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Traditional boxing used different fist positions to modern gloved boxing principally due to the vast difference between (1) punching without handwraps and gloves on compared with well-protected hands, and (2) a combat system versus a combat sport.For hundreds of years of bareknuckle English boxing, until around 1910 in some cases, even though gloves had been used for some time already, straight punches were delivered with a vertical fist (or near-vertical) position; we can abbreviate this to VF. The bareknuckle era lasted for much longer than gloved boxing has been in existence.The risk of hand breakageThe problem with punching to the head without heavily protected hands is that if the modern gloved boxing fist position is used for a straight punch in a bareknuckle situation, there is a significant risk for breaking the hand.Of equal importance are the old tactics for preserving the integrity of the hand.What happens using a straight punch with the HF fist in bare fist fights: broken outer metacarpals when the opponent jinks sideways - the ‘fistfight fracture’ every trauma medic has seen..In the photo above, the opponent has jinked: ducked outside & down - so the punch hits high and at the edge of the forehead. You can see there is now a serious risk that one or both the outer metacarpals (the bones supporting the end knuckles) will break - they just cannot take this impact when no handwraps and gloves are worn.That is why this punch was never used in classical boxing, as it was all bareknuckle, and the hands break with this kind of punch.Hand break risk versus fist positionThe vertical fist works better for bareknuckle fights because there is less risk of a hand break; it connects better across a range of possible angles; and it can drill through a tight cover better. There are also several other advantages.Here is the correct fist format for straight punches to the head in bareknuckle fighting: the VF.Importantly, if you miss there is no downside: you just miss; but the horizontal fist has a major problem here because if the opponent jinks off to the side, you can hit with the outer two knuckles and break the hand. A miss has serious consequences.And you will miss. This is why across the hundreds of years of old English bareknuckle boxing, the vertical fist was used exclusively for straight punches as above.Tactics: power managementThree power levels were used for straight punches: snap punches, mid-power punches, and full-power punches - this applied equally to left and right punches. So for the left hand we have a jab; and on the right, we have the snap right. Both are delivered in the same way: with a fast snap, delivered to a 1″ depth.This means the opponent’s eye can be closed up or the nose broken, without risking a broken hand if something goes wrong - there isn’t enough power for that.HooksThe hook punch was invented by English boxing champion Jack Broughton. Before him, all hits were straight punches, swings and strikes of one kind or another.When he first used this new punch, it was called ‘the new curved blow’ as there was no pre-existing example anywhere (and this is true globally - all circular hits with the knuckles were various types of swings, not punches). It had to be used carefully in bareknuckle boxing because it was a power shot, and there was elevated risk for a hand break. For this reason it was best used low on the face, to the chin or jaw, to avoid hitting high and therefore with high risk.Broughton’s hook was a horizontal fist hook, i.e. a palm-down hook - therefore it is a powerful hit but with an intrinsic risk for breaking the outer metacarpal hand bones if the target is missed. For that reason it is only used to a clear target low on the face, ideally the chin or jaw; it is carefully targeted for that purpose; it is not fired off in a ‘throw it & hope’ mode; and it is best trained as a long punch in order to avoid the common issue of missing short that afflicts so many hooks. It can easily be shortened up if you train long; but if you train hooks as a short or medium range punch, you’ll find it exceptionally difficult to lengthen a hook out as the opponent sways back. Train it long, target it well - or don’t use it bareknuckle.It is not always necessary to punch when fighting: strikes, not punches, were used for hitting high on the face or head; and throws when in close. Boxing never mandated a ‘punch or nothing’ policy: that is ridiculous in a combat system used for road defence.Boxing: a comprehensive combat systemWe do of course use all these methods today since they are perfectly designed for practical boxing: boxing as a self-defence method not a sport. They have hundreds of years of development for this exact purpose, and it makes no sense to ignore that - especially considering that old English bareknuckle boxing both was and still is the ultimate system for punching to the head. No one has ever done it better.So broadly speaking we use vertical fist straight punches to the head; carefully targeted horizontal fist hooks; strikes, when the face is covered or a punch might be risky; and throws - especially if the opponent shells up, as they then become very easy to slam or throw with many different moves. Body punches have a range of formats, there is no rule here on which is best since that varies according to circumstance.This is traditional boxing strategy and it transfers directly to modern urban defensive boxing. We