You know, aside from my boxing, I am really trying to experiment with open palm strikes in sparring, shadow boxing, etc. The safety factor of not breaking your hand is a plus, and I think you can actually get an extreme amount of power in palm strikes. Anyone who watches pancrase shootfighting in Japan could attest to that. Anyway, what’s your opinions on palm strikes? How many use them a great deal? What successes have you had with them? Like, dislike? etc.
Ryu
they facilitate angular striking.. in Mantis style, palm strike tuns into grab and pull. ..downside, fingers vulnerable.
As a Baguazhang stylist, they are kind of a specialty. They can withstand more force structurally than any fist can, and they are physiologically faster, if only slightly. They are far more versatile. A simple common sense test is this: you can close a fist faster than you can open one.
After spending 27 years in the martial arts, I have come to a place where punches are rarely if ever used in my reality combat applications for street use. They still have a small place in my arsenal, but are nowhere near being a primary weapon in my arsenal. Granted, my perspective would be quite different if I trained for any sport situations, where punches are still one of the best all-around tools. For street application, if I need a dull, heavy, thudding weapon for whatever reason, I prefer elbows and knees to punches anyway.
‚r‚”‚’‚‰‚‹e hard with soft
Strike soft with hard
Sticky - So you’d use a percussion palm against someone’s temple, and an elbow against their ear?
The temple is soft, so you’d hit it with something hard.
What’s a percussion palm?
IronFist
Points on the skull count as soft targets!? Then I’m more confused about the mantra than I thought.
I mean an attack using the flesh in the heart of the palm in a loose manner to ‘pop’ a target.
not like that. instead, a punch to the neck, but a palm to the chin. sure, a punch to the chin will hurt the receiver, but i don’t know a single person alive who has a knuckle bigger than my jawbone.
personally, i like palm strikes more anyway, because i can hit harder with them. i feel that the more joints you have in a strike, the more places a strike can lose power because there’s one more unstable place that power can be lost at, and it’s also another place that must tense up at some time to keep the power line stable, and tension usually equals slower strikes.
which brings me to the car metaphor (which can be used to compare/contrast ANYTHING in this world). an engine can make gobs of power, but it has all sorts of places like a transmission and such where that power is lost. the kind of power an engine makes is no where near what is put at the wheels.
Seems to me that palms (softer) work better on the sides of the throat (softer) and an eagle claw (harder) would work better on the adam’s apple (harder).
Ah yeah theres a saying:
Água mole, pedra dura, tanto bate até que fura.
you can go pal strike your self why dont ya
Could someone please give me a link or related for a picture of eagle claw hand maneuver,and how it is used? How it´s different from tiger claw and etc.
Thanks already.
Level 1
Muscle use. Strong in holding. Can generate forces but slow, and cost alot of energy.
Level 2.
Tendon use. Strong in springing, can generate forces, fast, concentrated in time and area of target. Strikes less likely to slip off target. cost small energy.
Level 3.
Qi use. It is what you are doing with the forces after you sent into your opponent’s body. You must able to create, control the different types of inner pressures and then you can use them to sent to your opponent and break the Qi balance or dislink the meridiums.
If you are at level 1, you better use fists, grabs, and submission holds.
If you are at level 2 or 3, palm will bring you advantage.
palm strikes do have alot of blunt force behind them. also, depending on how you strike with your palm (where rather) you can strike with different kinds of force.
paulin, not so sure that a palm strike is not excellent for someone on stage one. palms are my preffered weapon over fists, i hit much harder and take much less collateral damage whenever there is any.
Originally posted by respectmankind
paulin, not so sure that a palm strike is not excellent for someone on stage one. palms are my preffered weapon over fists, i hit much harder and take much less collateral damage whenever there is any.
Teh advantage of palm is that it can fully outlet the tendon and Qi forces. In fist, the tendon for can work wonder too, but Qi can’t be fully let out.
Since muscle are better in holding, and using of muscle will have to sacrafice the tendon and Qi use, palm will be more effective when you let go of the muscle holds and focus on tendon or Qi. Muscle can make palm work in chapping movements like a swinging ax, but that is not enough for the full use of palm. There are deeper strikes can be avialible once it was backed up by tendon or Qi.
Muscle use with palm may be better than fist, but it will have to train harder than fist. And grab with submission holds is muscle’s advatage, it is more advatage than plam strikes in this way.
Also, muscle uses is like a stick, and tendon uses is like rubber rope with lead attached at the end. Qi uses is like blowing out fire.
hmmm… as i said, i want to look into the tendon aspect of strikes. i hit hard, but i some of the things you mentioned, and in your other post has got the juices flowing. i train myself, do you have any information for someone like me i could use for exploring that area.
Is everyone talking about iron palm style striking or palm heel like in Karate? I would guess iron palm style. I like palm strikes a lot, they are fast and relaxed so they can generate a powerful strike. There a lot of really good exercises to develop hand toughness and technique.
Cipher
I don’t think anybody was making a distinction between the two, but you bring up a good question.
As for myself, the more advanced, relatively speaking, I become the more open hand techs I use. The reason behind it, I think, is something close to what Paul was stating.
My development in striking has become my refined. It lends itself to better relaxation while engaged and diao (mantis hooking hand); a closed hand you have to open, contact, then cling and an open hand you simplify contact and cling.
Also, with iron palm training, I am know better the right feel of a palm strike.
Good posts everyone. I don’t know much about Iron Palm, but I broke a nose or two with palm strikes when I was in High School. I used them a lot before I began my grappling years. I’m getting back into them a bit now because in my opinion they are pretty effective. (palm strikes are effective that is… not slapping 
)
Ryu