Blocking a punch with the top of your head

[IronFist]

Alright. I just saw this movie on tv called "Gladiator." Not the new one that just came out, but an older one from the 80's about some underground fighting or something. Anyway, at the end, this guy fights his promoter bareknuckle and he goes to punch him in the face and the promoter bends his head forward so the guy's punch hits the top of his head and the guy is like "ow!" and the promoter is like "the top of your head is the hardest part of your body," or something like that. Anyway, he did that twice. Then later on, the guy did it when the promoter punched him.

Right. So anyway, I was watching this, and I was like, "eh?" Then I lightly tapped myself on top of my head and I was like "yeah, bull shít you're going to stop a hard punch there."

Is there any truth to this? This is perhaps one of the most unrealistic movie moves I've ever seen, unless I'm just stupid and this actually is a technique. It seemed to hurt the guy who punched pretty bad each time it was used, but still I don't think it's a real technique.

IronFist

[Taone]

I stopped a goal is soccer with my face once...

Point is, although not a specific technique you'd really want to use, it may be preferable to taking a punch on the nose or cheekbone.
A last resort? :)

Unless someone has something to say about particulary bad things happening when you get whacked on the top of the head?

I will note however, that when I stopped that goal it wasn't a last resort, I just didn't see it coming :p

[Former castleva]

Movies aren´t real.
Skull is one of the harder bones of one´s structure though.
Please also remember that there are pressure points on top of head,at least one which can cause an instant death.
:( :)

[ged]

i guess it depends on how the punch is thrown, wrist alignment etc.
once at school i saw a guy punch another guy in the head... he broke his hand. good way to win a fight i guess.

[Tvebak]

One of my friends, a skinny small pakistani, was attacked by three big nazi guys, one held his arms and one made a running punch to his face, my friend bend forwards and felt the blow and heard a cracking sound...the guy had broken three of his fingers punching into his forehead.
After this my friend was lucky and escaped, hes a good runner:)
My friend has no MA background whatsoever...so it kind of a cool story:)
Also very funny when the police went looking for the guys...just look for one big bald guy with broken fingers:)

[Liokault]

LOL thats a great story.

when we used to do training against head butts droping the head so that the blow went into the upper forehead or above was the best way to stop them....being short its easy for me.

[NPMantis]

Yeah, I saw the one, I thought wow that's really weird too. But actually about a year ago I read a book on the weaknesses in the human anatomy and actually the top of your skull is where the join in your bones are and it's actually the weakest part to your head. The book was called 'Dragon's Touch' or something.

[MaFuYee]

i don't necessarily think it's a "good" defense, however, it is not that uncommon for a person to break his fist, if he hits the top of the someone skull. - i believe ducking your head in such a manner to purposely connect with the other guy's fist is illegal in boxing. - of course there are other variables involved, such as, does the puncher have 'iron fist', does the ducker have 'iron head'... i think it's an ok defense if you're italian...

[Repulsive Monkey]

thats ok for idiots, if you connect properly with Bahui you'll probably kill yourself.
The headtop most certainly IS NOT the hardest part of the body. It is where the last fontanelle seals itself in infancy and therefore is a potential weak spot.

[Maestro1700]

actually repulsive if the human body(the skull) was that weak then no one would be able to leave their front yard

people take way worse beatings in rl and fulll contact, unregulated competitions like ufc..have you ever actually seen the ufc? some of those guys..after the fights their whole face is nothing but black and blue swollen lumps

drunkards and idiots head but all the time.. insane people smash their head,arms,legs etc into stuff all the time and it doesnt kill them instantly

and another thing that movie is really good..its got cuba gooding jr in it and its a good plot..brian denehy to

and ive known some people that if you do punch them in the forehead youd most likely break somethin..im not saying everyone is like this but..the forehead is one of the if not the hardest part of your body

and also in that movie the guy didnt just stand their and let the kid punch him he rammed his head into the oncoming punch, his forehead so he met force with force..obviously since his head..and basically everyone elses is much harder than the bones in your hand..yea i dont think it was very unrealistic

and i dont doubt the stories above either

[Royal Dragon]

I saw a friend of mine get jummped by two guys. One hit him in the stomach at about trhe same time the other "Tried" to hit him in the nose. Because the stomach shot doubled him over, the second shot to the nose actually connected to the forehead plate.

