To chime in with Dinsdale, very big damage indeed. Muay Thai (Thai kickboxing) is one of the world’s most brutal sports, allowing vicious elbow strikes and kicks to the legs, but it’s commonly said that the most feared weapon is the knee. A knee strike to the face from a clinch can be devastating.
I’m aware of the magnitude of the damage, but I was looking for what form it actually takes. Are we talking concussion, broken facial bones, what? I have practiced several martial arts, but not Muai Thai.
At its worst, everything a haymaker punch is capable of and then some. Concussion, broken nose/teeth/jaw, broken facial bones, fracture to the ocular orbit, blood, and so on ad naseaum…fight’s over, get a mop. Very ugly.
Most of the really serious injuries in Muay Thai are the result of fighters insufficiently protecting themselves in the clinch, which is where the most devastating knee stikes take place. Bending over and/or looking down is a rookie mistake. You don’t see a lot of deep bobbing and weaving for pretty much the same reason.
I always strike with the pad of my hand. Anyone ever break anything there?
You’re talking about Stillson. Don’t have the book on hand this time, but I’m pretty sure I remember the fight. No. Andrew knocked him down, then kicked him repeatedly in the stomach, and stomped on his head. No nose through the brain silliness that I remember, just lots of good old fashioned trauma. He didn’t know he’d killed Stillson either; they never told him.
I must be mis-remembering then. But I swear I read somewhere about a kid using the magic nose-into-brain punch on his rival. Maybe it wasn’t Ender’s Game after all. Like I said, I read that book over ten years ago.
I was going to post that one of the most impressive fight scenes I’ve seen was the apartment fight in The Bourne Identity – nothing flashy-looking, just two professionals trying their damndest to kill the other guy. The IMDb trivia section says it’s a Filipino discipline, but doesn’t mention the name.
I used to be in one of those SCA-type groups. We did fight scenes; the first trick we learned was how to punch someone with a loud noise, making it look like you’d pretty much sent them flying, without actually hurting.
For me, the hardest part about learning coreographies was all those times when there was an obvious opening I wasn’t allowed to take. I’d be supposed to aim for my partner’s right ear while his whole right side was open - in a real fight, I would have been able to give him a side blow that would have sent his right kidney where the left one oughta be.
A lot of the realism is in what the fighters are supposed to be like and why they’re supposed to be fighting, someone already mentioned this. A fight where both people are supposed to be trying to kill each other is most likely to be unrealistic in a movie (you see missed opening the size of the Berlin wall); one where a guy is trying to overpower a small woman who’s just trying to escape is likely to be pretty reallistic. And of course, sometimes realism simply isn’t the point at all - I don’t think Princess Bride or Flying Tiger, Hidden Dragon had “realism” in the list of “animals not damages while making this movie”.
You’re right, FordPrefect.
It would cause a lot of soft tissue damage and bleeding, and break many nasal bones. You might also break a facial bone or two - I’ve seen busted jaws, busted zygomatic arches. You would not directly kill the person. Sheesh, I’ve seen blows to the face with bricks that didn’t directly kill the person.
You sure would hurt, scare, and possibly incapacitate him/her, though. If you’re not trying to kill but just to get him/her to run away or stop fighting, you’ve probably won. Depends how drunk you both are. Or how desperate to fight.
If you want to kill a person bare handed, there are two ways I’ve seen that worked (I mean by review of the dead body - I have not seen any fatal fights.) The easiest and most effective one is to stomp him. You have to get him down first, but once you do the stomping dance on his ribcage, he can die surprisingly quickly. Corollary: if you’re ever in a fight with a serious a’hole who may kill you, do not let him get you down on the ground, unless you really know what to do from the ground (judo, GrecoRoman wrestling, Gracie jujitsu, etc) to keep yourself from being stomped.
The less easy method that generally works only with a smaller and weaker victim is manual strangling. I will include suffocation under this heading since I’ve only seen suffocation used to kill infants under three months.
There are many, many, many more methods to kill with the assistance of a few helpful tools, ranging from garrotes to bricks. Bare hands is hard.
Dinsdale, I love you, but your elbow will not fit through the root of the nose up to the cribriform plate, even if it’s pointy. The space we’re talking about is slightly wider than the ball of your thumb, and at the bottom of a funnel nearly as deep as your thumb is long. With broken nasal bones hanging off thick bleeding spongy soft tissue in the way. You’re just not going to be able to get your elbow point up into there with enough force to break his cribriform plate.
Thank goodness, when you’re around.
You know, I don’t know? I only know things I’ve seen - which is, common things from my training, and fatal things from my current work. I’m not real good on “has anything ever happened to anyone”. I’d guess it either hasn’t ever happened, or it’s uncommon, or it’s not fatal. 
In either case, seems like a good idea for you to go on striking with the pad of your hand.
