Yep this thread is for anyone who’s ever struck someone in the face full power. (Or need to do so on a regular basis because of your job).
Did you / do you use a fist or some kind of open hand strike (heel of your palm)?
Did you damage your hand?
Based on that experience would you change the way you struck someone?
Cheers
i fought a couple times in the street. and only one time it went to the ground. i kept on getting the kid in a headlock. it seems i was a lot braver back then. one of the fights happened in the school yard. I was also in 6th grade for all these fights. I am 23 now. no one got hurt, but i won em all, i think, the school yard one was debateable.
My hands were sore for a couple of days but they weren’t seriously hurt.
bruised knuckle which hurt like a mother.
kind of began to favor elbows.
now I prefer to introduce something which stops the fight.
The worst I had was bruised knuckles and small gashes on my hands. And sore knuckles for several days.
real fighting…
"Did you / do you use a fist or some kind of open hand strike (heel of your palm)? "
Kinda hard to say, in a scuff I used anything that was possible. When using my fists, on several occasions, I had bruised hands, swollen knuckles (not all the time) and minor cuts from teeth. When using open hands (read slaps) never hurt my hand much (got a cut from an earing once) and it did the job well. Heel of palm was very seldom and only used it when my knuckles were swollen.
“Did you damage your hand?”
Never broke them but I did have stress fractures here and there.
“Based on that experience would you change the way you struck someone?”
Not really, I would rather walk away with bloddy/swollen/bruised hands than be carried away or left on the street. This doesn’t mean that I have never changed my method of striking it just means that those consequences to me are an acceptable part of an altercation.
Couple of things I learned over the years have been:
try to talk yourself out of the fight and difuse the situation before it escalates (learn how to read people who are just talking sht vs. people who might fck you up), if you can’t and the fight starts make sure you fully commit to the fight and get it over with as fast as possible (go for the “I’m gonna f*ck this guy up” attitude) and walk away or run (if he has friends).
elbows and knees are great for hitting and not hurting yourself much but can only be used in certain situations. Kicks are great but only when you hit them where it counts (shins, knees and groin)
sometimes throwing the guy on the ground and landing on top of him is enough to stop the altercation if you are heavy enough.
sometimes taking the fight to the ground is best so you can control the guy and beat him into unconciousness.
if you work as a bouncer/security/bodyguard make sure your team is properly trained and understands what they can and cannot do, otherwise they might get you either hurt, killed or sued.
There’s other stuff too but that’s as much time as i have right now… hope that helps Scotty1
I still have scars left over from 7th grade. I forgot the kid had braces.
Now, I remove myself from potentially dangerous situations when my “spider sense” kicks in.
I hurt my hand more now – actually wrist – that I’m wearing gloves … my teacher has taught me to punch harder than I was before and sometimes the wrist pays. I tore a ligament about two years back but lately it’s been good. I also now land more with the middle knuckles, than the last nuckles … I think it has better alignment.
my trigger finger was sore the next day thats about it…hehe no really when i was growing up i didn’t have much training, learned a little arnis from my dad and whatever i picked up from the streets.all i knew was to ball up my fist and land it on the other person or persons face…one of my fights went like this, this guy comes up to me cause i took his girlfriend, so he starts pushing me around, i said don’t touch me, he pushes me again…my fist lands on his mouth, he falls grabbing his mouth, i see him bleeding, i was about to walk away then i noticed this dudes tooth was stuck on my knuckle…it didn’t break skin though, but it pi55ed me off more so i shake it off and proceeded to kick his arse… another fight i got into where i got jumped by about 8 dudes, there were about 10 other guys fighting with 3 of my other boys,i dropped two of them but the other six got smart and rushed me at the same time.needless to say everytime i tried to get up i got kicked, so i stayed down i just covered my head…i got kicks to my head, body, and legs…from that fight i got a fairly good gash on my forearm, cause when they rushed me I landed on a brick…but no bruises atleast not on me…now my other boy that was in the fight with me, his face looked like he fought a round with Mike Tyson…what sucked, was the next day was his b-day…lets see what else…i was at a rumble at a mall, chairs were used,hardly any punches thrown.heh…oh and me and my friend fought these two guys at a Rally’s Burger joint because one of them called him a “CHING CHONG MAN”, we were banned from that restaurant…ahhh the good old days…all my fights i threw punches…if i were to get into a fight now, i would like to use tiger claw techniques, but i’ll never know til that happens, I hope it never does…
Pretty much the same as others have already mentioned. Beware of punching the mouth as it can cause lacerations and possibly infection from the teeth (common attack target). Also the bruised knuckles are probably the result of punching the head (not advisable) which most untrained fighter will do. My son busted his knuckle doing that in a school fight and it’s permanently damaged. I gave him hell for that (for hurting himself, not fighting).
