Sorry Gene, actually I meant it as a joke. You guys put out a good product 
waidan
Does that mean I should cancel my appointment with Willis? 
Gene Ching
Asst. Publisher
Kungfu Qigong Magazine & www.KUNGFUmagazine.com
Sam makes a good point
Hitting people and hitting boards or bricks is TOTALLY different. People are basically just big bags of water. You can send a wave of kinetic energy though that fluid that will totally raise hell with all the soft tissues. You can fracture solid organs this way, such as kidneys, liver, spleen, etc. Internal arts excell at this, but do not have a corner on the market by any means.
PS… Thankyou for the kind words, Gene.
I’ve thought about that quite a lot. It’s strange that some styles put so much emphasis on practicing board & brick breaking techniques. The best way to hit a piece of wood isn’t going to be the best way to hit a human body. Hard to imagine two more dissimilar targets, really.
Water Bag analogy…
This is the way I practice both armed and unarmed techniques. Unsupported fluid-filled bags make great targets for unarmed striking and armed cutting practice. Just passing through…
Longuan
longquan88@hotmail.com
Bone alignment
The explanation my Shrfu gave me on why we hit with the last two knuckles in Hsing-I was bone alignment through the hand, wrist and forearm. Try this - make a fist and place it flat against a wall. The 4th and 5th metacarpals (the last two bones in the hand) line up almost directly with the ulna and radius in the arm. When striking with the last two knuckles, the force is absorbed through the length of the bones in the hand and arm rather than being applied across an angle, making your punch stronger and decreasing the chance of breaking a bone. Palm strikes are also very effective because the force of the blow is borne by the ulna and radius which are much stronger than the bones of the hand.
It is true that a break in the fifth metacarpal is called a boxer break because boxers were more likely to break their hands than the average joe. I do not know if this can be explained by poor technique, poor conditioning, or the fact that boxers pound people in the head more often and more frequent breaks occur simply due to more opportunities.
We practice our knuckle pushups using the last 2 or 3 knuckles to improve the bone strength. Hsing-I is my first experience in a striking art, so I have no idea how other arts punch. We do some punches using the first two knuckles, but they are not as common.
“Lord, what fools these mortals be.”