My freind was a bit dizzy, but still able to fight, but the second punhcer had broken his hand in several places and was in too much pain to go on. My friend then "Cleaned" the clock of the gut puncher before all got hauled nto the offfice for the ensuing suspensions.

[IronFist]

Dude, the main guy in that movie looked like a young Val Kilmer from Top Gun, didn't he?

IronFist

[Xebsball]

I heard that the forehead is the strongest part but i dunno...
But i think if you are hit hard in any part of your head your brain shakes or something wich is not always fun.

I'd not like to be hit in the Bai Hui either.

[Maestro1700]

yea i guess he looks like val kilmer..

bryan dennehy was the best though..even though he got his ass kicked in the end i liked his attitude towards fighting ;)

[Polaris]

I believe that was a common tactic among the Greeks.

[Leonidas]

I've smashed my head plenty o times :D . Three times (that i can remember) really really hard, didn't feel dizzy at all but it hurt like hell initially, so the skull aint that weak. My IQ prolly dropped a few dozen points but i'm still alive and thats what counts. I suggest you dont rely on this tactic though. Why bother MA training if all we had to do was headbutt each other :D.

[chingei]

I remember one match against a well-known university (which will remain nameless to protect the innocent). my opponent and I both stepped into for a double at the exact same time. When our heads smacked together you could hear it in the cheap seats. there was a collective "ooooohhhhh" from the crowd. I pulled back and did the 'ol grab your head, then check your hand for blood thing. when it finally occured to me to look over, my opponent was flat out cold. they took him out on a strecher. I never did see him wake up, though I heard later he was fine.

ever since then, I haven't been able to do long division

[chingei]

Originally posted by Former castleva

Skull is one of the harder bones of one´s structure though.
Please also remember that there are pressure points on top of head,at least one which can cause an instant death.
:( :)

yes Obiwan

[joedoe]

Originally posted by chingei
...

ever since then, I haven't been able to do long division

That is because you do BJJ :D

[chingei]

Originally posted by joedoe


That is because you do BJJ :D

unfortunately, never have. I don't think I'm sophisticated enough for the classy crowd

[Taone]

I think part of the conflict here is confusion...
The nay-sayers are referring to the top of the head which is weaker and a suture, and the positive stories are referring to the forehead, or more to the front of the head anyway.

Very different...
Try whacking yourself on the top of the head, then on the forehead. Feels a little different.

Where did he take the hit in the movie??

[IronFist]

I dunno it happened pretty fast and I wasn't expecting it. I'd say he took the hit somewhere between the forehead and the front half of the top of the head. Make sense?

IronFist

[Maestro1700]

actually in the movie the guy didnt take the hit..no one understand this..

hes not just standing there..the guy the kid is fighitng is the owner of the boxing club..and hes an x boxer, so he can fight and in the movie he has only lost once..

and when he fights the kid he doesnt just stand there he sees the punch coming and rams his FOREHEAD into the guys oncoming punch

its reasonable

its practical

its possible and effective

specially if you have a lack of fighting knowledge, and are experimental and desperate

[Leonidas]

"I think part of the conflict here is confusion...
The nay-sayers are referring to the top of the head which is weaker and a suture, and the positive stories are referring to the forehead, or more to the front of the head anyway." Taone

Actually i hit every side of my head. Top, back, front, sides. My mellon is pretty hard i reckon. One time as a kid i *ran* into a pole and a stream of blood came flyin' outta my head, it spooked me bad but i wasn't hurt. Other time i hit the top of my noggin on the monkey bars really badly when i came up to fast (had a 30 minute headache) and yet another was when i went down a wet slide, on my feet surfer style and i slipped, and the back of my mellon divebombed into the slide. Prolly some more incidents but i can't remember them right now. All happened because of stupidity but it proves my point. I'm either a freak of nature or people are really not as fragile as you think. Of course 30 years from now i could die from a tumor or somethin' but i'm fine now.

