Your assailant will now be able to launch their own attack, striking vulnerable targets such as the back of your neck.
If your back is turned to your assailant, they will be able to drive into you, delivering strike after strike, before you can reorient yourself to respond.
I have been involved in many, many discussions concerning the orientation of the fist when throwing a hook punch; e.g., should the thumb be up (vertical fist), or should it be facing toward you (horizontal fist), etc.
If the fist is turned over so that the thumb is pointing toward you, you will generate more power. The rotation caused by such a movement engages the muscles of the shoulder to a greater degree than if no rotation had occurred. The issue, however, is that the larger knuckles, which you want to strike with, are now closer to you than to your assailant. If you are accurate with your hook punches, and your timing is good enough that your attacker isn’t able to pull their head away from the punch to any degree, this won’t be a problem.
If you strike with the thumb up, you will lose some power, but it is unlikely you will end up connecting with anything but the larger knuckles.
However, if your attacker flinches, or your range control isn’t perfect, you will probably connect with your weaker knuckles, and if you hit the skull, they may break. The irony of punching is that the harder you punch, the more likely you are to injure your hand.
The only issue to be aware of when punching this way is that, although you are connecting with the largest knuckles, you may run the risk of damaging your wrist if your fist isn’t clenched tightly and your wrist fixed and locked.
Although it’s an interesting theoretical debate, when it actually comes down to it, the way you orient your fist doesn’t really matter; each position has its pros and cons, and at the end of the day, the hand position probably only accounts for 5 percent of the final strike. The most important part of any punch is the way the body works as a unit to create power. If you are looking to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of your punching, it would be better to concentrate on this, rather than getting caught up in the nuances around the orientation of the fist.
At the end of the day, the orientation of the fist should, in most cases, be affected by your level of proficiency in throwing the strike. If you believe you have the control and range to ensure that you can connect with the larger knuckles, rotating the fist and engaging the shoulder muscles will give your strike more power. Another consideration is whether or not you are carrying a weapon. If your primary tool of self-defense is a firearm, baton, pepper spray, etc., the risk of breaking a knuckle probably isn’t worth it. If you break a bone in your hand during this process so that you are unable to draw/use these tools, then the strike will have failed to achieve its purpose in creating the time, space and distance to allow you to get to them.
If your assailant is effectively using a high guard to protect their head (possibly even against your hook punches), you may want to get them to drop their hands so that this target is exposed. Do not be fooled into thinking that because someone is acting in a defensive manner they are beaten/finished, or that you have the advantage. It may be that they are simply waiting for an opportunity to pull out a weapon and change the odds of the fight.
One way to get your assailant to lower their guard and drop their hands is to start attacking the body. Be aware that it is possible to condition the body to take a high degree of pain, so you may need to strike the same target several times in order to have an effect. If you can land your strikes to the kidneys, you will elicit a flinch response that makes your aggressor crunch up in such a way that the arms will drop down to protect the body. It can be difficult to strike so accurately in a dynamic context, though, and heavy clothing, such as a coat, can mitigate some of the effects of your strikes. However, if you repeatedly strike in roughly the same place, putting the full weight of your body into the strike, your assailant will be forced to start defending this area. As soon as the assailant’s hands drop and you recoil your strike, you should turn your attention to the head.
If your attacker is protecting their head well, and has a high and tight guard, it may be difficult to get an elbow—or even a hook punch—in.
One way that you may be able to get your assailant to drop their guard and open themselves up is to throw low punches/hooks at their body. To try to protect from these, they will need to lower their hands, which will make their head available as a target.
Although they have blocked your low hook, their head is now exposed.
Pull your punch back by recoiling your hip, so that you are now in a position to deliver a hook (or slicing elbow strike) to your assailant’s head.
Push your hip forward, raise the elbow and the heel, and make a hook strike to the head.
With your attacker’s guard opened up and their head vulnerable, you can start to deliver further strikes to this target.
Although body shots are generally not the most effective type of strike (unless you are extremely accurate and able to target specific areas such as the liver) in a short conflict (lasting less than 10 seconds), they are useful for setting up other strikes and diverting an assailant’s attention away from other areas. In longer-lasting incidents, body shots will end up tiring and exhausting an unconditioned assailant, and can be extremely effective at slowing them down. This is especially true if the person you are assaulting does not know how to control their breathing when they are punched.
Even if a person is guarding their face or head, making it difficult to throw elbow strikes at it, you don’t necessarily have to use hook punches to get around their guard. A very simple solution is to use one hand to hook around and clear their blocking arms so that you are able to strike them.
Another simple way to open a person’s guard up…
…is to grab the wrist of one of the arms (it is often easier to grab their left arm with your left hand, and vice versa) and pull the arm down to expose the head.
This will allow you to throw elbow strikes and/or similar attacks toward your assailant’s face.
If there is space between your assailant’s arms, you could also come through the middle of their guard with a slicing uppercut elbow.