# Methods to Wrap Hands



## Kyokushin_1054 (Mar 27, 2020)

OSU! everyone!

I have noticed in my 8 years of martial arts experience (very little in my opinion but still enough to notice such things) that very often beginners forget to pick up the basic skill of learning different techniques of wrapping their hands correctly. I decided to go and make a video on it and put it up on my YouTube channel dedicated to martial arts, fitness and fight specific conditioning training (@RG MARTIAL ARTS. I thought I'd share it with you guys and open up an opportunity for everyone to share how you wrap your hands. I am aware that there are so many different variations so I would be really excited to see what everyone shares. 

LINK: 




I really look forward to your replies! Take care, stay safe and healthy!

OSU!

Roland


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## Headhunter (Mar 27, 2020)

Never wrapped my hands once in training. Only had someone do it when I fought in the ring. I find it teaches bad habits and allows sloppy technique on punches. When I do my own bag work I just use bare fist


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## Gerry Seymour (Mar 27, 2020)

I wrap my hands so seldomly I only bother to learn one way, because I barely remember that one. I mostly do it when I'm going to do a really exhausting bag workout and want to keep hitting hard the whole time (for the sheer exhaustion of it) with less change of that same exhaustion causing me to injure myself. That's pretty rare.


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## Kyokushin_1054 (Mar 27, 2020)

Headhunter said:


> Never wrapped my hands once in training. Only had someone do it when I fought in the ring. I find it teaches bad habits and allows sloppy technique on punches. When I do my own bag work I just use bare fist



Well, that is fair enough obviously. As a Kyokushin practitioner, I would agree with that of course. We never use wraps either. However, I simply find it is not something you can always completely ignore when stepping into boxing or kickboxing (and since this is a thread in the boxing kickboxing section....)

I mean: using it to provide wrist support, where I would agree with you, it can (for some beginners) teach horrible form and weakens the wrist, I have only ever used it in my Professional Muay Thai fights or in the gym so as to not sweat into my gloves and make them stinky too fast. Any thoughts or recommendations on this?

Cheers!


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## drop bear (Mar 27, 2020)

How does anyone know wraps weaken wrists or teach bad habits?


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## Kyokushin_1054 (Mar 27, 2020)

gpseymour said:


> I wrap my hands so seldomly I only bother to learn one way, because I barely remember that one. I mostly do it when I'm going to do a really exhausting bag workout and want to keep hitting hard the whole time (for the sheer exhaustion of it) with less change of that same exhaustion causing me to injure myself. That's pretty rare.



Haha, I would have to agree with you on that one. I myself barely remember one technique for longer than a week. I am still trying to remember the one my cornerman used in every single one of my pro fights (its a quite insane actually  ). But thank you for sharing when you do use wraps (something Ill try out for sure).


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## Kyokushin_1054 (Mar 27, 2020)

drop bear said:


> How does anyone know wraps weaken wrists or teach bad habits?


 Well mate, the thing is, there are a few articles out there arguing both sides of it. I don't want to get into the whole debate about which is a better source or side of the argument but what I will say is that it comes down to what you believe and what works for you. This is a personal opinion for me and therefore I would never force it down any of my student's throats. I would just say, it can weaken your wrist for disciplines like various Karate styles and bare-knuckle disciplines where it is necessary to build some strength in the wrist by training bare-knuckle. When it comes to boxing and kickboxing, however, I would disagree and say that it may be a little foolish to not use wraps under bigger boxing gloves. But again, that is my belief as I would say from experience, a lot of beginners forget wraps, put on gloves and end up breaking their hands for some reason. Sorry for dragging on here but the point is, there is not going to be an absolute YES or NO answer to this ever.


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## Gerry Seymour (Mar 27, 2020)

drop bear said:


> How does anyone know wraps weaken wrists or teach bad habits?


I don’t think they teach bad habits, so much as they limit feedback to learn from. I can be more lax in angle of strike and support of the  wrist when I’m wrapped. But only by a small amount. I’d be interested in hearing from someone who had only ever worked with wraps, then worked without them.


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## Tez3 (Mar 28, 2020)

Headhunter said:


> Never wrapped my hands once in training. Only had someone do it when I fought in the ring. I find it teaches bad habits and allows sloppy technique on punches. When I do my own bag work I just use bare fist




We don't wrap hands for training only for fights. Wrapping is different for that we don't use wraps but thin cotton bandage and tape.