also have more to choose from now, and several aspects of combat such as footwork, defence, and angles are more sophisticated today and so cannot be ignored. The basic template of old bareknuckle boxing is still as valid as ever.Nobody has ever come up with a better system for head shots - so if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Hundreds of years of English bareknuckle boxing don’t lie.A throw on hard ground can end the fight. In traditional boxing, a popular KO shot was to use a power hip throw followed by a hip fall: dropping with the hip into the gut or ribs. This could end the fight. James Figg, the first universally recognised champion, was reported as following the hip throw with a choke-out on the ground; there were no rules until 1743. While old-time boxers could punch, strike and wrestle effectively, in the 18th century they also trained and fought with weapons - some matches involved rounds with weapons, and these were not sparring: the intention was to stop the opponent whether it was with sword, staff, fist or throw.Some photo examplesHere are some images that may make some of these concepts clearer.Here we see a right snap punch to the nose at an inbound stage. The idea is to break the nose and cause blood flow to interfere with the breathing. It will be used when the chin is tucked down or covered up. You can see the vertical fist format, with the correct fist crank to align the main two knuckles and metacarpals with the radius forearm bone and take the end, weak knuckles back out of the major impact zone (the fist is tilted down a little, which we term ‘fist crank’). The average untrained person would hit square on the centre knuckle, but the trained boxer cranks the fist down a little so the first two knuckles align with the radius forearm bone, to create a solid driveline through the fist, wrist and arm - this is called the radial column. A fist crank is common in many arts that use punches, whether with the VF or HF straight punch.The snap punch has 1″ depth past the flat surface of the face. It doesn’t have enough power to break the hand if something goes wrong - but it has enough to break the nose..Now we see a left snap punch to the eye, today called a jab. It is a fast, light punch designed to close up the left eye and restrict vision. It has little depth or power, so that if things go wrong there is low risk for hand damage. This punch is used if the lower face is protected by the guard. You may be able to spot the correct fist crank applied here.Another view:The snap punch has 1″ depth past the flat surface of the face. It doesn’t have enough power to break the hand if something goes wrong - but it has enough to swell and close the eye and cut the surrounding flesh..A good example of a well-delivered vertical fist straight punch from MMA. Excellent distancing..The front swing:Strikes are used when the face is covered up and we are too far out for a throw. Here the opponent covers the face - so the boxer at left fires a front swing, also called a topfist swing. The right arm is being swung around in a circular strike, and will hit with the top of the fist (the thumb side, opposite to the ‘hammerfist’ or bottomfist) and the distal radius: the last part of the thumb-side forearm bone. The boxer may choose to reposition the thumb lower, down on to the middle and ring finger, to flatten the topfist.Note that this strike is a hand and arm hit - it connects with the top of the fist and the bottom half of the forearm, at the thumb side. Depending on circumstance, it bangs into the temple and rear side skull, or upper neck and behind/below the ear.Alternatively the boxer hits to the body - and the bare fist is more effective than a gloved fist. Many more cracked or broken ribs will occur than in gloved boxing. One obvious feature of old boxing prints is that many fighters preferred to cover the body with the non-striking hand when punching, not the side face, to block a fast counter to the body under their attack. A hard puncher hitting to the ribs bare knuckle can do plenty of damage.Here’s a short range liver shot..It is very difficult to cover the head against all of these strikes as there is usually a way to get around any cover. Or the boxer can hit to the body, or move in for a throw.If the opponent makes the mistake of shelling up or resting in the clinch, he can be quickly thrown. Here is a simple pickup & slam in the early stages. Once the waist hold is locked on (aka double low underhooks) it’s flying time. We can force the opponent to cover up, with punches to the face, then throws get easier.We will often used throws that dump the opponent hard but do not involve us going down with them. This is good policy on concrete and with a risk of multiple opponents; so the basic format of boxing throws is to dump them hard but not follow down. Some of these throws are designed for that purpose, or modified to suit boxing better, or done in a safe mode so as not to go down with the opponent.The basic idea is to throw hard as this is a fight-winning move on the pavement, but not to have an arm under as the ground is met or to be tied up so the next attacker has a free shot at you.How we use traditional boxing todayThe old methods are perfect for street boxing today: the use of boxing methods for self-defence. Street defence is bareknuckle with no rules, exactly like old English boxing for hundreds of years - so the old system is perfect for the job.Today’s boxing has better