Hard gloves boost punching power: neurosurgeon

A neurosurgeon who has treated head injuries for years says there are at least three reasons why a glove with a hard cover over the knuckles does more damage than a punch from a bare fist.

Gloves with hardened knuckles are under the spotlight following a move by the Ottawa police to audit all force-approved glove purchases. The audit comes after the Special Investigations Unit charged an Ottawa officer with manslaughter, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon in the death of Abdirahman Abdi.

It’s believed the police watchdog laid the assault with a weapon charge specifically because the officer was wearing Oakley gloves with hardened knuckles during the arrest.

Those Oakley gloves are hardened with carbon fibre. Because of how rigid that material is, says Dr. Douglas James Cook of Queen’s University, the human hand can be transformed into a more powerful weapon.

Carbon fibre is lightweight and strong, and is also hard and rigid. It’s used in racing bicycle frames, golf clubs and Formula One cars, among many other uses.

“This non-pliable material would transmit more force directly to the skull, or to whatever part of the body it is striking,” Cook said Wednesday.

“The structure would allow for more efficient translation of force from the knuckle to the area being struck.”

By contrast, the bare hand has natural play between the bones, so even a fist does some shock absorbing. But carbon fibre stays rigid.

The shape of the knuckle cover — raised above the surrounding hand and glove — is another problem, he said. “The prominence of the carbon fibre on the gloves would distribute the force in a smaller area, I think.”

That means that by sticking out it would hit a small area, which is more dangerous than spreading the blow over a large area.

“It’s all kinetic energy and surface area . ... If you concentrate your force on a one-centimetre-diameter area, it’s worse than it is on a 10-cm-diameter area.

“Also it would minimize the risk of injury” to the person doing the hitting, “so you could hit harder and more repetitively without experiencing an injury to your own hand,” he said.

The manufacturer, Oakley, calls the gloves assault gloves. Oakley didn’t respond to a request for an interview.

An online retailer, tacticaldistributors.com, calls it a “hard knuckle” glove.

Boxing has rules ensuring that fighters don’t have unnaturally hard hands or gloves. No one is allowed to remove padding from the glove.

Also, boxers may tape their hands but must not add any substance that can harden the tape, especially over the knuckles. They also can’t insert hard objects inside the glove.

Mixed martial arts allows “grappling ” gloves, which have padding.