Horizontal vs. vertical fist
Which is more natural?
Vertical punches say the vertical punch is more natural. When you irritate a small child, he or she will ball his or her fist and punch, not with a vertical fist, but with a horizontal fist. It is the way humans are constructed. If you walk up to a random number of people on the street and ask them to extend their arms to the front, how would most of them extend their arms? I have not done this on the street but I have done it with groups of new students. When extending their arms, they all extend their arms with their palms downward, thumbs pointing inward (hands horizontal). This is a natural movement; the arm is relaxed, except for the tension required to hold the arm up. To rotate the hands until the thumbs are pointed upward (hands vertical) requires a conscious effort and requires conscious effort and muscle tension to keep them vertical. If the muscle tension is released, the hands return to a horizontal position.
Holding hand in full pronation (palm downward) or full supination (palm upward) position requires the use of some intrinsic muscles of the forearm known respectively as the pronators and supinators. In the uppercut punch hand position (palm upward), the hand is in full supination, while in the horizontal punch position (palm downward) the hand is in full pronation. Vertical punchers believe that, when the hand is held so the palm is inward, that the two sets of muscles are in a balanced position and thus make a punch more powerful. One example they give to prove that the vertical position of the hand is more natural is that this is the way the hand is positioned when reaching out to shake hands with another person. However, in this example, they confusing cause and effect. They think that the hand position in the handshake (effect) is caused by the way we naturally extend our hand. However, the way we extend our hand for a handshake (effect) is actually caused by the way we must position our hand to shake hands.
Try this:
- Stand with your arms hanging naturedly at the sides.
- Keeping your hands and wrist motionless and using only your shoulder muscles, raise your arms in front of your body to shoulder height.
- Now close the hands into fists.
What is the position of the fists? They are horizontal. Now rotate them into a vertical position. Notice how this takes a lot of motion and effort.
Now try this:
- Stand with your arms hanging naturedly at the sides.
- Using your shoulder muscles, raise your arms in front of your body to shoulder height while rotating the hands so the palms face inward.
- Notice the extra effort this rotation takes and the muscle tension down the entire arm.
- Now close the hands into fists.
Notice how you must use muscle tension to maintain the vertical fist position. Now release the tension and notice how the fist naturally rotates into the horizontal position.
Think about this while your arms are outstretched. If you had to hold your arms outstretched for as long as possible to beat other contestants for a million dollars, which palm position would you chose, palms facing inward or palms facing downward ?
When the aforementioned people are told to make fists with their extended hands and to keep their wrists straight, the first two knuckles of the fists are naturally in a straight line with the wrists and the forearms, therefore, when punching an object with the wrist straight, the first two knuckles will naturally strike first. Any force applied to the front of the knuckles will be transferred in straight line down the hand and through the wrist to the elbow and on to the shoulder. If the fist misses its target slightly so that the last three knuckles strike the target first, since the wrist is locked and straight, the line of force through the wrist has only a slight bend in it, so the off-center punch will probably have no adverse affect upon the wrist.
Ask any non-martial artist to push his or her hands against a wall. In which direction are the fingers and knuckles of the hands pointed? They are always pointed upward! This is not a behavior learned from training in a martial art; it is the natural way the body is constructed. To turn the hands so the fingers are pointed outward takes a conscious effort and it feels unnatural and awkward. If the same person were told to make tight fists and push against the wall, he or she would push with the knuckles upward in horizontal fists, not with the knuckles outward in vertical fists.