Keep in mind that while I consider myself a scholar of the Martial Arts, I'm far from a historian.
My thought: different arts aren't really defined by what they include, but by "what they take away." To expound on this thought, what is fighting? Hochheim states it's everything from ICBMs, tactical/battlefield nukes, B-57s, gunships and artillery, machine guns, rifles, pistols, clubs, knives, then empty hand. Notice how much there is there? You can further take the subset of combat, empty hand, and include:
Strikes:
head butting
biting
shoulder thrusts
elbows
forearms
open-hand strikes
fists
hip checks
knees
all the various kicks
Grappling:
standing grappling
ground grappling
throws
traps
locks/breaks
takedowns, trips, sweeps, etc.
There's more, you're welcome to add to that list via comments, but the idea is the same. What differentiates styles is what they take away from that list.
Judo, for example, started out as what? Jujitsu. So did Aikido. What differentiates them from their ancestors? What they took away - much of the vicious striking and some of the grappling techniques were refined/modified.
The same is true of every other art, including karate (I always use lower-case to denote the generic Okinawan and Japanese striking arts and their derivatives, including TKD). What's taken away, in general, are many of the items on the lower list of grappling. Not all. Stylistically, some will include more or less than others on each list, but the formula is more or less correct.
Just a thought...
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Nonsense and Punching
Ordinarily, I make it a point to politely ignore Black Belt Magazine columnist Jim Wagner, the self-proclaimed, young inventor of reality fighting in the late 1990s, oh, say 1997 (my God, where would we all be without him?). But, this last issue I read his remarks on "Closed Fist vs. Open Hand, and I simply could not bite my lip yet again.
Former Sky Marshal Wagner makes his main points:
- "Men tend to close their fist under pressure."
- "Advocates of the open hand techniques say that a person runs a higher risk of breaking his hand if he strikes an opponent with a closed fist. This is nonsense."
- "When I hit someone with my fist, the last thing I worry about is injury. I can get it fixed later at the hospital." (if its such nonsense, why even mention a trip to the hospital?)
To suggest that humans are genetically predisposed to fighting with balled-up fists is one thing, but to say that we therefore should be stuck fighting with fists is something else. Wouldn't this "punching gene" also mean we should also de-emphasize grabbing and grappling and have natural troubles striking with eye attacks, hammer fists, forearms and elbows? Somehow, with a little very training, people do these other things.
The open palm strike or palm heel strike was placed into military and police doctrines for a some good reason. Whenever the closed fist accidentally hits the ducking forehead/skull, there is an increased chance for injuries. Even some classical oriental systems prefer strikes with the so-called "knife" edge of the hand. Otherwise they spend decades "toughening" the fist to counter-attack the harsh reality of injuries.
Ducking skulls? The human head has a predisposition to duck down versus incoming attacks. The so-called slap or palm heel was emphasized to keep the soldiers from debilitating or incapacitating their hands in the middle of a fight for their life. One such modern, recognized source for the heel palm strike is the British military during World War II. The program called for restricting punches to the jaw-line and below to avoid striking the dense, ducking, bobbing and weaving bowling ball called the skull.
All this in an effort to avoid the several levels of hand injuries which may result:
- First: your hand could be injured and still function. This has happened to me, and many others I know.
- Second: your hand could be injured and somewhat incapacitated. This also has happened to me, and others I know. You can still use your hand somewhat but it becomes swollen and only partially dexterous. In the middle of a fight, I could not grab the suspect in any way. Nor cuff him. My hand became a dull, heavy slab. Plus, a second or third punch with this partially wounded fist might finish your hand.
- And lastly: you may suffer an injury with such electric pain that it shuts the fighter right down. This has not happened to me but has happened to co-workers right before my eyes, as well as numerous assault cases I have worked on.
In three decades of police work, I can hardly think of a time, I didn't have a friend or complainant with a hand cast from punching someone.
In terms of sport fighting, it is not uncommon for NHB, UFC rage-cagers, even when wearing some thin gloves and wraps, to damage their hands on the ocular cavity, forehead and skull of an opponent. Mounted ground-pounders sometimes break their hands punching heads pinned on the ground. Least we forget that Mike Tyson punched a mugger one night and broke his hand. Sadly some of the biggest names in modern martial arts have broken their hands doing their vertical fist battle punches and closed fist strikes in real encounters, against the cursed ducking skull.
