TECHNIQUES AND
TRAINING METHODS THAT MAY HELP IN BAREKNUCKLE BOXING
Punch with handwraps and padded gloves and you can hit with virtually any part of
the fist without suffering serious damage to your hand.
Some of those same punching techniques are a recipe for
disaster if you try to use them bare-handed.
Some modern boxing punches are almost useless without handwraps:
The best techniques to use when you don’t have your hands wrapped are:
TIPS ON HITTING A PUNCHBAG WITHOUT ANY GLOVES
A
boxer will typically punch the heavy bag while wearing hand wraps and boxing
gloves. However, hitting the bag with bare knuckles has certain advantages.
Punching the bag without wraps or gloves can toughen the skin while
strengthening the bones, muscles and connective tissue of your hands. Following
a few simple techniques will allow you to safely hit the heavy bag with no
gloves.
Step 1 Punch the bag with a "flat" fist. Close your hand so that
the exposed sections of your fingers are in a flat plane, flush to one another.
Both your top row of knuckles and the fingers below should make contact with
the heavy bag at the same time. Keep both hands somewhat loose while you are
positioned in your defensive stance. Tighten your fist just before each punch
strikes the bag.
Step 2 Maintain a straight wrist as you hit the bag.
Ensure that your hand, wrist and forearm are all in a straight line each time
you make contact with a punch. Tighten your arm, shoulder, wrist and hand
muscles just before impact. Hit the bag as if your entire arm and hand are one
solid rod of steel.
Step 3 Hit the bag with sharp, crisp punches. Pull
each punch away from the bag just as quickly as you deliver it, leaving the
energy of your strike within its target. Focus on accuracy and technique, as
opposed to strength.
CONDITIONING YOUR HANDS FOR BARE KNUCKLE BOXING
To be fully prepared for bare-knuckle fighting,
you need tough hands and strong
wrists.
Theoretically, the methods for toughening and
strengthening the hands are supposed to be taught in traditional martial arts
such as Karate and Kung Fu. most schools don’t bother teaching or talking about
this much in class (at least, not with beginners) so, really, this is something
that the serious student needs to take upon themselves.
Iron Hand
Training is homework. Don’t expect to learn it in class. You’ll need
to research and practice this on your own.
Strengthening of the hands and wrists is the
first step. The basic foundation of grip and wrist strength is built simply by
working hard on the basic compound pulling exercises. Pull-ups, Chin-ups, Rows,
Deadlifts, Shrugs and Bicep Curls all work the wrists and grip hard.
Refuse to use lifting hooks or wrist straps on these basic exercises, and
you’ll soon develop all the hand strength you’ll ever need.
The traditional Chinese method of strengthening the grip is to practice thrusting
your hand into a bucket of sand and then squeezing handfuls of sand as hard as
you can. I must admit that I’ve never bothered to try doing this exercise on a
really regular basis, as it seems like it would probably be more trouble than
it’s really worth. I’ve tried a lot of wrist and grip isolation exercises over
the years and they’ve all turned out to be a waste of time. Doing wrist curls,
wrist extensions and high rep squeezing exercises will not give you anything
compared to what you gain by doing chin-ups and moderately heavy
deadlifts.
If you’re already working hard on the basics and you want
more wrist and grip strength, then it might be time to try some
advanced wrist/grip exercises.
The simplest solution is to increase the
gripping challenge on your basic pulling exercises. Try doing your chin-ups on
a rope or towel and choose thick handled bars for your other major
pulls.
For more variety at an intermediate/advanced level, there are
several other types of functional strength exercises you can
try.
Rockclimbing, indoor or outdoor, just add it to
your schedule once or twice a week.
Rope Climbing,
works the grip like nothing else. When I was training up for Commando
Selection, I used to go twice up and down a six meter rope as a warm-up before
my regular lifting session.
Lugging and Loading,
the Farmers Walk is the classic, heavy grip strength exercise. Simply grab
a heavy dumbbell in each hand, stand up straight and try to walk as far as
possible without dropping them. (Work up to progressively heavier weights, not
longer walks.)
Lifting and carrying sandbags and other odd objects will
also do a lot for grip and hand
strength.
Suburi and Sledgehammer
Training. Old school Boxers used to chop wood and dig ditches to build
grip strength and all-over conditioning. Old school martial artists would
multi-task their time by swinging around heavy swords, spears, clubs and
sticks.
There are two ways to use sword/stick training to strengthen
your wrists. One is to practice your basic strikes in the air for reps (harder
than it sounds) the second is to work with impact.
