Elbow strikes: closed fist or open hand? 

you could easily cosplay Kratos at this point

I personally don't like Closed fist I have long arms and if I do closed fist I sometimes hit my chest. So I prefer open hand and relaxed

Happy New year man Hope you and your family have a peaceful and prosperous year Thanks for all the efforts and time you invested in producing so much useful and no-nonsense content last year

I noticed your longer beard. Give it couple of more years, and you'll become that chinese sage from memes.

Your elbow are making a sound when you throw the hit... That's fucking amazing!

A fluidly solid start to 2020, coach.

Shotokan practitioner as a kid... just because your fist is closed doesn't mean its clenched. Fists protect fingers and a fist is then ready to go for a follow up strike. However you are totally right and before I listened to the video I tried it out and thought the fist was better... more centrifugal force from the weight on the back end of the fulcrum maybe? I realized when I do the technique I'm not clenching my fist so shoulders are looser... BUT not as loose as open hand... Very good sir!

Love your depth of understanding of body mechanics, brother. Keep it coming. I really appreciate you taking the time and thought to put these together.

Clenched fist tightens the forearm muscles thereby slows down the speed of elbow strike. An open relaxed palm gives maximum elbow strike speed & power. The purpose is fast powerful strike with the elbow and that is best achieved with relaxed forearm with open hand.

It's important to keep your attacking hand open while you throw a devastating elbow strike because if you make a fist you arm muscles will encapsulate. So keep your fist open the arm muscles are relaxed and its also allowing that Ulna to make contact to your oppents face, I also leave my fist open to make it easier for me to have a better rotation and rotation better speed

There is a possible reason to use a closed fist in a form - To teach students that a punch can flow into an elbow strike if the distance changes (opponent moves closer). In this case the starting movement is a side punch with closed fist, but mid-movement changes to an elbow. This elbow can either hit or block. I am not saying that the Karate teacher had that in mind. He probably didn't. If he did, he would have told his student.

Boom Son! Happy 2020

one thing I I'd like to throw out there is that there is a way for closed fist elbow strikes to be effective. As said by sensei, closing the fist tightens up the rotator cuffs, and loosening the allows for greater movement. If you close your fist at the start of the elbow strike and release the fist at the right timing near the end of the motion, it should add an explosive increase in momentum to that strike, akin to a whip. The timing would have to be perfect or close to it to have a noticeable difference but it should work, in theory. If anyone experienced with this kind of training could comment on this, it would be highly appreciated.

The closed elbow is not just a strike. It also represents a grappling technique where the fist represents something in the hand, such as a grab on the opponent's shirt. The elbow is then more of a push than a strike in that case to manipulate the opponent into another vulnerable position. There is also a weapons application with the closed elbow strike, such as holding a sai.

I hate to comment on something other than your appearance or voice, but the sound of elbows is nice.

Happy New Year Ramsey! 👊

I practice shotokan. Notice in a lot of our kata the "elbow strike" is really done with the body mechanic to smash with the forearm bone, not really to slash with the elbow as my Thai teacher shows me. I think if you want to smash, close your fist. Closing your fist helps you lock in a structure (as in tekki, naihanchi with one hand behind the enemy's head) for smashing in a way that an open hand doesn't allow, but is not good for striking with the elbow as in the very effective "slash" (sok ti) of the Thai arts.

Glad I watched this. I've been mostly closed fist elbows.

Agreed you must be loose to strike with speed and flexibility. In Okinawa karate you learn how to tighten the fist and forearm while remaining loose and pliable in the upper arm and shoulder to maintain flexibility and speed. When you can make a tight fist with your arm hanging loosely at your side and shake your loose tricep you will feel this. When you can maintain that feel in movement and in contact you will have it. Then there is no disadvantage to a fist when elbow striking. I have no preference and strike open and closed fist elbows, this way it’s an instant strike from any hand position.

