Spearhands anyone?

[new2bjj]

Has anyone done the traditional spearhand into sand, beans, rocks, bb's, etc, and seen some kind of practical use or benefit? I only ask, as I watched some discovery channel program ( I know) where a bunch of Okinawan masters did some breaks with their fingers. I would also include the cranes beak and tiger claw. Anyone do this and use it to great effect one several occasions? The reason I ask, is, a poke in the solar plexus to a drunk or easily discouraged opponent, once in a lifetime, doesn't seem to impressive IMHO. Don't flame me too much.

[Wolf]

striking with your fingers is a good way to get them broken. I've trained every imaginable way of striking with fingers and never felt comfortable enough to do it for real (except maybe attacking the eyes)

[Epicurus]

Yeah, from my common-sense knowledge of physiology and medecine it seems practically impossible to condition your hand enough that you could throw a spearhand without haveing an excellent chance of breaking your fingers. It might be useful to hit someone in the eye with, but is it worth the ten years or whatever of conditioning that you would need to protect your hand when someone blocks it?

In short, no, I've never been able to use a spear hand or any of that crane stuff either, and I have serious doubts as to whether any human with normal skeletal structure could.

[pauli]

the best case scenario for spearhands is that they're a cruel joke.

[saturnjunkie]

I was told once (back when I was 13ish) by our then TKD teacher that the only way to do a spearhand was to point your fingers down so they wouldn't break. Well, I decided to try it in a fight once (no kidding, I also tried a palm heel to the chest once too - another funny story) .. to the guy's chest. Yes, it landed. Yes, I had my fingers pointed down. No, my fingers didn't break. Yes, it really really hurt. ME. Don't do this technique. EVER.

(side note, the palm heel incident was a 'test' where I did it to a guy's chest thinking "I can break wood, I can break his chest, right" .. wrong. I hit him, he laughed and then he DID IT BACK. Only positive was I got the wind knocked outta me. Still didn't stop me from proceeding to switch tactics and just pound on him the good old fashioned way.)

Bad experience ftw kkthx

[WhiteShark]

Spear hands suck unless you want to do some sort of iron hand training that may or may not work and may or may not damage your hands forever.

fin.

[Torakaka]

Thread re-opened for Derauslander.

[MaverickZ]

What they don't tell you, probably because they don't know, spearhands have nothing to do with striking. They, like most of the misnamed techniques in tae kwon do and karate forms, are control and compliance techniques. I am not articulate enough to explain on here I'm afraid.

[Torakaka]

Someone go poke Derauslander and tell him to post whatever it was he was going to post, then.

[Teh El Macho]

What they don't tell you, probably because they don't know, spearhands have nothing to do with striking. They, like most of the misnamed techniques in tae kwon do and karate forms, are control and compliance techniques. I am not articulate enough to explain on here I'm afraid.

akin to pain compliance hold/locks?