What situations are each of these most suited to? If you were only to train one, which would be best?
Closed fist would be better if you could only train in one. Where can you strike with a fist? Pretty much anywhere, just watch yourself on the hard bits of the head. Aside from palm strikes, I think open hand techniques are pretty useless - sure they can work, but the likelihood of missing your intended target and damaging your hands is so much higher that it's just not worth the risk IMO
yeah I would go for fist strikes.... palm strikes are useful, especially to protect your hand when you hit someones head, but I feel a closed fist is just more useful in more situations
Difficult to chose as they both have their place. The advantage with an open hand is that you can use it as a palm strike, a chop, a grip or a grab i believe it can get into the more awkward places in a fight. Though if you are only saying palm strikes that cuts alot of those out. As was stated earlier one problem with a fist is that if you do hit the head in the wrong place a broken finger or knuckle will create a problem. Using the palm of the hand is less likely to injure yourself inparticular for a woman as the majority of women do not work on their bare knuckles. Though its a rather daft question as a good fighter will use both depending on the need at the time.
Punches are probably easier to execute but open hand, partic palm strikes are worth mastering. Bas Rutten used open hand techs to great effect in his NHB career - Interview quote - "Bas: Bare knuckle punches ARE effective; who ever says they are not doesn’t know what he is talking about. But… if you hit somebody with bare knuckles on the top of his skull, or anywhere on his skull, there is the possibility of breaking your hand.......Palm strikes are good at certain moments, to the back of his head or when your opponent is taller then you, under his jaw (see my first Pancrase fight)."
To a degree that follows what we are taught in Systema to strike; "hard with soft and soft with hard"
Yep that's what I've been taught too. If possible hit hard targets with soft weapons (i.e flesh covered) and soft targets with hard weapons, (i.e fists). Obviously this is not always possible but gives a good basis for deciding on an effective weapon that will not hurt to much to use.
Palm strikes make for a good initial strike. With your hands up and palms open, you're in a non-threatening position. If the attacker decides to get to close, you can sucker punch him with a palm strike.
Personally, I prefer open hand strikes to fists. I'd say that I use open hand strikes about 70% of the time that I'm striking. I don't use palm-heel strikes much at all, though. I primarily use forehand and backhand slaps. "Pak" is the term used to describe what I'm talking about in Wing Chun - though I got them from Filipino MA. When properly done, they are very quick and very painful. With my hands open, I have a lot more success at trapping and at finding joint locks and I have a lot more tactile awareness in general. As far as their effectiveness, I had one guy freeze up completely during sparring after I landed a good slap on his forearm. He couldn't fathom that a "slap" could hurt that much. Another sparring session got out of hand and I decided I needed to shut the guy down now. I caught a lock and dropped him to a knee. Then I did a forehand slap to his back - intentionally missing his kidney because I didn't want to seriously injure him - then a backhand slap to his ribs, then a forehand slap to the top of his head - again intentionally not hitting the base of his skull because I didn't want to (a) bounce his face off the concrete or (b) knock him out. After those shots he was still trying to fight until I applied a finger lock and that shut him down. However, as I said, I was very nice on two of those shots and they could have been much worse. As it was, though, the slap to his back left an imprint of my hand that was so vivid you could see the individual lines in my fingers (i.e.: the big creases where my fingers bend) on his back. And the slap to his head dislocated his jaw a little bit - he had to pop it back into place. In reality, I would have hit his kidney and bounced his face off the concrete and I have little doubt the fight would have ended purely from my "slaps." Mike
I personally think both have their place. If I had to choose, I'm going with open hand because of the variety of open hand strikes availible for me to use. But I think some of the above posts show the necessity of being competent with both.
My school trains that open hand strikes tend to be speed strikes whereas close fist strikes are much more powerful.
Fist when it's going crazy. When I can see a target and am confident I can hit it, I'll go far a palm strike to the bridge of the noze, neck or chin.
It all depends on what you like and how you train or are trained. My school is taught mostly on the open hand techniques. There're punches and variations of such used. Unless you are a boxer you should use all the tools you have and don't limit yourself.
From a teaching prospect, open hand techniques are easier to teach and generally have a lower risk to injuring the defender. Some of your open hand techniques are quite effective and a well placed slap over the ear or side of the head can go a long way. Myself, I would go with punching if I absolutely had to choose. More targets to choose from.
Open hands are far better in my opinion, there is a larger variety of attacks and you don't just have to use your palms. There's the back of your hand, your fingers, back of the wrist, ridge gand strikes (both sides), but that's just for me.