Hi Ramsey. For once I disagree with you... only partially. I agree on the staying loose part... But muscles that flex fingers only go from elbow to the fingers. Excuse me but I'll need to look up names in english... one in particular, which I'll translate as the superficial flexor of the fingers , goes from the humerus to the fingers, will actually benefit some elbow strikes if you go from a loose fist to a tight fist. Try holding your loosely closed fist palm down at your solar plexus with with your elbow sticking out on a plane parallel to your body. if you just tighten your fist you'll feel your elbow forced outwards, actually helping an elbow strike. this because the muscle flexing the fingers also closes the angle between humerus and ulna/radius. A firmly locked fist however negates this effect. I see no muscles going from the shoulder to the hands, so I do not see a direct relation with shoulder stability and a clenched fist. Indeed most people in clenching a fist will also tighten the shoulder, But this is a bad habit that has nothing to do with anatomy; in fact you can train yourself to keep your arm loose while clenching a fist. I do exploit this "mistake" with some elbow strikes; indeed those Muay Thai elbows need to be thrown with a loose fist, since they are thrown moving the shoulder as you have perfectly shown, but some elbows can be thrown using body weight; in this case you need to keep your shoulder tight in order to be effective. In this case you would use the movement of the body as driving force more than the movement of the arm. An ideal situation would be slipping a punch, while closing the distance driving your body into your opponent as you would in a shoulder tackle; you just leave an elbow sticking out so that the impact surface you offer is the tip of the elbow. I also use "tight shoulder" elbow strikes while dodging an attack and using a turning motion to get an elbow strike in always closing the distance. In all those instances I don't want my shoulder to flex. If you are using an elbow strike that uses the flexing of the shoulder, I agree that an open hand is better. I also remember a wonderful video by Master Ken teaching a "ELBOWCOPTER" thecnique to Michelle Waterson where you can benefit from increased shoulder stability... ;) Hope I have been clear with my english! :D

Depends on the direction of the elbow, Ramsey is just showing a sideways elbow, if it was a downward elbow i would close my fist, any other elbow i would use open fist

With open fingers, make sure to curl hand and thumb so u don't poke yourself in the eye. Fist is too stiff. As with all things, somewhere in the middle, is best.

happy New year Ramsey

Happy New year

I usually like a nice loose hand when elbowing it opens up the cheekbone nicely unless I have a knife in the hand and I aim for my opponents throat ,afterwards always stomp the groin for full effect.

happy 2020 :)

good vid

@Ramsay, what about if I throw my elbows fist partially closed? Would that tighten up the shoulder that much too?

I don’t know where to ask you questions like these so I’ll just do it here. Do you think physically disabled people should get black belts and other awards despite not being able to perform the martial art they’re training in? For instance, should a man with underdeveloped limbs have a black belt in karate just because he trained and practiced? Or is it about the ability to fight and perform the movements?

I prefer open hand coz it looks like from ong bak.

Nice Punisher shirt I'm guessing?

I wanted to thank you for these videos, and answering my question a while back. I am meeting with an MMA coach this Thursday so I can jump off this cliff.

happy new year :)

I always did this open-handed...until the time I caught a finger against my shoulder and hyperextended it. Yay bone spurs and inability to bend that finger completely now. Yes, bad technique probably, but even so it wouldn't have happened if my fingers had been curled shut. : (

Is there anything about martial arts you don't have an informed answer for?

I did not know that. I thought it does not matter. Come to think of it TMA techniques are very stiff. Like a robot.

i am not sure sure why make me smile..is just a funny bone you grew...nothing personal.. I just I smile now when I watch you.. elbow ..hahahaha..ok.. hahaha becames rigid? hahaha... cant help it..you'd have zero chance with me in a fight,,,really..nore with Master Wong..

hi

When you fight with gloves the opponent can't grab your fingers and they're less prone to injury. Without gloves it would seem sound to keep the hands closed to avoid breaking fingers... It's probably also illegal to grab people's fingers, so you'd never worry about something like that in a ring fight; but it doesn't sound that far fetched with a """self-defence""" mentality

I agree Ramsey but to elaborate a closed fist not only tightens the shoulder it limits the rotator cuff it DRASTICALLY LIMITS THE ELBOWS STRIKES RANGE OF MOTION A CLOSED FIST ONLY ALLOWS for the side to side elbow strike but if you simply open the hand you increase the elbow strikes range of motion you can almost strike with elbows in a 360' range it even allows for elbow upper cuts try to throw an upper cut elbow with your fist closed and see how far you get if you don't pop your shoulder out of it's joint then at minimum you risk bursitis in the should it's just all around POOR ADVISE your SENSAI GAVE YOU I'm sorry to hurt any feelings but it's just not SOUND ADVISE OSU!

