Over four decades of martial practice I've worked with thousands of students and fellow artists. Among all of them I count ONE HANDFUL of people who could throw a truly devastating punch; and that includes one of the five being the world champion, Joe Lewis. How can this be?
At a basic level much of what martial arts teaches is adequate and straight forward. Resting the punch at the hip, for instance, teaches the child or beginner that the hip and the punch should be connected. This prevents the arm flying off on its own without the proper back up power from the body. The trouble here is that once this coordination is achieved it should be abandoned like counting on your fingers.
Was there ever a reason to keep the hands at the side of the hip? Absolutely! But to understand it you have to know something about the history of the martial arts, or just take a good long look at things logically. The name of the study is MARTIAL arts, not combat-in-a-cage arts (which are perfectly fine in their place). In other words the arts were meant for warfare, not street fighting.
It is a surprising historical fact that in ancient times the use of weapons often preceded the teaching of empty handed fighting. And when you think of it the reasons are obvious. Any weapon, especially a long one, would be held at the hip, not at the arms up guard position. It was imperative that the martial artist could generate power right from the hip and, even more, control the weapon with small actions of the torso and pelvis. Otherwise his arms would wear out in minutes, much less hours on the battlefield.
But there's more. To develop really explosive punching you have to be willing to shift your body weight forward with well coordinated and fluid movements. You must also, and here's the hard part, be willing to let go of that upper arm tension so your punching arm becomes nothing more than a vehicle for your body's full power. Again, Classical martial arts STARTS off on the right foot but decades of kids classes and short term self defense training has watered down the basics so much that there's been a lot of slippage. I have seen modern martial artists so concerned with looking good in their forms that they actually LEAN BACK when they punch to create a more beautiful line. They have actually trained themselves to sit AWAY from the power of the punch itself.
I can't say everything that needs to be said here but there is one fact I can tell you. Having spent much time with people who throw punches of devastating power, I want you to understand that the "softest" most relaxed and almost flimsy looking punches you can imagine can actually be the real powerhouses. Hard, bulging and brutal work on the bag looks good, makes a lot of chain noise and helps to build muscles but don't rely on it to remove your name from the ranks of so many who really can't punch.
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