Punching with the first two knuckles?

[KO By Knee]

I was critiqued in a fight by someone saying I'm not very experienced and they said their reasoning is based off the fact I didn't only connect with my first two knuckles on my punches? I didn't quit understand the guy seemed like someone who had no idea what he was talking about but acted so elitist at the same time it was hard to judge.

In all my time boxing ive never really heard of that, can someone explain this to me or walk down how a punch is supposed to properly land the knucles?

My left hook without gloves I tend to land with all knuckles, same with jabs or straights in boxing gloves it really makes no difference.


BTW the fight I was judged on I won, It started with a right hook then a modified short overhand right then I got the back and landed some heavy punches I couldn't quit lock in the choke but when we stood up his arm was down due to being mangled from a failed kimura attempt and I landed a clean right hook that won me the KO.

 

[The Karate Man]

I honestly don't think you have to worry about hitting with the first two knuckles when you have hand wraps and gloves. I was taught to hit with knuckle of the index and middle finger because they're the strongest while the ring and pinkey are more prone to break, but then again a lot of the training we did didn't involve gloves or hand wraps at the time.

 

[freaky]

You still want to have proper punching technique even with wraps and gloves.
You want to hit them with your middle&index knuckle. So focus on that.

 

[Fire of Youth]

This is a common debate and personally I fall on the two knuckle side. But really, the more important thing is that your striking knuckle is aligned with the wrist and elbow supporting the strike. If you use your last three knuckles then you need to push your pinky forward to align them. If you strike with your first two knuckles then you push your index knuckle forward. I prefer the two-knuckle approach because I think our wrist are typically stronger pushing the index knuckle forward than when you push the pinky forward. After all, we strike with a hammer over hand and not underhand.

Saying all this, when you are wearing 16oz gloves, you can get away with a hell of a lot where technique is concerned. Try punching the heavy bag with light gloves/wraps/barefist. How stable does your wrist feel in each technique? How do the striking knuckles align with the wrist and elbow? If it is stable and aligns then it doesn't really matter.

 

[TheDarkEmperor]

If you hit someone in the head with your 3rd and 4th nuckles (ring/pinkie fingers knuckles) you risk shattering your hand. ESPECIALLY if you hit them on the forehead. It's like punching a brick wall. No more punches from that hand for a few weeks.

You shouldn't be angling your hand outward (off the line of your forearm) to only hit with the first two knuckles, but you should be keeping those in front. Normally they are bigger than the other two, anyway, which makes it easier if you punch with your palm side facing down.

When you really have to be careful, is throwing uppercuts and hooks which can land only on the last two knuckles, which is bad...

 

[shinkyoku]

Landing with the first two knuckles is how it is done in bareknuckle styles.
The basic idea is
1. Hit with the two largest&strongest knuckles to minimize chances of breakage.
2. the two first knuckles also lines up naturally with the arm for a straight transfer of power.

In boxing, where you use wraps and thick gloves, it does not really matter that much.
Still, the definition of "boxers break/fracture" typically involves breaking the little or ring fingers. Sometimes more fingers are included in the symptom, but the original definition only included the last two fingers.

 

[roventu]

he's right, but i wouldnt call you inexperienced just because of that one thing.

i was punching the bag today with bag mitts (8 oz), and you can definitely feel when you're punching incorrectly. my jab i hit with my first two knuckles, but my left hand (cross) started hurting, realized i was hitting with the last two knucles. with 16oz, i'd never notice. which is why I like to use bag mitts anytime im on the bag, so I can find what I can correct

with hooks, this also adds the controversy of palm down or palm towards you. palm down, leads more to hitting with the last 2 knuckles. i also find that I can twerk my shoulder more with palm down hook. palm inside hooks on the other hand, my wrist tends to bend and I could hurt it, but theres less chance of hitting with last 2 knuckles. pros and cons of both hooks, i use palm inside

 

[fightingrabbit]

Landing with the first two knuckles is how it is done in bareknuckle styles.
The basic idea is
1. Hit with the two largest&strongest knuckles to minimize chances of breakage.
2. the two first knuckles also lines up naturally with the arm for a straight transfer of power.

In boxing, where you use wraps and thick gloves, it does not really matter that much.
Still, the definition of "boxers break/fracture" typically involves breaking the little or ring fingers. Sometimes more fingers are included in the symptom, but the original definition only included the last two fingers.

I almost agreed with this post until I read through it again and looked at the picture. The first picture diagram doesn't really make sense as they both show the 2 knuckle landing, yet both landings would not allow for proper alignment of the arm.

The 3 knuckle landing above (landing with your ring finger) truly aligns your arm all the way down to the fist. Plus that flat surface of the 3 knuckle landing transfers the most concussive force. Think about it in terms of landing with a bat and landing with the tip of a extendable baton. One is concussive due to the flat even surface area spread of force, the other would cause more bone and tissue damage, but not exactly brain jarring, soporific hits.

3 knuckle landing probably not the best idea in a street altercation, where I agree with the 2 knuckle landing coming in. That and landing with the 2 knuckles when you're throwing horizontal fisted hooks like Gennady does.

