If you punch someone on the street there is a high chance that you will break a bone or bones in your hand.
Just look at the early UFCs for proof of that.
Especially if you strike the head or face area.
The head is a strong part of the body and it has evolved that way on purpose as it protects the brain.
Those that did not have strong enough skulls, died through natural selection.
This raises the question; should we avoid using punches on the street in case we break our hands? Should we stop training in boxing? After all, we fight how we train and boxing teaches us to apply punches to the head under pressure...
Bones Against Bones...
Firstly, if you use punching a lot in your training, it is highly likely that you will use punching if you get caught up in a real altercation on the street because when the body is in this stressful environment, it behaves how it is trained to behave...
generally.
'You tend to fight how you train' is a well used phrase.
This means that if you train a certain way, it is almost impossible to have the expectation that you will consciously be able to choose to fight in a different way in the heat of the moment.
You can't, the body will just react, there is little to no conscious thought.
If you train regularly in boxing (as I have recently), you should expect that if you are forced to deal with a threat, you will throw punches.
This can have implications as indicated above with a broken hand or hands.
Secondly, a lot of boxing defenses against the punch utilize the large area of the glove to block punches either by padding the punches down or simply covering your face with the large area the two gloves allows for.
This can have implications for the street.
On the street you will not have those large gloves to interrupt those punches coming from another large glove.
This limits this tactic considerably on the street.
Both the guard and the punches are too small for that boxing method to work.
Furthermore, holding the hands covering the face (where gloves would be held in boxing), leaves the naked hands open to being struck and injured as well.
And thirdly, if you were to punch someone in the head for real, there is a high chance that you will injure your hand on the attackers head.
This will have implications if you use your hands in your work such as typing or using tools etc.
It will probably not affect you at the time thanks to adrenaline, but it will have consequences later.
Although your injuries suffered during an encounter may have a low bearing on your decision, it may be debilitating enough of an injury that it affects your ability to continue the violent encounter further.
Sport to Street So there are a number of factors to consider when looking at the merits of using punching in training such as boxing.
This is one of the areas we must overcome when transitioning the superior training methods of the combat sports into street practical strategies and methodologies.
Of course some will take the position that it doesn't matter if your hand gets injured in an encounter, at least you have survived and maintained your health and safety.
And this is a valid point.
If this is acceptable to you, all the best.
As long as you have considered the above points.
One simple method you can use to adapt the boxing defence measures is when you cover, raise your hands way up onto your head so your forearms and elbows intercept the punch, rather than your hands.
The forearms and elbows are very sturdy parts of the body and can absorb a lot of impact.
As well as this, fully utilise slips and change elevation.
This is a method I was introduced to by Ray Floro called the Crazy Monkey.
This is just a small, tiny part of that system but is something that may be worth looking into if you have concerns about defending punches on the streets.
It is also applicable when utilising the startle-flinch response as raising your hands up, covering your head and face is a natural thing to do.
Open or Closed hand? And should you only use open hands to the head? It is a difficult thing to train for under pressure with contact which is one of the benefits of boxing.
Can you train to use closed fists to the body and open hands to the face? That would be nice but is quite difficult to achieve though is definitely worthy of consideration.
Some people recommend hard to soft and soft to hard.
I'm not proposing a magical solution, it is really down to the individual.
I just wanted to highlight some areas for consideration.
It's in the Application So I am not pushing one idea over the other.
I just think it is worthwhile considering what is best for you.
I will say though, it would be unwise to totally stop boxing for fear of injuring your hands on the street as that is akin to throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
Boxing is a fantastic system which quickly teaches people how to APPLY techniques on a resisting opponent who is fighting back.
That is an essential component of ANY system for teaching elements of low tech combat.