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How to clench the fist (to punch with the knuckles)

These are the steps in short (for a more detailed explanation read How to tighten the fist):

Let’s start with a completely opened hand
Let’s attach our straight fingers one by one
Let’s bend the fingers downward making the upper phalanxes touching the lower part of the hand
As to grab the skin below them, let’s pull it upward (until the fingers are closed)
Let’s lock everything overlapping the thumb to the index and middle fingers
We have to feel comfortable in this position
Another important rule is that our forearm must be aligned to our hand (read How to punch (simple explanation))

A note by Master Kongling – I didactically teach to do this, to understand the right moves but when we are in combat, we do not have to do all these steps: we have to simply close your punches (I know that this should be obvious but I have received specific questions about this, so I prefer to be precise saying something more instead of something less).

The 2 most common errors

The most common errors are:

To maintain the thumb parallel to the remaining 4 fingers (in reality there are a lot of methods to tighten the fist but if we do not know what we are doing, let’s avoid it, we risk to hurt ourselves for nothing)
To close our thumb inside our 4 fingers, this way we will break our thumb for sure

Final notes

A few conclusive tips:

The fist must be relaxed but closed
The only moment when the fist should be tightened (in our school) is an instant before the impact (as Bruce Lee was teaching)
.,.

In-depth video courses

Hand grip strength conditioning – How to improve the quality of our combat grasping capability (for trapping, etc.)
Basic free hand fighting techniques – All the basic techniques of 6 Dragons Kung Fu

In-depth articles

How to rapidly learn Kung Fu: guard stance – The first basic technique that a beginner should master
Trapping – What is and how it works in terms of advanced combat dynamics

Questions

Reply in the comments and share your experience:

Do you feel comfortable with your fist closed?

Author: Master Kongling

Founder of 6 Dragons Kung Fu.

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