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The weapon lands at an oblique angle, strikes the target and is then dragged across to come out the other end.
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Who claps with closed hands manual#
I learned about the five types of impact in an old Bushido manual some 25 years ago. In this article, I want to explore a couple of the factors that are typically overlooked in this discussion, but are nonetheless extremely important in determining the outcome.
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But it’s a lot easier to disregard this reality and focus on the “hard to soft, soft to hard” rule as if it’s a universal truth without exceptions or limits. Like I said, this is not necessarily stated openly, but it is all too often implied in their reasoning and they train accordingly.Here’s the thing: I know form personal experience all these statements are complete bullshit. As if you cannot injure your open hand striking a hard target.As if every open hand strike ever thrown has a 100% no-injury track record.As if it is impossible to punch a hard target with a closed fist without injury to your fist.As if every single closed fist punch to a hard target results in a broken hand.There are several assumptions that people (subconsciously) adhere to when they see this rule as absolute: What I will argue against is the implied assumptions that come with it and the dogma that surrounds it. So you won’t hear me argue against this rule. Hell, it works fine if you’ve been training for decades. As a rule of thumb, for the average person and in particular for the person not interested in spending lots of time training, this works just fine. This is by no means bad advice, but it isn’t written in stone. If you want to hit a hard surface, they insist you use a softer weapon, like an open hand strike.
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If you use a fist to strike, hit a soft target like the stomach instead of the face to avoid breaking your knuckles on the hard bones of the skull. If you ask anybody with a bit of training about which is better: open hand or closed fist striking, this is the standard response they give you. Hard weapon to soft target, soft weapon to hard target. I came across such a statement by accident not that long ago, which triggered this article. It won’t surprise you that I believe things are more nuanced than these black/white statements. One of those recurring arguments in martial arts and self-defense is this: open hand or closed fist striking, which is best? There is a lot of dogma there and I’ve seen too many people parrot those theories without giving them some closer consideration.