Tool for Target.

I wrote this some time ago in response to a rather mundane debate I had with a good friend regards punchin bare fist in the street.

Nothing new to folks here i'm sure but would be good to hear others viewpoints and criticisms.




As in the CORRECT tool for the available target.

I was speaking to my good friend yesterday and as ever we got on to the subject of MMA/Combatives/self protection etc. And a topic/question came up along the lines of "why use an open hand instead of a punch?".

Fair question, and the palm heel strikes Jason was reffering to often get reffered to as slaps which they could not be further from if fully understood and the user can deploy them correctly with correct impact transference. Before I go any further i'm going to qoute Mick Coup here with regards the shape of the human head and correct impact tool. Obvious stuff but remember the head is constructed of thick protective bone and the most likely target we are presented with in a 1st to 5th gear street attack scenario or similar is approximately two thirds of the front upper part of the head/face. As in facing you, from the nose upwards to the frontal part of the skull.

"So imagine you have a sack filled with maize hanging from the roof as a punchbag, you can hit that all day long with a fist, elbow, knee etc more or less. Now remove the maize and fill it with something shaped more like a human head and of more appropriate structure, like a bowling ball. I no swearing on the forum guarantee you will not be using a fist on that anytime soon!"

Not word for word but along those lines as I recall from memory, but surely using a palm heel would make sense here? I stress not a slap, but a palm heel. Using a fist is great, comes much more naturally to most i'm sure, not to mention what they have always used, so as ever it's hard to get most to see past that.

All manner of reasoning starts to come forward as to why they would use a fist, they want to hit the end of the jawline with their two index and middle finger knuckles to cause that instant knockout...... That's a target area of maybe 2 inches I reckon.....in a full blown, no rules, extremely messy violent altercation and hopefully just one on one? Not exactly high percentage stuff in my humble opinion. "A fist will hurt more", might do...might not...so what if it does if it can't be consistently deployed, bit of a sliding scale approach that? "I'll do more damage", you might do with regards localised trauma to him as much as that fist, that your absolutley set on using regardless of target presented, again, big deal.

Just briefly, it puzzles me why people tend to get so fixated on how much local trauma they can inflict rather than actually ending the problem as soon as possible. It's all very macho and makes for great chest beating to tell and have tales told of that time such and such knocked whoevers teeth out or broke that guys nose etc but it's not that efficient or effective in reality and surely we should be striving for these two adjectives for many more valid reasons than pub stories? More on this later.

By using a closed bare fist on the general target area presented in such scenarios outlined earlier your greatly increasing your chances of having that weapon out of action fairly quickly, fist meets head/cheekbone/side of cranium constantly....not much padding in the way of tissue around the fist or head is there? Consider the pinky and adjacent scaphoids just might connect instead of or before those super conditioned index and middle finger knuckles and subsequent scaphoids.........still reckon you could hit that bowling ball in a sack? Really? How about i give it the odd push in different directions, you know, like people tend to move their bodies and in turn their head your so desperately trying to target and impact full contact with that now decidely more delicate looking structure your determined to stick with?

"But i'll not feel it as i will be full of adrenalin!", go for your life mate. Thing is, if the situation starts to pan out in the other guys favour or slightly longer than anticipated I reckon you just might want a fully functiong right or left hand. And that's before we get into the grief of a broken paw and all the subsequent weeks of hassle associated with it. Or is that also a small price to pay for being able to use that deadly macho bare fist you paired for life with the first time you put on a pair of gloves?


Now, getting back to what's important on the subject which surely has to be dealing with the attacker/aggresor as quickly and effectively as possible. I don't think anyone can argue that the knockout is by far the best option when we are talking about empty hands here?

This brings us back to the issue, the confusion almost, some have of getting localised trauma confused with more effective and specific results. Yes a fist will most likely cause more actual damage to the area it impacts but that does not in turn guarantee a more effective outcome!

We have all seen the character with the torn t-shirt,battered and bloodied face heading home with his mates after that scrap outside the chippy and it's instinctive to remark at what a hiding he took etc. How do we know? That old saying "you should see the other guy" could actually be applicable surely?
What if that other guy was lying sparked out snoring on the floor with little or nothing in the way of visible injury, is he still the winner as he would place in front of Mr torn t-shirt at tomorrows beauty pageant?

Ideally in such a situation as would also be ideal in the cage or ring the knockout can't really be argued with as far as deciding who walks away and who doesn't. But then in the street I havn't seen many referees suddenly step in and stop it as the guy with the broken nose and cut eye cannot intelligently defend himself. So I suppose actually, if circumstances allowed, aiming for more visible injury is one way to win a refereed sport fight...obviously.