I'm with you. Clenching the fist also causes your forearm muscles to cover up the elbow. That's always been the way I convince people. The hard part of the elbow basically disappears if you have any for muscles at all

There might be also that if you have knife in hand, you do elbow strike diffrently. People have forget that some forms have weapons, without weapons form change.

Interesting, I thought it was universal knowledge to elbow strike with open hand. Now think about it, I believe this "closed fist" thing is badly expressed from kata. I believe some tma kata (so far I could think of both Chinese and Japanese) have elbow strikes with closed hand. However I don't believe those movements represent pure elbow strikes. Some could mean short elbow from clinch (your closed fist meant to represent control your opponent hand).

Stay lose until moment of impact so you can eye gouge on accident. Looking at you MMA.

I didn’t even know it was that deep. Understanding human physiology really is essential.

Honestly wow ....that's actually a good question....hmmm....usually my elbows come during a combination...meaning my fist are probably closed while punching....than comes an elbow....yea....probably gunna be closed....next time I train i will try to pay attention.....hmmmm....

Great video as always. Do remember that the modern Karate we learn today Shotokan, Shito-ryu, Wado-ryu, Gojo-ryu. Is all from a syllabus that was needed to bring it to mainland Japan (Honshu area) from Okinawa. This fixed forms that are used in Kata too are often different from a “real” practical use. It’s mainly to do with how “neat” it looks. Especially for competitive Kata. If you practice traditional karate in Okinawa eg Wado-ryu You will be able to see the roots of the origin techniques eg open hand elbow strikes etc

I think practical reason behind why the elbow strike is done with a closed fist is because the elbow striking hand is holding the opponents hand while the other hand is holding the opponents head. Such strikes are not impactful or powerful as their conventional version. But they are sneaky and has a high chance of landing!.

So your hand... doesn't get..... wrecked.... Oh. You can guard your hand with your other arm... Okay. Point well taken. Gotcha. Thanks.

Open hand, because it looks cooler.

Even I am a black belt shotokan karateka, the muay thai guys and Ramsey are right. Years ago I did some sparring with very talented muay thai guys (Enrico Kehl and his brother). I learnd from them the use of ellbows, and I taught them my ushiro geri (spinning back kick), which I had also modified by looking at taek kwon do. Also, if your hands are open in an Ellbow strike you are more likely to hit with your hard bones, instead of your softer muscles. Just try it. If a karate trainer insists in closing your fists, after he knows the benefits of open hand ellbow strikes, he is like so many martial arts "senseis or masters", simply ignorant.

My first video to watch in 2020

This is a great video. It allways felt unnatural to do it with closed hand and I couldn't tell why. This explains it very clearly. Truth is evident yet ever illusive.

Could the close fist be recreating grabbing someone? Thus making that version of the elbow strike not an elbow strike?

I think this from a karate standpoint comes from forms rather than what it's practical applications would be used for. I agree that open hand is best. Unless you can find a reason to have that hand closed for a grab and struggle the elbow would not be much of a elbow anymore. My sensei many years ago discussed the practical applications of movements from kata and waza and it was varied and situational. The only thing missing from those classes would be mma style sparring to try for application. I believe its the teacher and the curriculum in that order that makes the difference.

Taijiquan also has the hand open when elbow striking.

Ramsey, what do you think of old school MMA fighter Bas Rutten? Might be interesting if you were to do a video about his fighting style.

💪💪💪

"Boy!"