The U.S. Department of Justice advises us that we (citizens and police) are attacked by two or more people, some 40% of all encounters. In dissecting this information, the stat holds up better versus the police, but could be even worse for citizens. Incapacitating your hand on the skull of one opponent could leave you in serious danger when in the midst of finishing off one person, and then fighting the others. Plus and even worse, some 40% of the time, the opponent is armed with an edged weapon or firearms. Common sense strategy calls for fully functional hands for as long as possible, to deal with these and other problems, such as disarming, grappling, handcuffing, operating your weapons, telephones and radio equipment. It is under these real-world problems that the palm-heel strikes were introduced.
I want to make two last notes; you can develop a wicked, wicked palm heel strike and/or slap with little work. Plus/secondly, keep in mind there are Neanderthal fighters out there with thick fists the size and density of sledgehammers. Instructors refusing to recognize the frailties of the hand, often use these cavemen as anecdotal examples to maintain the their status quo;
"Billy hits people in the skull!"
Well…Billy ain't you. Nor is he most of the student population. These monster hands can punch titanium and laugh out loud. Don't let them teach you their way of fighting and punching. If they can do it, doesn't mean you can do it. However, should you, as a professional instructor get such a caveman in your class? Maximize his uniqueness and let him punch away as his personal, primary tool. It is hard to imagine that Hulk Hogan would break his hand punching anywhere on Pee-Wee Herman. But this is an extreme example.
just today I met a black belt who threw a hook punch at a guy's head in a fight. The guy reflexively ducked his head sideways. The punch glanced off the skull, separating the black belt's pinky knuckle from the hand, split to the wrist. His hand was ruined for the rest of the fight. He said it was crippling pain and to this day he cannot put his fingers together.
Nothing is perfect, and nothing is imperfect. Everything is situational and positional. The smarter systems have embraced this reality advice "hit something hard with something soft. Hit something soft with something hard." I don't think anyone suggests that fighters should give up punching completely. I also don't think reality fighting systems should suggest you should punch anywhere, all the time as if you were a gloved boxer, and then report to the hospital later. You might not make it to the hospital. Strategic survival fighting also means surviving the fight, with as many body parts intact as possible, to keep on fighting.
Courtesy of www.hockscqc.com
Former Sky Marshal Wagner makes his main points:
- "Men tend to close their fist under pressure."
- "Advocates of the open hand techniques say that a person runs a higher risk of breaking his hand if he strikes an opponent with a closed fist. This is nonsense."
- "When I hit someone with my fist, the last thing I worry about is injury. I can get it fixed later at the hospital." (if its such nonsense, why even mention a trip to the hospital?)
To suggest that humans are genetically predisposed to fighting with balled-up fists is one thing, but to say that we therefore should be stuck fighting with fists is something else. Wouldn't this "punching gene" also mean we should also de-emphasize grabbing and grappling and have natural troubles striking with eye attacks, hammer fists, forearms and elbows? Somehow, with a little very training, people do these other things.
The open palm strike or palm heel strike was placed into military and police doctrines for a some good reason. Whenever the closed fist accidentally hits the ducking forehead/skull, there is an increased chance for injuries. Even some classical oriental systems prefer strikes with the so-called "knife" edge of the hand. Otherwise they spend decades "toughening" the fist to counter-attack the harsh reality of injuries.
Ducking skulls? The human head has a predisposition to duck down versus incoming attacks. The so-called slap or palm heel was emphasized to keep the soldiers from debilitating or incapacitating their hands in the middle of a fight for their life. One such modern, recognized source for the heel palm strike is the British military during World War II. The program called for restricting punches to the jaw-line and below to avoid striking the dense, ducking, bobbing and weaving bowling ball called the skull.
All this in an effort to avoid the several levels of hand injuries which may result:
- First: your hand could be injured and still function. This has happened to me, and many others I know.
