Frequency of hand hits

[Anthony Boyd]

I'm curious to hear how often your opponents land a good strike [intentional or not] on your hands while sparring. We've just begun to engage in sparring with Lance's RSW equipment and therefore - without our regular sparring gear. I find I am running out of knuckles!
Yesterday morning during a very surreal sparring session at 7 am my hand ended up getting mashed between my partner's guard and my hilt during a particularly embarrassing exchange. No lasting damage, but enough temporary pain to make me question my sanity for a split second. Ha ha.
Anyway, that lead to my questions:

How often do you find your hands are on the receiving end of impacts, and what have you done to resolve it?

[Brian Hunt]

Learning to keep your hands from being accidently struck during an engagement is a learned responce. It takes time, practice, and sparring with intent. I don't often get hit in the hands now, unless they are deliberatly targeted by my opponent, but when I first started with ARMA, I took a lot of blows there when sparring. The last time I got hit in the hand while sparring was during Stewart Feils Senior Scholarship test. Doesn't mean it won't happen again, just that with practice it becomes much less prominent.

Good luck.

Brian Hunt.
GFS

[Patrick Hardin]

Yeah, the more you train, the less often your hands will get hit. I have also found that if you do not spar with good martial intent, the hands actually seem to get hit more often. The more martial intent you have in your sparring, the less your hands and fingers will get hit. Brian's right, it's just a matter of time and training. A few years ago, I was sparring with a guy with padded swords, and he accidentaly landed a solid blow directly on my right middle finger. My finger was flattened between the padded blade of his sword and the grip of my own. I lost my fingernail, and the bone in the tip of my finger was cracked. To this day, the end of my finger is wider than it used to be. All this from a padded sword.<img src="/forum/images/icons/crazy.gif" alt="" /> But now, I don't get hit in the hand much anymore. So just fight and train, and it will all work out in the end... though a few years from now, your fingers may be shaped differently than they are now. <img src="/forum/images/icons/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Patrick Hardin

[Shane Smith]

Tall fencers will target your hands on purpose...alot <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />

[Matthew_Anderson]

Yes, Shane has hit me in the hands and arms more times than I can count <img src="/forum/images/icons/smirk.gif" alt="" /> . The hands and arms, in some guards, and all attacks, are the parts of your body that are closest to your opponent and therefore vulnerable. Good fencers learn to protect their hands with good technique. I don't get hit in the hands nearly as much as I used to, but when I'm sloppy or slow, it still happens. I purposely target the hands and arms, especially if my opponent opens himself up with a sloppy or poorly timed attack.

[KatherineJohnson]

My hands dont get hit paticularly often, But I do target the hands of others quite frequently.

I can also vouch that Shane like's to target hands, as he whacked mine several times over in Knoxville. <img src="/forum/images/icons/shocked.gif" alt="" />

[JeffGentry]

yep i can attest to that i am 6' and i like to target the hand's and arm's if i can, the knuckle strike is one of my favorite's.

Jeff

[Stacy Clifford]

Everybody hits to the hands a lot, regardless of height. I'm not tall, but I hit the hands and forearms a lot because it's the easiest thing to reach. Most of the hits I take are on the hands because I'm quick enough to get the rest of me out of the way most of the time. I also find it happening more often when I'm trying to work new techniques into my sparring and I don't have the proper timing and distance of them worked out yet.

[Lance Chan]

hands are my FAVOURITE target.

[Anthony Boyd]

I wonder how the historical record refelcts this? I will have to expand my reading to see if there are lots of fingerless corpses turning up in excavations of battlegrounds...

[Casper Bradak]

If I recall, from what's been done, there has been little if any damage found to the hands, but that doesn't necessarily mean much. The digits are easily damaged and the most scattered fragments in grave finds.

[leam hall]

Well, we missed getting a picture of the blood splattering when I took off the glove, but I blocked a padded long sword with my hands instead of the blade like I was trying to. The other weapon tore an inch and a half of my pinkie flesh apart and I still can't straighten that finger.

I have *got* to learn to block better. <img src="/forum/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

[GaryGrzybek]

Ouch!

That hurts just thinking about it <img src="/forum/images/icons/frown.gif" alt="" />

It seems the hands are the most vulnerable targets. And of course we keep putting them out there. It often comes down to reaction and timing. I find when I'm tired I tend to get sloppy about where my hands are.

[Randall Pleasant]

Leam

Well I never got it that bad but about a year and a half ago I got hit really bad on my right pinkie by Gene Tush during sparring. It did not break my finger but it did turn completely black - not just deep blue. <img src="/forum/images/icons/crazy.gif" alt="" /> Although it was so painful that I didn't want anything to touch it I had to massage it all night to ensure there was some blood flow. I found it helpful to hold my finger close to the body while rolling around on the ground. <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forum/images/icons/tongue.gif" alt="" />