As part of your personal defense tool box you should include the use of knee strikes. One of the most common methods of training with them is to have a partner hold a striking shield and then holding your partner, you knee the bag, step back and then fire off another strike.
You may want to try this in your next work out. Instead of hitting with the knee and then stepping back, try throwing your full body weight into the knee in an attempt to knock your partner back and then step forward with the leg you kneed with. This will change the dynamics from a stationary drill to a walking drill.
When you keep kneeing with the same leg and stepping back you are never really putting your body weight into the strike. The power comes from the speed of the strike and the mass (your weight). By stepping back you aren’t bringing your hips into play on the strike.
The greatest mass of your body is probably located in an area that rhymes with mass. When you hit make sure your mass is moving forward and through the target.
By driving forward and through you will hit with more power because your whole body is in motion forward instead of just your leg. You want to physically and mentally drive through the body of the suspect, in training through the body of your partner.
Remember that the pad is there to protect your partner from injury; it shouldn’t be the focus of your attack. Ignore the pad and drive your knee (or any other striking instrument) through the body.
Another tip for adding power into your strikes is to pull your training partner or the suspect, into the strike. If you grab your training partner by the shoulders or do a hook up behind their neck you can increase the striking force by accelerating them into the technique right before you make impact.
It’s like the difference between the damage to cars when one is stationary and is hit by a moving car vs a head on collision between vehicles driving at each other.
Unless you are significantly taller than your opponent keep your knee strikes low to the thigh, groin, buttocks and belt buckle, depending on the targets that present themselves and the level or force authorized.
Practice the strikes from a standing, kneeling and prone position to prepare yourself for the positions you can find yourself in during a real altercation.
