Beginner Level Notes – first few months.
Fist – Yat Chi Chun Kuen, “Sun Shaped Fist” … fingers are closed and brought into the palm. Thumb closes over fingers and rests over the first two knuckles, tip resting above the crease between the middle and ring fingers. Back of hand is flat and in line with forearm.
Punch – maintain structure, silk reeling energy, intent and fa jing
- oi mun choy – outside, over-forearm blocking punch
- noi mun choy – inside, under-forearm blocking punch
- sae mun – The Four Gates
- tan sao
- gan sao
- pak sao
- gum sao
tan / gan drill – tan meets tan, gan meets gan. Same and opposite sides. Intended to perfect structure and make the techniques more natural.
kuen su kuen (punch against punch) – Punches meet on the outer forearm, crossing. Later, this can be turned into kuen lap su kuen lap.
tan drills – vs. straight, hook, cross
gan drills – vs. same side uppercut
pak drills – vs. straight and cross
gum drills – vs. opposite side uppercut
correllary drill: mix up the attacks against four gates, hooks and uppercuts, working in all the techniques.
Stance
- Yi Chi Kim Yun Ma – legs are together. Sink at the knees keeping the back straight, until the legs for an approximate 135 degree angle (incidentally, this is the angle for our arm techniques at the elbow: tan, bong, gan, fook, etc…) feet open, rotating at the heel until the angle is 45 degrees. Rotating on the ball of the feet, spread ankles out until the resultant angle is again 45 degrees with the toes pointing towards the apex. Tailbone rotates under and parineum lines up with top of the head. Back is mildly curved, chest is not poked out. Weight is sunk into the knees and adductor muscles flex to draw body down towards the ground with the energy being expressed in a forward manner along the bottom plane of the feet.
- hao ma – sitting stance. one leg back, one forward. 90%/10% weight ratio. Toes of front leg line up with heel of back leg. Hips and torso face directly forward, square with your intended direction. Both feet are at a 45 degree angle to the center line of the body. Adduction is KEY to maintaining proper structure.
- toh ma – (aka short flat walk) Following rules from hao ma, front leg steps forward. Adduction force pulls rear leg towards front, sliding across the floor. Lifting the foot potentially removes grounding.
- jeet ma – shooting step (longer toh ma). Front leg shoots out a greater distance to cover more ground. Used for bridging a safe gap, performing an attack, etc. Same as toh ma, but faster and farther.
Kicks
- jeet gurk – shooting kick. Toes are pointed inward, analogous to hand position in gan sao. Leeding foot edge is striking point. Intended for targeting legs normally. Knee is lifted, kick’s energy whips from knee.
- tai gurk – rising kick. Leg is lifted upwards, using the top of the foot as the striking surface, as if kicking a football. Adduction drives kick, power is generated from thigh muscles, sinking into the rear leg a miniscule amount before striking powers the ground and gives structure.
- fung gurk – flat forward kick. Toes point upward, striking point is the bottom of the foot. Intended for larger surfaces like the stomach, thigh-torso connection, or bottocks / back (say if the opponent is performing a spin kick.
- dim gurk – crushing downard kick. Energy is sent downward to folding targets like the knee (or between knee/ankle) or femur-hip connection. Energy sinks and is directed towards the ground. Goal is to fold the target, forcing the knee to bend or the torso to drop straight down.
bong sao – rolling and intercepting.
- Rolling bong sao is a response to an attack which makes contact with the arm and is attempting to drive through. This is not an active block as much as it is a structural answer to an opposing force. Arm rolls over from wu sao (or extended position) into bong position.
- Intercepting bong sau blocks an incoming punch with its structure in place before the punch makes contact with the arm. The energy is generally at an intercepting angle to the punch and force is equally distributed along the leading contact edge of the forearm, between the wrist and elbow.
chuen ma exercises (stance turning)
- sae mun (four gates with stance turning)
- bong sao (bong with stance turning)
- sae mun + returning energy (four gates with turning, body turns back to center position and send a punch using the turning energy to drive it.)