Open hands towards the strike also makes the bone sharper and much more likely to cut. It doesn't actually change the bone for all you literal readers. It just keeps the muscle from flexing around that bone giving more exposure to the bone to do more damage

Yodkhunpon, Probably One of if not The best Elbow Fighter In Muaythai in Golden Age... His Verdicts Is to Relaxed The Shoulder and not using muscle,, just elbow it loose but hard

concur with RD... coming from YI QUAN FA JING COMBAT STRIKE... open hand to throw elbow...plus i have learned do not CLOTHES LINE or if you damage nerve you disable thumb and next three fingers...strike with forearm ridge connected to pinkie finger side... if you damage nerve in the strike only the pinkie finger disabled... straight talk here from RD...gonna check out other vids... cross-train gain knowledge ...try to work other arts into my TAI CHI-YI QUAN-BA GUA-XING YI - INTERNAL ARTS CALLED NEI GUNG...even though I train form health the best way to achieve mind-body-spirit is to train with MARTIAL INTENT...

I enjoy your video style and just want to say keep training but more importantly, keep uploading. Watching your videos is very inspiring and you are ready to explode on RU-vid. More, More, More.

3:00 Ramsey clandestinely teaching Systema again! 🤣 Printsip nomer dva: Stay relaxed! This second basic rule comes next to keep breathing. While min-max of damage in a fight is a thing (citation needed), wasting energy is as well. Avoid it, you might need the energy later. Just try the following. Maintain a proper and strong fist with one hand while repeatedly and rapidly making one with the other hand.

I don't evnvy this person. Good luck correcting you instructor after being there for a month...yikes..😅

THE SENSEI IS RIGHT Not because it's the best and most effective way of elbowing, but because it's the shotokan way and you don't practice shotokan to fight effectibly, you practice it to learn the shotokan way. Pears to the elm imho... ***also karate emphasises strikes to the body with more of a pushing motion and stoping power, so in that case maaaybe close fist and that extra general tension and rigidness helps absorbing the blowback? maybe? ***

Could it be that the way elbows are used in Muay Thai and TaeKwonDo are different? Maybe Muay Thai uses elbows in a more close in, toe to toe, manner and TaeKwonDo doesn't intend to use them that way? I'm asking because I do ITF Tae Kwon Do and as you said, TKD DID borrow hand techniques and patterns wholesale from Shotokan. I know that I will NEVER be allowed to do elbows in the Muay Thai fashion in TKD patterns. I'll get reamed if I do.

Just like with the hand at the hip, it’s not what it appears to be. Hikite is pulling hand. It’s a pull, not for power generation. Closed fist is not just for dogma. Study the origins of your art well and figure out what the purpose of the closed fist is for. Hint: It’s not to accentuate the elbow, it’s for control. The primary concern of almost all TMA is to unbalance before you hit, esp if you’re the aggressor. But You could use both. From a detached position, open fist. From a touch/control position, Pull (closed fist) and then once you achieve the unbalance, let go and complete the elbow (open fist). Play with it. Your job is to get the System from your teacher, and then express the Art from yourself. Do what you can make work consistently lol

Ramsey is starting to look like Kratos from the newest God of War game

I've been taught there's a time and a place for either or. Open Hand: When striking for the purpose of doing elbow strikes eg a la Muay Thai you want that hand open 1) makes for a faster strike 2) exposes the bone to cause more damage.You don't want to stop on your opponent, you want to cut through. In this case think of the elbow strike as a knife to cut your opponent open... You'd also use the open hand version to pierce or spike specific targets, like a knife stab. Closed Fist: The other method of a closed fist is good when you want a nice big solid blunt mass to pound with. The closed fist exposes the forearm muscles, ties in the shoulder and also the lats (huge back muscles). The action must come from the hips. Use this when grappling and just want to move the opponent away (like a push kick). Or you want to break an arm that is being held. Basically you want to be solid when you're putting whole body behind it. It's a lot slower and less range of motion but more strength and more mass. Even then, you only close the fist at the end range. It's possible the teacher has misunderstood the bunkai of the specific kata... As Ramsey says, a lot of the information has been lost in time. Although the above is an opinion of mine - it has worked for me... YMV. Pressure test it for yourself - nothing beats tested proof.

