Fighting Shaped Human Hands

...and a forefinger for the nose. How convenient was that?

And a fingernail on the end of it! Brilliant!

When you get to a certain level of proficiency and grip strength, heavy strikes are unnecessary. I’ll slap a shoulder and let fingers dig in, and that arm is no longer effective, nor can he pull away.

If you’ve ever given deep massage, you know as you work to loosen a muscle you shouldn’t press your fingers underneath it, because it hurts. All the nerve packages going down a limb are put underneath the stressbearing muscles for protection. If you grab a bicep by the lower insertion (near the elbow) in your hands, and squeeze as though you want your thumb and fingertips to meet underneath the muscle, not only is there great pain but the movement of the lower arm by the bicep is reduced almost to nil.

The object is to develop the grip and technique so seizing any part of the body...even a pec or a handful of belly skin...you’re able to hang on even if your body weight is hanging from that grip. Takes time to develop even close to that. Another part is to learn the body well enough to know what muscles and joints are vulnerable and what angles to work on them from. For instance, the hand on the shoulder move, if your L hand is on his R shoulder, your R hand grasping his throat, press your R elbow against your L hand, “straightening” his body so his free arm is away from you, and can’t reach you. His R arm is partially immobile from fingers penetrating underneath the muscle of his shoulder, and your L elbow guards against what limited motion it has. Then settling into a solid stance to guard against any wild motions, you can give his windpipe a suggestive squeeze and ask just how badly your attacker wants to continue. Catch and release, no harm done except some black fingerprints, maybe some trouble speaking if he was hard to convince.

I had problems when I was young breaking the last outer bone in my hand using a normal fist, so many years ago I started training what they call a “goose fist”. If you’ve ever made a goose shadow on the wall with your flashlight, you hold your hand very much the same, don’t even make a fist, really...just touch your thumb to the middle of your forefinger and tighten the fingers together so it cups the palm. It takes a little training, but it has advantages...your hand remains open for seizing, plus it focuses the point of impact on the middle knuckle. If you press a fist into modeling clay, you get an impression of knuckles and fingers, press a goose fist into clay and you get one deep depression from the isolated middle knuckle.

Anyway, martial arts is always great exercise, head to toe, and my favorite spiel is, if exercise is a part of your daily life anyway, why not pursue an exercise that might save your bacon someday?

When you get to a certain level of proficiency and grip strength, heavy strikes are unnecessary. I’ll slap a shoulder and let fingers dig in, and that arm is no longer effective, nor can he pull away.

If you’ve ever given deep massage, you know as you work to loosen a muscle you shouldn’t press your fingers underneath it, because it hurts. All the nerve packages going down a limb are put underneath the stressbearing muscles for protection. If you grab a bicep by the lower insertion (near the elbow) in your hands, and squeeze as though you want your thumb and fingertips to meet underneath the muscle, not only is there great pain but the movement of the lower arm by the bicep is reduced almost to nil.

The object is to develop the grip and technique so seizing any part of the body...even a pec or a handful of belly skin...you’re able to hang on even if your body weight is hanging from that grip. Takes time to develop even close to that. Another part is to learn the body well enough to know what muscles and joints are vulnerable and what angles to work on them from. For instance, the hand on the shoulder move, if your L hand is on his R shoulder, your R hand grasping his throat, press your R elbow against your L hand, “straightening” his body so his free arm is away from you, and can’t reach you. His R arm is partially immobile from fingers penetrating underneath the muscle of his shoulder, and your L elbow guards against what limited motion it has. Then settling into a solid stance to guard against any wild motions, you can give his windpipe a suggestive squeeze and ask just how badly your attacker wants to continue. Catch and release, no harm done except some black fingerprints, maybe some trouble speaking if he was hard to convince.

I had problems when I was young breaking the last outer bone in my hand using a normal fist, so many years ago I started training what they call a “goose fist”. If you’ve ever made a goose shadow on the wall with your flashlight, you hold your hand very much the same, don’t even make a fist, really...just touch your thumb to the middle of your forefinger and tighten the fingers together so it cups the palm. It takes a little training, but it has advantages...your hand remains open for seizing, plus it focuses the point of impact on the middle knuckle. If you press a fist into modeling clay, you get an impression of knuckles and fingers, press a goose fist into clay and you get one deep depression from the isolated middle knuckle.

Anyway, martial arts is always great exercise, head to toe, and my favorite spiel is, if exercise is a part of your daily life anyway, why not pursue an exercise that might save your bacon someday?

In a new study, Carrier and colleague Michael Morgan publish their theory that human hands evolved their square palms and long thumb to stabilise the fist and produce a compact club for use in combat.
Following this logic, the arm should be tipped with a hoof to make the club concept work.

The hand evolved from an arboreal ancestry. It then got freed up to handle tools and weapons. Nothing new in this.


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Thanks Makana. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

"and a forefinger for the nose. How convenient was that?"

don't forget those handy-dandy nails on the ends for scratching what itches...

Finally! Some one who thinks as I do about "protective" sports equipment.

They make the sport more dangerous not less.

People used to ask me why I wouldn't have my nieces wear elbow/knee pads and were shocked at my response that a skinned knee will not do them any major harm.

Heartless!

But while they had a number of owies they never did themselves any major damage.

Their friends on the other hand were in and out of emergency because the "protective" gear made them feel like they wouldn't get hurt so they did stunts that were down right stupid.

I see some scary parallels to modern padded-to-the-max football helmets.

For some reason, the last part of your post didn’t appear when I replied to it. You’re absolutely right regarding football helmets encouraging actions that cause serious brain injuries.

Yup.

Another example of the modern and/or liberal tendency to avoid surface unpleasantness while doing much greater harm out of sight is the ending of corporal punishment for minor crimes.

Used to be a 17 year old kid who committed minor criminality would be flogged, spend a few days on his belly and resolve NEVER to do that again.

Today we lock ‘em up for a week or two to be intimidated, brutalized and/or gang-raped repeatedly by older and tougher convicts, but we pretend that doesn’t happen. So we can continue patting ourselves on the back for our superior “humanity” to our ancestors.

Maybe the grips of hanguns “evolved” to fit the grip of our hands?

The West had pretty good fighting skills, too.

Hear! Hear! Great wisdom.

Opposable thumbs make using so many tools possible.

This is my rifle, this is my gun, this is for fighting , this is for fun . . .