Open hand strikes

[achilles]

I've been playing with some open hand strikes lately while fighting in close quarters, and I think there is an aspect to open handed striking that is often overlooked. Most martial artists who train for self defense know the safety benefits of open handed striking such as lessening the risk of breaking one's hand, the option of striking areas farther from the mouth and thus lessening the risk of hitting teeth, etc. Another benefit of striking with the open hand is that it gives you an instant grip on the opponent after contact. For those of you who know the first two Jun Fan/Wing Chun Dummy sets, you will remember the part in the beginning when you transition from a palm strike immediately into a head control and inner lop sao (which incidentally resembles a common wrestling tie-up and is a good position for a variety of takedowns and strikes). Other examples are found in JKD grappling techniques where a huen sao is used to gain the inside position for a palm strike which transitions quickly into a head or body trap. The fak sao (outward knife hand) is also good for securing an outside neck grasp which is a good way to support the straight knee and down elbow spike to the spine. Furthermore, open strikes are less aversive than closed fist strikes and easy on your training partners in light sparring (used as a supplement, not a substitute for harder contact sparring with protective gear).

Just something to think about.

 

[Blooming Lotus]

good comment! I am not a jkd practioner but I do use alot of pressure points strikes. I was trading off my dim mak with with the western police / army defence pressure point system, and a fave first , second or third phase distraction strike tech set up for a submission or few of theirs ( and if you saw it you wouldn't feel half as embarressed for them ) is a plain old palm heel strike to the chest, but at exactly that same point they use there, a close fist and you're on a crictical heart point and killing someone. Then add your open hand blades and brush srtikes and open hand is definately something to consider if you haven't already. Another option is another option.

BL

 

[still learning]

Hello, Open hand strikes do make sense. In our Kempo we use these strikes to the face and groin areas. How many times people break their hand punching the head area? Open hand,back of the hand (usually the groin area), or palm strikes can be just as effective. Open hand and palm are they different? What is your thoughts?

 

[Adept]

Open hand and palm are they different? What is your thoughts?

Well, an open hand strike can be a knife hand, or a ridge hand, or a palm-heel strike, or it can just be a slap. A palm strike is just one aspect of the open hand.

 

[kroh]

Much love to the palm strike. Lots of groovy applications to go around. Bil / Biu (my romanization sucks) gee strike transitioning into a grab of the face or similar attack (such as a slap or follow up chop, etc) is also quite nice.

Regards,
Walt

 

[Flatlander]

Another benefit of striking with the open hand is that it gives you an instant grip on the opponent after contact.

This is a great insight, and I agree with it wholeheartedly. I try to train to use open hand striking in trapping range as often as possible for this very reason. I think that it allows for a higher degree of sensitivity, and keeps the arms less "clenched" to facilitate faster hand movement.

What I find difficult, however, is switching between the two methods of striking. I either go in with a "closed fist" mindset, or an "unclosed fist" mindset.

 

[achilles]

I too find that I either take on the mentality of hitting with the fist or open handed (open handed, of course, including fingers, palm and edge of the hand). This does seem to be pretty limiting, but I think there is a way to integrate the two methods for a more complete and efficient strategy. I think that part of what puts us in the "either/or" situation is the amount of tension in our fingers while in the ready position. Not only would the open hand tools be more accessable with a quasi fist (loose fingers, halfway opened), but it would definitely cut down on the resistance of the antagonist muscles during closed fisted punching as well.

By the way, here are some example of open hand hitting (w/ trapping) into tie ups for hitting and throwing:

1) I sometimes practice the opening sequence from the first mook jong set on a parter either directly from close range or from a ballistic entry.
-loy jong sao to loy jong sao with other hand whilst palming the face/head. from their I sink while both engaging the head with one hand and using a loy lop sao with the other (resembles wrestling's collar and wrist tie up)
-from this position, the knee, headbutt, disengage to elbow, inner forearm strike, shoulderbutt and tai otoshi are good options in my oppinion. you can also disengage and tackle if you meet too much resistance clinch wise.
2) I also take a portion of dummy set #4 to set up my double neck tie.
-seong loy tan sao (double palm up block from the inside) to double palm strike to opponent's head/face
-from their you can wrap your hands around his neck for headbutts, knees and disengage to elbow. you can also front choke/guillotine or snap down/spawl for ground fighting or place kicking his head for the extra point

You can imagine how the hand can just slide into place behind the neck after strking the opponent's head with no need to really disengage the head.

These are two I got from mook jong training; there are many more that SiFu Inosanto and SiFu Jeff Westfall teach which I include in my training and teaching.

 

[AC_Pilot]

I especially like it for certain Praying Mantis concepts where you might end up facing the same direction as your opponent, due to an arm wrench or similar. You can use a "tiger" or "dragon" claw hand shape to "pierce" the groin better, (the low blow) and your backfist to the face is the high part. Also this same hand shape allows you to do two types of damage when striking straight-on with the heel of your hand to the teeth/chin area, the point of either of these strikes is to "whip" your fingers into the eye sockets or testicles, it's a flowing whipping motion . If one of those fingers pops one eye or groin target solidly, you should have the destruction/reaction you need to fully enter and straight blast them.

 

[kensen83]

if you want to improve switching from open hand strikes to closed, and vice versa i found that if you first practice infront of a bag do a simple thrusting punch forward but keep your hand totaly open until you reach the bag then close it into a fist completly, after doing this repeatidly i found that moving from lets say a palm heel strike to a back fist was much easier or even a palm heal to a hook punch, but this was also part of my system of shaolin kempo karate, so just trying to lend a helpfull hand, we always tried to use the principle concepts of JKD in shaving away the inessential and going into the world with open minds to all art forms, learning what we can from each.