QUIT BRINGING UP BAS RUTTEN! He used palm strikes because he wasn't ALLOWED to throw punches to the head. But he DID punch to the body: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gs-lftiVvJmraWg.html On targets where he could do either, he chose to punch. He only used palm strikes when he had to. Because he's smart.

I'm sorry, they use palm strikes in Star Trek, so they are the future punches.

Great video. You could've mentioned one more small factor in the Mike Tyson story. Most of us don't generate anywhere close to the "impact force" into the fist-face interface that iron Mike did.

Self defense "experts" : "you should never punch in a street fight because you will break your hands" Body shots to the liver and solar plexus : "allow us to introduce ourselves"

I fondly remember Bas Rutten knocking people out with palm strikes in Pangrasse. I also remember him putting people to sleep with fists. I think you're bound to break bones regardless of the configuration if you're hitting that hard. The one thing I can see giving palm strikes utility is the fact the it stings more on the face.

NGL, if I have to fight for self defense, a couple of broken bones in my hand are better than whatever the other person wanted to do to me

The fist and evolution wasn't your best analogy/argument. Our hands were designed to grapple and hold tools. As an impact weapon, hammer fists are naturally used by most if not all apes. Fists do not equal punching with knuckles.

I was hollering laughing until she hurt her hand. Love that he made his point using humor as well as common sense.

There's also historical evidence to further debunk the "never punch in a street fight you'll break your hand" meme. I read Mendoza’s boxing manual from 1789. There are dozens of instructions about when and how to punch your opponent but it never once mentions a risk of breaking one’s hands. If illustrations from the period are accurate, boxers didn’t even wear wraps back then. So the guy who literally wrote the book on bare-knuckle boxing didn't even think to mention the risk of a boxer's fracture. A lot of people don't realize how far back you have to go to get primary sources on bare-knuckle boxing. It seems most would guess the 1920s or so based on the texts some people quote to try and lend historical support to what I'm going to dub the "fists of glass, palms of iron" myth. It was actually outlawed in England in 1867! It's interesting because after that you start to get these same sort of armchair commentators giving the same basic bad advice.

I love the "not a bug, it's a feature" thing

Throughout history, we hit each other with objects HELD in our hands. Apes and primitive humans establish social status by wrestling, but when killing time came, apes used their teeth and humans (with our sad little teeth) used rocks and sticks, knives, spears, etc. All this punching and palming is the artifact of a society where we're so safe that we've forgotten the difference between sport and combat.

Palm heel strikes are great and can be used in a variety of ways, but it works differently from fist punches. In the end, it's all about the training. People train for years throwing punches, learn how to do it, get used to them, they become second nature. Then, they decide to try out palm strikes *one day*, with the intent to disprove them from the start. It doesn't work very well (duh), they conclude it doesn't work and ditch it. Please, people... I believe punching is only seen as the norm today because of the heavy influence from the sport of boxing. I also do believe the fist is an invaluable tool to have in your belt.

Palms , hammers etc should be used as you mentioned: to solve specific problems in specific positions. I.e. I long fell into the trap of trying to replace punches altogether, when the best approach is honestly what you said which is sticking with punches until I have a good reason to deviate vs limiting myself by taking away my most natural strike.

I trained mostly in boxing and muay thai and started adding in some WW2 combatives stuff. I don't really feel anything contradicts. The rule I was taught for palm strikes was “hard weapons to soft targets, soft weapons to hard targets” so punches would still be used to the body. The mechanics for throwing the strikes should be the same as jabs and crosses if someone trained boxing first. I agree that the palm strikes should not be trained on a bag but they feel fine on focus mitts. Someone in the comments mentioned palm strikes were used historically because soldiers needed to be able to still handle guns. I would add that similarly in a self defense situation you would want to avoid injury to your hands to access a weapon (possibly improvised) as well. Don’t misunderstand, I wouldn’t replace punches, I just think the palm strikes can be used in combination as well. At the very least, if someone insists on using only punches they should consider conditioning the hands like karateka do. Our fists don’t real get conditioned through the gloves and wraps. I started conditioning my hands only recently after I started watching bare knuckle boxing matches. Their hands look like hell at the end of the fight.