General rule use hard against soft targets and soft against hard targets.
And I agree, elbows do more damage with less chance of injury.
I don’t know any bouncer that tries to take a guy to the ground except to pick him up and throw him there. No bouncer worth a sh!t is going to wrestle around with some drunk toolbox.
Have you ever seen the floor of a nightclub, or a NYMFC street at 5AM?
You don’t want to even walk on it much less roll around on it, lol…
Last year this guy got tossed outside the gate of this one club I was spinning at, in Negril.
They carried him out the gate and threw him out, literally, like 1…2…3…
He sat up and he had chicken bones stuck to his cheek and shirt.
We laughed for a long time, and he threw up.
I punched this chick once…
It was Masterkillers girl, she kept begging me to knock her unconcious so she wouldn’t have to go down on “tiny” again. I guess having a huge ***** sometimes scares the girls 
I have never been in a street fight, but a few fights at school, and I never hurt my fist.
ok…
Hua Lin wrote:
“Also the bruised knuckles are probably the result of punching the head (not advisable) which most untrained fighter will do.”
Interesting view on this, care to elaborate? I’m more interested in why it is something that most “untrained fighters will do”. The few times I had swollen knuckles was from repeated strikes to the face… unfortunately you can’t keep a person from turning their head or raising their guard, so sometimes you strike an area you did not intend to, whenever that hapenned (while doing repeated strikes) guess what? Swollen knuckles! 
Richard Sloan wrote:
“I don’t know any bouncer that tries to take a guy to the ground except to pick him up and throw him there. No bouncer worth a sh!t is going to wrestle around with some drunk toolbox.”
No bouncer would try to take the guy to the ground, if they can avoid it, but sometimes it’s inevitable. The reason for kicking them out of the establishment quickly is to reduce liability in the protected environment. Whenever my team worked we would restrain and escort any trouble out of the door as quickly as possible, but on a few occasions it did go to the floor. However some of my comments do not apply to work only to personal altercations.
Richard Sloan wrote:
“Have you ever seen the floor of a nightclub, or a NYMFC street at 5AM?”
Yes I have, and they are cleaner than the floors of a Baile Funk in Sao Goncalo or the streets of Belford Roxo at 5AM… :rolleyes:
Originally posted by red5angel
[B]I punched this chick once…
It was Masterkillers girl, she kept begging me to knock her unconcious so she wouldn’t have to go down on “tiny” again. I guess having a huge ***** sometimes scares the girls [/B]
oh man thats hilarious.
hard to hard = someone or both are gonna get a boo boo.
soft to soft = whatever
hard to soft= see above
soft to hard= see above
i guess that point being, that any number of things can happen in a street fight and yep i been hurt in em and have ditributed some hurt in em myself.
so what?
Street fighting doesn’t happen all too often and really you gotta go looking for it in order for it to happen. ONce you train long enough, you have no fascination with fighting anymore and instead look for other ways to solve issues or problems.
but when you’re a young turk, your physical energies are fairly rampant while your spirit and intellect is still weak, ergo the feistiness. 
(for the most part anyway.)
Hahaha!
Very good points KL!
SaekSan
I realized I would probably get some feedback after I wrote that statement. What I’m talking about is the western style of headhunting. Untrained fighters usually just swing wildly at the head in the hopes of getting a knock out (or at least looking like they’re doing a good job of fighting). Quite often, as you’ve mentioned, the punch to the face turns into a punch to a hard head. There are plenty of other options available to the trained fighter (as I’m sure you know) that can and will do plenty of damage.
So my question for the trained fighters who bruised their knuckles during a fight is Why were you focusing so much on the head?
And for everyone What percentage of your style involves punching to the head or face? If it’s a small percentage then why spend so much time and energy (and injuring yourself) attempting it in a fight?
I’ve bruised knuckles, gotten a bruised dome, etc…
I’ve also used palms (one to the face, one to the ribs).
I think there is a place for them, but there is as much a risk of injury using them as fists , as you can easily hyperextend a finger or thumb, miss and hurt your wrist, jam a finger, etc.
What percentage of your style involves punching to the head or face?
Once the bridge is crossed, I would have to say that at least 90% of the attacks are to the head and upper body in the styles i practice.
The head is where the k.o is found more often than not. You can wind a guy with a gut punch and you can make him drop to the SP or kids, but the jaw is the sweet spot in pretty much all striking styles…unless you are fighting anvil jaw guy, in which case, adapt! ADAPT!