in amateur boxing hooks arent scored unless they are turned over and you can get a point deduction for "slapping." in pro they are fine however i have found that hooking vertical is faster than turning them over
Knuckles in the sky gives you more surface areas to land. I find knuckles to the side easier but I try my best to mix it up.
the way i learned depends on where your opponent/bag/pad is. if the targets in close its knuckles up, if its out its turned over.
If you try and land the left hook with your palm down, you will, guaranteed, at some point, jam your wrist because of an awkward angle to the target. You will also land that punch on the last two, small knuckles, and push them up to your wrist. Dempsey, Louis, Ray Robinson, they all threw, and landed, the hook with the palm inward and the elbow close to the body. The elbow only comes up for purposes of follow through.
knuckles to the sky is what my trainer said to me. but i feel more natural knuckles pointing outwards.
thats not true about amateur boxing its just that many countries in europe and russia perfer to throw hooks like that
It only scores if you hit with the white part, but it's still possible to hit like that with a vertical fist. It makes it easier to avoid slapping by turning it over, but your hand doesn't have to be turned over for it to be a legal blow. Soon that won't matter cause they're fazing out the white part of the gloves and switching to solid red/blue. Slapping will still be called if it's an obvious strike with the palm but not just because you didn't hit with the white part.
Palm in. I can't see why on Earth a fighter would want to present the two weakest knuckles (third and fourth) to the target. IMHO, the only way it makes sense to do a palm down hook is if it is a long ranged hook used to go around the guard.