The best target for
impact work is a used truck tire. A punching bag will also work, but I don’t
want you to ruin a good bag unnecessarily. You can practice beating on an old
tire using batons, Escrima sticks, wooden swords or even a
sledgehammer.
Note that all of the above “advanced” methods involve
fairly heavy full-body exercises. This is how you build a monster grip, not by
doing isolation work.
The basic Toughening exercises
for your fists are Knuckle Push-ups and Impact work.
Start with Knuckle
Push-ups first. This will begin thickening the skin over your knuckles and
trains the wrist muscles to act specifically as stabilizers. You won’t build a
lot of wrist strength this way, but it’s an important part of learning how to
use your muscles correctly in a punch.
Carpet is the best surface for
this. If you don’t have a carpet, you can lay a towel down. Doing knuckle
push-ups on wood, tile or concrete is also achievable, but is not really
necessary (nor particularly helpful, in my opinion).
To return to the Chinese sand-bucket training mentioned above, if you wanted to try it as a
supplementary skin-toughening exercise (with, possibly, some small benefit to
grip strength) then maybe it makes more sense in that context.
If you have very soft skin, you may want to try washing or soaking your hands in
rubbing alcohol or mentholated spirits daily for a month or so before beginning
impact work. Once you begin impact work, discontinue the alcohol treatment and
give your skin a proper chance to heal between training sessions.
The traditional Chinese method of impact training for bare handed fighting seems to
involve very high repetitions of fairly light tapping and pounding. The idea is
to start out very light and then build up to progressively heavier pounding on
progressively harder surfaces.
I’m quite sure that the traditional
method will work, but it really seems like a long, slow, boring way of doing
things to me. Also, I don’t like the idea of training myself to hit lightly.
When you practice hitting on hard surfaces, you inevitably end up teaching
yourself to pull your punches somewhat. There’s no way around this, if you were
to really punch a rock with “full force”, you’ll either break the rock or
you’ll break your hand. If nothing gets broken, then it wasn’t really full
force. Don’t kid yourself.
On the other hand, you can practice full
power strikes (almost exactly as you’d use them in a real fight) by working
your punches on the boxing focus pads and modern heavy bag. This is my
preferred method. Let’s call it “Modern Iron Hand Training” (though perhaps
“Leather Knuckle” would be more accurate).
Again, it’s best to do this as
homework on your own and outside of class time. In a group class
setting you can’t control the volume or intensity of work demanded as easily as
you can when working alone. You want to build up slowly and carefully. You
should try to avoid straining your wrists and skinning your knuckles as much as
possible. Unfortunately, some amount of bruising and lost skin does seem to be
an inevitable part of the process, but overdoing it today will always limit
your progress tomorrow. Don’t hurt yourself, it’s not macho and it just slows
down the process.
Note that it is not necessary to do all of
your impact training bare handed. My Kickboxing/MMA coach (who also happens to
be a Kung Fu master) has stated that you should do about 80-90% of your
punching with gloves and wraps on. Only 10-20% needs to be bare-knuckle. The
way I achieve this is by usually wearing gloves in class and then emphasizing
bare-handed strikes on my own time. (Are you starting to understand why I keep
specifying this as homework?)
Start out working single, carefully placed
strikes, bare handed on the heavy bag. Focus pads are more forgiving on the
hands if you have a good training partner, but don’t allow you to
control the situation as much as hitting a bag on your own. If your pad holder
is too aggressive, or doesn’t know what he’s doing, you can actually end up
jamming your hands more often on the pads than the bag.
One element of traditional training that might really come in handy is the use of Dit Da
Jow. In English, we usually call this stuff “Iron Hand Medicine”, though
I’m not sure if that’s a literal translation. What it is, really, is an old
Chinese herbal remedy for bruising, usually applied as a cream or liniment.
Dit Da Jow does not actually do anything to toughen your hands up in
and of itself. What is does is take down any bruising or swelling fairly
quickly, allowing you to train harder and more often.
Some types of
Dit Da Jow work very well, in my experience, though some recipes seem
to work better than others. The good stuff works really well
(almost like magic), much better than any of the modern chemical
alternatives I’ve tried.
The first time I did any really hard
bare-knuckle training on the heavy bag, my hands swelled up and turned purple.
I also tried Dit Da Jow for the first time that night and by morning
the swelling had gone down to normal. Even more interesting, though it took
some time for the discoloration between my knuckles to go away, my hands were
completely pain free the very next morning after I first used Jow (and
have never, ever, bruised up like that again).
Once you’re able to throw
full power singles without hurting yourself, it’s time to start working on
combinations and blasting. Remember, slow and careful is the way to start.
