Tearing Skin

[Ian]

No I'm not talking about Chinese burns.

Takamatsu toshitsugu used to rip the bark off trees with his fingertips. How does one train that?

(I desperately want to get my hands registered with the FBI as deadly weapons).

[Finny]

Not sure I believe that legitimately tearing skin could be achieved, regardless of the conditioning.

Not saying it can't be done, but really, what's some scratches in the context of a fight?

That said - have you seen the close up pics of Takamatsu's hands? Fucking hell, the only other person I've seen with hands conditioned/damaged to the same extent (albeit in a different manner) was the old Wushu guy in that CMA documentary - the guy who pounds steel plates hundreds of times a day and had like 1cm protruding callouses on EVERY knuckle.

Me - I think I'll stick to just bashing my leather heavy bag with only wraps, working my wrist/finger/hand/forearm strength and try to maintain my all round health

That shit dont look too healthy to me, and I do fine without it.

[Cryptohominid]

I think the old wushu guy you refer to is Pan Qing Fu... really nice fellow.
Ripping the skin doesn't require huge calluses, it's grabbing the skin in a certain way. Try getting the skin under the arm by placing all four fingers on the looser skin under the triceps and curling it up in the folds of your fingers, then yanking sharply. Skin come off! (just kidding, but it feels that way.) BSL tiger claw has the same mechanic.

[Bodywork]

I have seen the same damaged hands as Finny. I don’t see any need to do that to your self. I you train the inner body it will effect your limbs –right out to your fingertips. It will both harden your body and limbs to blows, but also make your hands very penetrating; both in striking and in grabbing. I’d be more interested in having a very real non-flexed grip that tears at connective tissue and instantly transitions to knockout, or bone breaking power. And you don’t need to ruin your hands to do so. Connecting your limbs to your center, and then being able to expand and contract your limbs with it takes time, but your power will build incrementally as you continue to train.
As one poster said no one will care about scratching the skin. They will care when they feel like they are getting hit by an anvil, or like they are hitting a tank, and your grip and fingers feel like steel bars. Oh, they will care-allot.

[Ian]

I think the winner for most ridiculous hands actually goes to that iron palm guy (one balloon hand, one normal hand). I wonder what having a cartoon appendage has done to his social life...

Anyway I've seen the pics of Takamatsu's hands, and personally I want nothing to do with it, whatever IT is. I can think of better uses of my time and health and besides, my upper-class hands are far too delicate to besmirch with this plebian nonsense. ho ho ho

But for real, everything you require to do damage with your hands is there already. No need to make them into something they're not.

The reason I asked is because there seems to be tearing / ripping in quite a few CMA systems, and I was wondering how you guys train it.

[BillyK]

suüpposedly, he hit rocks with his hands when he was younger. the dagger-like fingernails come from an exercises that is pretty much the same as that shaolin finger exercise where you pull out nails from a plank of wood, only you do it with the fingernails. at least that's what i read. i tried this for some time (starting slowly and lightly of course, i already got brittle nails), and guess what, my nails really got harder. i stopped it because i play electric guitar, i don't have much use for uncuttable claws, at least on the left hand. but as i said, if you start slowly, it really seems to work.

[Areios]

it depends of the tree.

[DeusTrismegistus]

suüpposedly, he hit rocks with his hands when he was younger. the dagger-like fingernails come from an exercises that is pretty much the same as that shaolin finger exercise where you pull out nails from a plank of wood, only you do it with the fingernails. at least that's what i read. i tried this for some time (starting slowly and lightly of course, i already got brittle nails), and guess what, my nails really got harder. i stopped it because i play electric guitar, i don't have much use for uncuttable claws, at least on the left hand. but as i said, if you start slowly, it really seems to work.

Pulling out nails? Can you describe this better? I have really soft nails and they are always getting bent back, if I can make them a little harder I would love to do so.

[I am...]

I don't bet on tearing skin, look at any video from india of a person doing a suspension from hooks and you can see why. The skin isn't necessarily the target though. Well trained hands are a thing you are likely to respect, the moment you feel the potential for what they can do.

[BillyK]

Pulling out nails? Can you describe this better? I have really soft nails and they are always getting bent back, if I can make them a little harder I would love to do so.

i started basically by scratching walls and went on to try and lift for example windowsills by pushing the edge under my nails and pulling up lightly. doesn't seem like much, but it seems to work. if you can do this with some power, hammer an iron nail or something lightly into a wooden board and pull it out by pushing the nailhead under your fingernails and pulling. with time, hammer it deeper into the board etc.
as always, don't rush, don't go to failure. see it as a kind of game, results will come in time. first your finegrnails will become normal striong, then slowly, they will become crazy strong.

these days, i do sun salutations (suryanamaskar) every morning at sunrise and santishi (concentrating on leading qi to the 3 extremities (hair, teeth, nails) as it's recommened in that one book by yang jwing ming). i had a horrid yin imbalance that weakened my bones and teeth due to depression, and both are supposed to strengthen yang. this also works as far in can tell (nails get harder, hair gets stronger, my bad teeth seem to heal themselves, no matter what school medicine says).

yeah, basically going from an external method to internal ones

you could also just scratch progressively harder materials like a cat, i suppose. just use the exercise(s) you enjoy, your instinct knows what's right for your body.

[cdobe]

you could also just scratch progressively harder materials like a cat,

I tried it out, but the beast returned the favour

[Coach DAi]

Tearing skin isnt hard to do at all. And it will get someone's attention. Of course it wont incapacitate them, But it will break their "tough shell" just a bit. It shows that you can wound them. The skin on the face is not that tough. Not to mention how easily the ear can come right off. In my line of work (security supervisor) Ive had great controlling results from grabbing ,twisting, and lifting with the skin on the sides of the pectorals. Also digging the fingers into the throat area is also nasty. However, I did do a substantial amount of "Iron Hand" conditioning several years ago and although I dont do these kinds of things to my hands anymore, the results never completely left me. So when I grab people, they feel that shit.

[fuga]

I think what Coach Dai is talking about (grabbing and shock/control) makes more sense with skin versus seeking to tear the flesh. Grab the skin of pecs, the triceps, inner thigh, and the neck, twist, and shock/control. I see it as a method to get to a better angle for a punch, kick or throw, etc.

-pete

[DeusTrismegistus]

Pulling out nails? Can you describe this better? I have really soft nails and they are always getting bent back, if I can make them a little harder I would love to do so.

i started basically by scratching walls and went on to try and lift for example windowsills by pushing the edge under my nails and pulling up lightly. doesn't seem like much, but it seems to work. if you can do this with some power, hammer an iron nail or something lightly into a wooden board and pull it out by pushing the nailhead under your fingernails and pulling. with time, hammer it deeper into the board etc.
as always, don't rush, don't go to failure. see it as a kind of game, results will come in time. first your finegrnails will become normal striong, then slowly, they will become crazy strong.

these days, i do sun salutations (suryanamaskar) every morning at sunrise and santishi (concentrating on leading qi to the 3 extremities (hair, teeth, nails) as it's recommened in that one book by yang jwing ming). i had a horrid yin imbalance that weakened my bones and teeth due to depression, and both are supposed to strengthen yang. this also works as far in can tell (nails get harder, hair gets stronger, my bad teeth seem to heal themselves, no matter what school medicine says).

yeah, basically going from an external method to internal ones

you could also just scratch progressively harder materials like a cat, i suppose. just use the exercise(s) you enjoy, your instinct knows what's right for your body.

Thanks for the details. I think I will try that out.

[BillyK]

Thanks for the details. I think I will try that out.

no problem, dude, have fun