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This is James Bullock with WarriorSciences.com, and today we're going to cover open handed
strike variations.
Alright today what we're going to cover is open handed strike variations, and we're just
going to jump into it so I'm going to have Jesse come over here.
These are some of my favorite striking variations, and some of the variations will look very
different, possibly, then what you've seen before if you've been exposed to martial arts.
You have the straight palm strike; we've already covered this.
You can also have where your hand is slightly turned -- where it's turned this way -- like
this.
It could be one of those things where I want to turn his head, and he might be turned to
the side, and all of the sudden I need to turn his head. So I want to hit this way.
That'll allow me to, if I wanted, to grab his face and manipulate his face or whatever.
It can also be for trying to hit the ear or just hit the head, and I'm turning my hand
because the palm is a lot harder and sometimes for whatever reason I don't want to use the
straight-on palm strike.
Especially when going to the body, I'm not going to take me palm and try to hit him like
that. That's a good way to tear some of the muscles and tendons in your forearm.
So you're going to conform to the shape of the body.
Let's say I want to check his shoulder or something, I'm going to conform to it, so
my hand would turn. Your elbow may come up; it could be one of those things where he throws
a punch and I end up here...well I don't want to do this.
This is nothing, I don't want to do this. If I want to smack him like this I'm going
to just go right from there and hit him with a palm strike. You can call that a side palm
or whatever you want to call it, but it's still a palm strike, then this one might come
up.
The upward palm is one of my favorites as well. It might be one of those things where
he gets really close to me, and I put my hand here, "Whoa!"...and right from here I go straight
up.
It's literally point-of-origin, turn your body just a little bit, and reach for the
ceiling and hit straight through.
Then of course it would be really nice to drop an elbow or a hammer on the sternum or
whatever you want.
An upward palm can be here, but it can also be kind of a side-upward palm, where my hand
is here and it just comes up.
It's not different than me pointing at something that's behind the camera...I'm just going
to point at it.
So if I want to get to his chin as fast as possible I'm not going to do this, and then
this. Why lock it into place and then hit him. It's going to be straight to his chin
or straight to his throat...whatever I want to use.
It doesn't matter what it is as long as I've hit my targets with as much force as possible
without sacrificing anything else.
Once again, from here you have the straight palm strike, you've got a side palm strike,
you've got an upward palm that can go straight up if they're close to you, you've got an
upward palm that does sort of a side-palm motion.
You can hit with the side of the palm really nicely too. This part is really nice to hit
with. It can hit the neck, it can hit the jaw, and conform to the face really nicely.
But these things aren't overly complicated. Just do whatever you can do to hit with this
as hard as you possibly can.
I don't care if it looks like you're doing this and you're hitting them if you actually
land it.
So if I rake his eyes a little bit and my hand's in his face and I lift, then fantastic.
Another good one is the volleyball spike palm strike. I like that one after hitting with
something else.
Maybe I've impacted him and turned his face a little bit and I'm covering his face; this
comes from the heavens and I smash as hard as I can right down on the face.
The same thing can be if this comes from right field, all the way out of no man's land and
just smack him right across the face as hard as possible.
It's not like something that's just real quick and really controlled. My hand literally goes
through his head.
It's the same principle as we talked about on the forearm strike variations. Just put
your hand in orbit, and hit as hard as possible whichever way that is.
So if I'm able to cover his face or put my fingers in his eyes for a second I can lift
all the way from here...then do it.
You're always hearing me say be efficient, but if he can't see then I can lift and create
all of the energy that I want from here and smack him with everything I've got.
That is the volleyball spike variation.
Once again it's all about movement patterns; however you can move your hand.
Another one is, since this is open handed variations, you've got the back of the hand.
I'm not a fan of hitting the head per se with the back of the hand. It's not bad to use
across the face, especially if your fingers are loose.
Even if I hit him in the arm just loosely, that doesn't feel good. That stings really
badly, and I actually feel it a little bit in my fingers. That hurts worse than me hitting
"that" way.
So just hit real quick across the face and it's a setup for something else, whether it's
a punch or a palm strike.
Don't ever rule out standing like this, talking to a buddy, and this guy won't take a hint
especially if he all of the sudden made a move towards me and I just swing my hand real
hard, which turns his face and I can do whatever I want from there.
Just principles of movement.
That is open handed strike variations.