Place each shot carefully. Sprained wrists and broken thumbs will only delay
your progress. Yes, I’m speaking from experience when I say that.
Once
you’ve gotten to the point where you can blast full speed, full power,
continuous punches into the heavy bag, you’ve got all the “Iron Hand”
conditioning you’re ever going to need for bare-knuckle
fighting.
Remember, there are no magic secrets (except, maybe, finding a
really good Jow). Regular strength training builds a foundation for
stability. Regular impact training toughens the skin and teaches you how to
protect your hands and wrists. At the end of the day, you will still be made of
skin, bone and muscle. As a bare-knuckle fighter, you need to be much more
careful about how you throw your punches than a gloved Boxer needs to
be.
Learn to hit accurately and hard.
PROTECTING YOUR HANDS
Won't You Break
Your Hand? by: Keith P. Myers
version
5/29/2001
The Myth of the Palm Strike
It seems to be a fairly
popular notion, especially amongst martial artists with a background in Asian
systems, that a palm strike is less likely to injure your hand and wrist than a
fist strike. The reasons I have heard given for this belief have centered on
"it spreads the force of the strike over a bigger surface area", and "it keeps
your wrist from collapsing on you." It is also a popular belief that striking
with the bare fists in a real fight will hurt you as much as your opponent. But
this seems silly in light of the fact that pugilism was conducted for over two
hundred years with bare knuckles. Fights could last for up to 80 or 90 rounds.
If fists were really that fragile, we would have heard plenty about it in
pugilism's extensive past history. But historical accounts and sports
commentary does NOT abound with reports of broken hands. The fact is that if
you are using the proper alignment and biomechanics for punching, the palm
strike is not any less likely to result in injury to yourself. In fact, it may
be more likely to result in injury. Consider that when you are doing a palm
strike your wrist is already bent to nearly its limit of extension. If your
strike is a bit off center away from the heel of the hand, there is a high
likelihood of hyper-extending your wrist. Consider also that a palm strike
leaves your fingers extended and vulnerable to snagging on things during the
strike. This also increases the danger of hyper-extending your wrist as well as
making the fingers themselves prone to injury. A properly made fist delivered
with the proper biomechanics reduces injuries to the wrist and hand as much as
possible, as we will see below.
Conditioning Methods
Conditioning the hands helps to protect them
from injury. The primary conditioning method used in by-gone days seems to have
simply been to strike things with the bare knuckles….within reason, of course.
Following is a passage from Billy Edwards' "Art of Boxing and Manual of
Training" from 1888:
"Do not put on the gloves for punching the bag,
but use the bare knuckles. If at first they should get a little raw or rubbed,
a few applications of weak tannic acid solution, or rosin, or good strong
pickle out of the salt-pork barrel, will soon make the hands and knuckles
tough."
It should be noted that the bag Edwards was referring to was
only 10 to 20 pounds and covered in a soft leather rather than canvas. The
large 50 to 100 pound heavy bags popular today were simply not used as much in
that era. The larger the bag, the greater the potential for damaging the wrists
and hands. Note also that Edwards uses the terms "at first", and "a few
applications", indicating that use of chemical agents to toughen the hands was
limited and probably not a major factor in long-term conditioning. All of these
chemicals work by causing cross-linking of the collagen fibers in the skin.
While this makes the skin tougher, it also reduces its elasticity.
The main conditioning factor for the hands is simply to strike objects. Light
gloves can be worn at first rather than soaking your hands in tanning solution.
But as you progress you want to go to bare-knuckle striking. A vinyl or leather
covered bag is better than a canvas bag as far as limiting the amount of
abrasions to the knuckles. The theory is that over time the bones of the wrist
and hand will actually become more dense due to the stress of the impact of
punching. Bones react dynamically to stress by thickening and becoming more
dense and therefore more resistant to fracture. A professional athlete's main
limb (a baseball pitcher's arm, a tennis-player's arm, etc.) can be shown to be
different than his or her less used limb. It will have denser bones, thicker
tendons, and larger tendon insertions on the bones. It is this kind of
conditioning effect that we are after. But it isn't a matter of how hard you
hit the bag, but how frequently. These are changes that develop over time. You
don't have to pound the bag to the point of injury when you work out. You are
better served doing lighter, more frequent bag sessions than you are doing
infrequent "all-out" sessions. Train smart.
