Spearhand Strike

[skribs]

I'm having trouble with a few details on the spearhand strike. Here's what I know:

You strike with your fingertips. Slight bend in your fingertips so if they do compress, they compress in the direction of the joints, and middle finger bent more than the other fingers to align the three fingers into a supported striking surface.

What I'm having trouble with is which part of the fingertip, exactly, am I supposed to strike with? Is it the very tip, with the bone and the nail? This seems like a good way for me to bend or break a nail, especially if I'm trying to break a board.

Or, is it with the pad of the finger, i.e. the part you would use to type, play guitar, or hold a pen? In that case, how do you apply force in the proper direction, and how do you support your wrist during the strike as your wrist will be at an angle to the direction of power?

 

[jobo]

I'm having trouble with a few details on the spearhand strike. Here's what I know:

You strike with your fingertips. Slight bend in your fingertips so if they do compress, they compress in the direction of the joints, and middle finger bent more than the other fingers to align the three fingers into a supported striking surface.

What I'm having trouble with is which part of the fingertip, exactly, am I supposed to strike with? Is it the very tip, with the bone and the nail? This seems like a good way for me to bend or break a nail, especially if I'm trying to break a board.

Or, is it with the pad of the finger, i.e. the part you would use to type, play guitar, or hold a pen? In that case, how do you apply force in the proper direction, and how do you support your wrist during the strike as your wrist will be at an angle to the direction of power?

you should only be striking to soft tissue, if you daft enough to spearhand a board or a skull then you will get what you deserve , of which a broken nail is getting away lightly

 

[pdg]

Like this?

 

[hoshin1600]

The nuki -Te in uechi-ryu karate is a stock in trade strike. I personally can't do it. I don't have the patience or desire to work it. I don't think the return is worth the effort. For the most part it is aimed at soft targets. I have been told about one Okinawan master (can't remember who it was sorry) who would hit you with it then curl his fingertips to dig and hook under a muscle, and pull. The recipient told me it was really painfull.
There are guys who break boards with it but it's something you would have to work for a lifetime to use like that. To answer the question I was taught to strike with the finger tips. Yes a longer nail will get in the way for hard surfaces but not everyone has that problem.

 

[WaterGal]

I've never tried to break a board with this technique, but I've been told you need to do bone conditioning on your fingers to do this safely.

Mr WaterGal likes to tell a story about a guy he used to train with when he was a young black belt, who tried this break at a demonstration and ended up breaking his fingers so badly that he had bone sticking out of his skin and blood everywhere.

 

[Dirty Dog]

The strike is with the tips of the fingers. Unless you spend a long long time conditioning, you're inviting disaster. Having long nails would be... inadvisable.
When I was young, I did the conditioning and did board breaks with the spearhand. I've not done that type of conditioning in years, and I think if I was young again, I wouldn't do it again. I'll settle for targeting soft areas with the spearhand.

 

[JR 137]

I’ll take my chances and just punch, elbow, knee and kick soft areas. I’ve tried to hit my BOB XL a few times with it. Even hitting gently, it easily felt like a recipe for disaster. I’ve got more important things to do than condition my fingers. If I knew my life depended on it, I’d have a different view. Until then, I’m all set.

 

[DanT]

For most people, unless you're willing to spend x amount of hours conditioning your fingers, you'd be more efficient with your time to train your fists. Under duress you'll most likely hurt your hands otherwise.

 

[_Simon_]

Yeah it's an interesting technique, I tried it on the heavy bag once..... ouch . Yeah requires a LOT of conditioning, and I'm sure it would be quite effective if you got it right, just not sure if it's worth it. It would actually be a good challenge to work on nukite, I know I've seen karate-ka do nukite through watermelons before, crazy.

These guys actually have a different approach to nukite which is really interesting. I've watched a few of their videos before but only just watched this one, and they treat it more to train your ability to drive your flat hand past an opponent to set up for throws etc, pretty cool. I liked the sparring drill at the end too

 

[Dirty Dog]

I’ll take my chances and just punch, elbow, knee and kick soft areas. I’ve tried to hit my BOB XL a few times with it. Even hitting gently, it easily felt like a recipe for disaster. I’ve got more important things to do than condition my fingers. If I knew my life depended on it, I’d have a different view. Until then, I’m all set.

