Which knuckles do I punch with

[iron_leg_dave]

I throw my hook with a vertical fist. This way, it ensures that I am always landing with my fist, wrist and knuckles aligned to my radius and ulna. If you have a taped, wrapped, gloved hand, for sport fighting, it may not be as crucial, but in bare-knuckle fighting, it most certainly is.

All of William Chen's authentic lineage throw the hook that way. There is a drill with weights to practice hooks in continuous succesion from him but it is really painful. I show it to people, but I don't actually do it.

[Lee Chiang Po]

A hook is a waste of energy. Throw them straight and direct. Most people don't know how to make a good fist. You do not roll your fingers into a fist. You bring your finger tips as close to the wrist as you can, then as you form the fist the tips will drag toward the palm. If you should accidently strike with the second knuckles they will not be forced into the palm and broken. Also, the wrist only supports the last 3 knuckles. The first one is angled upward and is quite easily broken. You want to be able to strike with all your power and not break your own hands.
Follow through is also a waste of energy. On impact all the energy is quickly dispersed into the target. A follow through is nothing more than a shove after the fact. Strike and retract quickly so that you can strike again.
It is quite commonly thought that striking with a large knuckle will cause far more damage. It might cause local damage, like torn skin or a bruise, but it loses a lot of the energy on impact. a flat surface will empart a great deal more energy to a target. A slap will knock you out if it is a good one. The referal shock of the impact will vibrate the brain and make you lose all sense of reality.

[YouKnowWho]

I throw my hook with a vertical fist. This way, it ensures that I am always landing with my fist,

I throw my hook with my forearm (45 degree downward force). This way I can follow with a head lock after that. But most of the time I like to use my hook to build a bridge.

[Paul T England]

I used to think, vertical punch bottom three, reverse punch, jab, cross etc Index finger.....now I use the same knuckle for all regular full fisted punches (excluding chap choys and Fung Nan).

You often contact with bottom three or top two but I always focus on the biggest knuckle.

(I do that for Wing Chun, Mantis, Eskrima and Tai chi, no difference)

The Eskrima Hook I was taught uses the vertical fist while hooking and still the biggest knuckle....

Paul
www.moifa.co.uk

[sanjuro_ronin]

A hook is a waste of energy. Throw them straight and direct. Most people don't know how to make a good fist. You do not roll your fingers into a fist. You bring your finger tips as close to the wrist as you can, then as you form the fist the tips will drag toward the palm. If you should accidently strike with the second knuckles they will not be forced into the palm and broken. Also, the wrist only supports the last 3 knuckles. The first one is angled upward and is quite easily broken. You want to be able to strike with all your power and not break your own hands.
Follow through is also a waste of energy. On impact all the energy is quickly dispersed into the target. A follow through is nothing more than a shove after the fact. Strike and retract quickly so that you can strike again.
It is quite commonly thought that striking with a large knuckle will cause far more damage. It might cause local damage, like torn skin or a bruise, but it loses a lot of the energy on impact. a flat surface will empart a great deal more energy to a target. A slap will knock you out if it is a good one. The referal shock of the impact will vibrate the brain and make you lose all sense of reality.

Wow, just...wow.

[David Jamieson]

Wow, just...wow.

lol, you caught that too eh?

hmmmmmn.

oh wait...

Bwahahahahahahahhahaahahahahah WTF???!!! ELEVEN!!!!

[sanjuro_ronin]

lol, you caught that too eh?

hmmmmmn.

oh wait...

Bwahahahahahahahhahaahahahahah WTF???!!! ELEVEN!!!!

I don't usually comment on any of his posts because, well, LCP seems to be living in La-La land more than in the real world, but that one was just...Wow !
LMAO !!

[Drake]

Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique

'nuff said.

[Ray Pina]

Place your fist's first two knuckles against the wall at face hight... look at your wrist alignment here. It's terrible.

Now place your last two knuckles against the wall. Much better alignment. This is why boxers can hit the heavy bag without closing their fist all the way. Those last two knuckles line up well.

But strikes come in from all different angles. Which require different alignments, so in reality there is no right or wrong way. It all depends.

I still like using single knuckle strikes from time to time, in close range, when targeting ribs or the upper lip.

[David Jamieson]

best results come from striking with the structure that is fully support through the skeleton.

while many people do hit with the pinky and ring, those can easily damage the bones in the hand behind them, whereas index and middle are supported more robustly by the entire skeletal structure. (they connect well through the hand to the two arm bones which in turn are supported by the rest of the skeletal structure)

ultimately, what you want to do is land your punches with some power.

you will find that you cannot always strike with the index and middle and that you will need to train to strike with them for best effect.

You will also find that you are not always able to cleanly strike with that structure 100% of the time.

[jdhowland]

Just do lots of knuckle push ups and heavy bag work. That will teach proper alignment through various rotations quickly.
jd

[Facepalm]

Thanks for all the really good advice everyone.

Currently im taught to try to use the first two knuckles and we always emphasize this whenever doing knuckle push ups and hitting bags.

I think however I might give the other knuckles a little more attention now.

Again thanks everyone

[Iron_Eagle_76]

Baah, who needs to use fists. Personally, my uber secret technique is to smash my opponents fists with my face.

[Pork Chop]

I don't usually comment on any of his posts because, well, LCP seems to be living in La-La land more than in the real world, but that one was just...Wow !
LMAO !!

he remembers living in new orleans in the 60s
so while he lives in my state (albeit a 4.5+ hour drive),
i'm reluctant to go and show him that my hook & my follow through aren't a waste of time
not big on beating up old men
at least not until i'm 35+ and start fighting in the master's division.

[goju]

supposedly as ive heard from morio higaonna saying that last two are supposedly connected with the heart in chinese medical textbooks so its advocated to punch with the first two for your healths sake


if you do alot of makiwara practice youll become acustomed to it and your knuckles will enlarge to make it easier to strike with the first two