Biomechanics of Punching:
The old-time pugilism punched with a vertical fist. The horizontal fist only came
into popular use in sport boxing after the introduction of thickly padded
gloves. There was a good reason for this. A vertical fist protects the hand
from injury. Two biomechanical principles are key. First is the idea of
spreading the force of the strike over as large a portion of the surface of the
knuckles as possible. This keeps any one bone of the hand from being subjected
to excessive stress. Second is keeping the wrist aligned in as "squared" a
position as possible so that when the force of your strike is reflected back,
it travels through the center of your wrist and up the middle or "long-axis" of
your forearm. If your wrist is not aligned properly, force will be reflected
off an at angle rather than through the center of your forearm and your wrist
is more likely to bend and suffer damage. Get up from your computer and try
this simple experiment. Face the wall and extend your arm completely straight
out in front at your own chin level. Make a horizontal fist (palm down) and
place it against the wall. Now lean your weight onto your fist so that it is as
flat against the wall as possible. You will find that not only will your wrist
bend upward, it will bend outward as well in order to keep the fist flat
against the wall. Now pivot so that you have a vertical fist (palm inward)
while rolling your elbow inward and do the same thing. Your wrist should stay
"squared" and your fist should be in good contact with the wall at the same
time. The vertical punch keeps the wrist aligned to prevent it from being
injured, and allows force to be spread over the surface of the knuckles as much
as possible to avoid a fracture of the hand. Think of aiming with the "middle"
knuckle of the hand when punching. This is the one that is most in line with
the long-axis of your forearm and so will help you keep your wrist properly
aligned. Also try and keep the elbow of your punching arm rolled inward as if
pointing toward your opposite foot. This not only helps to keep the wrist
aligned, but also aligns your forearm with your shoulder for maximum delivery
of force when punching.
Conclusion:
Training smart will protect
your hands from injury. Regularly working the bag bare-knuckle with a moderate
amount of force is probably all the hand conditioning you will ever need.
Punching with the proper biomechanics reduces the amount of stress suffered by
the bones of the wrist and hand as much as possible. In two hundred years of
bare-knuckle boxing history no one felt the need to shift the emphasis from
fist strikes to palm strikes. Pugilism will work just as well for us as it did
for our forefathers.
Special thanks to Keith Myers for
permission to republish this article. 1/17/09
IRISH BAREKNUCKLE FIGHTING TECHNIQUES
Though often called "Irish bare-knuckle boxing,"
the techniques of this style of boxing were common to most Western boxers
before the sport was organized around gloved boxing in the late 19th century.
Bare-knuckle boxing is similar to gloved boxing -- so much so that it was Irish
bare-knuckler John L. Sullivan who won the first heavyweight title -- but
requires some different applications to protect the hands and wrists of a
fighter.
Irish bare-knuckle boxing uses the same bread-and-butter
punches as gloved boxing: jabs, straight punches, crosses, hooks and upper
cuts. Also as in gloved boxing, punches in combination are more common than
single punches thrown on their own, but bare-knuckle punches are even more
tight and controlled than those of a skilled gloved boxer. Without gloves and
wraps, a poorly thrown punch is as likely to hurt the puncher as the
punchee.
, an Irish bare-knuckle boxer relies more on his ability to dodge
and assume an advantageous position than does a gloved boxer. Although skills
practice is important toward this end, cardiovascular conditioning is what
keeps a boxer mobile during the later rounds of a fight. Though not a
"technique" in the sense of an applied fighting tactic, before-match
preparation is as important an Irish bare-knuckle boxing tool as anything you
apply in the ring.
The head is a good target because it's important, and
punches to the head can disorient or knock out an opponent. However, the head
is a risky target because of the strong bones close to the skin surface, which
can break the knuckles of an unprotected hand. Irish bare-knuckle boxers are
prone to punch softer targets, especially arms and torso. This keeps their
hands safe, and a body blow is more likely to cause harm when the punching hand
isn't wrapped in a leather or vinyl pillow.
"Fighting Dirty"
"Bare-knuckle boxing" also can refer to any of several varieties of unlicensed
fight sport competitions. Some of these competitions conform to regular boxing
rules, while others are loosely refereed slug fests. If you're involved in
Irish bare-knuckle boxing, it can pay to train in techniques from wrestling,
jujitsu and military combatives. Some matches might permit grappling, gouging
and even biting or strikes to the eyes.
CHECK OUT THE LINK BELOW FOR
TECHNIQUES OF WING CHUN
http://www.knoxwingchun.com/norm/tech/tech.htm
TRAINING METHODS THAT MAY HELP IN BAREKNUCKLE BOXING
Punch with handwraps and padded gloves and you can hit with virtually any part of
the fist without suffering serious damage to your hand.
Some of those same punching techniques are a recipe for
disaster if you try to use them bare-handed.
