How to properly clench your fist when punching? Told by a professional boxer

Martial arts are delicate. People spend years studying them and decades perfecting their fighting techniques. We will start from the basics, because here, like everywhere else, everything starts small. Today, together with the coach, we will discuss how to properly clench your fists for a punch.

CMC in boxing, winner and medalist of all-Russian tournaments

“If a boxer keeps his fists clenched all the time, he will quickly get tired of the tension. You need to be able to properly combine relaxed and easy movements on the octagon with lightning-fast tension of hands, clenching of fingers in the final stage. In this way you will be able to save energy and save them until the last round, as well as the total number of quality attacks for the fight.

Proper finger placement in your fist

Your fist is your main weapon in a fight and you need to learn how to use it correctly. If you take the time to learn how to use it correctly, even if you don’t have a lot of muscle mass, you can learn to punch so hard and accurately that no one will be surprised.

If you watch boxing fights from the outside, you may think that there is nothing complicated in it: you punch, put a block, dodge, everything according to the instructions. But in fact, each of these elements hides a lot of details and nuances that need to be taken into account. Develop muscle mass, reaction, study different techniques of strikes, be able to combine all this during sparring, not just swinging your fists. But before that, of course, learn how to properly clench your hands into fists.

Mikhail Bushkov: The position of the fingers when clenching should be as follows: four fingers, except for the thumb, should be tightly clenched and pressed against each other, and the thumb, in turn, should also be tightly pressed against the phalanges of the index and middle fingers forming one whole”.

The most important thing here is the position of the thumb, because most often it is with it that beginners have difficulties. Some people keep it set aside, and some people cover it with the other four fingers. This is a very serious mistake. The thing is that with this technique of clenching your fist you are more likely to harm yourself, because at the place of the thumb we have a ligament. And if you cover the thumb with other fingers, the ligament will be strained, and you are likely to get a sprain on impact.

So the thumb needs to be bent and kind of put on top of the index and middle fingers. In doing so, it should be facing downwards, keep an eye on that. It takes a little bit of practice, and as time goes by, you’ll already be clenching your fists automatically.

Bend the remaining four fingers and tuck them into the palm of your hand so that the fist becomes monolithic. With this arrangement of fingers, your hand will be as fixed and strong as possible.

Learning to work with your hands during sparring

The fingers have been dealt with, now let’s move on to the work of the hands themselves, it is no less important. The first thing to mention is the tension of the hand and wrist. Even if you hit with gloves, you are not immune to sprains and fractures. So be sure to lock your fist so that it does not dangle freely, and the blow was accurate and accentuated. If the hand will be relaxed, then during the attack the arm can bend, and you will get injured.

Mikhail Bushkov: The tension in the shoulders and forearms when clenching fists for a correct and strong punch should be as follows: the shoulder is relaxed, but the forearm and fist are maximally clenched.

Let’s explain why: try to tense your shoulder and strike through the air. Do you feel stiffness? It will hinder you a lot during sparring, and although your punches should be strong, you should not forget about the ease of movement of your hands. If you want to make your lunges lightning fast and stealthy, your shoulder should always be in a relaxed state.

Exercises and recommendations

Remember: the more tense your shoulders are, the more stiff your movements will be. Therefore, do not try to pump them up too much. Of course, you should do exercises on them, as well as on all other muscles, but do not overdo it.

It is better to spend this time working on your forearms. Here are a few exercises that will help you in this: flexion and extension of the hands of a barbell or dumbbells, clenching of the wrist extender, hanging on the bar.

If you properly pump your arms, then each of your blows will be dangerous for the opponent, it will become a real weapon during the fight. Because, no matter what your technique is, without physically developed hands it will be difficult to achieve the desired result.

We will not get tired of repeating the importance of warming up – be sure to warm up before training, and it does not matter whether it will be high-intensity or not.

Which part of the fist to strike with?

This largely determines how much damage you will inflict on your opponent. If you hit incorrectly, you can hurt yourself and injure your fingers.

Often inexperienced athletes strike as they come, this is wrong. Fingers are easy enough to damage or even break, sometimes one not very technical blow is enough. Therefore, take as seriously as possible to what part of the fist to attack.

Remember: you need to hit the first two knuckles of the fist – the index and middle fingers, because they are the largest and strongest. And also when hitting with these knuckles the main load falls on the radius bone, it is the largest in the hand, so the probability of injury is much lower than in all other cases.

Of course, no one is safe from injuries during a fight. But your task is to minimize all the risks and prepare yourself as much as possible. If your punching and fist clenching technique is better than your opponent’s, you are already one step ahead.

How to make your fist stronger?

You need to build up your fists so that you don’t feel sharp pain after punches. It’s good if you fight in winding and gloves, but bare hands are poorly insured against injuries. The more often you train your fists, the more immune to pain they will become.

Here are a few proven ways to strengthen your fist: you can stand in a lying down position or do push-ups on your fists, practice punches on hard and dense surfaces like bags and pears. At first it will be painful, without this is impossible, you must hit hard. But with time the unpleasant sensations will dull, and maybe you will even enjoy throwing hooks and jabs.

Practice regularly a few times a week, and then you will gradually get used to hitting fast and hard. You don’t even have to go to the gym, you can learn to tense your arm correctly at home, in boxing it is called “shadow boxing”. This is a training methodology where you box with an imaginary opponent. Not just randomly throwing punches, but dodging, moving around.

With its help, you can not only learn how to clench your fists correctly and in time, but also refine your punching technique, load your muscles and test yourself for endurance.