Tetsui-uchi 鉄鎚打ち
Hammer-fist strike
The technique, and its job.
A strike with the muscular little-finger side of the closed fist, swung like a hammer. It is the most forgiving strike in the syllabus — the contact surface is padded and robust, so it does not require the precise alignment a straight punch does.
Application. A close-range strike to bone or to a grabbing arm, and a technique that works when precision has failed.
Mechanics
What each part of the body does, in the order it does it.
- Starting position
- Fist raised, elbow bent, arm cocked across or above the body.
- Hips
- Rotate, or the body drops, to supply the force.
- Trajectory
- A downward or lateral arc, driven by the body.
- Target
- Collarbone, temple, forearm, bridge of the nose, sternum.
- Contact surface
- The padded outer edge of the fist below the little finger.
- Kime
- At the bottom of the arc.
What survives when the name is forgotten.
- A robust surface means it can be thrown at hard targets a straight punch should not meet.
- It is the natural human striking motion, refined rather than replaced.
Common errors, and how to fix them.
Naming a fault teaches nobody. Each one below carries why it happens and what corrects it.
Why it happens. The fist rotating in flight.
The fix. Check the contact surface on a pad, slowly.
Drills
- Downward strikes onto a floor-held pad, checking the contact surface each repetition.
Where it appears.
Kihon is the vocabulary, kata is the literature, kumite is the conversation. Every link below was written down deliberately; none of it was inferred from a name matching.
- Heian Shodan Peaceful mind, first level
- Tekki Shodan Iron horse, first level
- Bassai Dai To storm a fortress, major
- Shuto-uchi Knife-hand strike
- Uraken-uchi Back-fist strike
- Empi-uchi Elbow strike
- Haito-uchi Ridge-hand strike
- Teisho-uchi Palm-heel strike
The Japanese, explained.
- Tetsui-uchi 鉄鎚打ち
- Hammer-fist strike. A strike with the padded little-finger side of the fist, swung like a hammer.
- Tetsui 鉄鎚
- Hammer fist. The padded little-finger side of the closed fist. Robust enough to strike hard targets a straight punch should avoid.
Video
No recording in the register is tagged to Tetsui-uchi. MMAKF has not filmed this technique, and the discovery pass did not find an external recording specific enough to attribute to it without guessing.
Nothing is shown here rather than a search link dressed up as a demonstration. What has been found, checked and registered is listed in full on the source register.
The video source register →