Yeah, I think maybe I knew that. So then I guess I have a couple months to eat those donuts and add a couple pounds. In the meantime, look for me to be pulling up the rear.
I haven’t looked at Zwift Power for about a month since I’ve been riding for double points but when I just checked, I couldn’t find the Punch anymore.
Wasn’t it on our profile screen?
I also see there is a Critical Power curve.
Was that always there?
It may have been and I just didn’t know what it was.
If we’re using CP, does Punch go away?
Just found punch.
What does 70% Punch mean???
It’s a percentile (what % of ZwiftPower users you’re better than) for an average “variability” in events where your 20min power is at least 80% of your best. (Last 90 days, I think). They’re defining variability as how much your normalized power is greater than your average power.
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I see plenty of good riders in ZP profile who have punch 100%.
How come they all have 100%?
Thought there can be only one who can be better than 100% 
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Assuming they’re rounding, let’s say 1 in 200 ZP users. Going to be lots of people.
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oops - 1 in 2000, I forgot that “punch” is given to the nearest 0.1%
Old thread but just found it. I weigh 205lbs and ftp 260. So I a, a low C cat racer. I have to be very rested for any race with a lot of elevation gain. Anyway, I have a punch of 75%. I do recover very well between hard efforts, I also mountain bike which is similar in what it requires of power and rest . And when I ride real road and the group slows down and I can recover thats on them. Because I can attack, keep up on next effort, or sprint at end. But if they push it the whole way I struggle. it’s same in the Zwift raves for me. If they slow to recover then I can punch (a lot of racers do slow waiting till end). This benefits me but if they hit it hard and stay on it my weight comes into play on the climbs and I can’t hang. I keep pushing though but mostly finish mid pack. But I ain’t pulling when I’m rested because I never know what the group is doing. I do try to find a longer races where I am pushed in the FTP and above.
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agreed. Having a high punch doesn’t mean you’re a sandbagger. Just means that you recover and push pace when necessary, especially in a race. When I started racing on zwift my punch was low. My races were much harder generally speaking. The better I got a racing the more my VI started to increase and better/more consistent I became at racing on zwift. Push pace when attacking or at selection points recover when possible. Plus, that leads to more high-quality efforts when pushing pace/going for segments. That’s how racing should be, imo. So take that into consideration before calling folks out for having high punch. Took me a bit to figure out what it meant.
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I think that one important variable is left behind this discussion: the type power source. It’s not the same to race on a Tacx Neo, a Thinkrider x7 pro or power pedals. The faster the response from the power source the better for the punch.
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That’s in interest point.
Yup. I haven’t been racing on Zwift a lot, in fact I’ve barely been on the road bike at all this year other than commuting - pretty much on single track and BMX racing.
I’m training for standing start and max cadence sprinting for maybe 20 pedal strokes maximum at a time.
My punch percentile is unsurprisingly now at 100%.
Zwiftpower punch percentage doesn’t say too much by itself. Since it uses your overall races and social rides.
That number would drop a lot if you do a lot of itt races, hills and social rides.
I just noticed the Punch score and without doing a deep dive into the metrics it seems to be a valuation of anaerobic vs aerobic abilities. The higher the Punch the greater your anaerobic power is. You cannot have a high VO2 Max and a high VLA Max….so those riders with a lower punch score will have a better VO2 Max. With ZRL looming I feel confident saying that barring a concerted effort by several low Punch riders to breakaway the podium will be filled by high Punch riders just based on the profile of the course. In summation….who cares…play to your strengths. If your Punch score is low don’t let the last 5k be dictated by surges. On the other side if you have Punch sit in the draft and turn the last 5k into a slug fest of attacks.
I’ve basically only done races on Zwift this year.
And social rides won’t change your punch % unless you’re sandbagging your 20min in races so much that your social ride is 80% of your best 20min.
Not sure what you mean by the 80%, but social rides can definitely generate a higher power than a race. During a social ride with placement not an issue, spending time in the front pulling won’t be a waste of power. Also during a social ride, you might not be pushing hard efforts. Some climbs you would have yellow calling out the wattage limit for the climbs, so people won’t be blasting their 1 min PR up a kicker. Without the extreme 130%+ ftp efforts, riders can spend more time pushing near the threshold vs having to do a heavy recovery.
Rides for which your peak 20min isn’t 80% of your best 20min don’t count in the punch % calculation.
I’m not sure you’re doing racing and social rides right if you’re going harder in social rides than in races.
Honestly most of racing time in spent in Z2 and Z3 if you are in the draft. Of course there are the 120-300% ftp part that can last 10s-5min, but usually that is follow by another Z2-Z3 recovery. For Ds even if someone is pulling on the flat at 2.7 w/kg, you likely only need to do 1.9-2.0 w/kg to stay in their draft.
I’m not sure you are racing at your ability level if most of the race is in z2/z3
If you are having to compensate that by doing social rides and treating them like race threshold efforts sounds like you should find some harder races and you’ll likely see improvements.
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