I think its important to distinguish between strikes with the heel of the hand and slaps. I agree hitting with the heel of the hand is a bit silly. Slaps have a larger area you can hit with though and their open structure is of benefit when hitting the head. Ignore getting injured and think about reliable transfer of force. When you punch without gloves on you have two hard surfaces making contact and it's very easy to get a glancing blow if things hit at the wrong angle. A lot of your force therefore doesn't get delivered to the target. When punching with gloves you don't have this problem, as the glove compresses to the shape of the face. A slap does the same thing, the hand is able to match the shape of the face and not slip off, delivering all of your force. Use punches and slaps, pick the one that works for your situation.

Also, all of those "secret technique" palm strikes from kung fu and other traditional (or I guess process-focused) martial arts that "use chi to destroy your opponent's internal organs"... aren't palm strikes. They're pushes/shoves. Their purpose is to put all of your weight into pushing your opponent off balance and make them fall down, so you can either run away or capitalise on their disadvantageous position.

“In reality the only way to guarantee that you won’t get injured is to *not get in fights.*” This is the smartest thing you or anyone else has ever said about self defense. You should do a video about the bias towards “street fight” situations when talking about self defense. I’d make a video about it but my videos are too dangerous.

Just gonna be a bit of a nerd here: it's important not to overstate concepts like "designed" in biological principles. Nothing about evolution is "designed." Features appear, the net positive traits stay while the net negatives are filtered, but neutral changes or even mild good/bad changes can persist so long as they don't impede survival. And, frankly, our hands are best suited to grasping things. Fists are one way people tend to fight as a default, but so are things like hammer-fisting, scratching, and grabbing (especially grabbing a weapon). I still agree with the main argument, just some wiggles about the verbiage.

"Inches matter in the fight"💀💀

There's a much more important injury factor than distal radius when palm striking. It's the scaphoid bone, much easier to injure.

Palm strikes are crap. I tried one on a heavy bag with my left hand - strained my wrist. I thought it was a coincidence so I tried my right - strained that one too. Grrr! People need to stop telling people to use palm strikes.

I enjoy this channel a lot. Sometimes you challenge my beliefs, sometimes you confirm my beliefs, but you always have back up for your claims, and you present it in an engaging way. Kudos to you, good sir.

I think palm strikes have there place. One good thing about a palm strikes is that you can actively grab your adversary. If you are fighting one attacker. Using palm strikes you can transition from striking to a control lock easily. I learned this on chin na and japanese juijetsu. Controlling your opponent is better than just striking. For looking from out side the fight it looks like you are not beating the crap out of the guy that is trying to mug you. For legal reasons it looks more humane. If you have a lot of witnesses it looks like you are actual just trying to push the attacker away. But if your life is in danger all bets are off, striking, kicking and breaking an attackers limbs are necessary. Especially if you are protecting a love one. Just my opinion.

I've noticed that while we naturally make fists we don't throw "traditional" punches, more like looping hammer fists or close fist slaps.

A lot of martial arts and self defense systems that feature sparring as a must will often teach people to throw a hammer fist from guard. This allows you to throw/drop a lot of weight into the strike and has a reduced risk of broken bones compared to straights, crosses and hooks. This makes it a great opening strike, but you'll still need to know how to throw punches since they still work better overall.

Bro, the energy and effort you put into these videos is great! I really appreciate them and I love how you can put them in such plain language. Keep it up!

This is the most underrated martial arts channel out there.

This is probably the best clip you put up so far. The conversation in the end is priceless! The ever so innocent "I mean... wouldn't you?" absolutely made my day! The editing of your stuff is really getting better. Keep up the good work, man.

Palm strikes are not for throwing from the outside, its for fitting on certain target surfaces while on the inside.

Without gloves, I can hit harder with open hands and that's because of the little padding. Gloves pad a LOT more and allow to hit a LOT harder! Thus, padding can be a good thing! I agree with you on that the slap is better than the straight palm strike for the most situations, but if you got an opening to drill someone in the mouth, you might want to reconsider, or spend some time removing teeth from your hands... PS: I'd avoid punching as much as practically possible. I prefer hammer fists and elbows whenever possible.

