Parrying punches question

This can be confusing.

Open hands as much as possible....remember the whole point of parrying is that you want to wrap your hand (gloved or not) around the opponent's cuff / wrist as they punch at you. Old fashioned (and better way imo) to parry is to do a little downward's circle, so a right handed 'out' parry of an opponent's left jab moves down and over their glove / arm, and flicks it outwards (to your right / their left) which opens them up and disrupts their balance. So to their eyes, their jab has been flicked out way to their left by a little movement of your right glove. If you think about it, trying to to do that with a clenched fist (or loosely clenched fist?) really wouldn't give you the tactile sensitivity to feel and redirect their punch enough - its be more of a knock away or block (which are also good) but these don't have that parrying 'Aikido-like' feel of taking their punch and pulling it away from them. If your doing the parry with the movement like a window wiper (left ways or right ways) that fine too, but that's more of a knock away in my book, but even so its still better to keep your hands as loose as possible. Practice with a mate - both of you barekuckle, to get a real feel of it.

I've never been one to clench or loosely clench my hands as I read so many are doing now...I always kept my hands open as much as possible, including when punching, until the last moment...and I loved body-punching which is where doing that can be a own-goal. Watch their elbows though. You'll find in big 16's that you can accidentally punch with the hand open and be okay sometimes. Just realize that no-one can keep their hands clenched tightly and spar for 12 or 15 3's....the more relaxed you can keep your body the better. With time you'll be able to throw a very quick, completely relaxed punch and clench at the last movement. Bestaluck!