What has the potential to hit harder, punches or kicks?

“	Originally Posted By: Prime Fu now as far as the arms go it is a pet peev of mine for people to lower their hands and opening up when they kick, it seems stupid to me am i just misunderstanding what they are doing?	”

No misunderstanding. People or styles that perform kicks this way are not good IMO. But then again, they may have a good reason for doing so? Which is way beyond me....

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It's all about the nitty gritty.......

i wasn just thinking if people were saying it was ok to move the arms around when kicking to keep balance!

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"Holy bat farts"
"Just remember there's many kinds of toughness in this world and not all of them involve kicking in someone's teeth to prove a point." SammyGirl Fan Club

Neither was I.

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It's all about the nitty gritty.......

“	Originally Posted By: jawsman No misunderstanding. People or styles that perform kicks this way are not good IMO. But then again, they may have a good reason for doing so? Which is way beyond me....	”

Actually yes there is a very good reason for it.

In Shaolin sparring they would keep one hand up by the face and one hand down by the groin area to protect from a counter-kick between the legs or to at the least take the power away. It is also a reasonably good way to balance.

yeah but that is keeping control of the hands and you are keeping your gaurd up, if you look at some people the hands come down to their sides or do all sorts of things leaving them open

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"Holy bat farts"
"Just remember there's many kinds of toughness in this world and not all of them involve kicking in someone's teeth to prove a point." SammyGirl Fan Club

people are throwing in all kinds of variables.

If apples to apples.

Guy standing there.

!. YOu can punch anywhere you want as hard as you want, put your ass behind it if you want.
2. You can kick, anyway you want, ball of your foot if you want, shin or heel if you want.

Which is more devastating?

Kick of course.

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May the force be with y'all.

“	Originally Posted By: Prime Fu yeah but that is keeping control of the hands and you are keeping your gaurd up, if you look at some people the hands come down to their sides or do all sorts of things leaving them open	”

Oh ok, I thought you meant, Anyone who doesn't hold a kickboxing headguarding stance whilst kicking is wrong. That's definately not the case

On different kicks I use different 'covers' on my face. If i push kick, I use a kickboxing one, purely because I can carry on attacking after with bottom-fist strikes or chops or even grappling.

Same pretty much when I do the Shaolin style of defence in a side/roundhouse kick. As soon as I land I have a hand available for throwing back crane hand / backfist with a long distance.

“	Originally Posted By: Allan_Tsang people are throwing in all kinds of variables.	”

Yeah, I'm part of the guilty.

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It's all about the nitty gritty.......

“	Originally Posted By: Inferus I think punch. With the foot, whatever part of it you strike with (Apart from ball of the foot, which is difficult to land) you're hitting with a very large area. As we all know, the smaller the surface area you're striking with, the more pressure applied. With the hand, you can attack with various different fists, but in general the surface area is a hell of a lot smaller from the hand, than the foot. Even with the fist, you're only really hitting with the knuckles. With a foot, you're hitting with something probably 3x the size.	”

Hang on get you physics right what does surface area have to do with power??

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I think a heavy bag can prove which attack has more power. I can kick the bag back a lot farther than I can when I punch it.

“	Originally Posted By: dbbrock1 I think a heavy bag can prove which attack has more power. I can kick the bag back a lot farther than I can when I punch it.	”

Well, that's actually not a great test. I could move the bag much farther if I pushed it than if I struck it. But the strike would do much more damage than the push. It's the impact that counts, does the bag fold in half when you kick it or does it just swing?

“	Originally Posted By: PaiauM Well, that's actually not a great test. I could move the bag much farther if I pushed it than if I struck it. But the strike would do much more damage than the push. It's the impact that counts, does the bag fold in half when you kick it or does it just swing?	”

I would consider both a kick and a punch as being a strike and the kick being the more powerful of the two. With the kick you can follow through more. Now that I think more on it, the kick can be aimed lower on the bag so that's somewhat of a leverage advantage. So maybe it's not 100% accurate to use the heavy bag as a power test

What's more powerful; a kick or an iron palm/fist technique?

My money's on the iron palm.

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Oh THAT'S how that works!

My money's on the kick.

theres only one way to find out. Who has more intention the kicker or the puncher? i think kicks have more power but by the time you land one power kick you could punch at least three times with force then again it all matters on the person