- Second: your hand could be injured and somewhat incapacitated. This also has happened to me, and others I know. You can still use your hand somewhat but it becomes swollen and only partially dexterous. In the middle of a fight, I could not grab the suspect in any way. Nor cuff him. My hand became a dull, heavy slab. Plus, a second or third punch with this partially wounded fist might finish your hand.
- And lastly: you may suffer an injury with such electric pain that it shuts the fighter right down. This has not happened to me but has happened to co-workers right before my eyes, as well as numerous assault cases I have worked on.
In three decades of police work, I can hardly think of a time, I didn't have a friend or complainant with a hand cast from punching someone.
In terms of sport fighting, it is not uncommon for NHB, UFC rage-cagers, even when wearing some thin gloves and wraps, to damage their hands on the ocular cavity, forehead and skull of an opponent. Mounted ground-pounders sometimes break their hands punching heads pinned on the ground. Least we forget that Mike Tyson punched a mugger one night and broke his hand. Sadly some of the biggest names in modern martial arts have broken their hands doing their vertical fist battle punches and closed fist strikes in real encounters, against the cursed ducking skull.
The U.S. Department of Justice advises us that we (citizens and police) are attacked by two or more people, some 40% of all encounters. In dissecting this information, the stat holds up better versus the police, but could be even worse for citizens. Incapacitating your hand on the skull of one opponent could leave you in serious danger when in the midst of finishing off one person, and then fighting the others. Plus and even worse, some 40% of the time, the opponent is armed with an edged weapon or firearms. Common sense strategy calls for fully functional hands for as long as possible, to deal with these and other problems, such as disarming, grappling, handcuffing, operating your weapons, telephones and radio equipment. It is under these real-world problems that the palm-heel strikes were introduced.
I want to make two last notes; you can develop a wicked, wicked palm heel strike and/or slap with little work. Plus/secondly, keep in mind there are Neanderthal fighters out there with thick fists the size and density of sledgehammers. Instructors refusing to recognize the frailties of the hand, often use these cavemen as anecdotal examples to maintain the their status quo;
"Billy hits people in the skull!"
Well…Billy ain't you. Nor is he most of the student population. These monster hands can punch titanium and laugh out loud. Don't let them teach you their way of fighting and punching. If they can do it, doesn't mean you can do it. However, should you, as a professional instructor get such a caveman in your class? Maximize his uniqueness and let him punch away as his personal, primary tool. It is hard to imagine that Hulk Hogan would break his hand punching anywhere on Pee-Wee Herman. But this is an extreme example.
just today I met a black belt who threw a hook punch at a guy's head in a fight. The guy reflexively ducked his head sideways. The punch glanced off the skull, separating the black belt's pinky knuckle from the hand, split to the wrist. His hand was ruined for the rest of the fight. He said it was crippling pain and to this day he cannot put his fingers together.
Nothing is perfect, and nothing is imperfect. Everything is situational and positional. The smarter systems have embraced this reality advice "hit something hard with something soft. Hit something soft with something hard." I don't think anyone suggests that fighters should give up punching completely. I also don't think reality fighting systems should suggest you should punch anywhere, all the time as if you were a gloved boxer, and then report to the hospital later. You might not make it to the hospital. Strategic survival fighting also means surviving the fight, with as many body parts intact as possible, to keep on fighting.
Courtesy of www.hockscqc.com
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
You’re about to learn more about boxing gloves than you really need to know.
Boxing gloves protect you and your opponent. The earliest form of boxing glove originated in Greece and was called a Cestus and consisted of something meant to inflict pain and suffering rather than reduce it. It was basically leather straps that may or may not have things such as studs embedded in them. In short, they made boxing fights good and bloody.
Lucky for those of us practicing boxing today, boxing decided to become more civilized. Boxing gloves, while they haven't changed a whole lot, have benefitted from better materials and an understanding of science in the boxing glove development process.
Two Types of Boxing Gloves
1. Bag Gloves (Training Gloves)
Bag Gloves Protect you, Not your opponent Sometimes people talking about boxing gloves are really referring to bag gloves or training gloves. The difference is that bag gloves are for hitting heavy bags and not people. Bag gloves are designed to protect you and not what you are hitting. Bag gloves can be used over wrapped hands or unwrapped hands and are designed to offer some padding and protection against scrapes and contusions while conditioning your hands for progressively heavier impacts. Bag gloves, like boxing gloves, come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Most boxers tend to use a heavier bag glove as a conditioning tool to increase stamina and endurance (especially in the shoulder region).
