Dd asked in SportsMartial Arts · 6 years ago

how should my fist make contact when hitting the heavy bag?

ive heard that only the knuckles should make contact but it seems more natural to have some of the flat of the fist below the knuckle to make contact on the bag as well. is this ok?

5 Answers

  • Kokoro
    Lv 7
    6 years ago
    Best Answer

    Your focus is on your top two knuckles of your pointer and middle finger only. The rest of the finger may hit but that is not the focus point

    Source(s): 30+yrs ma
  • 6 years ago

    I’m aware of four school of thoughts on this.

    First is focus on landing the first two knuckles and let everything else just align naturally. This usually means having straight wrist and allowing whatever other parts of the fist land too as long as the focal point of the damage is the two knuckles. I’m of this crowd since the wrist is stable allowing for the best transfer of force coming over from the main body to the fist. Also it’s the simplest.

    Second is to isolate the damaging weapon only to the two knuckles. You can’t always make the knuckles be the only touching the opponent, but you do your best to make that happen. The pros are that with smaller surface area the hit area will receive more of the damage and it limits possible contact against the opponent’s hard bone against more fragile parts of the fingers. The cons are that the wrist needs to bend down in order to make this happen and it’s not the best way to transfer force from body to fist and if the wrist muscles isn’t strong enough to handle the force then it’ll fold over possibly spraining your wrist.

    Third method is more of an odd ball I learned from a TKD instructor. You use only the middle knuckle to land the punch. Pros are that the surface area is even smaller than the two knuckles. The cons are the same as the second method and I’m not sure if my whole force of the blow can be supported by a single knuckle.

    Fourth is another odd ball from a boxer. Essentially you are going to do the first method, but use the last three knuckles instead of the first two. The idea is that three is more stable for your fist and there for safer than two. The con seems to be the fact that the face isn’t as flat as a heavy bag and the pinky knuckle might catch itself on something like a cheek bone. With index and middle knuckle the damage wouldn’t so bad, but pinky knuckle might not make it through that. My brother somehow damaged that pinky knuckle(not sure what exactly happened medically) and it no longer exists when he makes a fist. So I’m not very trustful of that last digit.

    As with anything, play around with it gently and see what feels the best for you and then train with that.

    Edit: If you have a longer thumb like me and if you work on heavy bags landing with your two knuckles with the standard boxing gloves, the tip of your thumb might start hitting the bag along with the knuckles. It’ll start to build up damage and it’ll start getting painful. The solution is to switch out for a heavy bag gloves when working on the heavy bag. These have the thumb area cut out so that you can make more of a natural fist than the straight thumb that boxing glove put you in.

  • Jim R
    Lv 7
    6 years ago

    The 2 fore-knuckles are correct.

    Hitting with a "flat" fist does less damage to the adversary, and more damage to your hand.

    That is why boxers break their hands when they use them without gloves.

    The gloves provide the protection for hands in boxing.

    In martial art, technique protects them, so you need good technique.

    Hit with the first 2 knuckles.

  • 6 years ago

    The question you ask is actually your answer.

    Consider first engaging all that is of importance in regards to your natural weapons before you express them on any object.

    Then the latter details we be clear......

    I hope this helps.

  • Dudeee
    Lv 5
    6 years ago

    From what I heard, you do it like a normal person would do it...?

    Source(s): Trust me, I'm a professional.
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