open hands in the street

Why don't most people use the heel of their palm more in street fights? When you use open hands, you are less likely to break a bone, the impact hurts less, and it seems to hurt just as much... am I wrong here? If so, why?

 

Because most of the people who train in such a way that they do anything they've practiced under pressure tend to wear gloves.

 

Because in the street most peoples martial arts go out the window.

 

But your more likily to catch your fingers, AND its hard to pressure train without gloves.


however open hand is much better for 'da street'

 

I'd rather keep a tight hold of whatever weapon I'm using at the time thank you

 

It's little to do with thought and more to do with the chemical response.

As the adrenaline and heart rate rise the fists actually have a tendency to close. This has led to many cases of guns being fired accidentally.

If you can keep calm enough that this doesn't happen you could use open hands, but you might be fighting natural responses to the point that it lengthens your response rate.

 

Because you are less likely to hurt your hand with a closed fist. True story. Using full force with your fingers sticking out like that is likely to end in disaster if you miss. And from time to time, you will miss. Besides, it's much easier to cause damage with a hard area of bone, like a knuckle or an elbow, than with a padded area like the heel of your palm. Besides, your instinct is to punch. Chimpanzees punch, so do other greater apes and humans are no exception.

 

Question...


How do you know they do? Have you done a survey?

 

I think open of closed can work well as long as you train them right

 

We punch because it's an evolutionary imperative. Our ancestors who punched instead of slapping were statistically more likely to survive. The closed fist is one of the few natural weapons we have.

 

So I'm not a natural slapper?

 

........play your cards right

 

Based on prison guards I've trained with, a skilled slap boxer tends to dominate an orthodox boxer in a prison fight.

The key here is SKILLED. You actually have to train how to apply open hand strikes effectively so that it becomes muscle memory. I know one friend that can literally knock my head off (or if he feels knock me across the room) with very little movement with an open hand strike. Open hand strikes are very powerful close in where closed fist strikes tend to get jammed because open hand strikes can utilize more joints to generate power.

As my first karate instructor said, the meaning of hard and soft was... hard weapon to soft target and soft weapon to hard target.

And if you hold out your open hand, there is a very good chance you will get your fingers grabbed and broken, so don't do that.

Open hand strikes don't work too well when wearing boxing gloves.

The real reason for not a lot of open hand strikes... "image" I think. You don't see a lot of it in the movies or on TV. It isn't macho.

I probably repeated a bunch of what was already posted. Kudos to you all.

 

Id say our ancestors used their brains and started using weapons to survive because they werent stupid enough to go in empty hand or bare knuckle,I also think its more natural to hammer fist like your holding a stick(which reinforces the fist) rathar than punch,Ive seen this alot in senarios when people are under pressure and poorly trained

 

Agreed, tho I have heard that the hammerfist is more likely for this argument.

 

you mean the teisho uchi? (the palm heel strike?) Thats something I have just been taught. I think it is good. should be used you can smack a mother with that same with kakuto uchi (the bent wrist strike) Was just taught that too.

 

UK to US translation: slapper = slut

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