303 - "...Never hit softly": Part six
How to condition the hands for powerful bareknuckle punching continues...
Welcome to the sixth part of the ongoing “Never hit softly” series.
These are articles for trainees on the subject of striking with bare knuckles and the series so far has been concerned with conditioning the hands for this purpose using simple methods I have collected and used myself over the years from many sources.
The previous parts can be found here:
Conditioning without tears…
A couple of people have asked: “What about hitting hard surfaces?”
Short answer: Don’t
Some martial arts proponents may condone it and carry on about it but that’s their business. You need your hands always conditioned but usable for the high likelihood that you will be working and earning a living as well as the less likely event that you might need to defend yourself. You don’t need them damaged from training, that’s the whole point.
You are punching with a hard weapon – the closed fist – to areas on human beings that are considered soft: jaw, nose, solar plexus etc.
Soft weapons like the palm can be used against the skull for example, with a highly reduced chance of serious injury and that is why they are advocated. Notice I say reduced? Nothing is 100%, you’re just trying to give yourself the best odds in a situation with unknown variables.
A lot of the old stories of senseis hitting wood etc were probably trained on fatwood rather than hard trees.
Don’t do it!
It will destroy rather than build the hands and makes little sense in terms of your long (or short) term health.
So, hard target – soft weapon / soft target – hard weapon as a rule.
I’ll look at heavy bags and other training aids later. These ideas that follow are designed to cover several bases at once and be viable where there is no equipment.
They are a great starting point for beginners and a solid maintenance method for those who are advanced to mix in as they choose.
Five methods for preparing and maintaining the hands and forearms for the impact of punching.
The last section introduced and worked with the concept of the elbows being soft and