I want to hear what you guys were taught/teach as the reason for punching from chamber in form work. Do you see this a purely an aesthetic thing for performance, or is there an underlying method that pertains to martial training.
I've always imagined the reason for chambering to be to teach the student to not let his elbow flail out on a straight line strike. I suppose it can also be used to teach the action/reaction principle of pulling one arm back a bit to make the strike with the opposing hand stronger; however the actual application of this concept is relatively minimal when maintaining a good guard.
Also, I've trained in systems that have taught high chambers and those that employ low chambers. The guys that used the high chambers argue that it is better because you get more power with the arms at the chest than at the waist. They use the analogy, "you bench press from your chest, not your waist. It makes sense, but it all seems like semantics to me; since you fight with your hands in a guard, not in chamber. Arguing which chamber is better seems as meaningless as arguing which bow/salute is the best.
All the same, if anyone has heard arguments to why a low, mid or high chamber is better, I'd like to hear them; just for discussion.