Sunday, September 27, 2009

BareKnuckled vs Gloved: One thru Five


Here are five facts to think about when training with gloves and wraps for self defense purposes.

If your used to using gloves, you may be in for a rude awakening when you have to hit someone without any hand protection.

There is nothing wrong with using gloves to train with provided you know where they belong in a self defense training program or a sport fighting program.

That difference is very important for you to know.

So here are five differences to give you something to think about.

1. Striking with an unprotected fist is hard.

You have to know how to punch correctly, get used to not wearing gloves, understand which part of the fist to strike with and how to hold your hands to defend yourself. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, there is a whole lot more that needs to be understood.

2. Extremely skilled fighters tend to break their hands in street-fights.

Many fighters get so used to wearing gloves that their hands get more prone to injury, after all wearing gloves and wraps is alot like wearing shoes and socks for the hands.

3. Gloves throw off your distancing.

Most gloves are so padded that they extend anywhere from one to three inches from your fist. This will make your strikes come up short when you take off your gloves as you'll be more used to their striking distance.


4. A gloved fist doesn’t cause damage the same way a bare fist does.

Most strikes with a glove are spread out equally on it's surface but with a fist it is more compact so the impact force is more solid. And a barefist can get into areas that a glove can't.
In other words it hurts more getting hit with a bare fist.

5. A gloved fist turns the punch into a push.

Since the padding of a glove can be very spongy as you hit your target, you'll end up pushing thru the glove as you make contact.

So there you go, think about these five differences as you train, especially if it's for self defence purposes.

Daniel Sambrano


Wednesday, September 23, 2009

You are most likely better than these guys

I wanted to post something I find hilarious while I'm researching the best and worst shin conditioning theories out there. This is easily one of my favorite videos found on the Internet.

I'm sure you've seen the Afro Ninja clip at some point in the last few years. Here is the extended version with other martial arts 'experts' demonstrating there skills.

I think I'm fairly knowledgeable in muay thai and cqc, perhaps even enough so to appear in films. Hell, I may even develop the audacity to proclaim myself a subject matter expert, but holy crap, I don't think that I'd have the cajones to audition for a role in a kung fu movie, especially with the thought in mind that my spectacular failure could end up on YouTube. I certainly couldn't keep a straight face and say lines like "I never lose," or my favorite, "I hope you like pain."

I hope you like this painfully funny video.