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One of my students was recently involved in an altercation where he was verbally abused by a young street kid and responded with some choice words of his own - never a smart idea in the early hours of the morning in a back alley. Anyway, it turned out the kid was being ‘babysat' by his uncle, who was a bouncer stationed in a doorway nearby. ‘Uncle' responded by coming from behind, grabbing my student by the shoulder with the left hand and pulling him around while throwing a right-hand punch to his head. My student received a cut above his right eye, requiring four or five stitches. Uncle, however, broke his hand. He might have intended to strike my student's jaw, but the shoulder pull and body turn ensured the head target would be moving, thus making the landing place of the punch a little unpredictable.
The subject of whether to strike with a closed or open fist has been covered in other forums at other times, but it is worth a revisit. Closed-fist punching is a core technique of many systems and it is routinely taught, sometimes with little or no consideration of its appropriateness for use outside the gym.
On balance, you could probably make a reasonable case for deleting it from the syllabus, at least for self-defence oriented systems. I'm not suggesting that, but I do think from the self-defence perspective it is over-emphasised, a result of the background influence of systems such as karate, boxing and Muay Thai, the latter of which I happen to train in.
Using closed-fist striking as a street technique does have many drawbacks. First up, of course, are the structural issues with the hand. The metacarpal bones in the hand are small and they, along with the knuckles and wrist, must bear significant loads. Beginners with unconditioned hands risk structural injury. The hands need to be conditioned by years of striking firm surfaces such as heavy bags. But even seasoned fighters, who normally have hands that are protected by wraps and gloves, take that risk.
You might recall that famous incident between Mike Tyson and Mitch Green in Harlem, New York, in 1988. Green, who was also a boxer, had heard that Tyson was in the area and went to track him down in hopes of securing a rematch. A scuffle ensued and Green allegedly threw a punch and Tyson responded with a straight right to Green's nose, requiring five stitches. Tyson broke his hand in the incident and had to postpone his fight with Frank Bruno.
The central problem here is that the head is the favoured target when punching and of course the head is predominantly bone. To compound that problem, when (straight) striking from the front, the targets are the point of the jaw and the nose, and between these is the mouth - or more precisely, two rows of teeth. Without due care, the end score is usually: Head - 1, Hand - 0. I've seen a number of instances of mangled hands and in one or two instances, fists with a tooth embedded in them. Hospital treatment for blood infections is the end result. That is compounded by a second structural problem with the skin. When the hand is closed into a fist, the skin is stretched taut across the knuckles and the back of the hand where the skin is relatively thin. It is thus more readily broken and, in the case of striking the mouth of an opponent, there is the risk of the transfer of body fluid and all that goes with that, with or without embedded teeth.
And then there is the visual impression given to spectators or security cameras of someone striking another with a closed fist as opposed to an open-handed strike. A closed-fist scenario played out in a court situation will almost always carry the impression of intent to cause harm and make a legal defence of self-defence just that much harder. All other things being equal, open-handed strikes, as a sweeping generalisation, will ‘always look better on camera'.
Closed-fist strikes can be effective, but my point is they carry a risk and this tends to be glossed over. That risk is significantly high for the less experienced student. But it is a tough one. It's natural for someone who is angry to clench their fists as part of the physiological byproduct of anger. But that can lead to self-inflicted harm - or rather, self-destruction as opposed to self-defence.
Graham Kuerschner is a 45-year veteran of the martial arts and can be contacted through his website at www.sdtactics.com.au
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