This was just something I was thinking about the other day, and would appreciate some input maybe from people who train stand-up; Why is a punch considered harder than a palm strike?

Personally, I would think a palm strike would be harder than a punch. I have 2 reasons for thinking like this:

1. Striking with the fist, there is a chance that the wrist will bend. Won't this limit the power of the punch? Striking with the heel of the hand, you're basically hitting someone with the end of your forearm, no?

2. Bas used to always say that the power of a punch comes from the distance it travels. Striking with the heel of the palm lets your arm travel further than it would had you struck with a closed fist.

Again, I don't train striking, only grappling, so I really have no idea what I'm talking about.

well,

a.your second reason is wrong,both punches travel same distance.i'm too lazy to explain why but think about it agian and see.

b.your palm is "padded" with the flesh of your paw,unlike your knuckles.

c.its about pressure.when you apply a force you need to consider not only the amount of force you use but how big is the surface who the force is applied through.
for example,if you will step on a small stone with your bare foot it might hurt,but if you will step on a nail (applying same force) there will be some damage.

d.fighters sometimes break their hand during a fight due to a punch they gave,but untill then they hit as hard as they can.check out wanderlei silva's early fights in a bare knuckles rings and see what i mean.

I'd say a punch, palm strikes look to be more easy to block and when someone hits his knuckles on the side of your open hand, it is going to hurt like hell/cause serious damage.

your palm is soft and your knuckles are hard. BUT, palm strikes are NOT ineffective. I see people use them in close like in the clinch or in the guard. Other than that I don't see them much only in Kung Fu styles.

hmm, I think palm strikes are good in some cases for instance on the ground you can add up to 2-3 inches distance by using your palm and that can make your strike less rabbitlike

Palms are much safer and can cause about the same amount of damage as a punch. Most people dont know how to punch properly so they run the risk of breaking their hands when throwing a punch. This is why they tell rape prevention classes to use a palm heel.

But if you throw a palm heel in order to not fuck up your fingers you gotta really pull them back which stiffens your forearm. This makes it slower than a punch which can be thrown with the arm quite relaxed. I think thats why the punch is the choice for the trained fighter.

Palms are pretty good in a streetfight where you don't have gloves and if your hands are not conditioned enough. If you hit them in the teeth with your fist you'll f up your knuckes

i think it would greatly depend on where you strike with the palm. at the base of my hand where it connects to the wrist seems to be about the same hardness as my knuckles. but that might not be so for everyone, so i suppose it depends on the person too; like just about everything. altought the hardness seems the same for me in that part of my palm, it has a smaller area of impact than my closed fist. as well as what ninja metioned about having the extra inches, about 3 for me. so i think my palms would be greater than my punches, if done correctly.

but im sure the same argue ment can be made for punches; if done correctly they can be more effective.

imo i think it depends on the individual.

you can break the bones in your hand when you use the palm too...

i suppose palm strikes are good for not busting a knuckle or something. Most damage i heard of someone getting from throwing a palmstrike was when bas rutten told a story how his palm was black from being bruised by using one on a guy.

I think it was this fight <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vPs0IhhEOFs&hl=en"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vPs0IhhEOFs&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

you can break the bones in your hand when you use the palm too...

you cant break shit punching people too

A real man breaks his hand on someones face :yes:

wheres the shoutbox at?

A real man breaks his hand on someones face :yes:

wheres the shoutbox at?

its off during fights so theres no spoilers

Ah okay

fist

You use palm heel strikes on women and knuckles on men



When you punch the force goes through your knuckles, through your hand, down through your wrist, and through the long bones in your forearm, (and if your arm is straightened enough through the long bones in your upper arm to your shoulder.) All that energy and the force of the bones redirecting that force into the target is delivered. A palm strike you're getting that too if you do it straight like breaking bricks but if you're throwing it looping the only bones backing that strike up are the bones in your hand. A hook you still have the wrist and forearm backing the strike up.

In short Palm heel strikes can be devastating for GnP but not so good for standup

I think palm strikes are more effective than a punch.
Palm strikes actually damage the insides of a person and you can actually kill someone with a palm strike if you AIM for thier heart. Theres a Korean Martial arts that specialize in Palm and Shoulder Strikes. Its called Hwarang Do.
Its a martial art thats over a thousand something years old. Very effective in my opinion. I take Boxing and i still do, but when i got hit by a palm strike it a was a whole new kind of pain.

yea... i agree with you totally. ninjashoes got hit by a korean palm strike while trying to keep his dog from being kidnapped. he saved his dog but he got hit the in back so hes confined to a wheel chair now.

id say palm strikes are harder but not using the meaty part of the palm using the wrist bone right at the base of the palm theres no deflection of force, but with the closed fist your concentrating the force to the tip of your first two knuckles so actually their proly about the same if you can do them both properly but i like open hand strikes thats what we use in capoeira and they defanitly have lots of power and are good and qiuck for distracting and setting up kicks