Western Boxing

[Bill Welch]

I think that somewhere in this long thread that someone mentioned that it was expected that a warrior at this time trained from youth to be able to wrestle and strike.

So striking was probably not spacifically mentioned in fight texts for the same reason that there are not a lot of sword and shield manuals, because warriors were already expected to know how to do it.

[philippewillaume]

Yes Joachim in fact it is very similar to way we use atemi (i.e. strike with whatever knee, foot, elbow fist palm) in aikido. it seems as well the ringeck uses it as a get out jail free card (gouging, check muscle tear and so on)
He seems quite keen on kicking (but only in Armour) though he mention that you need to be careful that he does not grab you leg)

Bill
Hum I just do not know you see, because as you said we are not told how to grab but just to grab with just a little precision. So we can assume that people would know what action would be associate to that. Ringeck tell us to strike with hand approximately closed in on occurrence which seems to refer to something knew
And besides we know there was peasant fencing, wrestling so there was very probably peasant punching as well. Plus the fact as Joachim mentioned that we do defend against strike.
The things that is puzzling with strike is that fiore and Ringeck seems to be quite specific as to where and when to strike and that indicate that striking arts were not that developed nor really integrated to ringen.

[R.J. Stringer]

IMHO the fighter with the most accurate self knowledge of his skillset will prevail. Ive been overwhelmed by sheer numbers in a brawl (yeah, i really thought we could "lick em all"), and Ive taken men most definitely larger and more "skilled" than myself through sheer tenacity and viciousness of attack (skeered silly will do that for ya <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />) Lumps, scars, and beer-stories aside..sometimes theres an opportunity to win, and sometimes there isnt..but if you are realistic about what you can, and cannot do you'll likely be OK.

[Dan Kanagie]

This is a debate for the ages. In the history of BKB, there are multitudes of stories of one punch KO's. Striking, like any other art is effective if used properly. There is a science to everything in fighting. Also, Petter's wrestling book includes strikes. And both Petter and Paschen have kicks, and open hand chops.