jow or petrol?

[B.Tunks]

Not only Irish gypsy boxers have used that method, also some Australian bareknuckle fighters of the past. The main purpose, as has been mentioned was to prevent cutting/cracking.

[B.Tunks]

A quality jow will work great in combination with Iron Palm training for hardening the bones and toughening the skin. Make sure to work the heavy bag without gloves to rough up the knuckles.

A smaller sandbag or bean bag is better for conditioning. I don’t think ‘roughing’ up the knuckles is a standard part of many hand conditioning methods either. Each time you break the skin you stall the process.

In my opinion the purpose of the heavy bag is kind of defeated by not wearing gloves/wraps. The level of support/structural integrity and protection provided by gloves allows you to punch with far greater power than without. Sure, there is nothing wrong with occasionally hitting the heavy bag with bare knuckles, however more power will be developed by using the heavy bag with gloves or at least wraps.

The question is, which is more important? Obtaining more power with superficially softer hands (i.e. softer surface tissue) or less power with harder hands? It is worth noting that the bones of a boxer’s hand/arm are also subject to the effects of Wollf’s law and in most cases will be conditioned to a far greater extent than anyone else’s.

[GoldenBrain]

A smaller sandbag or bean bag is better for conditioning. I don’t think ‘roughing’ up the knuckles is a standard part of many hand conditioning methods either. Each time you break the skin you stall the process.

In my opinion the purpose of the heavy bag is kind of defeated by not wearing gloves/wraps. The level of support/structural integrity and protection provided by gloves allows you to punch with far greater power than without. Sure, there is nothing wrong with occasionally hitting the heavy bag with bare knuckles, however more power will be developed by using the heavy bag with gloves or at least wraps.

The question is, which is more important? Obtaining more power with superficially softer hands (i.e. softer surface tissue) or less power with harder hands? It is worth noting that the bones of a boxer’s hand/arm are also subject to the effects of Wollf’s law and in most cases will be conditioned to a far greater extent than anyone else’s.

I agree that sand and bean bags are great for hand conditioning and I use those as well, but you may be misunderstanding me when I refer to roughing up the knuckles. I'm not advising anybody to split, break or damage the skin in any way.

We do knuckle pushups on carpet, wood, bricks...etc as well as hitting a heavy bag without gloves and I never bleed or damage my skin. As far as the heavy bag goes, I can hit it just as hard without gloves as others can with gloves but this skill took time to develop and I wasn't in a hurry.

Rough knuckles are just an inevitable outcome of this kind of training and after many years (approx. 30) of practice my hands are just as dextrous as when I started. My knuckles don't look deformed either but they are a bit rougher than regular non martial folk. And, when I say rougher I don't mean like sand paper, I mean they are a bit more calloused much like the callouses on the palm of my hand from the various types of hard work I do on the farm or when climbing or staff training...etc.

The key is to work slowly and methodically and use a good jow for healing. Hit the bag slow and with much less than full power at first and in time develop to full power. Listen to the body or the hands in this case and they will tell you when you are doing the wrong thing.

The general consensus where I learned my Kung-Fu as well as other styles is that the reason boxers often suffer from broken hands or the "boxers break" is that they train with gloves and don't develop iron hand skills. If a fighter uses gloves to develop great punching power without training the hand correctly then when they hit somebody without the gloves a broken hand is a very likely outcome.

[B.Tunks]

Thanks. Yes, I misunderstood what you meant about roughing up the knuckles and the purpose of hitting the heavy bag with bare knuckles.

[GoldenBrain]

No worries friend! I appreciate you bringing it up because it gave me a chance to clarify and elaborate on the subject. I'd hate to think I misled somebody into bloodying their hands into useless meat hooks.

As for the topic of the thread. I gave it a valiant search on the world wide inter-webs and was unable to find any reasonable evidence that soaking hands in petrol would make them harder. All I could confirm is what others have said which is that bare knuckle fighters did in fact use this method and that it can cause skin irritation and possibly cancer.