2. Boxing Gloves
Boxing Gloves will protect you and your opponent
Boxing gloves are used to protect not only you, but your opponent. Most common sizes of boxing glove are sixteen, twelve, ten, and eight ounce sizes (16oz, 12oz, 10oz, 8oz) and can come in a variety of styles. Some boxing gloves are pre-moulded meaning that they are already formed in a fist shape. You slide your fingers into the gloves and they naturally have to curl. Some are not moulded and you have to form the hitting surface. Some boxing gloves are fastened with string, others with velcro.
How do Boxing Gloves Work?
Boxing gloves are made with one thing in mind - force of impact. Force and the reduction of it on impact is what boxing gloves are designed for. A bigger, heavier boxing glove will decelerate and accelerate at a slower rate. This deceleration will reduce the forces involved at impact both on you and your opponent. They will cause less acceleration of the brain inside the skull cavity resulting in less damage. If you know anything about kinetic energy, a bigger boxing glove will transfer less kinetic energy on impact. As well, the increased size of the boxing glove will dissipate the force of impact over a larger area. In short, a bigger boxing glove will cause less damage to you and your opponent.
How are Boxing Gloves Made?
Boxing gloves are designed based on achieving a certain amount of compression. When the boxing glove strikes the target, the force is reduced or absorbed as the glove compresses. If the material used loses its ability to compress then the boxing gloves ability to reduce forces is dramatically decreased. The material that is supposed to compress becomes nothing more than a dense layer of padding that will protect the wearer of the boxing glove but will do little to reduce forces on impact. High density polyurethane, cotton, and horsehair are some types of padding materials often used.
Much like the space age memory foam mattresses a lot of people sleep on, padding also exhibits memory characteristics. The best padding will lose it's memory very quickly otherwise an initial blow will compress the material and subsequent blows will not benefit from the padding.
Boxing gloves must also be highly durable and resistant to tears, scrapes, and thousands of high speed impacts. For that reason, top grain leather is used - especially cowhide and goatskin due to their highly durable nature. The stitching has to be top notch to ensure the padding stays where it is supposed to and is usually a nylon based thread.
What Size of Boxing Gloves Should You Buy?
The answer to that question depends on what you are using them for. In general, How to Box recommends you use the following sizes of boxing gloves depending on your boxing activity:
a. Sparring: 16oz gloves
b. Training: Bag gloves - 12oz for beginners, increase weight to increase intensity and endurance
c. Amateur Fights: depends on the rules of the fight - generally 10oz glove is used and will be either red or blue with a white target area to help the judges score.
d. Professional Fights: will be decided in the rules of the professional affiliation the fight is sanctioned by. I believe 8oz gloves are the norm.
Boxing Gloves that Fit You
After deciding what size of boxing glove you want, the best way to buy boxing gloves is to wrap your hands and then try them on. If you are shopping without your hand wraps, you can put something about the size of a roll of quarters in your palm and then slip on the boxing glove. It should be tight, but not to the point where your hands are going to be deprived of blood. Your fingertips should fit firmly against the top of the glove and it should lace up or velcro tight around your wrist. The last thing you want is a glove flying off when you punch. I've never seen it happen, but a loose boxing glove could potentially cause all sorts of grief.
You will also want to consider where you will be using the boxing gloves. If you are training by yourself, then opt for a velcro fastener. It really sucks trying to get your gloves on and lace them up by yourself. Velcro will make it slightly easier.
Does Boxing Glove Brand Matter
To some people it does and to some people it doesn't. The top boxing manufacturers, Everlast, Title, Ringside, Rival all make excellent boxing gloves. There are a lot of other manufacturers that also make good boxing gloves. In short, you sometimes end up paying for a brand name, and you may or may not want to do that.
Boxing gloves you should avoid are the cheaper vinyl gloves. While the price is right, the quality isn't. The material will wear out very quickly and you'll end up buying another pair in the near future. Spend the money now for a quality pair of boxing gloves for your purpose and you shouldn't have to invest in another pair anytime soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