Some modern boxing punches are almost useless without handwraps:
The best techniques to use when you don’t have your hands wrapped are:
- Probing jabs – don’t try to
take his head off because you can injure yourself if you hit the hardest parts
of his skull; just try to open him up with your jab.
- Straight right – Old
prizefighters prefered to throw this to the solar plexus instead of the face;
again, because they wanted to protect their hands.
- Short-range hooks – If your
elbow is bent greater than 90 degress, it’s not a short-range hook. The beauty
of this punch is that it’s so fast that you can be certain you’re going to hit
what you’re aiming at (his chin).
- Other strikes – Old-time
fighters used many other strikes instead of just punches; most of
these are still used by Karate people and other martial artists who practice
and fight without gloves.
TIPS ON HITTING A PUNCHBAG WITHOUT ANY GLOVES
A
boxer will typically punch the heavy bag while wearing hand wraps and boxing
gloves. However, hitting the bag with bare knuckles has certain advantages.
Punching the bag without wraps or gloves can toughen the skin while
strengthening the bones, muscles and connective tissue of your hands. Following
a few simple techniques will allow you to safely hit the heavy bag with no
gloves.
Step 1 Punch the bag with a "flat" fist. Close your hand so that
the exposed sections of your fingers are in a flat plane, flush to one another.
Both your top row of knuckles and the fingers below should make contact with
the heavy bag at the same time. Keep both hands somewhat loose while you are
positioned in your defensive stance. Tighten your fist just before each punch
strikes the bag.
Step 2 Maintain a straight wrist as you hit the bag.
Ensure that your hand, wrist and forearm are all in a straight line each time
you make contact with a punch. Tighten your arm, shoulder, wrist and hand
muscles just before impact. Hit the bag as if your entire arm and hand are one
solid rod of steel.
Step 3 Hit the bag with sharp, crisp punches. Pull
each punch away from the bag just as quickly as you deliver it, leaving the
energy of your strike within its target. Focus on accuracy and technique, as
opposed to strength.
- Monitor the condition of your hands. If your break the skin on your
knuckles, avoid hitting the bag for several days. Pay attention to any feelings
that may indicate bruising or fracture.
CONDITIONING YOUR HANDS FOR BARE KNUCKLE BOXING
To be fully prepared for bare-knuckle fighting,
you need tough hands and strong
wrists.
Theoretically, the methods for toughening and
strengthening the hands are supposed to be taught in traditional martial arts
such as Karate and Kung Fu. most schools don’t bother teaching or talking about
this much in class (at least, not with beginners) so, really, this is something
that the serious student needs to take upon themselves.
Iron Hand
Training is homework. Don’t expect to learn it in class. You’ll need
to research and practice this on your own.
Strengthening of the hands and wrists is the
first step. The basic foundation of grip and wrist strength is built simply by
working hard on the basic compound pulling exercises. Pull-ups, Chin-ups, Rows,
Deadlifts, Shrugs and Bicep Curls all work the wrists and grip hard.
Refuse to use lifting hooks or wrist straps on these basic exercises, and
you’ll soon develop all the hand strength you’ll ever need.
The traditional Chinese method of strengthening the grip is to practice thrusting
your hand into a bucket of sand and then squeezing handfuls of sand as hard as
you can. I must admit that I’ve never bothered to try doing this exercise on a
really regular basis, as it seems like it would probably be more trouble than
it’s really worth. I’ve tried a lot of wrist and grip isolation exercises over
the years and they’ve all turned out to be a waste of time. Doing wrist curls,
wrist extensions and high rep squeezing exercises will not give you anything
compared to what you gain by doing chin-ups and moderately heavy
deadlifts.
If you’re already working hard on the basics and you want
more wrist and grip strength, then it might be time to try some
advanced wrist/grip exercises.
The simplest solution is to increase the
gripping challenge on your basic pulling exercises. Try doing your chin-ups on
a rope or towel and choose thick handled bars for your other major
pulls.
For more variety at an intermediate/advanced level, there are
several other types of functional strength exercises you can
try.
Rockclimbing, indoor or outdoor, just add it to
your schedule once or twice a week.
Rope Climbing,
works the grip like nothing else. When I was training up for Commando
Selection, I used to go twice up and down a six meter rope as a warm-up before
my regular lifting session.
Lugging and Loading,
the Farmers Walk is the classic, heavy grip strength exercise. Simply grab
a heavy dumbbell in each hand, stand up straight and try to walk as far as
possible without dropping them. (Work up to progressively heavier weights, not
longer walks.)
Lifting and carrying sandbags and other odd objects will
also do a lot for grip and hand
strength.
