If you punch someone on the street there is a high chance that you will break a bone or bones in your hand. The head is a strong part of the body and it was designed or evolved that way on purpose as it protects the brain. This raises the question; should we avoid using punches or training in boxing so we don't break our hand on someone's skull? Considerations
Im not totally convinced one way or the other. I haven't been sold on either side of the argument as of yet. Should you punch on the street or use the open hand or palm strikes in stead? There are a number of considerations.
First, if you use punching a lot in your training, it is highly likely that you will use punching if you get caught up in a real altercation on the street because when the body is in this stressful environment, it behaves how it is trained to behave... generally. 'You tend to fight how you train' is a well used phrase.
This means that if you train a certain way, it is almost impossible to have the expectation that you will consciously be able to choose to fight in a different way in the heat of the moment. You cant, the body will just react, there is little to no conscious thought.
If you train regularly in boxing (as I have recently), you should expect that if you are forced to deal with a threat, you will throw punches. This can have implications as indicated above with a broken hand or hands.
Second, a lot of boxing defenses against the punch utilize the large area of the glove to block punches either by padding the punches down or simply covering your face with the large area the two gloves allows for.
This can have implications for the street. On the street you will not have those large gloves to interupt those punches coming from another large glove. This limits this tactic considerably on the street. Both the guard and the punches are too small for that boxing method to work.
Furthermore, holding the hands covering the face (where gloves would be held in boxing), leaves the naked hands open to being struck and injured as well.
And thirdly, if you were to punch someone in the head for real, there is a high chance that you will injure your hand on the attackers head. This will have implications if you use your hands in your work such as typing or using tools etc. It will probably not affect you at the time thanks to adrenaline, but it will have consequences later.
Sport to Street
So there are a number of factors to consider when looking at the merits of using punching in training such as boxing. This is one of the areas we must overcome when transitioning the superior methods of the combat sports into street practical strategies and methodologies. Of course some will take the position that it doesn't matter if your hand gets injured in an encounter, at least you have survived and maintained your health and safety. And this is a valid point. If this is acceptable to you, all the best. As long as you have considered the above points.
One simple method you can use to adapt the boxing defence measures is when you cover, raise your hands way up onto your head so your forearms and elbows intercept the punch, rather than your hands. The forearms and elbows are very sturdy parts of the body and can absorb a lot of impact. As well as this, fully utilise slips and change elevation.
This is a method I was introduced to by Ray Floro called the Crazy Monkey. This is just a small, tiny part of that system but is something that may be worth looking into if you have concerns about defending punches on the streets. It is also applicable when utilising the startle-flinch response as raising your hands up, covering your head and face is a natural thing to do.
Open or Closed hand?
And should you only use open hands to the head? It is a difficult thing to train for under pressure with contact which is one of the benefits of boxing. Can you train to use closed fists to the body and open hands to the face? That would be nice but is quite difficult to achieve though is definitely worthy of consideration.
I'm not proposing a magical solution, it is really down to the individual. I just wanted to highlight some areas for consideration.
It's in the Application
So I am not pushing one idea over the other. I just think it is worthwhile considering what is best for you. I will say though, it would be unwise to totally stop boxing for fear of injuring your hands on the street as that is akin to throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Boxing is a fantastic system which quickly teaches people how to APPLY techniques on a resisting opponent who is fighting back. That is an essential component of ANY system for teaching elements of low tech combat.
I am not really sure sure how I will manage this in my own training, but I do keep it in mind when training. I would be interested in hearing peoples opinions or ideas on this matter. Feel free to leave a comment below.
9 comments:
Interesting discussion. Bill Hayes (Shobayashi Shorin Ryu Karate) always says 'hard to soft, soft to hard.' In that he means, use your hard knuckled fist to strike soft vital areas like floating ribs, nose, mouth, and solar plexus. Use your soft surfaces (palm of the hand) to strike hard surfaces like the head and joints.
Yeah thats some good advice for sure! That approach is a good way to get around the risk of damaging your hand.
Its also a way of ensuring you do the most damage.
A recent article in Black Belt Magazine (I think from March 2008, but I could be wrong) discussed the fact that clenching one's fist is a natural, instinctive reaction to the fight/flight reflex. Flexing of the hands, clenching the fists is one of those things that we often see as "pre-fight" indicators and supports this notion.
So whether punching with a fist or not is best may not really be a choice. If you know the fight is coming, sure strike with open hand strikes to the head but if you are caught off guard (as in the majority of actual fights), then you may end up throwing punch anyway.
