Ball Peen Hammer Punches and Bull Whip Kicks

Continuing on my study in the early 60s with kenpo sensei Sam Brown.

Sensei Brown told us about “pinging”, a Hawaiian practice in which a martial artist punched an anvil so hard he made it ping. The goal was to “break the cap” of their middle knuckles. Then, when it healed up, the knuckle would be much rounder and larger.

According to Sensei Brown, when one “pinged” his knuckle in Hawaii (where he grew up), his enemies would see his swollen hand and know that he would soon have a formidable weapon at the end of his arm. So they would attack him on sight while he was still vulnerable. So the pinged person would lay low for a couple of weeks, until his hand had time to heal.

He told us that when done properly, your middle finger, post-pinging, would feel like a ratchet if moved up and down.

I don’t remember if he recommended we ping our hands or simply mentioned it. But at some point I decided to follow the tradition.

Lacking an anvil, I punched a concrete wall. Feeling no ratcheting, I punched it even harder. This time, my knuckle clicked as I moved my finger, like a ratchet.

My hand swelled up and turned purple. It stayed that way for awhile. But after it had healed, I was disappointed in it. Although my middle knuckle was larger, it was not as large as I had hoped. So, I did it again. The result this time was a much larger middle knuckle.

Sensei Brown also taught us to make a fist differently than anyone else I’ve encountered in my 55 years in the martial arts. His unique punch was formed by extending the index finger and locking it into position with his thumb. This rounded the back of his hand and separated the knuckles.

When combined with a nicely “pinged” hand, the enlarged middle knuckle protruded even further, allowing us to focus all of our force into that one knuckle, rather than the traditional two, greatly increasing the pounds per square inch (psi) of impact. This had the effect of hitting someone with a ball peen hammer. I’ve used it as a specialty punch ever since for attacking certain targets and used a standard flat fist or half fist to attack others. But it’s served me well through the years.

Sensei Brown also taught us a different and dangerous (to both us and our opponents) way of executing a front kick. The standard approach is to raise the knee, execute the kick, then wait for the foot to return before placing it back on the floor.

Between the start and the execution of the kick and between the kick and its return to the floor is what we call “dead time”. There’s two reasons for this name. One, it’s time in which nothing is going on. But second, if you allow much of it to exist in the execution of your techniques, you’ll soon be dead. So Sensei Brown’s approach removed much of the dead time, especially on the recovery phase.

We were taught to snap our knees upward and whip our kicks out, with lightening quickness and as little telegraphing and dead time as we could possibly muster. But instead of waiting for our foot to recover, we’d snap our knees downward while the kick was still in route to its target, forcing the kick to hit and immediately snap back to keep up with the knee action. The kick was executed much like one does to crack a bull whip. But the result was a hyperextension of our knees. And the practice negatively affected my knees.

Several years later, after I had completed my military service (and studied martial arts with others), I returned to San Jose and opened my first dojo. Someone asked Sensei Brown about me. He wasn’t happy about me opening a school even if it was on the opposite side of town, miles from his. He told them I wasn’t bad for a skinny haole with bad knees. Considering him and his history, I took it as a complement, even though he may not have meant it that way. (Fortunately, after learning to kick in a safer – but slower – method, my knees healed up. But I’ve kept that lightening quick snap kick in my arsenal and been times I’ve silently thanked him for it and the ball peen hammer punch.)

I’ve gotten feedback that most people prefer shorter posts. So I’ll try to keep them shorter. The good side of this approach is it gives me more time to remember more details, many stored away for 50 years and only seeing the light of day again because another detail opened them up for me.

Take care and thanks for reading.

ADDITION: The following was added after the above post originally appeared.

I received a very insightful email from someone who knows alot about such things and has asked he remain annonyous. But he pointed out something I failed to mention when I described what I called the Ball Peen Hammer punch. (I just made up that name - as I also did the Bull Whip Kick - for dramatic and more descriptive effect. No one ever called it that. It was just a description of the resulting effect when someone was hit with it.) He quite correctly noted that the index finger is not pressed down towards the palm but, rather across towards the middle knuckle. That's exactly what I do, and what I was taught. Thanks to him for the correction and a bunch of very interesting and educational information about the history and practices of Hawaiian kenpo, the many great martial artists who have come from the Islands over the years, and the many contributions they have made to our arts.