Suburi and Sledgehammer
Training. Old school Boxers used to chop wood and dig ditches to build
grip strength and all-over conditioning. Old school martial artists would
multi-task their time by swinging around heavy swords, spears, clubs and
sticks.
There are two ways to use sword/stick training to strengthen
your wrists. One is to practice your basic strikes in the air for reps (harder
than it sounds) the second is to work with impact.
The best target for
impact work is a used truck tire. A punching bag will also work, but I don’t
want you to ruin a good bag unnecessarily. You can practice beating on an old
tire using batons, Escrima sticks, wooden swords or even a
sledgehammer.
Note that all of the above “advanced” methods involve
fairly heavy full-body exercises. This is how you build a monster grip, not by
doing isolation work.
The basic Toughening exercises
for your fists are Knuckle Push-ups and Impact work.
Start with Knuckle
Push-ups first. This will begin thickening the skin over your knuckles and
trains the wrist muscles to act specifically as stabilizers. You won’t build a
lot of wrist strength this way, but it’s an important part of learning how to
use your muscles correctly in a punch.
Carpet is the best surface for
this. If you don’t have a carpet, you can lay a towel down. Doing knuckle
push-ups on wood, tile or concrete is also achievable, but is not really
necessary (nor particularly helpful, in my opinion).
To return to the Chinese sand-bucket training mentioned above, if you wanted to try it as a
supplementary skin-toughening exercise (with, possibly, some small benefit to
grip strength) then maybe it makes more sense in that context.
If you have very soft skin, you may want to try washing or soaking your hands in
rubbing alcohol or mentholated spirits daily for a month or so before beginning
impact work. Once you begin impact work, discontinue the alcohol treatment and
give your skin a proper chance to heal between training sessions.
The traditional Chinese method of impact training for bare handed fighting seems to
involve very high repetitions of fairly light tapping and pounding. The idea is
to start out very light and then build up to progressively heavier pounding on
progressively harder surfaces.
I’m quite sure that the traditional
method will work, but it really seems like a long, slow, boring way of doing
things to me. Also, I don’t like the idea of training myself to hit lightly.
When you practice hitting on hard surfaces, you inevitably end up teaching
yourself to pull your punches somewhat. There’s no way around this, if you were
to really punch a rock with “full force”, you’ll either break the rock or
you’ll break your hand. If nothing gets broken, then it wasn’t really full
force. Don’t kid yourself.
On the other hand, you can practice full
power strikes (almost exactly as you’d use them in a real fight) by working
your punches on the boxing focus pads and modern heavy bag. This is my
preferred method. Let’s call it “Modern Iron Hand Training” (though perhaps
“Leather Knuckle” would be more accurate).
Again, it’s best to do this as
homework on your own and outside of class time. In a group class
setting you can’t control the volume or intensity of work demanded as easily as
you can when working alone. You want to build up slowly and carefully. You
should try to avoid straining your wrists and skinning your knuckles as much as
possible. Unfortunately, some amount of bruising and lost skin does seem to be
an inevitable part of the process, but overdoing it today will always limit
your progress tomorrow. Don’t hurt yourself, it’s not macho and it just slows
down the process.
Note that it is not necessary to do all of
your impact training bare handed. My Kickboxing/MMA coach (who also happens to
be a Kung Fu master) has stated that you should do about 80-90% of your
punching with gloves and wraps on. Only 10-20% needs to be bare-knuckle. The
way I achieve this is by usually wearing gloves in class and then emphasizing
bare-handed strikes on my own time. (Are you starting to understand why I keep
specifying this as homework?)
Start out working single, carefully placed
strikes, bare handed on the heavy bag. Focus pads are more forgiving on the
hands if you have a good training partner, but don’t allow you to
control the situation as much as hitting a bag on your own. If your pad holder
is too aggressive, or doesn’t know what he’s doing, you can actually end up
jamming your hands more often on the pads than the bag.
One element of traditional training that might really come in handy is the use of Dit Da
Jow. In English, we usually call this stuff “Iron Hand Medicine”, though
I’m not sure if that’s a literal translation. What it is, really, is an old
Chinese herbal remedy for bruising, usually applied as a cream or liniment.
Dit Da Jow does not actually do anything to toughen your hands up in
and of itself. What is does is take down any bruising or swelling fairly
quickly, allowing you to train harder and more often.
Some types of
Dit Da Jow work very well, in my experience, though some recipes seem
to work better than others. The good stuff works really well
(almost like magic), much better than any of the modern chemical
alternatives I’ve tried.
The first time I did any really hard
bare-knuckle training on the heavy bag, my hands swelled up and turned purple.