footwork and a more sophisticated defence, though, so we use that. Thai boxing has some excellent short range moves - especially for lightweight fighters - and so we utilise those too; you’d be unwise not to. The power front thrust kick of Thai boxing (not the pushing kick) and the low kick are well worth practicing by a boxer - if only for defensive purposes by those who don’t like kicking: what you don’t work with will catch you out.The beauty of it is that all boxing methods integrate perfectly as they have the same engine. The breath control used for English boxing punches is exactly the same as used with the Thai knee; and they combine perfectly. A punch-knee combo goes exactly the same in every way as the punch-swing or punch-strike or punch-punch of English boxing.Old English catch wrestling is the same: boxing and wrestling are the two sides of the same coin and fit together like hand and glove.All these combine smoothly as they have the same foundation, the same motor. What you end up with is called a hybrid boxing system. When its purpose is to be useful both on the street and in the ring, it is termed a practical boxing system.Why gloved boxing is differentNow we need to look quickly at why exactly today’s gloved boxing is so different.This has two main components: (1) tactics when the hands have near-bombproof protection; and (2) facial cuts.1: Tactics with bombproof handsAs you can imagine, things are very different when the hands are well-protected by wraps and gloves.The hand wraps protect the fist more than the gloves, at contest glove weights - this is not the case with 16s, but we don’t fight with 16’s on.With wraps & gloves, any fist format can used as long as you’re reasonably careful.Punches can be thrown at a terrific rate, as targeting is not important.Bunches of punches can (and should) be fired off, so you score with something along the way. It is like suppressing fire in a platoon engagement: once in a while something connects, though mostly you’re just keeping their heads down and preventing an attack.None of that can be used in bareknuckle fighting. Punches must be carefully targeted, and power levels varied according to target and risk. Instead of machine gunning, the boxer becomes a sniper. The ‘spray & pray’ method of gloved boxing contrasts with the careful targeting of bareknuckle fighting.2: The cuts and swells of bareknuckle boxingThe old time fights resulted in a lot of facial damage, and you can see echoes of this in modern MMA due to the skinny, hard gloves. So, a boxer could tactically close the opponent’s eyes, bust their nose, and tear the flesh above the eyes or at the lips. This interfered with ability to see and breathe, therefore to fight, and led into an effective endgame. If the opponent can be handicapped, the end comes faster.When the gloves came in, all that was finished. You could no longer force the opponent to quit because he couldn’t see or breathe.Then one day a revelation occurred - someone discovered that if you screwed the fist after you hit, you could get cuts even with a glove on. The glove leather would stick to and tear the flesh if driven in hard then twisted at the same time.After that (around the 1920s I believe, since at 1915 they still used vertical fist shots even with the gloves on), the habit of twisting the punch at the end spread. By the 1950s it was universal.The strange thing is that after a few decades nobody could remember why it was done - it just was. Nobody knew, after a time, that the only reason the fist is twisted at the end of a straight punch to the face is to get the cuts.Some of the funniest things you will read are from people who have no idea about any of the history or reasons for the way things are done, and come out with gems such as “It has more snap to it”; or, “It has more power”; or, “It is stronger”; or “It has more reach”; or, “It engages the pecs and lats more”, or “I can cover my chin with a raised shoulder”. The last one is a gem as it means the boxer must be some kind of hunchback puncher, always defending with a punching arm. They say, “The fist must be turned over at the end as that is the right way to do it”, or “It is safer and better”, or “It has more power if you turn it over”, or “It is harder”. This may be true with gloves on, although the difference is marginal - at least you can get cuts - but it is completely untrue with no gloves. Indeed it is just plain wrong on all counts.Screwing it is just for the cuts. No other reason. The horizontal fist straight punch is no more powerful than the vertical fist punch; it has no more power or effect or ‘snap’ or reach or anything else. But you can get a big LOL from listening to folks talking this way.There are some places a screw punch is superior: (a) to the body: the power transfer is better into a deep, soft target using the screw punch; (b) some atypical punches such as the reaching punch (the half-jump punch off the right, snapping it in high over the guard; and (c) for a defensive straight shot down the middle, you can hunch the shoulder up more easily and hide the jaw behind it to protect against a hook. But this ‘hunchback punching’ style is not going to be a major feature of anyone’s game; it’s hard to think of any successful boxer who does this as a matter of course. It will play OK with the left hand in Philly shell, but that strategy is a disaster in any fight except under modern strict boxing rules.Unless you are a pro boxer and it’s your