Tension causes I have noted in my coaching life include:
1. Empathy. Fear of hurting others. People who take into consideration the welfare of others before themselves, tend to have a hard time loosening up for combat.
2. Highly intelligent folks, who think things through before acting, experience friction greasing the gears of war.
3. Heavily muscled people have a hard time letting their muscles flap on the bone as they uncork a punch. Much of this is the temptation to use strength to amplify the motion, which is like lubricating your condom with wood putty [Only tried this once.]
4. Fear of being hurt is a great cause of biomechanical friction.
5. Social expectation, exterior pressure, felt by a socialized individual is a big punch killer. In training, lining up in a class setting and having to perform exactly as others, causes this anxiety in loners and betas, whereas in competition, alpha males and women who perform well in a training setting often grow rigid before the crowd.
6 Uncoordination, an inability to distinguish and separate what parts of the motion require muscular tension, is a killer for the normal person.
7. For the natural athlete and others, coaching is the main problem, with most of those who teach punching [all martial arts people and most boxing people] teaching the second punch before the first punch is mastered and [especially in fitness boxing and MMA] introducing a third punch before the first two have been effectively chained in a combination.
Being a Bad Man in a Worse World
Fighting Smart: Boxing, Agonistics & Survival
I thought everybody used wood putty...
Apparently just the two of us...
James, what do you think of wood-chopping, sledgehammer-on-tire, and throwing a medicine ball sideways against a wall as developers of punching power? They certainly seem/feel as if they would improve "pop", but is that actually the case? None of these require as much muscular tension as weight lifting or max calisthenics...
Chopping and sledging are good for numerous reasons and, most importantly condition to timed flexion at impact.
The medicine ball drill is mostly useful muscular conditioning to remain relaxed when pivoting and expand the ribs in the wake of body punches received.
All small ball drills have eye-hand benefits and any form or ball throwing enhances punching velocity,, and throwing in a way that does not injure the shoulder helps mechanics. If the NFL were abolished all of the quarter backs would be heavyweight prospects—even Brady, who would be "Run and Hug" Brady in the ring.