How do you punch without breaking your hand? I remember watching a show and remember them talking about the boxers bone which supposedly is a bone in your hand which breaks easily when you punch. Does anyone know anything about this and how to prevent it? :fight1:
Wrap the hands and wear gloves over the top of the wraps. It's as simple as that. Of course you need to learn how to punch correctly and your instructor should be teaching you that, but even when doing bag work you should be protecting the hands.
Simon, I am trying to get a feel of what bone it is in general. I am not a boxer, but I am interested if anyone knows the particulars of what the bone is and how to prevent it if you don't have gloves on.
:google: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer's_fracture It's "Boxer's Fracture" by the way, not boxer's bone. It happens when you punch with the fourth and fifth metacarpal (pinky and ring finger). The solution is simple, don't punch with those two knuckles, they don't have anything behind them for support, your wrist is at a bad angle as a sliding joint when you hit with them, and they're the two smallest bones in your hand.
The bones in the hand are the metacarpal bones and the bone that boxers break is just below the knuckle (this is often called a boxers fracture). It's the fourth (ring finger) and sometimes fifth metacarpal bone and is caused by incorrect contact with the target. You should be making contact with the second and third metacarpal, or sometimes with the second, third and fourth and fifth (flat fist), but making contact with the fourth and fifth (3 inch Punch style) with any force is going to cause a boxers fracture. I hope that explains things in a little more detail. Edit, Ero beat me to it.
Yep it sucks ass... even worse when you get calcium deposits there which is common I guess after a brake. I have lumps over top those areas that are very painful if I manage to bang them just right.
I always thought it was using the first 2 knuckles actually... guess not. My CHKD instructor is not big on punching that way, but rather the lateral punch because of less overall give and chance for it to be trapped maybe. If you throw out a lateral fist, the wrist can only be move up and down and is stronger than if the punch is turned over (which is what I am very used to so it's hard to break the habit) which can give another HKD student or whatever more opportunities for a joint lock if the hand is trapped.
Here's an example of a 5th metacarpal break (mine) Not caused by punching but by having my relaxed hand bobbed into by a head it was moving away from.
He head-butted your fist?!? Nice fracture...Here's one if I can managed the wee white line to come out. Occurred when I was 14 or 15. Midfielder headed a football at an odd angle - making a line for my face. As I was maybe 3 metres from him, I instinctively put up my right hand and ... wa-la. Not as nice as your's but mine shows (hopefully) a surgical repair scar as they decided it needed a metal pin to hold it together while it healed. Don't know why they needed slit such a long line on the finger - given the pin was placed on the lateral side of the finger/knuckle base.
I thought you just posted a picture of your pinky finger being cut off from football until I processed the picture correctly. That would have been a little more than a boxer's fracture. I broke my 2nd and 3rd metacarpal in football, then broke the knuckle on the third one two more times after that. I have lovely calcium deposits and my third knuckle juts out quite a bit. Never been unlucky enough to break my little guys though : P.
As a bonus question: The wing chun punches are supposed to be with the pinky and ring knuckles. Does anyone know if because they tilt their hand up, that this aligns the hand bones with the arm bone so it doesn't break?
and if you let a boxers fracture heal all its own it take a LONG TIME it hurt to make a fist like 3-5 months after the fracture for me.
The xrays bring back memories. I have "bowed" my 4th metacarpal and sunk my knuckle due to bad timing and hitting an object that was far harder than my bone. Somewhere here my xray exists. Will post it when i find it.
I remember a few years back Buddy Mcgirt saying his fighters were getting injured less simply by making an actual fist in the glove.
Hi In bareknuckle boxing you punch with a diagonal fist. Connecting with the powerline that runs from between your ring finger and your middle finger. This is a stronger way of throwing a bareknuckle punch - That and careful and incremental conditioning of the hands. Mostly Boxer's Fracture's occur when trying to throw a modern style 'palm down' hook without mitts etc on. That's the most common type of punch that'll break a fist. Modern Hooks work well enough with wraps and mitts on. Without hand protection though it's potluck whether you'll wreck your fist or them. In most systems of bareknuckling your throw a hook with a diagonal (and often 'twist-thru') style punch. Be careful if you're planning on doing any hand conditioning with 'raw' bare hands. Best bet is to use thinner and thinner bag mitts. Please refrain from using just wraps on your hands. These are the worst of both worlds. As they falsely support the hand. But you get none of the conditioning. Good Luck