Blauer teaches in his SPEAR course that its best not to try to resist instinct. Rather, to progress from "primal" to "tactical" in the shortest means possible. This would suggest the same for hand techniques. Instead of trying to resist the urge to punch to the head, it may be better to simply learn how best to punch to the head to minimize potential injuries. You can't necessarily train an instinct out of your system, but you might be able to manage that instinct the best way possible.
Just a thought.
Some great insights there BK Price. I agree totally with your comment regarding clenching the fist being a natural, instinctive reaction to the fight/flight reflex.
That is why I was hinting at it being quite difficult to train for open hand to the head and closed hand to body. It is perhaps the perfect ideal but there are challenges in implementing that method.
An example of this is when trying to do some light sparring with no gloves where the goal is to (lightly), strike with closed fist to the body and use open hand (slap) to face. It is very difficult to do even when sparring lightly. A target presents itself often only fleetingly and there is often little time for conscious thought as to how the strike is to be applied...
It is true what you say regarding you can't necessarily train the instinct out of your system. And my perspective is you shouldn't be trying to do that in many areas anyway. You should be using methods that harness and enhance your natural instincts.
These instincts have allowed the human race to overcome dangerous situations over many thousands of years. In combat, I think we should be using these already present instincts instead of trying to re-invent the wheel.
All this being said, I am still unsure of what the best approach is in regards to inflicting the most damage with the hands while minimising the risk of injury to me in regards to this subject.
There is some good food for thought though for sure. Appreciate the comments.
I agree with Ikigai, and BK beat me to the punch (no pun intended) by bringing up the SPEAR.
One thing I would add, though, is that the line of reasoning that "you will fight as you train" is not thought through to its conclusion. If a boxer's abilities are debilitated by the loss of his gloves, and his chances of injuries are increased, then it is because he is not training as he expects to fight. Don't think anyone can really count on having the time to wrap and tape his fists and then pull his gloves on on the street.
That said, I think that if the fist is trained and conditioned for punching, it is thoroughly functionally sound and reliable. However, most people only ever throw a naked fist "in extremis," and then complain that naked fist punches are dangerous when they break their hand. Spend a thousand hours on a hard makiwara, and I think that you can reasonably claim that your fist is now 1)more dangerous and 2) less susceptible to injury than the boxer who employs his naked fist for the first time on the street.
If the ungloved fist is to be regarded as a primary piece of the fighter's tool box, then training time should incorporate naked fist training and conditioning.
Also to be considered is cutting your hand on someone's teeth and contracting some sort of disease.
Wouldn't that also be a factor with any hand striking (open or not)?
I believe this link sheds excellent light on this topic: http://www.lowtechcombat.com/2008/09/punch-on-street-or-not.html I agree with this author. Punching with the knuckles to the head is too risky . One could render oneself incapable of grappling effectively or grabbing a weapon should the need arise. In the early MMA, strikers tended to fracture their hands. Some arts like BJJ prefers striking with the elbows. I believe that other options like elbows, hammer fists and palm strikes (coupled with effective head butts) are less risky. Also, cutting your palm on someone's teeth is less risky than cutting your knuckles as the palm tends to be more fleshy. If someone attacked me with a knuckle punch, I'd try to catch it on top of my skull or my elbows and damage their hands. Closed fist knuckle punches do have their advantages and uses. I believe that we should practice these as well, at the very least least, we could prepare ourselves how to deal with boxing-type attacks.
While palm strikes do protect the knuckles from a shattering impact, they bring up the distinct possibility of catching a finger or two and wrenching them violently backwards if you are even slightly off. Even with the fingers curled inwards, any impact above the lower palm and its direct line with the wrist has the potential to cause painful and debilitating injury to the tendons in the area. This isn't to say that palm strikes should be avoided, of course, just that they carry their own risks of personal injury.
As for punching, I believe that one of the better strategies to reduce the risk is to consider Jack Dempsey's style. He wrote that you can punch harder and safer if you target along the ring finger's knuckle. The idea is that the impact here will almost always involve the knuckles of the middle finger and the little finger as well, not the exposed and solitary index knuckle or the middle knuckle alone. It might seem that this would expose the little knuckle which is the weakest, but in practice it's almost hard to end up landing with the pinky alone. While this certainly doesn't eliminate the risk, I believe it reduces it. Further, this feels like a more natural punch for me, allowing a stronger locked wrist.
Of course, the best answer is to always hit just what you aim for...
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