Do not punch people in the face

Philosophically I am really into the golden rule and being nice to people. So when I say "hey, don't punch people in the face" I do mean it on a figurative level. For example, I probably should not have written a blog post about how lousy Texas is, it could have easily hurt some feelings. However, from a self defense perspective, I also mean "don't punch people in the face" on a literal level.

Let's say I told you an attacker could do the following things to you in a fight:

• Break your small hand bones in a so-called "boxer's fracture."
• Give you a nasty laceration on your hand basically guaranteed to become infected without immediate and professional medical treatment.
• Make you liable to pay for plastic surgery for injuries sustained in the fight.
• Make a public display of your confrontation, to help your assailant gain public support and hostile support against you.
• Make your attacker more likely to attack you again in the future.
• Make you more likely to get their blood born pathogens.

That is what you are doing to yourself when in a self-defense situation you punch someone in the face. You risk a boxer's fracture from pounding your knuckles on their skull, hand lacerations from their germ ridden teeth, give them good reason to sue you for plastic surgery bills, wear their trophies around on their face so everyone can see what a jerk you are so that their friends and your enemies can be rallied for battle against you, make your attacker explain why you hit him in the face so that he'll more so want a rematch in the future, and of course the human head lacerates easily and then bleeds generously helping to insure you will be infected with whatever blood born pathogens your attacker has to offer you.

The two most problematic face punches are the jab and cross (left and right straight punches with closed fist.) The farther a strike is from being one of these two punches, the safer it is to use. Straight punches to the body instead of the head for example are very practical in a self defense situation. An uppercut to the jaw for instance is risky as it can easily hit the teeth or cause them to bite their tongue, but is relatively safe compared to the jab and cross. Likewise hooks risk connecting with the skull, but are far less likely to result in a boxer's fracture.

Is this to say Boxing is a bad martial art? No, because people will try to punch you in the face, and boxing is the best way for you to practice against someone trying to punch you in the face:

That boxing defense is ideal because it sets up opportunities to counter attack:

If you can punch someone in the face, you can almost as easily grab them or hit them somewhere else on their body. But where should your jab and cross go if not to the face? I recommend you take a page out of Asian boxing styles and use your knuckles to drive into the large muscle groups in the arms, tolling their ability to attack you. As their arms tire, you can then more easily create openings for devastating body blows:

As I have studied traditional martial arts, I have noticed nearly total absence of straight punches to the head in the "kata" or "forms." Choy Lay Fut has almost all the kung fu strikes in existence in the style, yet all the straight strikes to the head are modified, typically using the fore knuckles instead of a regular closed fist, or an open thrusting palm, or some kind of wide hook is used instead:

However in the most extreme of all closed fist striking martial arts, Karate, it is still very unusual to see straight punches to the face in their drills:

So on one hand, in the gym practicing face punches can be very beneficial to building self defense skills. On the other hand, on the street I would recommend the wisdom of the ancient masters and avoid straight punches to the head.