I'm glad you mentioned turning the slap into a collar ties because thats pretty much the only thing I actually learned about open palm strikes. I was going to comment that at the start of the video but I restrained myself and did this crazy concept of watching the whole video. P.S. why did you abuse your girlfriend by breaking her wrists with your head? Not cool man

You know, when I found this channel I thought to myself, 'why is Spider-Man wearing a Batman shirt?' But in all seriousness, your videos have really been a wonderful insight into a world I know nothing about. Except palm strikes on an opponent beneath you. It came up in one of the hatchet books I read many moons ago. Didn't understand why someone would attack that way instead of with a fist, but now I do!

I think that the slap is undervalued in this video as a grappler slaps would be my main attack to set up grabs and stuff since I suck at striking and do not want to be in that range. I do agree with everything he said

Professional fighters back in the bare knuckle days had that weird fighting Irish stance because head shots were pretty rare. If you make your living with your hands you have to be pretty selective with where you hit a man. If you on the other hand aren't a professional fighter and you won't be needing to punch someone for 15-20 rounds next week, go ahead and punch them in the nose or cheek good and hard and just put them on ice later so the swelling isn't too bad the next day when you sober up.

I’ve seen people duke it out in street fights, and they’ve always used fists.

mike tyson only having such a mild fracture against another elite heavywheight fighter seems more like an argument for punches than against it, I don't think most of us can even generate 1/5th of the force he could at the time.

I never did like palm strikes, they just never felt powerful like a punch.

I used to do palm strikes on the bag all the time 6 years ago and to be honest i am surprised i didn't break my hand hopefully no one else does this

I’d never replace a jab or straight punch with a palm strike.

another good use for palm strikes are close range uppercuts, william fairburn who was a phenomenal martial artist who served in the shanghai police for 10 years and later taught hand to hand combat to US and British troops in ww2 had that move in his system of "gutter fighting"

Very well thought out and great delivery A+ video

I have wonky and inflexible wrists. There's two very specific angles where an open hand strike works better for me than a fist. Those angles pretty much only occur when I'm messing around

Superb video!

I've been saving this one for some time now, and it delivered mightily

Awesome video, I'd be interested in hearing what you find on horizontal fist with first and second knuckle (boxer/karate punch) and the vertical fist striking with bottom three knuckles (wing chun/ jack Dempsey/ bare handed boxing).

Love the sword and pool noodle comparison.

Just for curiosity in how many "street fights" you were involved in your life?

Bas Ruten disagrees I love the channel and I’m still watching the video so I’ll wait for the conclusion but still there’s a tremendous amount of evidence to suggest that slapping and palm strikes are preferable to closed fist punches without gloves.

That whole "hands are designed for punching" bit is more than a little controversial. It's also worth noting that no ape in nature does any movement vaguely like a punch and they do just fine in their version of "street fights" (they do damage with their hands and hit, it's just mostly hammer fists and backhands and lots of grabbing). Also, it's not like you'd punch a wolf. Of all the things you could do, that's about the stupidest. Similarly there's not much evidence in historical or the remaining non-westernized tribal societies of punching in ritual violence (tons of wrestling and mock weapons and such). It happens but it's generally more "turn the hand into a club" type stuff where you just grab a piece of cloth and wrap it around, but AFAIK that's generally used with club-like movements. I'd argue punching with the fist like we currently train is weird and mostly unnatural and focusing on that might interfere with using your hands more naturally. Boxing gloves are a (strange) weapon that we used in a hugely popular sport, so imagining winning fights with boxing movements heroically became culturally normalized at the expense of any other type of fighting victory. It's just as likely we can "punch" because our hands evolved to hold things and we don't like dropping things we like, and the social evolution is not in line with our biological evolution.

Recently got back into fighting at 60 years old and am enjoying your vids. Very informative and delivery is hilarious. 😆 Thanks!

I remember trying palm strikes on the bag. Immediately felt the over extending of the whatever thing carpal majjiga and immediately dropped the idea.

I love this video way too much. Bravo.