As many will no doubt be aware the knockout is achieved by rapid acceleration and then the subsequent deceleration of the brain within the cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds and protects the brain itself. So it would make sense to try and go for the highest percentage chance of impacting that bony type bowling ball thing that protects that sack of fluid. Yes if you were to impact just so with a bare fist causing that bone on bone flash of impact that knockout might come more easily but the chances of actually getting things "just so" are far less than using that rather large solid palm heel on that solid unpredictably moving bowling ball. Very erratic fast moving bowling ball, remember i'm not talking about that sport fight were you have the massive luxury of getting a feel for your opponent as you both look for an "in". I'm talking about the instant locking of horns full on scrap here, and in no way am I taking anything away from those that fight in the ring or cage in any shape or form!

With no gloves, rules, time limits, refferee and countless other factors that are not in your favour then making sure your choosing the highest percentage option and CORRECT TOOL FOR TARGET PRESENTED must be a top priority?

With the palm heel you can transfer massive impact again and again to this particular target with greatly reduced risk of injury to the hand, fingers and wrist. Obviously this transfers into a far more reliable weapon for the given target, should things not be "just so".

The correct open hand strike is definately not the loose floppy hand slap advocated by some or the even more ridiculous cupped hand to cause some pocket of air to the ear that ruptures the eardrum or such boolocks that is often touted as if it were fact. Don't believe me? Stand in front of the kitchen work surface and use that cupped or loose floppy wet fish style hand to strike the surface full force, real full force......if your lucky it might sting like ......... and have you dancing about the kitchen taking the lords name in vane for a while. If you really did strike it full force you can be pretty sure you wont bother watching any adult films for a while, so if you do give it a go choose hands carefully..........

Use the palm heel itself, fingers retracted, thumb out the way and imagine your actually striking with the stump of the forearm. Driving the heel of the hand like a jackhammer into that fecking bowling ball, the one with the cheekbones, eye socket, thick forehead and nose. You can train it on pads by allowing your fingers and thumb to go over and round the side of the pad respectivley, you might be surprised how much impact can actually be transferred here

I'm certainly no palm heel nazi btw, it wasn't until I was shown and explained the concept but more importantly went away and drilled it for myself I saw and felt the benefits, take note. And that's not to say that I wouldnt advocate the use of a fist if the correct target was presented, for example any number of bodyshots or if the head was still enough to take that risk. Sliding scale here again......






Even though the title "TOOL FOR TARGET" and the opening sentence, "AS IN, THE CORRECT TOOL FOR THE AVAILABLE TARGET." is surely a clear indicator of what I am trying to advocate here, I feel it's neccessary for me to clarify a little on what I was trying to convey.

Having only been formally introduced to the palm heel strike less than a year ago, and the subsequent drilling of such a tool for the same amount of time, I am certainly not an expert in it's use with regards correct deployment and correct delivery of impact. This being the case, I am most definately not guaranteed to have enough flightime to ensure that should the target present itself then I will be sure to deploy and utilise the correct tool with the appropriate impact transference resulting in the desired outcome.

To get close to installing the sort of program (or perhaps file, "tool for target") that is opened and run as the default in a physical altercation I have to drill this thousands of times on pads, bag, mirror, shadowing and in live drills. And even then I don't think this absolutley guarantees after opening the (tool for target) file I will not right click/open the wrong tool at first. Perhaps I will be able to close the incorrectly chosen tool file then go back and choose the correct one, or perhaps I just can't access it due to system overload and I just keep running the tool file and run with it? Please bear in mind the sort of highly emotionally charged situation being discussed.

The more we correctly drill this the better chance we have however.

I certainly wasn't stating that as far as tool for target goes the palm heel is the higher percentage option per se, as long as you access the correct program and then open correct file and choose, again, the correct tool for the job (target presented) then whatever is chosen correctly is the highest percentage option. However this still does not guarantee the desired result, but what does to be fair?

Probably one of the best values and guidelines of the Core Concepts forum is, to me anyway, "the correct answer to the wrong question is still the wrong answer". This is why I thought it wise to perhaps clarify where I am on the palm heel/fist debate as some seem to think I now rate the palm heel above all else in the toolbox despite what they see me train and what I have written. I can't understand how they still think this after seeing me train but then it does seem to be common practice to see/hear or read one thing, choose what you prefer or whats easiest, looks the best and stick to it regardless of the practicalities and impracticalities of your now favourite tool. Bit like never running a virus check on your training hardrive as you know what will get deleted or at best moved to vault.

