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INKTOBER 2024 Day #19: RIDGE (hand).

“Beware the ridge hand of the monkey. Or something. I don’t know what to say about this one. I suppose I could have gone with the probably implied take on the prompt and had PMD hiking along a ridge. Maybe I could have gone with the big ridge bone on a gorilla’s head, though I guess that’s probably considered a crest, not a ridge. I usually strive for the less obvious or weird angle (or I have PMD put a plunger on something), and the first feasible idea I had was this.
Ridge hands can be very powerful strikes if done properly, and while maybe a little awkward to get used to, I think they present fewer impact problems to your hand or wrist. Open hand strikes in general are better for self-defense in my opinion, too. Whether it’s a ridge hand, knife hand, or palm strike, I think it’s safer for your own hands than striking with your knuckles (especially if you hit a skull) and flows nicely into grabbing and pulling an attacker. The one thing I still struggle with (okay, there’s a lot more than one) after three decades of martial arts is my fingers tend to whip and slap together on impact with ridge and knife hands when I’m hitting my heavy bag. There’s a balance to be struck between being relaxed so the movement is smooth, efficient, and fast and also maintaining good structure upon impact. I blame having long fingers for my issue, rather than doing it wrong, of course. That’s totally the reason.”

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