livelihood, it makes no sense to train only the modern sport version and then use it for self-defence when needed. It’s better to train the old combat version as it works fine in the ring if you just drop 90% of the fighting moves from the old system and only punch. That turns out to be easy for boxers who train in the full system, because modern sport boxing is so limited that they can easily treat it as a separate contest format. It turns out to be easy to train in full combat boxing of the old style and then compete in modern boxing (just punch, and nothing else) or Thai boxing: in full open-rules Thai boxing, much of old English boxing is allowed - so it is a really good ruleset to compete under, for traditional-style boxers.The Thai rules are easiest to adapt to, as in its true form, most of old boxing is allowed: punch, strike, grapple, hit short, throw. In provincial Thai boxing, no adaptation at all is required: the Thai rules allow all of old boxing technique. Localised versions of the Thai rules are more difficult to adapt to as they ban odd parts such as some throws or strikes; but it’s worth trying to adapt as the muay Thai contest format is the only stand-up ruleset where we can use all/most of the old English boxing technique.MMA is also good but the fighter ideally needs to be a ground-based wrestler as many boxing defences against a wrestling attack are banned, leading to a strong bias toward mat wrestling (and wall grinding, which doesn’t exist in any real-world fight: the rules protect the grinder). Old English boxing, as a fighting method, never prioritised for ground wrestling (you can’t fight on the ground against multiple attackers or armed attackers).Fist shapesIt is a bad idea to use the modern fist shape for street defence - one mistake in timing and it’s goodbye hand, hello hospital. I call it 1950s boxing as it encapsulates all that was so grotesquely second-rate in that era.There’s not even any need to screw the fist in the ring, never mind on the street. The longest KO I’ve seen in the ring in 50 years came from one of our guys getting a full-power vertical fist cross on some poor sod’s chin. This was with an 8 ounce glove on. He was out cold for several minutes and we began to think he was dead. They got him moving around in the end, and he was carried off. There was some relief all round, there. A night in hospital no doubt.There is no power drop from using a vertical fist. Neither does the range reduce, or the ‘snap’ decrease, or anything else. It is in fact a simpler punch as the elbow stays down all the way, out & back - and this means form is always perfect, the punch is always piston-straight, and with no power leak-off due to elbow flare (early elbow rise to the side) as often seen in the horizontal fist (HF) straight punch. The HF punch is more complicated, which often seems ‘better’ to the user; like a double spin jump kick perhaps - it feels great. ‘Feels better’ does not equal ‘is better’.It isn’t better in any way, it just feels like it’s better; and there is no substance to that - it is a false superiority that does not stand up to any hard test.A bit more on fist alignmentBecause the vertical fist straight punch is fundamentally simpler, it then becomes easier to improve all sorts of other factors that can increase power and speed, instead of having to spend time on correcting the bad form so commonly inherent in straight punches delivered to the head from a high guard when using the twist punch. The coach often has to spend a ton of time reducing the elbow flare that leaks power off.When my gym changed over to vertical fist straight punches to the head, around 1980, this was a huge source of relief for me: a coach wastes hours trying to reduce elbow flare in straight punches to the head with the horizontal fist. It’s soul-destroying. But go to vertical-fist straights and that problem disappears - now you can concentrate on snap or power, ranging or inertia, and so many things more valuable to a punch’s effect than having to continually deal with that pervasive elbow flare problem.Exploiting potential power gainsWhen the VF straight punch is used with palm-down hooks, there are additional gains that can be explored. We soon came to the conclusion that Broughton was no fool, when first exploring this complete reversal of 1950s boxing technique back around 1980. It worked so well in so many ways we switched over to it 100%: vertical fist on straight punches to the head, horizontal fist for hooks to the head (and extremely well-targeted). Body punches have a different class of effect and so are best discussed as a separate case.Try it yourself on the bag with a simple jab-hook off the left: the regular method today is with a horizontal fist jab (so the left elbow is up) - vertical fist left hook (elbow still up). See how this jab - left hook feels on the bag. That is the modern boxing method (or 1950s boxing to be more accurate).Now change to the opposite fist alignments on both punches: left snap jab vertical fist - left hook horizontal fist. This is the old bareknuckle format. The elbow will be down in the first punch, then rise in the second. Almost everyone hits harder using this method - the hook has increased power.Just make sure to target the hits well when boxing in the real world - power shots need to be low on the face for bareknuckle use.…………..I hope you enjoyed this intro to traditional boxing. Thanks to the guys for posing these photos: Alex, Tyler and Aslan.

