Hammer-fists and Forearm Strikes

The larger the striking surface, and the larger the target area, the less likely you are to miss with a strike. This is one of the reasons, I like using roundhouse kicks – shin to ankle as a striking surface, against, almost every area of the entire leg – hammer-fists, and forearm strikes offer a similar advantage. In real-life situations where you are operating under high stress and duress, target size becomes extremely important; if you start to suffer from tunnel-vision as part of your adrenal response, it is likely that objects in front of you will start to shrink e.g. the head will start to appear as a smaller target. This is one of the reasons why it is worth considering how you use protective headgear (which will make the head a larger target) and gloves (which will make the striking surface larger) when you train under stress; this is not to say that both types of training equipment don’t have their place, just that we need to be judicious when we use them. In a manner of speaking, the forearm, and the hammer-fist are the upper body combatives equivalent of the roundhouse strike, and probably deserve a loftier position, in our arsenal of striking tools.

The hammer-fist is perhaps one of the most versatile striking tools we have. Because we are striking with the bottom of the fist, the number of directions we can angle the strike from (such as downwards, inwards, and outwards, etc.) means that it is multi-directional tool, unlike straight strikes - which also have their place. Another advantage that the hammer-fist has over straight punches, that connect using the knuckles, is that there is considerably less chance of damaging the hand when throwing the strike. As long as the fist is tensed when connecting with the target, the adipose tissue at the bottom of the hand, will protect the relatively delicate bones of the hand from injury. One of the benefits this has, is that the strike can be thrown at full speed, and with full force, without having to worry about injury to yourself. I have seen people pull back on delivering full-force punches because they have doubts about their ability to do so without injuring themselves. Although, with the appropriate training this can be rectified, if a person is caught in a situation, at a time when they doubt their ability to throw punches without injuring themselves – or can’t take the risk of damaging their hand, because their “primary” weapon is a sidearm – the hammer-fist is a good alternative, even when a straight punch may be the more appropriate/relevant tool.   

I often talk about the forearm strike and the hammer-fist, as the same strike, when attacking a target such as the neck i.e. when I use them, I often use them together, with the only variable being which part of the arm/fist makes contact – at longer range, it is likely to be the bottom of the fist, at shorter range, the forearm itself. The neck is a good target because it doesn’t move in the same way that the head does (and can’t ride a strike in the same way either), and is located at/towards the centerline of the body, something which becomes more relevant if your vision is adversely affected by the stress and duress of the situation. A hammer-fist/forearm strike, swung inwards and downwards at the neck, has a better chance of landing, with force, than a straight punch to the face (though of course such strikes to this target do have their place). If the force lands with sufficient body-weight behind it i.e. not just the weight of the arm, the effect is normally to “crumple” the person, and send the body into a temporary state of shock – making it a good way to open them up to further successive strikes. In a fight (where we aren’t dealing with an armed assailant) 90-100% of what we should be doing is delivering concussive force, and hammer-fist and forearm strikes, are an important tool in assisting us in doing this.

From my own experience, I have often found it much quicker to move into space vacated by an assailant, using hammer-fists, than with straight punches. A downwards hammer-fist, with the rear-hand directed towards the face, can be delivered with full force, whilst taking a fairly large step forward - the same cannot be said of a straight forward/lead punch, where the step forward has to be somewhat smaller, with the comparable amount of force generated being less. This is not to say that such strikes don’t have their place, just that if you need to move into someone at speed, throwing repetitive powerful strikes to force – or chase - them back, then moving rapidly forward throwing forward/downwards hammer-fists is probably your best option. Also, it won’t be necessary to change your attack if they start to duck and cover, and you begin to jam up, as you will simply start connecting with your forearm to the back of the neck, rather than the bottom of your fist to their face. This gives you a fairly simple strategy for dealing with an assailant, that doesn’t rely on a large number of technical tools.

I have never been an instructor who believes that aggression is a replacement for skills and techniques. I don’t believe that a poorly executed strike, becomes a good strike, just because the person making it is aggressive. In my time working security, I have been hit by angry and aggressive people who lacked the ability to generate power, and have an effect; their aggressiveness did not translate into force. In saying that, a good strike thrown with aggression, will generally have more power to it, than one thrown without. Certain strikes lend themselves to aggression, and I believe hammer-fists are one of them. Although every bit as technical as a straight punch, less of the technical points need to be present to generate the same amount of force, as with a straight punch. As movements start to shrink when we become adrenalized, the larger body movement involved in delivering a good hammer-fist, shrinks less than the hip and back turn involved in straight striking. It is also often easier to concentrate and focus on the single forward movement of a downwards hammer-fist, than the multiple chained movements that make up a good, powerful straight punch.

It may seem from this article that I am not a fan of straight striking/punching, however this is not the case; at my school we probably spend more time training these types of strikes/punches, than any other, because they are extremely technical strikes, with many, many teaching points to them. However, when I look back at my own time in security, hammer-fists were probably the strikes I had the greatest effect with, especially when having to move forward at speed, into an attacker; they were also the ones that connected the most, and were the hardest to block and dodge. Developing an effective and powerful set of hammer-fists should be a goal of anyone practicing reality-based self-defense.