How To Punch In A Street Fight For Self Defense

How to punch! It's the first self defense technique everyone learns, right? Perhaps you learned it from school yard fights. Maybe your father taught you how to punch when you were growing up. Or maybe it was the first martial arts move you learned in the dojo. No matter where or when you learned it, the punch is the most common method taught anybody for self defense. But there's a problem here...

Is A Punch Worthless In A Real Street Fight?

Most punches in a real fight are instinctively thrown at your attacker's head. We know subconsciously that this is our best chance for a knockout. However, your opponent's head holds his brain which is well protected by a very hard skull and an instinctive response when it feels it's in danger. You see, when your attacker recognizes that a punch is coming, he will naturally tuck his head and his chin to protect his throat and his eyes as well as present more of his bony skull to your fragile knuckles. When it comes to targets, the skull is about as "bulletproof" as any part of the body gets.

The Real Danger Of Punching In A Real Street Fight

When you go for a traditional punch to the head when fighting, chances are very good that you're going to hit the skull. When the knuckles of your clenched fist strike a hard surface like the skull in a street fight, they're very likely to break. With broken knuckles, you're now less able to protect yourself because your follow-up blows will lack power coming from your injured hand. However, you're losing more than just the ability to punch hard if you injure your knuckles.

Weapons And Broken Knuckles Don't Mix In A Real Street Fight

Maybe you carry a gun or a knife as a self defense weapon. Maybe your attacker is and you're able to disarm his weapon and use it to protect yourself. If you damage the knuckles of your hand from punching however, you may not be able to wield either a gun or a knife as effectively, if at all, with a crippled hand. You can't open a folding knife or hold it firmly because your hand is broken. You can't aim a gun or pull the trigger when you smashed your knuckles punching the other guy in the skull. What could have been a great self defense weapon has now been rendered useless!

Three Self Defense Techniques Better Than Punching

While there are many strikes that can be used for self defense, the three that are better choices in a street fight are the palm heel, the hammer fist, and the edge of hand blow. All three pack more power than a traditional punch and are very easy to master for self defense. But just as importantly, you can strike with any of these methods with much less danger of injuring yourself than if you used a punch.