I think the Shotokan close-fist elbow with the accompanying hand to the elbow is a head-grab, bringing the head to the already tensed-up elbow. I never got enough sparring experience to know how the looser Shotokan sparring techniques used the move.

When I hit a hook elbow, I hit with an open hand & with an uppercut, a closed hand. Can't wait to hear Your opinion.

hi ramsey, ive been doing hung gar for about 4 months now. In our forms (yap mon kuen, taming the tiger, tiger and crane etc....) it seems to be crutial after my GM chiu chi ling and my sifu martin seewer to have extrem tension in the muscles (look up his forms on yt, man his arms are shivering) but also strike and hit with this snap for more power, so my question: whouldn't the tension while hitting lead to the same problem you mentioned hete with the fist/shoulder? love your videos btw your very inspiring and open minded, greetings from switzerland🇨🇭

I realize open hand is better, and I usually do it that way,. However, because you asked the question, and I thought about it, I was thinking, if one was in a situation where you could catch a finger on clothing or something and break it while throwing an elbow strike consider using a closed hand. Also, on a 12-6 elbow, and some other directions, I do use a closed fist. I didn't realize that until just now when I threw a few, :-)

I think think there's a little bit unclear here. Closing your fist is diffrent from squeezing it. In my martial art, I was taught to close my fist all the time, but keep them loose, "open hand" only in need. So I'm surprised when I watch this video, because there's no different with the force.

imma gonna throw in my 2c and say that a useful concept for being a student is to do what the teacher or system says even if you have a suspicion it is not the best way. This forces your teacher to take responsibility for your learning and performance, which is what all good teachers do. Even if they are not the most knowledgeable. Once you are more experienced and competent in whatever subject you are studying, you will also know the mistakes and weaknesses of what you have learned and how to improve them anyway. When a beginner in any subject it really is useful to "submit" fully and trust in that subject. Whether that subject is chemistry or tae kwon do. If making your own decisions, picking, choosing and modifying method from the beginning. You must know and be confident that you have taken responsibility for your own performance. This path requires more mental effort and will make your relationships with teachers and schools more difficult.

The reason the fist is closed is because shotokan will never use the elbow strike. Moves like that stay in kata and never get used. So the closed fist becomes part of the aesthetics and beauty of the form. In addition, if everyone performed the elbow the way they wanted to, there would be no uniformity among the students. Also, when they began teaching this stuff to children, they had them close the fist to avoid finger injuries. It is the same with the down block in karate. It is done with a closed fist. Kids were getting their fingers broken and or jammed up so the style worked on exercise, esthetics and uniformity. Making sure everyone is doing the same thing. It was much easier to teach large groups of students.

Also the fist flexes the ulnar muscle which pads the elbow. A relaxed hand exposes the bone. Great video

Happy New Year everyone! BTW how is the shoulder Ramsey?

From my limited muay Thai experience they serve a slightly different purpose- in addition to knock out they want to cut above the eye in muay thai because this will give them a tko. Hence wanting fast cutting elbows. The open hand keeps the bone exposed to help cut. With the closed hand elbow you only.clench on impact, not throughout the motion, so the majority of the movement is identical whether the fist is gently closed or open. Clinching on impact generates a jarring strike rather than cutting. Also the closed fist helps avoid catching fingers in clothing when fighting without gloves I'd also note most Thai elbows tend to focus on the head and tend to be descending vertical strikes (on forward elbows) whereas karate is head and body and tend towards horizontal or ascending vertical strikes. Just my experience.

In Ving Tsun you only really strike with the elbow to the body ( Lan Sao). You make a fist to have more structure and excelerate with the hip. But the goal is very different to elbow strikes in Muay Thai. You dont want to really inflict damage with it but break the enemies structure and than follow up punches. The technique is extremely helpful in mma, espically when you are at the cage. But no fighter seems to see that oportunity. The good thing about it is that it is hard to evade and miss it. Guranteed effect.

