You see it in movies all the time, a hero or a villain throws a punch and it lands. In most cases, nothing really bad happens, other than someone being knocked unconscious or quickly knocked down. That’s not real life. When you’re learning self-defense from any serious teacher, book, or course, you’ll discover that there are real consequences for throwing a punch, and it’s not what you see in the movies. In fact, here are 3 things that can go wrong that you should be aware of.

break a hand

The force of your drive is going to isolate a lot of energy in one place, and that’s your hand. When you punch someone with a clenched fist, you’ll find that you could easily break your hand in the process. Now, you could hit someone, or you could miss and hit a wall or something else, and it’s going to hurt. There is no way around this, if you do something incorrectly you will insult yourself. It is important that you do not run with anything they tell you regarding defense, without knowing exactly what you are doing. A broken hand is no fun.

completely gone

Even professional boxers don’t land every punch they throw. In fact, if you watch a complete match between professionals, you will find that there are a lot of misses along with the hits. When you’re trying to defend yourself, you may think you’ll need to use your fists and come out victorious, but that’s not always the case. In fact, if you learn judo or other types of martial arts, you will find that they are based on swings, not punches. That means they don’t rely on just throwing punches to get their opponents away from them. Instead, they rely on calm movements and a tight grip, which locks the person in rather than trying to deal damage. If you miss something, you could hurt yourself when the other person hits you back.

lose focus

It’s easy to lose focus when your adrenaline is pumping and you’re reacting to someone attacking you. If you defend yourself, wherever you are, you must be calm and use your training to react and comply with the defense mechanisms. Throwing a punch right away, if you’re not prepared, could throw you off balance and focus. Self-advocacy isn’t just about action and reaction, it’s about doing it with confidence to stay focused. Throwing wild jabs is not going to help, simple as that.