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## drop bear (Mar 28, 2020)

Anyway. I have seen people break their hands sparring and seen people get hand injuries from repetitive hard punching. And these take months to heal properly.

If you injure your hands you can't train. 

So if wrapping your hands let's you train longer and harder with less injury. I would suggest you wrap them. Because training longer harder and with less injury is how you become a better fighter. 

As far as punching mechanics. You will know through wraps and gloves if you are punching incorrectly. Your hands will still hurt and they will still break if you do something stupid.


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## drop bear (Mar 28, 2020)




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## dvcochran (Mar 28, 2020)

I never wrap my hands but used to wrap my ankles often both in football and martial arts. Foam pre-wrap trainers tape was all I ever used. I takes a bit of practice Not to get the tape on too tight.


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## Danny T (Mar 28, 2020)

Here I agree with Drop Bear. I have trained without wraps and with them. When punching hard I use wraps to help protect the hands 'for training' and to be able to train hard the next day. When doing a hard punching session on the bags when I don't wrap my hands are very sore. Even with proper punching when hitting hard with the fist the impact and force transferred through the fist forces the metacarpals to spread apart and if the force is great enough damage will occur. Wrapping allows me to workout everyday.


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## Gerry Seymour (Mar 28, 2020)

Danny T said:


> Here I agree with Drop Bear. I have trained without wraps and with them. When punching hard I use wraps to help protect the hands 'for training' and to be able to train hard the next day. When doing a hard punching session on the bags when I don't wrap my hands are very sore. Even with proper punching when hitting hard with the fist the impact and force transferred through the fist forces the metacarpals to spread apart and if the force is great enough damage will occur. Wrapping allows me to workout everyday.


I suspect we can do as much with the wraps as without (using good form) for a few strikes. But a hard workout at the bag usually has a lot of relatively hard strikes, so wraps seem a good idea there.


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## drop bear (Mar 28, 2020)

gpseymour said:


> I suspect we can do as much with the wraps as without (using good form) for a few strikes. But a hard workout at the bag usually has a lot of relatively hard strikes, so wraps seem a good idea there.



Sparring where the target is moving in a way specifically so that you don't hit with good form. Is especially risky.


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## Buka (Mar 28, 2020)

Always used to wrap my hands boxing, always used to have my hands wrapped for competitions. Very rarely wrapped them for training.

But athletic tape was always the finish for wrapping hands. Used to twist/bunch the wrap on the palm, take a length of tape and wrap that twist so it was like one of the old bag mitts that had a small metal bar in the palm. Used to reinforce the thumb with tape, and the wrist. Used to lay a couple levels of tape over the knuckles. Made it feel like you had on Ironman's gloves.

I don't think I ever wrapped my hands with using athletic tape to finish them.


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## Gerry Seymour (Mar 28, 2020)

drop bear said:


> Sparring where the target is moving in a way specifically so that you don't hit with good form. Is especially risky.


Less so if you’re not hitting full power, so more important for full-contact competition.


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## drop bear (Mar 28, 2020)

gpseymour said:


> Less so if you’re not hitting full power, so more important for full-contact competition.



Yeah. You can still clip something you were not trying to hit. 

Body shots that inadvertently meet elbows. 

I try to get my punches in place pretty quickly but then slow the impact for light contact. And I have connected before I was expecting to and even light contact can be pretty hard.


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## Kyokushin_1054 (Mar 28, 2020)

drop bear said:


> Yeah. You can still clip something you were not trying to hit.
> 
> Body shots that inadvertently meet elbows.
> 
> I try to get my punches in place pretty quickly but then slow the impact for light contact. And I have connected before I was expecting to and even light contact can be pretty hard.


 

Ooh yes absolutely!! I have broken my thumb 4 times already in Kyokushin championships from clipping the elbow. At this point, I have figured out a few tricks though. I think its really good to know what to watch out for in those situations. A very interesting perspective to bring into this conversation would be Lethwei fighters: I've been doing that too for about a year now and it's a tough sport (works very well in conjunction with something like Kyokushin Karate.) And you start to see that when these guys step into big fights like One Championship MMA bouts, they clearly have an advantage with their hands!


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## Buka (Mar 29, 2020)

Kyokushin_1054, in case I forgot, Welcome to Martial Talk.


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## Kyokushin_1054 (Mar 29, 2020)

Buka said:


> Kyokushin_1054, in case I forgot, Welcome to Martial Talk.



Thank you so much, mate!! Excited to be here.


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