Getting over a broken right hand, so I'm quite slowed up working on punching and boxing. Sore as heck if I do!

Anyway, I'm interested what you guys do as far as punching techniques are concerned. I've heard of some horror stories like Mike Tyson busting his hand smacking someone in a street fight. I know about keeping a firm wrist and hip rotation, as well as the basic boxing strikes, but what can you do to avoid hand injuries in punching without gloves or wraps?
Is it more to do with WHERE you strike to avoid injury?

With work and my wife and kids suffering with me being incapacitated, I really need to avoid hand injury in future.

Thanks guys!:)

Limit those head strikes without gloves.
Some of the whipping style punches seem better as you don't hit with front of your knuckles imo.

backfist to cheekbone and cheek cavity area.
Jab to nose.

Open hand slap to side of head. :)

Palm strikes and hand conditioning eg. canvas wall bag

Supposedly the pre-Marquise of Queensbury rules boxers used vertical fists ala Wing Chun, striking with the bottom knuckles so as to prevent broken hands as they didn't use gloves.

Other than that fact, I don't remeber ever hitting someone in the face myself with a vertical fist in an actual fight, so I couldn't comment on it being any better or worse. Anyone else have experience with this?

I fractured the fifth metacarpal in my fist when I was about 15 from hitting a guy, but hand conditioning is the only way to really avoid doing excessive damage imo.

Stop me if you've heard this one:

A man walks in to his doctor's office and says "It hurts when I do this, what do you suggest."
The doctor says, "Don't do that."

My point is, if you don't want to hurt your hands again, don't hit hard things with them, especially with a lot of force. The advice about using strikes other than a closed fist and avoiding hard targets such as the head is sound.

By attempting what most people consider "conditioning" you are likely to cause yourself a more pain, injury, and possible long term damage.

Here's another thread about someone wanting to know how to condition their hands.

http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6133

I have to many scars on my knucles from hitting people in the face, just to make a point.
When I bounced the face shot was very effective, it got their attention.
So you learn REAl quick how to hit the head, bareknuckle and NOT break your hands.
First, wrist alignment, ALWAYS in line with your elbow, first two knucles or last three, is a PERSONAL preference, whatever you prefer. TRAIN bareknuckle and you wil be ABLE to hit bareknuckle.
Just realise that, it takes a while to condition your knuckles and you do have to punch different to hit bareknuckle, you will see your elbow lift more on hooks to the head for example.

Phrost :

Having done Both , when Hitting without Gloves I DEFINATELY prefer Vertical Hand . Its MUCH easier to Slip in , it delivers less of a Shock to the Wrist , and it has a Psycoplogical advantadge , as well - It simply isnt what ppl are LOOKING OR in a "Punch" , wierd as that may be to think about . It also allows you to keep your Elbows pointed at tthe floor , which can garer you some easy Extra Power from your Legs/Structure .

Hitting bareknuckle is all about proper mechanics/alignment in the hand and wrist. Hand conditioning gets you used to the impacts and will very quickly let you know if you don't have the alignment right. Start light, and work your way into the conditioning, lighter strikes and shorter workouts to begin with, its a slow process. Like ronin said, wrist alignment, in a nice tight line with the elbow and good structure in the fist are most important. If your over tightening the hand, sounds funny, but its the only way I can explain without showing, the small bones in the hand lose alignment and are more prone to breakage. By over tightening, I mean if you've squeezed the fist down to the point that the back of the hand starts to deform from a slightly curved form into a more pronounced arch, your likely to have problems.

I started out bareknuckle on a hardened old canvas bag. I lost plenty of skin to the thing, and tourqued my wrist out a time or two early on until I got my mechanics down, but I didn't do any long term damage. I was hitting a makuwari{SP} along with that bag work, with nothing broken, deformed or damaged, I think due in very large part to good instruction on how to use the thing and corection of technique. Best of luck, and don't do anything until that hand is well healed, especially if its affecting your abiltiy to provide for your family man.

Let me add something about the tight fist. I agree that over tightening the fist can cause damage. But we found by video taping people hitting a heavy bag barehanded, that many were actually making a good proper tight fist prior to launching the punch, then actually loosening the fist is transit, thus hitting the target with space for compression in the fist.

It may not be a problem for most, but you also may not realise it is being done until you have an injury. Just consciously notice if you keep your hand tight all the way through the punch a few times, and correct if needed.

DRD

Thanks for your help guys!

I've made a collection of the best of the posts as well as the old posts in the healthcare section.

How can I submit articles for the website? I can't attach to any posts.

From the opinions of other people I've spoken to about this - and I am inclined to agree - if you hit something hard, well hard, then you are likely to break your hand, it's that simple. There are way too many small bones in the hands, they are fragile. Wrist alignment is not going to save you, unless you are going to imply that you can teach Mike Tyson the corect way to punch.
You can even break your hands working the heavy bag if you hit it hard enough, that's why boxers wrap their hands - not because they are planning on advertising washing up liquid.

I guess in a streetfight then you have to either go open handed or for body shots. Alternatively you could use other weapons, knees, elbows, etc.
Hopefully though even if you did hit them in the head then you wouldn't have to do it many times.
I've found that since I've started hitting the heavy bag harder, I feel a lot more stress in the bones in my hands - so I wrap them now.

All the above said, I know a fair few guys who've KOed people on the street bare-knuckled without breaking their hands.
Still, I think you just have to accept that if you hit a guy hard enough, bare knuckle, you will break your hands.