Do you agree or disagree with Bas's take on palm strikes?

GolovKing

GolovKing

Black Belt
@Black
Joined
Nov 23, 2020
Messages
6,169
Reaction score
8,924
Says they are more effective than regular punches. I can definitely see the advantages in having less chance of breaking your hands. But Bas claims punching with a palm allows you to punch with more reach and to generate more power.

 
There's probably nobody on the planet more qualified to make this comparison than Bas.

He's the only one to have mastered palm strikes to that level. But he also has years of regular closed fist training and fighting. So he knows from experience the pros and cons of each.

That being said, I can't wrap my head around it. It just doesn't make sense.
 
Fedorgasm said:
There's probably nobody on the planet more qualified to make this comparison than Bas.

He's the only one to have mastered palm strikes to that level. But he also has years of regular closed fist training and fighting. So he knows from experience the pros and cons of each.

That being said, I can't wrap my head around it. It just doesn't make sense.
Click to expand...
I personally have used palm strikes in fights and I had years of TKD experience, breaking boards and shit with them at the time(I know TKD gets bad rap, I've since gotten alot of experience in mma/jkd and am a black belt in bjj now) . But I have small ass hands(sigh) and they did little damage to my opponents. For me I found punches worked better but again, theres the risk of breaking hands. I think Bas' ideas while interesting, are a case of working best for his body type and physiology. He was the only one in Pancrasse that could deliver blows like that and while some of it is his Muay Thai /kyokushin expericence, some of it is also the way he's built.
 
People like Bas are outside-the-box thinkers. That allows them to sometimes think of really cool shit. It also invariably will lead them on occasion to think silly shit. That's the long and the short of it here. Of course the guy who can invent the Bas Rutten Neck Crank is going to have weird theories about fighting. More of them will be useful than not, but nobody bats a thousand in the idea department, not even El Guapo.
 
I mostly agree with bas. In fighting with no gear or rules, im team palm strikes for life.

But in mma or even "bare knuckle" boxing I don't think so. mma gloves and even wraps will change the dynamics of bending the wrist like bas shows. Just my $0.02.
 
I think you use what you prefer. Correct me if I am wrong but I don't believe Bas had many knockouts with palm strikes? I don't think it matters with reach if you are trying to hit them with the lower part of the hand. Also if you have gloves and wraps. It's much safer than using your palm.
 
If they are more effective then why didn’t he use them in UFC?
 
Yeah fam McGregor is one of di best in fact 👋💥

 
Last edited:
NoSmilez said:
Correct me if I am wrong but I don't believe Bas had many knockouts with palm strikes?
Click to expand...

No clean one-shot palm strike KOs, but he dropped/rocked lots of people with them. He smashed Ryushi Yanagisawa with one in his Pancrase debut and he blasted people like Minoru Suzuki, Masakatsu Funaki, Frank Shamrock, and Kengo Watanabe with them. He definitely used them more effectively than anyone else in Pancrase. That said, I find it hard to imagine his KO numbers not being higher with closed-fist punches. Hell, he wasn't throwing palm strikes against Tsuyoshi Kosaka in his UFC debut.

 
GolovKing said:
Says they are more effective than regular punches. I can definitely see the advantages in having less chance of breaking your hands. But Bas claims punching with a palm allows you to punch with more reach and to generate more power.

Click to expand...

For fighting without gloves of course palm strikes are advisable to reduce chances of breaking your hands.
Likewise he is correct that at close range you have more space to strike with a palm.
People just dont train it and haven't mastered the technique to be confident in doing it like Bas.
Clearly though with gloves and at range punches are generally more effective.
 
I feel like full power palm strikes are a good way to hyper extend your wrist. If they lean forward like they are slipping, or shooting, or throwing a punch, you might connect with the ends of your fingers first. It is so obvious that this could happen, even as much as people cutting their knuckles on teeth.

However, I know people who have cut their knuckles on teeth. No one has bent their fingers with palm strikes. Makes me think no one has thrown a straight palm strike in a fight. Now if you are slapping people and want to call it palm striking to sound cool, that is whatever.

If I were assaulting a weaker person, I might palm strike the chest because it would make me feel good.
 
Fedorgasm said:
There's probably nobody on the planet more qualified to make this comparison than Bas.

He's the only one to have mastered palm strikes to that level. But he also has years of regular closed fist training and fighting. So he knows from experience the pros and cons of each.

That being said, I can't wrap my head around it. It just doesn't make sense.
Click to expand...

There's a lot of different factors like whether it's a street fight or a sanctioned even, the skill level of your opponent and are you wearing gloves or not.

Not bragging but I worked as a bouncer in NY for 10 years and have been in my fair share of ungloved fights as well as having a 6-2 mma record before retiring.

In a street fight, a closed fist thrown at 40-50% power combined with not closing your fist tight until you know where the punch is landing is the way to go against an untrained opponent.

I could possibly see some merit to using a palm strike against a skilled opponent but there are serious injuries attributed to that too. I once palm striked someone's forehead as hard as I could and injured a tendon in the back of my wrist that took 8 months to heal (longer then a broken wrist). When the doctor (my younger brother) told me it would take 6 months+ to heal I laughed in his face. The joke was on me...
 
Someone needs to ask Bas why he didn't use them in MMA lol.

The clothesline with the inner part of the wrist/forearm bone aimed at the the side of the head he talks about seems brutal though for bare knuckle.
 
It"s cause Bass got naturaly loke 50+% more test than the max of a normal healthy human and is such a beast that he can KO you with anything. He put a guy in a coma with a palm strike.
 
Romulas said:
In a street fight, a closed fist thrown at 40-50% power combined with not closing your fist tight until you know where the punch is landing is the way to go against an untrained opponent.
Click to expand...

really good and interesting point about reducing power and waiting out to assess the area it will hit 👍
 
tasteslikechicken said:
For some funny reason bones are a lot stronger down the length of them, where they are more designed for impact/compression.
Click to expand...
I’ve always heard the opposite. You want to check kicks with the upper part of the shin bc it’s thicker. When you bring your knee up for a check and meet your elbow you’re stacking the thicker parts of your radial bone to the thicker part of your shin for the block
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,254,510
Messages
56,651,459
Members
175,334
Latest member
dubhlinn

Share this page

Back
Top