I also tried Dit Da Jow for the first time that night and by morning
the swelling had gone down to normal. Even more interesting, though it took
some time for the discoloration between my knuckles to go away, my hands were
completely pain free the very next morning after I first used Jow (and
have never, ever, bruised up like that again).
Once you’re able to throw
full power singles without hurting yourself, it’s time to start working on
combinations and blasting. Remember, slow and careful is the way to start.
Place each shot carefully. Sprained wrists and broken thumbs will only delay
your progress. Yes, I’m speaking from experience when I say that.
Once
you’ve gotten to the point where you can blast full speed, full power,
continuous punches into the heavy bag, you’ve got all the “Iron Hand”
conditioning you’re ever going to need for bare-knuckle
fighting.
Remember, there are no magic secrets (except, maybe, finding a
really good Jow). Regular strength training builds a foundation for
stability. Regular impact training toughens the skin and teaches you how to
protect your hands and wrists. At the end of the day, you will still be made of
skin, bone and muscle. As a bare-knuckle fighter, you need to be much more
careful about how you throw your punches than a gloved Boxer needs to
be.
Learn to hit accurately and hard.
PROTECTING YOUR HANDS
Won't You Break
Your Hand? by: Keith P. Myers
version
5/29/2001
The Myth of the Palm Strike
It seems to be a fairly
popular notion, especially amongst martial artists with a background in Asian
systems, that a palm strike is less likely to injure your hand and wrist than a
fist strike. The reasons I have heard given for this belief have centered on
"it spreads the force of the strike over a bigger surface area", and "it keeps
your wrist from collapsing on you." It is also a popular belief that striking
with the bare fists in a real fight will hurt you as much as your opponent. But
this seems silly in light of the fact that pugilism was conducted for over two
hundred years with bare knuckles. Fights could last for up to 80 or 90 rounds.
If fists were really that fragile, we would have heard plenty about it in
pugilism's extensive past history. But historical accounts and sports
commentary does NOT abound with reports of broken hands. The fact is that if
you are using the proper alignment and biomechanics for punching, the palm
strike is not any less likely to result in injury to yourself. In fact, it may
be more likely to result in injury. Consider that when you are doing a palm
strike your wrist is already bent to nearly its limit of extension. If your
strike is a bit off center away from the heel of the hand, there is a high
likelihood of hyper-extending your wrist. Consider also that a palm strike
leaves your fingers extended and vulnerable to snagging on things during the
strike. This also increases the danger of hyper-extending your wrist as well as
making the fingers themselves prone to injury. A properly made fist delivered
with the proper biomechanics reduces injuries to the wrist and hand as much as
possible, as we will see below.
Conditioning Methods
Conditioning the hands helps to protect them
from injury. The primary conditioning method used in by-gone days seems to have
simply been to strike things with the bare knuckles….within reason, of course.
Following is a passage from Billy Edwards' "Art of Boxing and Manual of
Training" from 1888:
"Do not put on the gloves for punching the bag,
but use the bare knuckles. If at first they should get a little raw or rubbed,
a few applications of weak tannic acid solution, or rosin, or good strong
pickle out of the salt-pork barrel, will soon make the hands and knuckles
tough."
It should be noted that the bag Edwards was referring to was
only 10 to 20 pounds and covered in a soft leather rather than canvas. The
large 50 to 100 pound heavy bags popular today were simply not used as much in
that era. The larger the bag, the greater the potential for damaging the wrists
and hands. Note also that Edwards uses the terms "at first", and "a few
applications", indicating that use of chemical agents to toughen the hands was
limited and probably not a major factor in long-term conditioning. All of these
chemicals work by causing cross-linking of the collagen fibers in the skin.
While this makes the skin tougher, it also reduces its elasticity.
The main conditioning factor for the hands is simply to strike objects. Light
gloves can be worn at first rather than soaking your hands in tanning solution.
But as you progress you want to go to bare-knuckle striking. A vinyl or leather
covered bag is better than a canvas bag as far as limiting the amount of
abrasions to the knuckles. The theory is that over time the bones of the wrist
and hand will actually become more dense due to the stress of the impact of
punching. Bones react dynamically to stress by thickening and becoming more
dense and therefore more resistant to fracture. A professional athlete's main
limb (a baseball pitcher's arm, a tennis-player's arm, etc.) can be shown to be
different than his or her less used limb. It will have denser bones, thicker
tendons, and larger tendon insertions on the bones. It is this kind of
conditioning effect that we are after. But it isn't a matter of how hard you
hit the bag, but how frequently. These are changes that develop over time. You
don't have to pound the bag to the point of injury when you work out. You are
better served doing lighter, more frequent bag sessions than you are doing
infrequent "all-out" sessions. Train smart.
