Closed Fist Clenching Stance

[white devil]

It has been proven that clenching the fist only at the moment of impact creates a more ''snappy punch'' and therefore a more damaging one...how come so many martial artists (especially in boxing/thai boxing) keep their fists tightly clenched even before throwing a punch?

[Khun Kao]

???

They don't keep their fist clenched. If they are doing so, they have been trained incorrectly. Even in Karate I was taught to not clench my fists until the moment of impact.

You may be mistaking what appears to be a chenched fist with what actually is a clenched fist. We are taught to hold our hands making a "loose" fist, so that when we strike, we only need to clench, rather than close & clench our hands into fists.....

[white devil]

I'm not seeing things..i swear some people just clench it tight..not loose at all..anyways that just means they're getting poor instructions..

hey man funny youre the first one to reply to my post,i was just reading some of your articles on the net before i actually realized you were part of this forum...good stuff!

[bigred389]

Odd that you say that. After boxing, my hands became more "loose" in the sense I didn't keep them clenched AT ALL.

When you hit with gloves in boxing the gloves do the work to keep your hands in the fist position...you just have to tighten at the moment of impact. So even when the gloves came off I found myself doing the same thing.