Why are palms better than a fist?

Speaking about a strike the first stereotype we think about is a fist.
This is logical because when people are in a stressful situation it is natural for them to compact muscles . This is the result of physiology and an evolution process.

A bodyguard does not have possibility to bandage his hands and wear boxing gloves at work. It might look funny, might not it?
A trained bodyguard needs hands, he needs to do delicate things . For example to open, close, hold and post, take off and put on, move, insure and finally handle.Only sensitive healthy and free hands can do that effectively.

We invite the reader to analyze possible consequences of a fist strike on the solid surface. And a human’s head is a bone too ( according to a sharp remark of General Lebed that a bone protects the most valuable part of human’s body — a brain).

So, the fist strike will bring for a bodyguard a lot of negative and long term consequences:

• Provocation of aggressions. A man squeezing fists looks like aggressive and the witnesses will not be able confirm that such bodyguard did not have any intentions to put his fists into the action.
• Injured skin on the fists, dirty clothes plus a risk of infection.
• Fractures of small bones of the hands or wrists.
• It is impossible to do effective repeated attacks with an injured hand.
• Impossibility of effective extraction and manipulation with a weapon using an injured hand.
• Fine motoric skills are not possible . And how about getting a key quickly and opening a door with a swollen hand?
• Long treatment is guaranteed and full recovery is impossible. The hand will be always weak.

The impact made with the base of the palm does not have such negative consequences. Such strike is even stronger than one made with a fist and a practical evidence of this will be given at the end of this material.

With the base of the palm you can make side strikes on the head from the short distance without problems. It is like holding a glass of beer.

However it is not right to think that in Krav-Maga techniques all strikes are made using a base of a palm only. That is not true. Strikes in Israeli Krav-Maga system can be performed with a fist . Low impacts into the body , uppercuts are made only with fists.What else can we use for this? But consider a potential traumatic for the attacker we do not recommend using such impacts in bodyguard’s trainings.

Impacts with fingers in the eyes are used as a so-called nozzle. For this we use one finger folded in the beam or whipping construction in the eyes. There are short strikes with an inner or a back part of the palm into the groin for example , elbows and hammers to all directions but not only on the front. A range of impacts in Krav-Maga is very wide but at the same time very simple and logical. And competence of a good specialist allows him to choose the optimal instrument to solve the problem very fast without wagging fists to all directions. It is said that one must train properly.

Let us make a conclusion.
“360” recommends bodyguards to use a base of a palm if you have to make a strike on the head.

Are you still in doubts?
Come to the wall then and with all your proletarian anger hit the wall with a fist.

And how about a palm?

Which of two impacts was stronger?