Biomechanics of Punching:
The old-time pugilism punched with a vertical fist. The horizontal fist only came
into popular use in sport boxing after the introduction of thickly padded
gloves. There was a good reason for this. A vertical fist protects the hand
from injury. Two biomechanical principles are key. First is the idea of
spreading the force of the strike over as large a portion of the surface of the
knuckles as possible. This keeps any one bone of the hand from being subjected
to excessive stress. Second is keeping the wrist aligned in as "squared" a
position as possible so that when the force of your strike is reflected back,
it travels through the center of your wrist and up the middle or "long-axis" of
your forearm. If your wrist is not aligned properly, force will be reflected
off an at angle rather than through the center of your forearm and your wrist
is more likely to bend and suffer damage. Get up from your computer and try
this simple experiment. Face the wall and extend your arm completely straight
out in front at your own chin level. Make a horizontal fist (palm down) and
place it against the wall. Now lean your weight onto your fist so that it is as
flat against the wall as possible. You will find that not only will your wrist
bend upward, it will bend outward as well in order to keep the fist flat
against the wall. Now pivot so that you have a vertical fist (palm inward)
while rolling your elbow inward and do the same thing. Your wrist should stay
"squared" and your fist should be in good contact with the wall at the same
time. The vertical punch keeps the wrist aligned to prevent it from being
injured, and allows force to be spread over the surface of the knuckles as much
as possible to avoid a fracture of the hand. Think of aiming with the "middle"
knuckle of the hand when punching. This is the one that is most in line with
the long-axis of your forearm and so will help you keep your wrist properly
aligned. Also try and keep the elbow of your punching arm rolled inward as if
pointing toward your opposite foot. This not only helps to keep the wrist
aligned, but also aligns your forearm with your shoulder for maximum delivery
of force when punching.
Conclusion:
Training smart will protect
your hands from injury. Regularly working the bag bare-knuckle with a moderate
amount of force is probably all the hand conditioning you will ever need.
Punching with the proper biomechanics reduces the amount of stress suffered by
the bones of the wrist and hand as much as possible. In two hundred years of
bare-knuckle boxing history no one felt the need to shift the emphasis from
fist strikes to palm strikes. Pugilism will work just as well for us as it did
for our forefathers.
Special thanks to Keith Myers for
permission to republish this article. 1/17/09
IRISH BAREKNUCKLE FIGHTING TECHNIQUES
Though often called "Irish bare-knuckle boxing,"
the techniques of this style of boxing were common to most Western boxers
before the sport was organized around gloved boxing in the late 19th century.
Bare-knuckle boxing is similar to gloved boxing -- so much so that it was Irish
bare-knuckler John L. Sullivan who won the first heavyweight title -- but
requires some different applications to protect the hands and wrists of a
fighter.
Irish bare-knuckle boxing uses the same bread-and-butter
punches as gloved boxing: jabs, straight punches, crosses, hooks and upper
cuts. Also as in gloved boxing, punches in combination are more common than
single punches thrown on their own, but bare-knuckle punches are even more
tight and controlled than those of a skilled gloved boxer. Without gloves and
wraps, a poorly thrown punch is as likely to hurt the puncher as the
punchee.
, an Irish bare-knuckle boxer relies more on his ability to dodge
and assume an advantageous position than does a gloved boxer. Although skills
practice is important toward this end, cardiovascular conditioning is what
keeps a boxer mobile during the later rounds of a fight. Though not a
"technique" in the sense of an applied fighting tactic, before-match
preparation is as important an Irish bare-knuckle boxing tool as anything you
apply in the ring.
The head is a good target because it's important, and
punches to the head can disorient or knock out an opponent. However, the head
is a risky target because of the strong bones close to the skin surface, which
can break the knuckles of an unprotected hand. Irish bare-knuckle boxers are
prone to punch softer targets, especially arms and torso. This keeps their
hands safe, and a body blow is more likely to cause harm when the punching hand
isn't wrapped in a leather or vinyl pillow.
"Fighting Dirty"
"Bare-knuckle boxing" also can refer to any of several varieties of unlicensed
fight sport competitions. Some of these competitions conform to regular boxing
rules, while others are loosely refereed slug fests. If you're involved in
Irish bare-knuckle boxing, it can pay to train in techniques from wrestling,
jujitsu and military combatives. Some matches might permit grappling, gouging
and even biting or strikes to the eyes.
CHECK OUT THE LINK BELOW FOR
TECHNIQUES OF WING CHUN
http://www.knoxwingchun.com/norm/tech/tech.htm