Thread: Are these any good???

sorry, did not write it down well - I was trying to say stay away from hitting anything without protection on your hands - the press ups on knuckles done less damage than hitting the makiwara - you have too many small bones in your hands, it's not worth it, then theirs your wrists etc etc ...guess it's too late now after reading your last post (DOH!).

Originally Posted by TroJon

Start with dry mung beans inside (or rice if you're really cheap, or plastic bbs if you can get enough), then change it over time to sand. Sand compacts and becomes seriously tough, by that point your knuckles will be immense!

The whole point of a makiwara board is to start with correct form when striking as to build up and a mild force, not belt into it straight away otherwise thats how the damage is done so no need so a softer substitute than sand imo as over time you'd progressively apply more force into the strike. If you'd like an example of no need for the softer stuff look at old school makiwara from the Okinawan karate styles, most of these were just wood and rope not really soft materials.

So imo just stick with sand fellah and use it wisely, strike with correct technique and build up over time.

I'm with Si, hitting stuff with unwrapped hands is a recipe for long term damage/arthritis.. Knuckle pushups and wall bags are not your friend.. have a look at the state of old TMA dudes' hands if you're in any doubt, arthritis is rife in them!

Yeh mate just isnt worth it, Get your striking tech right but like anything its practice. But if you wana get hard hands fast check this link out- Its like my tech bible.

How to Improve Punching and Pushing Techniques? | Traditional Chinese Internal Martial Art, Energy Art and Medical Art by Master Hai Yang

Originally Posted by SanshouMatt

I'm with Si, hitting stuff with unwrapped hands is a recipe for long term damage/arthritis.. Knuckle pushups and wall bags are not your friend.. have a look at the state of old TMA dudes' hands if you're in any doubt, arthritis is rife in them!

my style was Okinawan karate (Goju Ryu)...

I was encouraged to start off slow/soft as was allowed on the makiwara at aged 13 till 16 (started aged 10), trust me I could not hit it hard as it hurt like fook so only tapped it still 3 years of hitting things harder than you do not do you any good...seriously, everyone I know (even my dad who has trained karate based martial arts on off for 20 odd years) suffer with wrecked hands...stick to hand wraps, gloves and a solid heavy bag...boxers never deviated from this and you can't say they do not know how to punch and knock people out (although you do find that they normally break their hands when smacking someone in the street - this is more due to power than having girly hands tho!)...their are a million more productive things you can do than stand their smashing your hands up imho...i.e work tech spar/strength/cadio/wrestling/subs/techniques the list goes on......

yeh i see where ur coming from, it doesnt make much sence hitting something without any protection to absorb some of the impact, ur just going to bugger up your bones in your hands

Si's got it. Tech mate thats what ya need

:whs thanks mate only took me 25 years to figure it out :laugh:.

I can do a cool JKVD type thing with my hands now thanks to daft antics - when he gets mad and makes a fist to the camera and you hear his hands crunching (supposed to be from raw power - to show he's upset?) well I do that but it's my knuckles/fingers cracking..when lads ask me "do I really need hand wraps" I just tense my fists and they hear the noise and then decide £5 is not such a high price for maitaining your most valuable tools.....as Bruce Lee would say in enter the Dragon...."boards don't kick back" he also gets Han to shout "O'HARA" but thats a story for another day.....you know who you are!.

25 years! id listen to him lol