well as the title says, i was wondering if there are any ways to prevent wrist/hand injury in a street fight. any advice or link to an article would be great. im working on strengthening my wrists doing knuckle push ups 3x a week and other exercises. its not like you can stop a fight and say wait let me put on my wrist wraps and the adrenaline rush can keep you from remembering or thinking about your perfect punching techniques. ive heard holding something in your hand will help, any truth to this? thanks, spencer
Do Judo* *This message brought to you by Steve's campaign to see how many times he can use "Do Judo" as an answer to a question in 24 hours.
Do not strike with a closed fist. Use palm strikes, knife hand, ridge hand, cupped palm, reinforced finger, elbows, forearms, headbutt, knees. The only closed fist strike I use is a hammerfist.
i'd go with pauli's advice first and shiho- nage's advice if you can't do pauli's. i go with palms, slaps and pokes/ gouges. mostly i'd suggest you do headbutts, elbows and knees.
Exactly what I was going to say. I only punch closed fist to the abdomen, to maximize the pressure I generate (force/area), and where the risk of injury due to impact is minimal.
I more or less agree with what these guys are saying, but I'll add one point... If you're going to use punches as part of your arsenal in self-defence you should practice hitting things without wraps or gloves. This way you'll be forced to ensure that you get your wrist alignment correct. Don't go at it like a 'bull at a gate' though. Start gentle and build up gradually, even if you're used to hitting a bag quite hard with gloves on. Mike
If you are going to punch, make sure your wrist is completely strait while punching, with the knuckles even pointing ever so slightly downwards. That will bare the knuckes make you only scrape some skin or get a little bruise at the most. And always hit with the first two knuckles(the big ones).
That made me think of an interesting point... I never use hand-wraps or gloves. And I hardly scuff my knuckles at all on a bag, regardless of how rough the surface. I think its because hitting the bag 'unprotected' forces you to ensure that you hit it square, with the energy going into the centre of the bag, so the knuckles don't scuff across the surface. I'll see people work the same bag with wraps on and get a lot more scuffing. I realise of course that humans are rather more complicated than punchbags and it can be beneficial to hit them from different angles that don't direct the force into the centreline, but I think its still generally a good habit to get into. Mike
I am sorry to be so assertively interuptish. The hands and wrist are are like the ankles and feet. Our legs are so powerful because they endure our entire bodyweight all of the time and so our ankles and feet become very strong also. I believe that it makes sense to train how to handstand and handwalk. It walking on our feet have made them so strong why can't walking do the same for our hands and wrist. LOL I am not trying mock anyone or be rudely random. I do this and I have been for quite a while and I can safely that it worked for me. I hope this post benefits the maker of this thread and those with the same issue.
If you do WC, one of the purposes of the huen sao in your form is to condition the wrists to take impact. Other than that use a palm, next best thing is a vertical punch.
Simply because the feet and ankles are designed specifically for the purpose of walking on them, but hands aren't. I don't doubt that walking on your hands will have some benefits in terms of strength, although I think this will do more to strengthen the triceps and the muscles of the shoulder. Weight bearing on your hands will, if you do enough of it, probably cause thickening of the forearm bones too, I'm not sure about the hand bones though. But it can cause you one very significant problem. Walking on your hands involves bending the wrist back (what's known as hyperextension of the wrist). Hyperextension under load (ie. your bodyweight) is a significant risk factor for repetitive strain injury. Do enough of it and there's a good chance you'll suffer for it. Not that I'm suggesting it, but I think it would be safer to walk on your fists than your hands (because the wrist would be fairly neutral, not hyperextended). Mike
Your input is valued and I hope you continue your honorable responses. I thank you for making it clear to readers the safety precautions and possible repercussion of doing hand walking. Now that I threw that out there I would like to further unmask how I hand walk. I didn't want to before because I feel uncomfortable explaining the physical activities I do because this can be misinterpreted as and ego issue LOL. (especially when read intentions can be lost in translation) I do my hand walking in sand and I grab at the sand with each step. I will not debate wether my wrist hyperextend because maybe they did when I first started. The purpose of doing hand walking in sand and only sand is to cushion each step soley because the hands aren't for walking on. I also have to make it clear that I technically don't walk on my palms because with the foot you don't only on your sole. I do the walking on fingers for the most part, which isn't because my fingers are super strong, but because of the safety of the sand.
