that someone threw at you; it might sting but it’s not going to knock you down. It’s the follow-through that provides the momentum to push you over.
so he… pushed through the plank?