Lance C
03-10-2007, 04:42 AM
Here is a subject that gets little attention and probably needs to be discussed from time to time.
It is Handwrapping!
There are so many techniques to doing it, with various ideas of right and wrong.
What you need is: Some hand wraps that are long enough! and some athletic tape.
The most important question is why you want to wrap your hands. Here are some good reasons to wrap your hands:
Keeps you from breaking the various parts of your hand included are bones, tendons ligaments, cartilage etc.. The harder you hit, the more damage you do to your hands.
Also reduces excessive bruising and excessive skin rashes / rug burn / cuts.
One other point is that a properly bound hand requires little pressure to keep a tight fist, conserving the all too important energy required to fight!
Let us look at a case study of "getting a pinch in the wrist"
When many people start hitting the heavy bag with some intent, they get a pinching feeling in their wrist, one common cause of this is hitting and having your wrist bend during the strike and a pinching sensation, sometimes quite painful developes. What you have done is struck the target with the hand relaxed or weak and it hit and stretched it apart slightly.
This can be prevented by wrapping the wrist to keep it from wrongly stretching on impact. Wrapping will help keep it from getting weak from fatigue or careless relaxing. Some tips here are, use a binding type material with little stretch to it. Tensor Bandages while applicable for healing injuries are too flexible to get a good wrap. They may help but are not the same as wrapping material. Also finish the job with a bit of athletic tape to keep the wraps from slipping. Impacting the target causes your fist to change shape and it is easy to get loose wrappings.
Personally speaking, I do not usually wrap my hands, only for breaking and for the night of the fight, excessive wrapping can cause the anatomy not to develope properly during training, but when you need that extra firmness and reduced fatigue it is time to prevent the injury through wrapping.
The next type of injury most common in my circle are the two inferior knuckles and fingers getting excessively bruised while practicing power striking. This can be greatly prevented by firm wrapping between the fingers and around the palm and fingers. When the hand is bound together there is more rigidity and less losses in your hand stretching to new shapes upon impact. It is probable that proper wrapping will greatly reduce bruising and damaging the lesser fingers. Also note that by practicing bare handed you will develope bone density, ligament strength the tendons and muscles more, but to truely hit hard, wrapping keeps the injuries down to a minimum.
Many contact fighters wrap under their gloves. It increases the mass of the fist, increases the rigidity of the hand, decreases injury possibilities and a bound fist needs less energy, is more efficient.
On the street, instant wraps can be tight leather gloves.
-Lance C
It is Handwrapping!
There are so many techniques to doing it, with various ideas of right and wrong.
What you need is: Some hand wraps that are long enough! and some athletic tape.
The most important question is why you want to wrap your hands. Here are some good reasons to wrap your hands:
Keeps you from breaking the various parts of your hand included are bones, tendons ligaments, cartilage etc.. The harder you hit, the more damage you do to your hands.
Also reduces excessive bruising and excessive skin rashes / rug burn / cuts.
One other point is that a properly bound hand requires little pressure to keep a tight fist, conserving the all too important energy required to fight!
Let us look at a case study of "getting a pinch in the wrist"
When many people start hitting the heavy bag with some intent, they get a pinching feeling in their wrist, one common cause of this is hitting and having your wrist bend during the strike and a pinching sensation, sometimes quite painful developes. What you have done is struck the target with the hand relaxed or weak and it hit and stretched it apart slightly.
This can be prevented by wrapping the wrist to keep it from wrongly stretching on impact. Wrapping will help keep it from getting weak from fatigue or careless relaxing. Some tips here are, use a binding type material with little stretch to it. Tensor Bandages while applicable for healing injuries are too flexible to get a good wrap. They may help but are not the same as wrapping material. Also finish the job with a bit of athletic tape to keep the wraps from slipping. Impacting the target causes your fist to change shape and it is easy to get loose wrappings.
Personally speaking, I do not usually wrap my hands, only for breaking and for the night of the fight, excessive wrapping can cause the anatomy not to develope properly during training, but when you need that extra firmness and reduced fatigue it is time to prevent the injury through wrapping.
The next type of injury most common in my circle are the two inferior knuckles and fingers getting excessively bruised while practicing power striking. This can be greatly prevented by firm wrapping between the fingers and around the palm and fingers. When the hand is bound together there is more rigidity and less losses in your hand stretching to new shapes upon impact. It is probable that proper wrapping will greatly reduce bruising and damaging the lesser fingers. Also note that by practicing bare handed you will develope bone density, ligament strength the tendons and muscles more, but to truely hit hard, wrapping keeps the injuries down to a minimum.
Many contact fighters wrap under their gloves. It increases the mass of the fist, increases the rigidity of the hand, decreases injury possibilities and a bound fist needs less energy, is more efficient.
On the street, instant wraps can be tight leather gloves.
-Lance C