For example, the upwards chin jab as is advocated in WW2 combatives fans....an upwards chin jab and groin strike with the knee simultaneously, to a charged up and focused subject? If we break down the chin jab it's fairly easy to see it's very much low percentage, a strike that comes up from the waist, missing any clothing, finding it's way through the subjects arms and hands that are either trying to strike you or being used in a defensive way. That strike being hardly correct use of body mechanics, eye/limb alignment and kinetic chain, to a target that's an inch wide that is likely tucked in or at least partially obstructed by hands and arms, leaving your own chin on display from a start position that is disadvantaged from a good power generating point of view. Now lift a leg off the ground and try and strike the groin with force at the same time.....and stay firmly grounded with balance ready for what may well happen next......

It might have a better chance of working if the subject was standing unaware and fairly open to attack, as I believe it was actually designed for that purpose in the first instance. Please correct me if this is wrong, it may well be. But even if it is, it's not going to be something I'd waste much time on for obvious reasons.

It's much easier to stick with what you know or want to believe, probably the hardest thing I had to do when starting to drill C2 was erasing the deeply embedded neurology I had with regards striking and movement. Everything felt wrong, I kept wanting[/i] to go back to that orthodox stance, right side cocked and chin tucked in looking staright at the target. But that stance and style is not ideal and truly fit for purpose as far as your average street/pub/nightclub altercation is concerned, better than standing about with your thumb up your arse for sure but it isn't ideal.

No matter how much you want or prefer something to be it would be stupid to just hope it will present itself at the right time or the right way, nor can you engineer the target for the tool, you have to produce the tool for the target as best you can. Might mean that you have to drill a lot of stuff you don't want to and doesn't feel right but then again you might just embed and burn something onto the hard drive that's accessed, opened and run quicker than what you have fooled yourself into believing.

The correct answer to the wrong question is indeed still the wrong answer and the wrong tool for the target presented may be less than ideal at worst, but then the latter tends to sting a lot more I reckon.

Excellent post Chris! Some interesting food for thought there. I`m not a big fan of broken knuckles either so the palm strikes are something i would like to practise with. Another good strike that will reduce damage to the hands is the hammer fist blow, you can hit hard objects with some force without pain/damage.

Thanks Sabre, glad you liked it.

The hammer fist is certainly something that can be utilised also dependant in target presented.

The back of the head or neck to crouched subject for example, if the target was too low for a knee strike.

Imo, the hammer fist type strike does have a tendency to dissipate the impact and so makes correct impacting of energy on to the target harder. This is why I try to stress the correct tool for each target presented even when training on pads, bags, shields or whatever. To have this default, hard wired go to response to whatever is presented rather than what you want or have told yourself will be best.

A lot of (nearly all) tma's seem to put what's cool before what's actually fit for purpose as far as I can see.

Great post Chris

Many thanks.

Great post and i agree with the majority of it.
The problem is as you have stated in so many words, To somebody who does not train as much as they would like, when it comes to the crunch the body automatically goes onto default mode.
Having trained for many years in different martial arts and been in many altercations i can honestly say i have still fallen foul of the default mind set.
Excellent post and i agree you need a lot of awkward practicing to get the instinct right.

indeed, if you are armed and then need to draw your weapon, it would be a shame not being able to operate it because of broken hands and fingers.
I have seen quite a few people getting into street fights using their fists, its amazing how much damage the skull can do (its the hardest part of the body as the brain needs the strongest protection), and all it takes is for a person to weave or duck and hitting a window or a wall can have dramatic consequence.
The bones in the hand are tiny (like chicken bones)

Palm heel strikes can be good (if trained)
And the elbow is often overlooked, the elbow is a good tool. It is very strong, its powerful, and used right it can be like a razor. (If you watch muay thai fights and a fighter gets an elbow in the face, it usually cuts the skin.
Blood pouring in the eyes can be very distracting for the person that took the elobow.

Without wanting to sound over bearing in any way at all, let's be careful and not get too fixated on the palm heel. Correct tool for target presented.....

The elbow strike is something that should be considered as a "support tool" and not a primary strike/tool....allowing you to then get range and deploy a more high percentage option.

But I agree, the correct use of the elbow can transfer some good impact.

I think this is possible aided by the fact that we don't have that delicate, annoying lump of jangling bones at the end like our hands.

If only we could remove our hands to use that blunt end of the bone to transfer impact to target.