Thank you for replying to the OP and bringing it back on topic. Apologize for the elbow and nose hijack.
Aww.
Post away. It bugs me though that maybe I didn’t make clear enough the distinction between “a fracture of (x skull bone)” and “a depressed fracture of [same]”.
Can’t ya just feel the love?
Sorry if I conveyed an inaccurate impression that I would try to do the legendary mystical nose-kill strike with an elbow. Not even sure how I would plan on getting my elbow past his jaw to drive up into his nose, unless he was falling forward or somesuch. We work our elbows “around the clock” - essentially delivering solid strikes from just about any angle. But the most solid shots to the most vulnerable targets tend to come in from - say - 2:00 to 5:00, or 7:00 to 10:00.
We also generally didn’t concentrate on too precise targets. Folks that talk about precision strikes or most pressure point advocates bear little relation to what actually happens in a fight against an uncooperative opponent. Got a lot better chance of making solid contact with the guy’s temple or jaw, than some prcise angle at the nose. As I said before, IMO the nose is primarily a target dor distraction. Blood and tears flow, clearing the way for you to attack his body and legs. Besides, I always thought the name of the game was throwing the greatest possible number of most damaging blows in combination - rather than going for a single knockout/death blow. Also, I always figured the goal was to cause enough damage to be able to run away, instead of killing someone.
I’ll go re-post your discussion on a couple of forums - see what the neanderthals have to say.
It’s Kali (also variously known as Escrima and Arnis De Mano), a Filipino martial art of stick and knife fighting that also lends itself to empty hand combat. Matt Damon and the producers watched demonstrations of various martial arts and chose Kali for the same reasons you note - it looked direct and brutal instead of flashy.
Now that gabriela has covered all the icky gruesome dead people, I’ll cover the radiological reports of the ones that made it.
The fracture of the fifth metatarsal is pretty common, not just in the wall-punching department, but once even from a patient who tripped and fell backward and landed wrong on her hand (perhaps she had her fist closed).
I’m not often privy to the accident reports of those committing assault — it’s usually the victim, presenting with factures of the jaw or zygomatic arch, or possibly an orbital blowout fracture (which you should only Google images for if you’ve got a strong stomach — you have been warned).
You should know, however, that fractures of the bones of the wrist are the most common type of fracture for people under 65 (who suffer more from fractures of the hip).
I’m trying to find some information on the fracture of the different bones of the hand, and what kind of activities are most commonly associated with it.
Did you by chance mean the fifth metacarpal instead?
Thanks to all who replied. 
Another related question: in any of the martial arts, is it common to practice “full-strength” against one’s fellow classmates, no-holds-barred? I would think that this would result in a lot of hospitalizations, if so, not to mention a bunch of deaths. Is it legal, even, or are students required to hold back and not practice all out?
Maybe, but you know how it goes. I never metatarsal that I didn’t like.
Absolutely not, for exactly the reason you state. The problem becomes, then, how does one practice a maneuver safely against one’s classmates while still learning it correctly? Different martial arts, and even different teachers, have different methods. In rougher times students might actually have gone out into the world looking for trouble, but these days that’s generally discouraged. There are two main sparring methods in modern martial arts. One is to use a lot of safety equipment, such as headgear, gloves, footpads, target pads (thick pads held in the hand for another student to strike at), etc. These allow students to strike at full force with relatively little danger of injury. The other method is to practice forms in the air at full power, but at reduced power and speed against other students. This allows students to learn the proper approach angles and target areas for attacks. Some grapples and joint locks can be dangerous at any speed, so close supervision from an experienced teacher is required. The Kamatuuran school of kali is somewhat unusual in allowing full contact, high speed, but low power sparring even at beginner levels. Ideally students are supposed to just barely touch the opponent, even when using sticks. This helps teach tight control, which becomes important in more advanced techniques.
Sorry, I should clarifiy that I don’t know the laws about such things. As a practical matter, at least, martial arts studios are as I described.
That reason alone is why I say the whole “ninja death strike nose-breaker instant kill” move is baloney. Every legend I’ve ever heard says you have to do it “just right.” But who would you practice on, and how would you know when it worked?
What’s more likely is that some martial artist got lucky, and someone nearby expressed amazement. “Wow! Venerable master, you must teach me that move!”
And the venerable master, thinking quickly to himself how this has never ever happened to him before, says “Yep, I do it all the time. You gotta get it juusssst right, though.”
I recently watched the original Pink Panther movie, and there’s a scene where two of the characters are secretly working in tandem but pretend to fight each other so that the one can “win” and get the girl, who’s coming up on them in a car from a very long distance. I thought it was a surreal moment and a wink towards the old fourth wall–two actors pretending to pretend to punch each other.
Yes, absolutely. sheesh Thanks for picking that up.