But fuck you, i'm no fist alignment/street altercation expert. Jack Dempsey might be though.

he's right, but i wouldnt call you inexperienced just because of that one thing.

i was punching the bag today with bag mitts (8 oz), and you can definitely feel when you're punching incorrectly. my jab i hit with my first two handed, but my left hand (cross) started hurting, realized i was hitting with the last two knucles. with 16oz, i'd never notice. which is why I like to use bag mitts anytime im on the bag, so I can find what I can correct

with hooks, this also adds the controversy of palm down or palm towards you. palm down, leads more to hitting with the last 2 knuckles. i also find that I can twerk my shoulder more with palm down hook. palm inside hooks on the other hand, my wrist tends to bend and I could hurt it, but theres less chance of hitting with last 2 knuckles. pros and cons of both hooks, i use palm inside

He's not exactly right, because you shouldn't be landing with only the last two knuckles anyway, ever.

 

[Deleted member 407839]

Landing with the first two knuckles is how it is done in bareknuckle styles.
The basic idea is
1. Hit with the two largest&strongest knuckles to minimize chances of breakage.
2. the two first knuckles also lines up naturally with the arm for a straight transfer of power.

In boxing, where you use wraps and thick gloves, it does not really matter that much.
Still, the definition of "boxers break/fracture" typically involves breaking the little or ring fingers. Sometimes more fingers are included in the symptom, but the original definition only included the last two fingers.

100% this.

Perfect explanation.

 

[Sinister]

I'm not sure about all this stuff about it not mattering if you have gloves and wraps on, can't tell you how many broken hands, busted thumbs, sprained wrists, and shattered fingers I've seen for the simple reason that trainers no longer teach how to make a damn fist and what impact points to land with. It's pretty much a monthly occurrence in just the one Gym I frequent most.

 

[MarleyLynx]

seems frivolous

 

[fightingrabbit]

seems frivolous

Not really. I mean in boxing there are a lot of ways to do it wrong and to make that wrong way work for you. But there are optimal ways of doing things also, so in that it's not really a frivolous debate.

 

[Higus]

I'm not sure about all this stuff about it not mattering if you have gloves and wraps on, can't tell you how many broken hands, busted thumbs, sprained wrists, and shattered fingers I've seen for the simple reason that trainers no longer teach how to make a damn fist and what impact points to land with. It's pretty much a monthly occurrence in just the one Gym I frequent most.

Which fingers? What are the most common mistakes you see in either making a fist or making contact with the fist?

 

[Sano]

I'm not sure about all this stuff about it not mattering if you have gloves and wraps on, can't tell you how many broken hands, busted thumbs, sprained wrists, and shattered fingers I've seen for the simple reason that trainers no longer teach how to make a damn fist and what impact points to land with. It's pretty much a monthly occurrence in just the one Gym I frequent most.

You have a video somewhere on how to make a proper fist and fist alignment, right? I tried using the search function, but couldn't find it.

I just sprained my wrist and I think I need to start from scratch in regards to punching properly.

 

[roventu]

this picture shows landing with the last 2 (or 3) knuckles, which are the ones you're supposed to avoid.

the first two are the index and the middle knuckle.


my fingers have never hurt from landing with the first 2 knuckles, I've only felt them hurt (during the same session) if I land with the pinky and ring knuckle.

 

[a guy]

 

[a guy]

I almost agreed with this post until I read through it again and looked at the picture. The first picture diagram doesn't really make sense as they both show the 2 knuckle landing, yet both landings would not allow for proper alignment of the arm.

The 3 knuckle landing above (landing with your ring finger) truly aligns your arm all the way down to the fist. Plus that flat surface of the 3 knuckle landing transfers the most concussive force. Think about it in terms of landing with a bat and landing with the tip of a extendable baton. One is concussive due to the flat even surface area spread of force, the other would cause more bone and tissue damage, but not exactly brain jarring, soporific hits.

3 knuckle landing probably not the best idea in a street altercation, where I agree with the 2 knuckle landing coming in. That and landing with the 2 knuckles when you're throwing horizontal fisted hooks like Gennady does.

But fuck you, i'm no fist alignment/street altercation expert. Jack Dempsey might be though.



He's not exactly right, because you shouldn't be landing with only the last two knuckles anyway, ever.

You can align the entire arm with the 2 knuckle landing. A 2 knuckle landing isn't going to lack any concussive force as long as you have that alignment.

 

[a guy]

seems frivolous

It's not.

 

[Sinister]

Which fingers? What are the most common mistakes you see in either making a fist or making contact with the fist?

Most common is using a square fist and landing with the last two knuckles. If you're going to use the last knuckles of the hand, it's supposed to be the middle finger, ring, and pinkie. Not just the ring and pinkie. It's also more of a thing for vertical-fisted punching. Most people don't arc their wrist for stability, either. When you don't specifically aim for certain knuckles, and the opponent doesn't stand still, I've seen quite a bit of thumb bashing. Due to modern design of gloves, it still happens occasionally even with a proper fist. Then you have people who don't clench, who hit with their hands partially open. I teach clenching with the ring and pinkie fingers, leaving the index, thumb, and middle relatively loose. No clench at all and you're not hitting with solidity, which means the small bones in the fingers do not support each other. There's at least 3 people walking around my gym with hand/wrist problems right this second. None of them are trained by me. One of my guys had a sore hand Monday, but that was from hitting an elbow, and it was tenderness only in the spot hit.

 

[Sano]

Thanks guy!