You aren't necessarily wrong about anything you said, but you have a false presupposition that is causing you to make something like the strawman fallacy. Specifically you have said that closed hand is equivalent to a clenched fist. Closing one's hand does not mean that it is necessarily clinched. Also, I am feeling my shoulder right now and I think it is possible to clinch your fist and not flex the shoulder... yes, I'm sure of it. Also, you need to address the reason an open hand isn't preferred in kata/poomse: because leaving your hand open leaves one vulnerable to answer immediate wrist lock it the elbow strike is blocked. This is not a danger in Muay Thai because of the gloves or both players. I hope you can reconsider your position and either restate it to clarify or change, or to rebut my argument with more information.

I don't even need to watch the video. With an elbow strike your hand needs to be loose. Stay away from a clenched fist. Most fighters elbows suck even in Muay Thai.

In kung fu we also have some closed fist elbows in forms, not many but they are there. In some of them you actually push the fist with your other hand for a direct elbow strike, but then I think it´s mostly for aesthetic reasons, having the fist against the chest looks better and it´s easier to normalize than having the fingers and the back of the hand against the chest in a sloppy way. But, hhinking for reasons why someone could think closed fist is better (other than following a tradition of misinterpreting forms): -Maybe it´s because of the fear of hitting something with the fingers and breaking them, which I think never actually happens. - Or thinking that closing the fist at the last moment will increase the damage, which isn´t true because you are not striking with that fist but with a bone that becomes even less dangerous when the muscles around do their stuff. -Maybe some kind of elbow has a chance to accidentally hit with the fist instead and that´s translated to the other elbows? (I think of the uppercut kind of elbow) Happy new year!

Depends on what you're doing, if you pak sau the elbow and vertical side with your elbow all mountain strike you probably have a fist. If you close an armbar across the chest and horizontal strike you probably have a closed fist. But if you reverse elbow on a open armbar fisherman carrying wood you probably have an open hand. Or if you are using a bong sau and elbow roll over the arm to a punch the hand is probably open till you start your punch. Or if you are rolling to roll back and you move torso under the arm and forward elbow and then reverse elbow to the kidney then the GB 13 points you might be open on the forward and closed on the reverse to do a second knuckle drag on the same point. If you're doing a downward elbow to the clavicle your hand is probably open to lap the other side hand. Also if you're using jut sau your hand is probably open if you're pushing the opponent to the line side but if you're pushing to the rear or 45 your probably closed fisted. So from the applications I mentioned the determining of weather or not the hand is open or closed is due to the fact that you either have a closed or open gate if the gate is closed and you have to deal with the other hand coming into play your hand will be open, if the gate is open and the other hand is out of play you will be closed hand, if the gate is closed and there is no other hand in play it will be closed, and if it is open and the other hand comes into play it will be open. So long story short you just opened a can of worms that someone might not understand. It is there is a term called completing the square, that means there is four sides to each movement. And if there is two movements like a forward and reverse there is 8 movements, and up to 8 directions with 8 attacks making 64 techniques. So in actuality there is 64 ways to use one elbow without applications. And open and closed hand would make 128 movements. That's what is hard work when you practice because each movement you add to the basic 4 makes exponentially more movements. So if you take a basic amount guard and reversal and separate it into 4 parts give it 8 directions forward and backwards it has 64 parts around a circle, each segment extends the variable. When standing if you have 4 positions 8 movements around the circle and 8 backwards you have 64 parts and each additional one exponentially more. So if you have four cardinal points and 8 points around the circle for striking and 8 reverse each point order exponentially increases. Throws same, take downs same. Etc.. then we come to the elbow although it seems like all other to be a simple technique when you throw a variable into it like hand open or closed it becomes 2 techniques which both are valid in there own right however both contain enough parts to use either as the part in a system. So all the right and wrong way stuff depends on the structure of the art that is being used. Some arts use stuff others don't or that is just wrong, an example is in kenpo they do an outward block with the outside of the arm, in tkd the do an outward block with the inside of the arm. Why the difference? Because after you grab the wrist and inward block the elbow, the opponent throws a punch with the rear hand over the top in kenpo you grab the wrist and turn the arm out, in tkd you grab the wrist and turn the arm out. So which side the basic teaches you to catch the arm with is unimportant because when you learn the advanced part of it it makes sense and effectively is the same.

