The absurdity of Single Whip

[bailewen]

Andy, like Omar I had no idea what you were talking about - it's because that's not an underhook, it's an arm drag. In an arm drag you cross their body. An 'underhook' is where you go under their arm on the same side.

This.

Btw, am I the only one who thinks the Erik Paulson vid looks more like cloud hands? Especially around the 4:50 - 5:05 ...'ish. It works elsewhere in the vid but during that little section you don't really need to use your imagination to see it even.

[Andy_S]

Graham and Omar:

Whoops, wrong term. OK, "arm drag," not "tricep underhook."

And sure, Paulson's stuff also looks like/transfers to cloud hands too; indeed, this kind of application makes sense of the side step used in cloud hands which so many "applications" fail to take into account. In Chen Village, they use a lot of these upper arm and shoulder manipulations at the close range that can get you to your opponent's side or back; these kinds of techniques make sense out of a lot of the curved hand and arm movements in the form.

[Andy_S]

Dajenarit:

SNIP
"Me and wifey were playing around trying to make something of single whip... just leads to getting punched in the face in our little test."
SNIP

Kindly keep your discussions of domestic violence/spousal abuse to yourself, sir.

[roger hao]

Looks like Ken doesn't know the app.

[wayne hansen]

Single whip is the blooming of cloud hands

[roger hao]

Cloud hands is the antecedent of Single Whip in the form?

[bailewen]

Now that you mention it...it is actually.

[Bao]

Depends on what style and how you interprete the movements.

[Steve James]

Naw, Cloud Hands always follows SW. But, I think the question is what was meant by "blooming." Anyway, it's possible to start Cloud Hands from any position, no. SW functions as a transition.

[cerebus]

Well... I don't know about anyone else here, but the single whip application that I practice actually DOES look the same as the form and is extremely practical/ effective. Basically, right wrist deflects incoming right hand punch (or push or grab or just preps for a counter-grab against a wrist grab), right hand turns over grabbing wrist of striking hand and pulling opponent off-balance to right rear corner while using left upper arm to lock opponent's extended elbow and nudge him further off-balance (or even violently spraining his elbow), then the left hand sweeps across opponent's face/ forehead and takes him down to the rear (where you have stepped with your left leg and broken his base by bumping his legs). The left hand could alternately be used to simply apply a whipping fingertip strike to the eyes or edge of hand chop to the throat or bridge of nose rather than doing the takedown.

[MaartenSFS]

Agreed. It works or it wouldn't be repeated some eight times throughout Yi and Erlu.

[bruce]

Well... I don't know about anyone else here, but the single whip application that I practice actually DOES look the same as the form and is extremely practical/ effective. Basically, right wrist deflects incoming right hand punch (or push or grab or just preps for a counter-grab against a wrist grab), right hand turns over grabbing wrist of striking hand and pulling opponent off-balance to right rear corner while using left upper arm to lock opponent's extended elbow and nudge him further off-balance (or even violently spraining his elbow), then the left hand sweeps across opponent's face/ forehead and takes him down to the rear (where you have stepped with your left leg and broken his base by bumping his legs). The left hand could alternately be used to simply apply a whipping fingertip strike to the eyes or edge of hand chop to the throat or bridge of nose rather than doing the takedown.

do you think you should change your form to fit your applications for single whip?

[MaartenSFS]

Isn't that what everyone does?

[cerebus]

do you think you should change your form to fit your applications for single whip?

I don't have to. The form fits the application very well.

[salcanzonieri]

In the Shaolin Rou Quan sets, which is very close to tai ji quan functionally and in postural movements, what is known as Single Whip is actually a transition between postures (look around 24 seconds in, it starts before the turn around):





What is named single whip in Shaolin is always found in Xiao Hong Quan sets, which is just punching horizontally from outwards on both sides of the body (27 seconds in):