The nails-and-rings thing is a huge consideration with short courses, and for SD training in general (for me, only the rings, since I require they cut their nails short). Punching someone while wearing thin rings is likely to be as damaging to the puncher as the punchee. With big, chunky rings, it's less of an issue. There may be bad bruising, but it's unlikely to affect them during the fight.
Stuff like this makes me start to rant like @drop bear. And that's his job, damnit!
Some things (like this), part of what I want to do is "give them permission" to follow this instinct. I hope it feels somewhat less foolish when they've been told it's a good idea, so they're less inhibited about crossing the street when something looks off.
He did clarify that he was talking specifically about fights that included a hand injury. I've not seen much evidence either way. I suspect some hand injuries are "game over" for some people, but not all, and some people seem to be less limited by them. Probably a difference in pain tolerance and experience with pain.
You teach what's likely to help the audience, not what you want to teach. If some are likely to wear small rings and have long nails, you don't teach them something that makes those a bigger liability.
Most folks aren't going to hit hard enough to cause head injury after a total of a few hours of training, unless they were already hitting hard coming in.
Hey look revisionist history. I said untrained punching risks injury to hands. When people have injured their hands they lose.
Not so long as they are unable to use a fist well. A really bad and weak punch is far worse than a halfway decent slap.
I’m not even sure what you’re on about now.