Hi coach. I have a question. How to use elbows in sparring and do not hurt each other? I do both MMA and traditional martial arts for more than a decade and still do not get this experience, why is that? Are professional MMA fighters first time experienced with that during their first real cage fight?

I don't know for sure why karate uses close fist when elbowing but, if I had to take a guess, I would say it has to do with combos within their katas. A lot of karate katas has elbows followed by a backfist. So probably it's easier to throw the backfist after the elbow if the fist is already closed. Also note that, as karate don't throw their roundhouses fully across like a bat how Muay Thai does, karate also doesn't throw their elbows as much across as Muay Thai theirfore there is less worry about tearing the rotator cuff by running the elbow strike too far with a closed fist and over stretching the muscle thus tearing it. Which is more effective? Most would say the obviously more powerful muay Thai elbow that is meant to cut fully through is the most effective. I would say it's a preference of whether you want to put everything into a attack or if you want to reserve and leave less of an opening if by chance you miss.

To quote the great Jack Black "loosey goosey baby, loosey goosey"

Hm, I didn’t know that there are muscles in your hand that are directly connected to your shoulder and to be honest, I’m still not quite convinced, I’ll have to look that up. I was taught that the reason to keep the hand open is so that you won’t have a bulging, flexed muscle in the forearm that can cushion the blow if you keep a closed fist.

It is a two edge sword. The hand closed tightens up the forearm and will hit harder . The loose fist is faster . I never close the fist because a grabbing hand is worth more than a closed hand. After an elbow I have found I need grabbing / guiding hands much more than a fist. Doing an elbow /forearm where you close the fist at the striking end isn’t a bad thing. But at the distance of an elbow blow you are in grappling range..

I feel like if you do a clenched fist, you're doing more of a rigid clothesline type of elbow strike where you put in more hip rotation rather than shoulder rotation. Open hand is a sharper and quicker more shoulder-propelled strike.

If your teacher cant tell you WHY your fist should be closed for that technique, its because they don't know and if thats the case who knows how much you have been taught is dangerous to you.

Just from years of abuse my shoulders are shot to begin with but I noticed when I was doing backyard Jiu-Jitsu with my friends I would tend to clench my fist to strike with my elbow and it seemed like it would give a little more umph to it but I wasn't going fully against my body with my hand when I would do shoulder strikes I would roll my entire upper body into the elbow strike I feel that if you rotate your upper body you get a lot more power because you're using your mass to push into that just like a good punch you start from your back foot and push in to the punch

I tend to close my fist due to a couple of bad experiences getting my fingers jammed while fighting. Personal preference I guess. You can keep the fist loose so you can concentrate power to the strike

I would recomend cheking out channels such as "karate culture" and "practicalbunkai" here on youtube thay have very interesting ideas on how to fight with katas (karate culture even have a sprring video or 2 where they fight with kata forms (and it doesn´t look like shitty kickboxing) and both of these two channels sorta agree on that most forms in katas isn´t really striking but rather clinch works and that a lot of times in katas the reason for hand being closed instead of open isn´t to punch but rather to grab such as in the basic karate punch where one hand goes to the hip "practical bunkai" has sugested since the name of the hand going to the hip is called hikite (literally meaning pulling hand) that it´s meant to pull down something such as an arm if an opponent covers up so that you can strike him.

It might be an aesthetic thing for kata/forms. Kata is supposed to be pretty and uniform as possible.

I don't know which specific form is being referenced but it's quite possible that it might be that the Shotokan instructors reference is from some movement which wasn't an elbow strike but the application has been lost and so now is thought of as an elbow strike.

happy New year from Brasil for everybody

Watch Tony Ferguson. He does the same thing.

I'm glad Kratos' chemo is working.