Yeah it's an interesting technique, I tried it on the heavy bag once..... ouch . Yeah requires a LOT of conditioning, and I'm sure it would be quite effective if you got it right, just not sure if it's worth it. It would actually be a good challenge to work on nukite, I know I've seen karate-ka do nukite through watermelons before, crazy.

You two both display the classic error - trying it out without first conditioning. Spearhand conditioning is unlike anything you've likely done before. Unlike punches or kicks, you don't condition the spearhand by hitting a heavy bag. You start with a barrel of flour. And strike the flour, not the barrel.

Again, although I've done this conditioning in the past, I am not at all sure it's worth the trouble, nor that I would go bother, if I had it all to do over again.
I do use spearhands against soft targets, and I have had students ask about learning the technique in more detail. When I explain the conditioning they'll need to do, they have, 100%, lost interest.

 

[skribs]

You two both display the classic error - trying it out without first conditioning. Spearhand conditioning is unlike anything you've likely done before. Unlike punches or kicks, you don't condition the spearhand by hitting a heavy bag. You start with a barrel of flour. And strike the flour, not the barrel.

Again, although I've done this conditioning in the past, I am not at all sure it's worth the trouble, nor that I would go bother, if I had it all to do over again.
I do use spearhands against soft targets, and I have had students ask about learning the technique in more detail. When I explain the conditioning they'll need to do, they have, 100%, lost interest.

The sad thing for me is I have no problem with doing the conditioning. I'm just too lazy to build the training tools.

 

[JR 137]

You two both display the classic error - trying it out without first conditioning. Spearhand conditioning is unlike anything you've likely done before. Unlike punches or kicks, you don't condition the spearhand by hitting a heavy bag. You start with a barrel of flour. And strike the flour, not the barrel.

Again, although I've done this conditioning in the past, I am not at all sure it's worth the trouble, nor that I would go bother, if I had it all to do over again.
I do use spearhands against soft targets, and I have had students ask about learning the technique in more detail. When I explain the conditioning they'll need to do, they have, 100%, lost interest.

I really didn’t hit hit at all. It was more of a little harder than tapping the thing during a warmup and cool down. I like doing several open hand strikes during warmup. My CI has a combo we use during line drills that I like; it ends with two spear hand strikes. I typically do that drill, but leave out the end. A few times I thought I’d add them in lightly. Reconfirmed why I’m not a fan of it. It’s just not worth the conditioning required to make it a worthwhile strike IMO.

I’ve seen a few progressions in conditioning - buckets of flour, sand, rice, etc. I’ve a documentary on Okinawan karate where the various dojo have a bunch of different surfaces to strike and condition. They did a lot of fingertip strikes - spear hand and not sure what it’s called in English, but the chicken beak strike? One of the dojo owners was showing a piece of car tire that was used for it, and it was worn to the point where it needed to be replaced. I think it was Samurai Spirit: Karate with Nicholas Pettas, but I’m not 100% sure.

Long story short, I don’t hit the BOB too hard with a spear hand, I’ve seen conditioning for it, and I just don’t think it’s worth it for me. I’d rather spend that time doing other stuff.

 

[_Simon_]

You two both display the classic error - trying it out without first conditioning. Spearhand conditioning is unlike anything you've likely done before. Unlike punches or kicks, you don't condition the spearhand by hitting a heavy bag. You start with a barrel of flour. And strike the flour, not the barrel.

Again, although I've done this conditioning in the past, I am not at all sure it's worth the trouble, nor that I would go bother, if I had it all to do over again.
I do use spearhands against soft targets, and I have had students ask about learning the technique in more detail. When I explain the conditioning they'll need to do, they have, 100%, lost interest.

Yep, was already 100% aware of the time and conditioning required for it before I did it, just thought I'd give it a go to see how it felt (was very softly done of course), a natural curiosity hehe.

I’ve seen a few progressions in conditioning - buckets of flour, sand, rice, etc. I’ve a documentary on Okinawan karate where the various dojo have a bunch of different surfaces to strike and condition. They did a lot of fingertip strikes - spear hand and not sure what it’s called in English, but the chicken beak strike? One of the dojo owners was showing a piece of car tire that was used for it, and it was worn to the point where it needed to be replaced. I think it was Samurai Spirit: Karate with Nicholas Pettas, but I’m not 100% sure.

Ah yeah I saw that documentary and how worn the tire was... sooo cool

 

[Reedone816]

My sifu used to use spearhand strike to the stomach, to feel to abs conditioning.
Now in what i currently learning, we use spearhand strike to dig and hook bone like ribs...

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