The current justice league movie was a funny popcorn flick so it wasn’t bad like batman v superman. It was okay.The really sad part is they had the perfect template for how to do this if only they want to look at other materials. I’m not even talking about comics. This was based on the new 52 afterall that sucked big time.I’m talking about the jl cartoon.Batman was the one with the plan. Martian man hunter wouldn’t dare stop him.Vulnerable (?) Batman owns Martian ManhunterSuperman was the famous one and gave them all some legitimacy for the world but didn’t shrink from being darker.Wonder Woman and Martian manhunter are superman with a twist making them both interesting.Green lantern was an army man and his ring was a great utility he was trained and disciplined in contradiction to the others.Hawkgirl was a fighter. She had a more tactical mindset and was often the first one to try to punch her way out.The flash was the young optimist and written as the Everyman and helper. Yes he was the comic relief but he was serious too. He had a kinder relation with his roguesThe chemistry between them was great and everyone brought something to the table. Which is what I missed in the movie.

Several.TNG crossed over several times with DS9 and once each with VGR and ENT. Additionally, DS9 crossed over twice with VGR, and once with TOS via the miracle of stock footage, and VGR also crossed over with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.In rough chronological order…Jean-Luc Picard gave Benjamin Sisko his marching orders when the latter was assigned to command Deep Space 9 in “Emissary”. Chief Petty Officer Miles O’Brien also moved from TNG’s recurring cast to DS9’s main cast.Q and Vash also appeared on the station in “Q-Less”, which famously got Q punched in the face (by the son of a fellow godlike alien).Benjamin Lafayette “Don’t F**k With The” Sisko, ladies and germs.The Enterprise returned to DS9 for “Birthright, Part I”.Will Riker played a holoprogram of the NX-01 Enterprise in ENT’s infamous series finale, “These Are the Voyages…”DS9 gave VGR its sendoff in “Caretaker”.In one of the most impressive uses of stock footage in cinematic history, “Trials and Tribble-ations” saw the DS9 crew end up in the TOS episode “The Trouble with Tribbles” due to a mishap with a Bajoran orb.Robert Picardo, the Doctor on VGR, turned up in “Doctor Bashir, I Presume?” playing that character’s inventor, Dr. Lewis Zimmerman, attempting to develop a variant of the EMH program for long-term use with Bashir as the template.“Flashback” saw Janeway and Tuvok end up stuck in a memory of himself serving on the USS Excelsior under Hikaru Sulu back in ST6. (Tim Russ had played a nameless bridge bunny on the Enterprise-B in Generations.)“You’ve never brought me coffee…”In “Pathfinder”, TNG’s resident kooky genius Reginald Barclay, with a little help from Deanna Troi, works to develop a way to establish regular communications contact with Voyager for the first time since they found the Hirogen comms network. He uses a holoprogram of Voyager to help his creative process.ETA: Since people are complaining about me missing this or that episode: one character from another series turning up briefly is a cameo, not a crossover. And DS9: “Defiant” is properly a sequel.