Strikes, Punches, and Impact

Strike: A sudden attack; Hit forcibly and deliberately with one's hand or a weapon or other implement; Inflict (a blow); Come into forcible contact or collision with; Carry out an aggressive or violent action, typically without warning;

Punch: Strike with the fist; Drive with a blow from the fist; deliver a quick blow to; (boxing) a blow with the fist; A punch is a striking blow with the fist. It is used in some martial arts and combat sports, most notably boxing where it is the only type of technique allowed. In sports hand wraps or other padding such as gloves may be employed to protect athletes and practitioners from injuring themselves.

Impact: Come into forcible contact with another object; the striking of one body against another; an impact is a high force or shock applied over a short time period when two or more bodies collide;

In recent posts on many of the SD sites I frequent the discussion of strikes vs. punches comes up where strikes are alluded to being with the open hand against harder targets while punches are punches with the fist. Then you find a variety of sources that use the term interchangeably. This prompted this post.

I felt there should be just one term used that covers both striking and punching. I decided to use "impact." If you read the three definitions above you will hopefully find that "impact" actually covers both strikes and punches be they with the fist, the open hand, or other parts of the body.

Even tho the word "bodies" is prevalent in this definition of impact you can assume that it includes the body and all its parts.

Generally, discussions on striking or punching or kicking can be explained using impact because regardless of which is used the result is a sudden and forcible contact to the opponent using appropriate force, etc.