Bare knuckle boxing
Is there a difference between throwing punches in the ring with taped hands and wearing12oz gloves that don't allow you to fully clench your fist properly and street fighting with clenched bare knuckles.
Should there be a difference in the way you deliver your punches or is a punch a punch whether your in the ring with gloves on or on the street bare knuckles should the delivery method remain exactly the same?
This is my understanding and what i think.
If we look at a gloved punch and the way boxers deliver their blows they are maximising their contact time because of the gloves, boxing style punches are more of a push than a bomb going off to the face or body.
Hence the saying ride the punch, which will reduce the impact and therefore negate the effects, so when the follow through is employed its like both fist and head colliding and going off in the same direction whilst maintaining contact.
Now nobody misunderstand me, I’m not saying this type of punch (a pushed punch) is not effective, if it can make your brain bounce around on the inside of the skull it will effect a knock out.
Real world applications
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/momentum/u4l1c.cfm
Quote from the artcile
“Fans of boxing frequently observe this same principle of minimizing the affect of a force by extending the time of collision. When a boxer recognizes that he will be hit in the head by his opponent, the boxer often relaxes his neck and allows his head to move backwards upon impact. In the boxing world, this is known as riding the punch. A boxer rides the punch in order to extend the time of impact of the glove with their head. Extending the time results in decreasing the force and thus minimizing the affect of the force in the collision. Merely increasing the collision time by a factor of ten would result in a tenfold decrease in the force. Now that's physics in action.”
Ok if we now look at a bare knuckle punch from karate or even the old bare knuckle boxing (Art of Pugilism) because they too used the same method that karate uses today.
The bare knuckle punch doesn't go all the way through; the aim of the bare knuckle punch is to explode in the opponents face or body not to push across a certain distance with great speed like the pushed punch.
As the article above tells us minimal contact time will produce a greater impulse or (force) the longer you stay in contact the lesser the force being transmitted.
The idea with a bare knuckles punch is to aim somewhere between 3 to 5 inches past the target, when this has been achieved withdrawal of the hand is necessary as quickly as it was sent out, leaving the force in the target and not allowing it to travel back into you.
Of course wearing boxing gloves means that due to the dampening affects of the cushion in the glove that this method will be less effective than a boxer’s pushed punch, but when its bare knuckles it is better.
Professional boxers in the ring punch with follow through to compensate for the cushion in the glove, so they over extend to make sure because of the dampening effects of the cushion.
In a bare knuckle fight there won’t be any cushion and therefore there is no need to over compensate in the follow through, think of recovery time as well and exposure.
Like physics tells us the more time the blow stays in contact with the target the lesser the force being transmitted to the target especially if the target starts to move off in the direction of the strike.
Bare knuckle punches still aim to penetrate the target by 3 to 5 inches but once the payload has been delivered the arm should be snapped backed just as quickly as it was extended, this way the payload stays in the target and doesn't start to travel back through your body by remaining in contact.
In some articles it was estimated that karateka and boxer's acceleration during punching can be approximated at about a=7m/s2 as an average.
A thrown punch will definitely deliver more payload than a pushed punch, the thrown punch will not have as much follow through as a pushed punched but will have penetration, the thrown punch will be focused (tension or kime) for a hundredth of a second to link the body together.
Ok so now you ask what is kime or focus, I like to use this example,
Think of it this way, we have a castle with big gates and a 20 metre battering ram, if we cut the battering ram into segments all different lengths lest say a 4 metre length for the legs and buttocks a 3 metre length for the torso a 1 metre length for the arm etc.
Then we link them up with helical compression springs the joints at these springs represent the joints of the human body, i.e. ankle knee hip shoulder elbow wrist etc,
On impact tension or kime (focus) is just for a split second (100th of a second) along with the breath and mental intent, this activates the muscles to join the body as one unit, kind of makes the battering ram like a whole piece of wood again for a split moment in time, instead of segments joined by springs.
Hey now some will say well why chop the wood up in the first place, hehehe its just to use as an example.
You also have to remember that at around 60% - 80% extension the antagonist muscles start to kick in, which will start to decelerate the punch.
Dose that mean that anytime you have gone above 80% extension you have inadvertently missed the punch even if contact is made, well it depends on the circumstances imo, one thing for sure optimum punching range is around 80% extension when we are talking about jabs and straight rights.
Hooks and upper cuts are not subject to the 80% rule and when the arm is rigidly held in place with the rotating body preceding the strike hooks and upper cuts or variations can be devastating in short range.
Overall this is my understanding of punching; different delivery systems are employed for different circumstances, like boxing in the ring or street fighting bare knuckles.
