Bar Fist

My hunch is that the human hand, no matter how strong or well conditioned, would be damaged if used to strike a human face. Though non-contact in theory, those summer shotokan clinics in Sugiyama Sensei's Chicago dojo in the 1970s and 1980s had frequent accidental encounters between fists and faces. I remember seeing noses in places where they weren't meant to be. But I also remember seeing the offending hands in a damaged state as well.

I wonder if gripping the iron bar in the lifting exercises of CrossFit makes the fist stronger in shotokan karate, not in the sense of being able to withstand the boney content of the human face, but in the sense that striking the MAKIWARA board becomes easier. By the way, watch this woman hit the makiwara. I would want her on my side in a fight.

My makiwara is stored in the garage. I must set it up somehow. But where to anchor? I'll figure something out. Because I remember Sugiyama Sensei asking during those grueling clinics in humid Chicago, "Oh. How many strike makiwara board today? (No hands raised) Oh. I don't have any karateka in dojo today."