One of the most valuable and underappreciated martial arts channels on KZfaq

I like how fighting itself isn’t glorified here. It’s not like the human arms were created with battle in mind. They are made to grab things… But that also doesn’t mean they’re meant for grappling. You can hit someone with a fist easier than grappling accurately without training. Fighting is a battle of the individual, while martial arts are the guidelines that may help more efficiently use your body to ‘fight’.

So nice to hear from great experts.

Thx for the great information

I love your theme song at the end

Love the video. Lot of good points. Request: can you do a hammer fist video?

"I mean... wouldn't you?" LMAO!!

Anybody make a soundbite of that "blocked, blocked, blocked, none of you are free of sin" yet? I need a copy of that

Doubt you'll see this but heres a question in your opinion hammerfist vs palm strike on the ground? I dunno been qatching alot of combat jujitsu lately and just wonder why they just dont let them punch already

Great video! 9:08 You missed a chance to make an Oscar's Will Smith slap joke, but that's okay. There are so many by now anyway. If you haven't already, maybe make a video on hitting heavy bags barefisted vs gloved hands.

Using full power attacks is similar to smashing and spamming heavy attack buttons on arcades

ALSO, Mike Tyson punches people in the ring full force which could've done the work of putting micro damage to the bones. To which the punch in the fight finished off the carpel.

Another Great Video Man…

I think that palm blows would be more useful if you are trying to make a throwing or are in the thai clinch, because by already having an open hand and being close it is more difficult for you to miss the blow and you generate more distance and the power is: power = energy / time ; energy = force x distance

I have a weird move I figured out that I suppose is the "right" way to do this, which is to strike my wrists directly against a surface or each other. The only things I've done with it are break a window and put myself in incredible pain. The police were impressed.

Great testing at the end.

Apparently bouncers use palm strikes, but most of them are huge, so everything works for them.

Thank you for the video, can you send the study please ?

Hey what do you think of to shin do? Sometimes it uses a kind of palm strike called happy ken

Nice vid, I liked the training dummy, so life-like

Very good video! The only reason I like palm strikes is because of my time as a football linemen - hear me out... When you pop your opponent off the line, it is basically the same movement as a straight punch. One way to solve the broken wrist issue (which is a real problem - even in football) is to turn your hand sideways. Much like a hook, if you go palm in it helps.

Love your vids dude….There Awesome

i agree completely. If you break your knuckles and go home safe who cares about the injury.

I got a follow up question. I'm not sure if punching itself is genetically implemented. We outstretch our hands to protect our face, we cover up, we cuddle or we turn away. As far as I know, punching is always learned in some way, cause you are correct, breaking out hands is a bad idea and punching things risks broken hands. But tbh I don't have a scientific source on hand. The only thing I know for sure is that hugging/wrestling comes naturally to us and that humans have been wrestling as long as we can tell. There are even cave paintings of wrestlers. But I don't know about punching. If you want to, that might be another video :)

Im so glad someone finally acknowledged you cant make a proper fist in boxing gloves. This is the reason why i would rather compete in amateur mma than amateur kickboxing

“I mean, wouldn’t you?” Fkn gold 😂😂

I love that superimposed background with the hand you have to stay still for btw

I was thinking the whole time, like, I feel like they’d feel pretty natural on the ground, especially hitting somewhere really hard. But maybe not, I wouldn’t really know. And then he showed it

While the style I practice does use fists with some of its techniques, how we engage an opponent is definitely with open hands with the idea that any strikes will tend to be palm strikes. The primary purpose of this is to not play the expectation game. If you enter battle expecting to hit with a fist then you are not accommodating any number of scenarios that fists don’t cater for. Open hand allows for adaptability, grasps, manipulation and strikes. We like to get close to our opponent, so setting up a palm strike that is efficient is part of our training. Injuries are the least of our concerns, it’s about creating an experience for our opponent that he is desperate to remove himself from.

Hahaha. She’s a keeper!

Can someone please provide a link to the song at the end?

Thanks for sharing. Its always people Who have never tried that aleays judge the fisting.

