Fear of getting hurt badly in Kickboxing-is Judo/Wrestling more my style?

Discussion in 'Kickboxing' started by ronki23, Mar 22, 2011.

  1. Master Betty

    Master Betty Banned Banned

    With hevygloves the force is displaced onto a larger surface area as opposed to the smaller area created by your knuckles. this mean that the face takes less surface damage... allowing more shots to the head with usually results in more brain trauma. If anyone thinks that 4oz of foam are going to make much of a difference to you when a trained professional fighter weighing 100 kilos punches you full dig in the face then they're livin in a fantasy world.
     
  2. Southpaw535

    Southpaw535 Well-Known Member Moderator Supporter

    Cheers I was just about to ask about that
     
  3. Rebel Wado

    Rebel Wado Valued Member

    The gloves do make a difference in how the hit feels based on where getting hit because the techniques change based on the experiences of the person. Even the 4 oz MMA gloves change things.

    In barefisted, the full power strikes to the head are generally coming from open hand strikes or from people that don't care if their hand is hurt or not and just want to hit you hard. One of the very reasons is that you can hit bone-on-bone and this isn't nearly as effective plus you can hurt yourself. The 4 oz gloves can actually cause someone to hit harder closed fist to the head because they protect the hand. I don't know much about the 8 oz, but the 16 oz hits more like an open hand strike. The damage just rattles the brain. And the extra weight of the gloves probably helps. But less powered hits with the heavy gloves don't nearly seem as effective due to the padding and spread of the damage over a larger area.

    This actually changes what techniques are preferable. 90% of striking to the head is going to be open hand striking in most "traditional" martial arts (open hand includes hammer fists, finger strikes, rakes, forearm strikes, as well as slaps, palms, rigid hands, and chops). The rule is hard target, soft weapon... soft target, hard weapon. So the soft striking surfaces for the fist to target on the head are the back of the head/brain stem, the jawline (from chin to under the ear), temples, under the eyes, the very top of the head, and just below the nose. Most of those targets have hard target areas very near them so it is risk to go full power bare knuckle because of hitting one of the hard targets unintentionally. If you go full power with bare knuckled from the front, hitting along the jawline (kind of from the side) might be the safest for the hand, you can feel the softer below the ears down to the chin just above the jaw bone where the knuckles fit in nicely and you still apply the hit along the jawline. Some people recommend a strong hook to the chin. You also want to make sure you catch the jawbone on these strikes, if you go too high you will get the mouth and cut yourself open on the teeth.

    The good news is that you can go single knuckle strikes and that focuses the force over a very small area. This means lesser powered bare knuckle strikes can penetrate well, for a stunning effect (not knock out). The side punch or single knuckle punch to just below the eye is a technique in almost every martial art that trains striking in some way.

    What this means is that accuracy is very important with bare knuckle, and I would add in the 4oz MMA gloves too when striking to the head compared to the 16 oz gloves. You may see that bare knuckle trained people tend to keep their hands more in front and use shorter punches to the head, allowing for more accuracy.

    This is harder in MMA because the fighters keep a fairly good distance until they shoot in, where as the short punches are better closer in.

    Now bare knuckle shots to the body are another thing all together as there are many more soft targets to the body.
     
    Last edited: Mar 27, 2011
  4. Estrix

    Estrix Valued Member

    The point I was trying to make is that lighter gloves make LESS difference to a strike when compared to a bare knuckle blow, beyond protecting your skin.
     
  5. Rebel Wado

    Rebel Wado Valued Member

    This is a loaded statement, IME.

    The reason is that it is completely true in the right context but completely misleading in the wrong context.

    The wrong context being bare knuckle striking that depends on the one or two knuckles hitting hard for effect. I know for a fact that if someone hits bare knuckle to my chest and they hit with their whole hand, it does not nearly hurt and affect me as much as if they are skilled and hit me with just one or two knuckles.

    However, you got people that can hit with their whole hand and still hurt me, break my bones, etc. The point is not that they can hurt me, the point is that if they hit me with one knuckle with the same strike, it would hurt me a lot MORE.

    If the padding on the hands turns the strike from hitting with one knuckle to the whole hand you lose the benefit of the one knuckle strike. More padding spreads out the force even more over a larger area. This can make a big difference when you are using strikes against someone a lot bigger than you who might be able to take the force of a punch spread out over the whole hand, but they are less likely to not be affected if that same punch hit with a single knuckle. It is about penetration of the force to pressure points and vital areas.

    IMHO.

    Edit: the pressure point strikes often are taught to hit more lightly because the force is concentrated to one knuckle. Generally, this is only for the skilled as hitting hard and knowing where to hit are fundamentals for striking and should be taught first, IMHO.
     
    Last edited: Mar 27, 2011

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