In a street attack, should you strike with your fist, or open hand? 

I've heard many self-defense "experts" and even some experienced martial arts practitioners say that you should always strike with your open hands in a street situation so that you don't break your hand. I feel there is some truth to that statement, but I feel a closed fist is a much better weapon for the street and an open hand.  There are a few reasons I feel like this, but the main reason is very simple, in a street, life or death situation. I am much more worried about not dying, than breaking my hand.  Unless your name is Bas Rutten, or you have been fighting Pancrase for the last 20 years, your fist is much more efficient and stopping the threat. Then your open hand will be.

While you might break your hand in a fight, chances are with the adrenaline, and I would hope your mental toughness, you can still finish the fight and stop the threat. Many boxers, kickboxers, and MMA fighters have broken their hands and thought sometimes 20 or 30 minutes more With a broken hand. We as humans are conditioned to use fists as fighting weapons, and hitting someone with their open hand, usually won't do the job.

Some "experts" even go as far as to say, that if you break your hand in a street attack, he will lose the use of that hand in case you have to use it for a weapon, such as a knife, or a gun. That is not true, either, because most broken hands that happen in a fight don't hamper your ability to use your hand for grabbing, holding a knife, or even pulling a trigger.  And since there are 28 little bones in your hand, and the most common fracture in a fight is called a "boxers fracture", that statement about using a weapon is just not true.

I think the best way to stop an attacker and inevitably stop the threat against you or your loved ones is to render your attacker immobile or, better yet, unconscious. And unless you've been training specifically with open hands for the past 20 years, your fists will be a much more effective weapon in stopping the threat against you. There are ways to strengthen your fist, and I have many videos on my YouTube channel that can help you do that. There are also open-hand striking techniques, which I do use, but almost all of them are for "first strike" scenarios, and once the fight starts, my advice is to keep your hands up, chin down, may take fish, and visualize the chin (which happens to be the best target for stopping the threat).