No More Head Punches

We always taught students not to punch to the head during self-defense training. Ennå, we did teach students to punch to head height on pads, when teaching striking. After watching some of mixed martial arts legend Bas Rutten’s fights from Pancrase, it struck me what we were doing wrong.

Pancrase banned closed fists to the head. Rutten, an accomplished muay thai and karate striker, used a combination of kicks and open hand strikes to knock out his opponents. Rutten hit one opponent with a slap-palm strike combination which left him unconscious for almost a minute.

To align our self-defense philosophy with our striking, I should have changed the Boxing 5 pad drill to a drill with open hands. The palm strike is one of the highest percentage self-defense hand techniques. Because the two bones in your forearm are in alignment, the palm strike delivers powerful, debilitating blows. You are not likely to be injured while using the technique either.

You can employ open hand strikes much more safely. When striking with a fist, you should aim at the body of the attcker where the danger of breaking a hand is much more remote. l be adjusting our pad drills to reflect this reality.

We will also adjust our personal sparring to implement these changes. With boxing head gear, we can safely use open hands at 50 percent power to the head. We will still use closed fists to the body. We kick low for the most part.

Over the next year, I am organizing our ranking system and class curriculum to mirror our below Black Rank requirements. At Black Rank, students start to learn a speciality and focus on developing as an instructor.

Until next time, keep kicking low for the best effect.

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