To Punch or Not To Punch?

Hi everyone,


The most popular question I get as a self defense instructor is…

Do you recommend punching someone when protecting yourself in a violent altercation?

The answer I give people is a big fat NO!!

Here’s why first of all most people can’t punch worth a crap when their ass depends on it. What happens in a full blown altercation is that people end up panicking and haphazardly throw out punches as fast as they can hoping it will do some type of damage when it connects to their enemies body. The problem with this type of approach is that there is no weight behind your punches. This is what I call feather punches they basically do nothing for you when it comes to stopping an attacker because there’s nothing behind it.

Another issue with people not knowing how to punch is that people especially in certain martial arts circles are taught to retract there punches when they are about to make contact with their opponent/training partner. The reason for retracting your punches is so that training partners during training sessions or opponents during competitions do not get injured.

Also by retracting your punches you look and sound better while performing your kata (forms). Your gi (uniform) will make a nice crisp sound of a SNAP when you punch making people say wow but in reality you are not letting the power of your punch go through your enemy. What this does is set you up for failure in the real world of violence. When you strike anyone regardless of what body part you’re striking with you should HIT & STICK when attacking someone, more on this topic in a future post.

Another concern when it comes to punching is that you do not have any type of protection such as gloves for your hands when fighting out on the streets. All it takes is hitting the top of a person’s skull or striking any other hard boney part on your enemies’ body or missing your enemies face and instead striking a hard surface such as a brick wall or concrete sidewalk and you now have destroyed your fist. This in turn takes away your weapons and helps your enemy in being able to harm you.

So bottom line don’t punch instead palm strike, hammer fist or execute a plain old bitch slap on your enemy to get better results.

There’s no such thing as a dirty fighter only an educated one.

Norm