Personally, I'm more of a koppo stick or yawara fan. They get the job done, (assuming you can get them out of your pocket in time) and they don't bear the same criminal/thug association
:p
perpetualstudent wrote on Jan 11
th, 2015 at 5:03pm:
Any good recommendations Thearos? Particularly for bare knuckles training/boxing?
I'd heard that some MMA fighters were experimenting with the old fashioned boxing stance. Hands chest level, palms up, ahead of the main body, as it gave some advantages for fights not as constrained as rules ad boxing has become.
Back on topic- in manga/comic books periodically you'll see knucks that aren't gripped in the hand, but are attached to the forearm and extend past the knuckles. Either on the sides of the hand, or flipping over the back of the hand. I don't know if these are anything other than theoretical but as long as we're discussing the theoretical I thought I'd mention it
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What's interesting about that extended pugilist stance with the narrow foot placement is that it tends to be rather nice for dominating the centerline.
Depending on the era, Pugilism was based heavily on the art of the smallsword, with some sources even referring to it as "fencing with fists."
Grappling and throws were allowed, so that extended, upright stance was used on occasion by distance fighters who were wary of getting too close. Some pugilists, like Daniel Mendoza, preferred a more generic boxing/JKD-looking of stance, and everything between.
As for the "knobby fists" mentioned elsewhere, they didn't [usually] have screwed-up hands, like an old-school Karateka. According to my research, pugilists conditioned their fists, but only to the point where they would be able to tolerate human anatomy. Assuming one trains responsibly and correctly, you only start to get into thrashed-up hands territory if your training goes far beyond that--with stuff like punching through bricks and flagstone slabs on a regular basis.
Another thing I found interesting while researching the topic is that pugilists even went as far as treating their fists with toughening agents as well as soothing linaments after practice, in a manner not all that different from the sort of methods employed by Iron-Hand practitioners.