I dus nott hirt frum hed fall. Me nomal lyke ery1 *drool*

[Gabriel]

You guys have it all wrong. When a guy throws a punch and you wanna be fancy instead of dodging or blocking, don't use your head, thats what you try to protect when fighting aint it? What if the punch is lower than you expect and you get nailed square in the face? What you SHOULD be doing is meeting that punch with a punch of your own. You just have to punch harder and faster than the other guy is all. No, I don't know this from martial arts (we don't regularly slam our fists against other fists) I know it from games of knuckles in high school drunk fests. :D I was feared for at least 3 miles in every direction! hard and fast. I can beat anyone at knuckles. Sadly, no one in college seems to have even heard of knuckles. Except for this crappy thing called mercy which isn't the same thing at all. And when I explain to them what it is, they all look at me funny. "sigh"

Knuckles I tells ya!

I think I'll start my own knuckles club.

Oh well. I shouldn't have gone on a rant about knuckles, but it really should be practiced more widely. Sort of like a preliminary iron palm eh? :D

Gabriel

[Taone]

Gabriel - theoretically a good idea if you know your knuckles are tougher than his.

Out of curiosity though, have you actually tried that?? Especially if fighting in close, you don't have a lot of time or distance to position a punch AT a punch. Think about a fast a punch moves. And how fast you are punching back at that punch. And think how long and how shorter distance it takes to reach a point in the middle.

Not criticism, maybe you can pull it off..... but it seems a little difficult to do, is all.

Leonidas -

I'm either a freak of nature or people are really not as fragile as you think.

I think a little from column A, and a li'l from column B... More of A though I'd say :) Not to mention downright unlucky (slash clumsy?? :) )
Peace

[dezhen2001]

The top of the head and the forehead are different! When you headbutt someone u use your FORHEAD - it's pretty strong naturally. The top of your head isn't. Has anyone ever actually felt around up there? There are definately places that feel stronger and weaker.

There are methods of toughening your head so it is stronger though (hard qigong for example), but it takes a lot of training and a long time to develop properly. I've just started the training and it's very difficult :(

david

[Mr Punch]

There IS a serious difference between the top of the head and the forehead! The forehead (frontal bone) ends just behind the hairline (erm, usually... I think mine might be just in front of the hairline before long!:( ), and right there there is one join, and the top of the head is another join, down the centre.

Cop one on the frontal bone, and you should be ok. Cop one on the top, and you could well be meat.

Taone, I used to 'field' cricket balls on me forehead. Might explain some things. I heard that's the way you Aussies train anyway though!?

Maestro (tricky spelling, congrats!), judging by the thread in the 'reality' fighting forum, you're used to ramming cops' batons off the top of your head! But since you were dropped there way back in your childhood it doesn't seem to matter...!;) :D Oh dear, what have I done?! This is a gag: don't force me to come to Connecticut and get a beating! :rolleyes:

As for nutting fists, I prefer to chin them myself.:cool:

[Repulsive Monkey]

I've seen some videos of that kind of caper, and I have to be honest...it made me laugh.

[LEGEND]

IRONFIST...I've seen the movie gladiator and it is true...if u punch yourself hard on the forehead a couple of times you'll notice u're fist will be swelling up like a balloon. PLUS headbutting is a great street tactic! Have u seen boxing matches where someone gets headbutt and immediately cut and dazed??? Or how about the NBA when Jason Kidd was headbutted and the gash on his face??? Headbutting works bro. Check it out!

[Hau Tien]

Practical experience here...

I used to bounce in a popular local nightclub, and on one evening, we had a large line-up. Well, there was this one bigass loser who ALWAYS caused trouble everytime he came in, and he pushed his way to the front of the line. Apparently he thought he merited some sort of special consideration.

To make a long story short, he became "upset" when I told him he couldn't come in, and started to throw punches from over top (He was a lot taller than me, and I'm 6'2"). Well, I tilted my head forward a bit (Just trying to keep my face from getting smacked - I'm pretty, you know :P... not intentionally to do the following), and took about 3 shots in pretty much the same place as in that movie. Didn't hurt in the least. I was very surprised, as I had assumed that was just crap they made up for the movie.

I wouldn't recommend it, though... but it did work:)

Hau Tien

[fa_jing]

There was a strength athlete around the turn of the century, named "The Mighty Atom." Among other amazing feats, once a man attempted to kill him by shooting him in the head, I think it was a small-caliber gun like a 22. The bullet knocked the Atom out, but when he came to, the bullet had not penetrated his forehead. The bullet itself had deformed and become flat, due to the strength of the Atom's forehead bone.

P.S. I'm from Philly, in the mid-atlantic we say "farhead," not "forehead" LOL.

-FJ