Just because something is the most natural, instinctive thing to do, doesn’t mean it’s the best most effective way to do it. It all depends on what you want to do and trying to do, and the result your wanting get from that effort. Sometimes, punches aren’t the best thing for that.

where we get the full version of the Krav Maga man, I need that parody to mock on my for da Streetz cousin.

great video very informative and funny i liked the piano man parody at the end. all together thats a subscribe from me

Your tone is so condescending and I love it.

Enjoyed the video!

How do you feel about finger jabs?

I agree with everything here. Tho i do practice palm strikes, mainly as a *backup* in case I do break my fist. Or I have to strike someone in a place that would otherwise break my fist. Are there many situations where a perfect palm strike is better than a perfect punch? Ehhh probably not. I just find them fun and they’re an option in case you already injured or broke something.

Actually throwing palm strikes the way she threw easily injures hands, the forearm has to be behind the part that hits i.e. the palm has to be bent, without the backup of the forearm injuries will occur easily. Forearms are naturally behind the hitting area while punching.

You ever tripped over? I normally put my hands out involuntarily and land on the heels of my palms, which I can do from standing. Maybe your hands are stronger than mine, but I think if I fell from standing and broke my fall with two fists that wouldn't be good for my wrists... Open hands look a lot better in court when they play the CCTV as well. They also lead straight into the BJJ and wrestling that you seem to be obsessed with.

You are a really good researcher and teacher ! Thank you for the videos they are really informative. Why the sarcastic tone though, it is a bit distracting from your friendly attitude which we see in your collaborations. I believe you have so much to give to the martial arts community, no need for negativity! :)

Awesome video

Personally I have used palm strikes or palm heel strikes with my fingers curled inward. For the very reason of possibly jamming the fingers. Thus most arts that I have trained in that hit with the palm heel simply have the hand open with the fingers pulled back hitting with the heel of the hand. Also where on the body one strikes with a palm determines how the hand is rotated.

"wouldn't you" Blank twice if she's abusing you 🤣

I love these vids where you show stuff and not only talk. Maybe I worded that wrong, I dont know.

100% agree. It’s very similar to the dumb argument of “wrestling is bad for self defence, because you’ll injure your knees!”. Let’s ignore the fact that good weapon defence is based on wrestling and 2-on-1’s, which are a wrestling concept. First of all-you know that freestyle wrestling isn’t the only type of wrestling that exists, right? Greco-Roman is also very popular, and it has barely any shots that can hurt your legs in a fight, because it’s based on upper body control (same for judo, btw). Second of all, just like you mentioned in 4:06, if I get a good double leg on you (which I don’t fully recommend to anyone, but it’s not bad), and you go unconscious from the impact of the ground, I don’t really mind having some pain on my knees, or even actually injuring them. Just like palm strikes-if you have a significantly weaker version of a punch, it doesn’t matter that you don’t hurt your hand (I will say that people like Ryan Hoover, Aaron Jannetti, and Craig Douglas all created “street safe” wrestling, but it’s actual wrestling with some tweaks and changes, not weird wrist lock takedowns that some self defence schools offer instead of wrestling). And third of all-I probably won’t go for a takedown that can hurt my knees because most wrestlers know that hitting your knee full force will hurt you-so they won’t do it with 100% of their force-just like you mentioned in this video regarding to punches. Again-just like knife defence where you just give the fighters a training knife once a week to see how to defend themselves from it, if you just give a wrestler or an MMA fighter jeans and a hoodie and practice on concrete once a month, they’ll figure out wrestling for self defence pretty quickly. A great vid as always! Keep up the good work

People have gotten knocked out by palm strikes (hell, people have gotten knocked out by a slap), so they have a place in fighting just like everything else. I palm strike by either having my fingers straight or making a slight claw, not curling them up. If you curl your fingers completely, you're essentially making a little fist, and those little knuckles can be damaged if they accidently make contact with a hard surface. Palm strikes can be great at setting up techniques (such as exposing someone's neck for a strike), they can be used in combination with other techniques such as grabbing (hook palming the side of someone's neck and then immediately grabbing their larynx is very effective), and it can be used as a distraction and/or to create distance as you're reaching for a weapon. It can also be more socially acceptable since it looks like you're just slapping the guy. So yeah, palm strikes are very effective if you know how to use them.