The Fist During the Punch and How to Strengthen It


Technique Review 

Today we’re working on talking about the fist. We have a tool, a weapon. With this we do specific technique, and then we do variations and have principles.

Video transcript

Salam everyone. Welcome to this week’s technique review. Today we’re working on talking about the fist. We have a tool, a weapon. With this we do specific technique, and then we do variations and have principles. Then we use tactics. What is hierarchy of this tool, technique? Principles and variations and tactics. The first is one of our major tools. Many people, especially men, under stress, in a fighting type of situation, will clench the fist and will strike. It’s a misunderstanding in this little bit. Definitely some things that have been taught in different martial arts.

If I want to grab something … Look, when I grab something, like a branch or some sort of stone, something small inside the hand. The thumb is partly overlapping, on the fingers. However, doing a fist, it’s not a smart thing to do. Doing the grabbing of a branch or grabbing of a bar to do some pull or chin up, you can do it with a hook and you can do it with a thumb. If you do it with a thumb, it’s more about closing, everything is … The power should be in that direction, the up and down direction.

When you’re hitting with a fist, the fist should be clenched in 3D, not only in 2D. The thumb itself is coming diagonally from above, so the first phalange of the thumb, or the middle phalange of the index finger pressed diagonally downwards. Not from the side, but diagonally from up. The effect now will be that the fist is clenched also up/down, not only the horizontal line, but also partly the vertical. Be a much stronger fist. If you try to clench like, close the fist strongly like this, and then slide the thumb down, you’ll feel that the fist is not strong anymore. Now, this is the weapon.

If you hit and you break your weapon, you absorb so much of the damage. You give less damage. Obviously you are hurt. To make a good fist is very, very important. We also should strike with the two large knuckles, the knuckles of the index and the major, the large finger. The strike is from the front. It should be in one line, with the bone, the center of the bone. Also, from above, you should look, it’s aligned. This is important to align the fist, during the impact, during impact. If it’s not an impact, what’s the big deal? During impact, have to align the fist. It has to be aligned a moment before the impact. If not, big chances that I’ll break their fist.

I remember incident that Imi told, founder of Krav, my teacher. Said about breaking the hand. He was a boxer and a wrestler. Talk about boxing. There was one incident. There were thousands of fascists, storming towards the Jewish quarters. There were 17 young men, who were fighting them, preventing them from come to that direction, until the police interfered.

He said there was no time to punch a person twice. So many people were there. That event, he broke his hand. Where did he break his hand? He broke the hand in the palm area, the small bones below the pinky joint, the line of the pinky. Why? One of the hooks, one of the straight strikes, he hit with that area of the, two small knuckles. Definitely, it can happen, obviously.

When we are aiming and we are striking, we should aim the two larger knuckles. How to make the fist stronger? Well, you should load it. If I want to be stronger, with my muscles, I have to load weight. Would I do chin-ups, or push-ups, or squats? I’m loading the muscles. I’m becoming stronger. If I put the weights on my hands, I’ll do what, curls, or presses or whatever. I’ll become stronger, it there’s more weight. I have to load the fist. Just doing pushups on the knuckles for example, pressing more likely maybe, the wall, hitting stuff, hitting lighter bag or heavy bag will be reasonable for us, to make the fist stronger.

Whether we do it in hooks, or straight ones, or upper cuts, we are strengthening the impact of the front. Obviously, we can strength impact of different directions, including different types directions with knuckles, or different knuckles in the fingers and the fist. For the straight and this relevant strikes that you are hitting with the front of the fist, that’s the idea.

Also, you have to straighten the whole palm. I know squeezing, for example, walking, farmer walk with a kettle bell as example. These are things we can do, in order to make the hand stronger. Also, something that I really recommend a lot, is to have resistance against an open palm, that is arched, as if you are holding a ball. If I show it on the floor, like this. Holding the palm in arched way, putting it on a softer surface, like soft mats, or carpet, and shifting your weight.

Now, look at me. Look at this hand. If I’m in this position, the structure is different, the muscles are working differently, compared to this position. That’s the one that we want. This is the strong, making the hand much stronger, if you’re trying like this one. Obviously can do small motions, and then when we think about how much weight do I put on the hands. Here’s example. I’m putting quite much weight on the hands. I guess it’s something around 35 percent of my weight now is on the hands. That’s the idea.

Here, I can do a little bit of movements of elbows, I can do a little bit of movements of the palms. This an example of how we can make the hand stronger. If you’ll do this exercise, three minutes a day, after three months, you will have enormous change in the power of the hand, the power of the clench of the hand, closing the fist. You can use this for controlling, controlling a weapon, controlling the hand of the opponent. It makes your hand stronger for striking, for the fist, and obviously for attacks.

You can use this for control, you can use this for striking. You can use this for attacks, meaning, attacks meaning, for example a choke. You grab something. You grab a hand, you grab fingers, you can make a lock on joints. This is very efficient to have strong hand. You can take examples from the gymnasts, who’ve got very strong grip from the rock climbers, amazing grip. Definitely a tool, definitely a weapon, definitely a technique. All the best guys.

Technique Review

Sticky Hands

Technique Review

Whipping Back Fist

Technique Review

Sliding Kicks Forward

Technique Review

Breakfalls and Pushups

Technique Review

General Ready Stance

Technique Review

Sliding Defenses

Technique Review

Frontal Choke Release

Technique Review

Hook Strikes

Technique Review

Straight Strikes

Technique Review

360 Outside Defenses