To punch or chop?

[fontenot]

The predecessor to sumo is sumai . Sumai is a battlefield art that advocates kicking, chopping and headbutting. Most battlefield arts use punching which leads me to wonder why are they chopping when everyone else is punching. Are chops superior or just favored? Any correspondance is welcome.

[cxt]

Don't know if "favored" would be the term I'd use......sounds to me like you would want to use what you see as most effective att he time and situation---which might be a punch or a chop.

I'd guess that might be a bit to strict a reading of the line........probably was not meant to be an all-encomposing statement as to "only" what techniques were used......maybe more of a guideline kinda thing.

[Kevin73]

Most "battlefield" arts were not that at all and don't have documentation as being designed specifically for that when it comes to empty hand.

If you think about the situation, your primary tool is your hands in which you hold your weapons. Are you going to risk breaking your hand by accidentally hitting your enemy's armor? Open handed strikes are alot safer and conducive to using your weapons or drawing another one if the primary weapon was broke or lost.

[Kyro Lantsberger]

Most "battlefield" arts were not that at all and don't have documentation as being designed specifically for that when it comes to empty hand.

If you think about the situation, your primary tool is your hands in which you hold your weapons. Are you going to risk breaking your hand by accidentally hitting your enemy's armor? Open handed strikes are alot safer and conducive to using your weapons or drawing another one if the primary weapon was broke or lost.

I second this. I know only a little of Sumo history, and all I know of Sumai is the definition of the term as a precursor art, but it seems if you look across most fighting arts of most nations over most times, the use of the closed fist is not the primary skill. Even early mid 1990s MMA saw sooo many broken hands, I think we can use this as a contemporary example.

With weapons and manual dexterity a high priority, fist striking assumes a lower priority.

[BlackPaladin]

In MMA, they introduced the four-ounce, fingerless gloves as a way of providing the fighters more incentive to used closed-hand strikes.

Even people who are trained in martial arts (boxing, TKD, etc.) can injure themselves when using a fist to strike.

Use fists with the utmost preparation and caution.

[Jay Vail]

The chop, ie shuto/edge of the hand blow, is a specialist technique. It is best aimed at the neck and on occasion the head. Despite the volumes of praise and emphasis placed on the "chop" in the old judo books, it really is a secondary blow to be used only against selected targets as the opportunity arises.

If you are worries about hurting your hands when punching, it is often useful to rely on a palm heel blow. Catch somebody on the head with that and the lights go out real fast. I know of a corrections officer who broke an inmate's cheek bone with a hooking palm heel. I also personally talked with a corrections officer who knocked a guy down with a palm heel to the chest with such force that the guy cracked his skull on the concrete floor.