the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

Workshop "Entering Strategy" will be given during 3/25/2017 Houston Kung Fu tournament. See you there if you are interested.

I. Circular walking

1. Uniform stance
2. Mirror stance
3. Counter

II. Circular Running and counter

III. Front door entering strategies:

1. Rhino guard
2. Zombie guard
3. Double spears
4. Octopus strategy
5. Upward and downward separate hands

IV. Side door entering strategies:

1. Gou Lou Cai Shou
2. Leading arm jam back arm
3. Lower arm jam upper arm
4. Arm tuck with arm wrap
5. Arm tuck with body control

sounds awesome!

Gou Lou Cai Shou 勾漏 採手?

螳螂拳--勾摟採手
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m1i9nL0lsU

Yeung wrote:Gou Lou Cai Shou 勾漏 採手?

Both PM

- 勾漏 採手(Gou Lou Cai Shou), and
- 磨盘手(Mo Pan Shou)

are good entering strategy. The only difference is instead of using 採手(Cai Shou) and put your palm on top of your opponent's elbow with tiger mouth facing to yourself, it's better to put your hand under your opponent's elbow with tiger mouth facing toward him so you will have better control on his elbow joint.

johnwang wrote:

Yeung wrote:Gou Lou Cai Shou 勾漏 採手?

Both PM

- 勾漏 採手(Gou Lou Cai Shou), and
- 磨盘手(Mo Pan Shou)

are good entering strategy. The only difference is instead of using 採手(Cai Shou) and put your palm on top of your opponent's elbow with tiger mouth facing to yourself, it's better to put your hand under your opponent's elbow with tiger mouth facing toward him so you will have better control on his elbow joint.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPcjAExNjdA

Please comment on the difference between blind side entry and open side entry, since there are two side doors.

Yeung wrote:Please comment on the difference between blind side entry and open side entry, since there are two side doors.

Don't quite sure your term "blind side (side door?)" and "open side (front door?)".

Front door - space between both arms. You separate your opponent's arms away from his body. You have to deal with both of your opponent's arms.
Side door - space on each side of both arms. You jam your opponent leading arm against his back arm. You only have to deal with one of your opponent's arms - leading arm.

The five steps in Taijiquan are Jìn, tuì, gù, pàn, ding 進、退、顧、盼、定.

It uses Gu and Pan instead of left and right to differentiate the different sides of a forward stance. There are two side doors in a forward stance, and the entry techniques to different sides are different. The opponent in his or her right legged forward stance, his or her right side is the blind side or Gu and the other side is the “open side” or Pan or "front door". The opponent in his or her left legged forward stance, his or her left side is the blind side or Gu and the other side is the “open side” or Pan or "front door".

Since you mentioned circular walking, and it is normal to walk towards the blind side of the opponent to attack and not the open side. Maybe this is why practitioners of Baguaquan, Xingyiquan and/or Wing Chun train both left and right techniques just in case the opponent is using different forward stances.

Yeung wrote:Since you mentioned circular walking, and it is normal to walk towards the blind side of the opponent to attack and not the open side. Maybe this is why practitioners of Baguaquan, Xingyiquan and/or Wing Chun train both left and right techniques just in case the opponent is using different forward stances.

If you and your opponent both have right side forward, suddenly your opponent switches side and have his left side forward, IMO, you should not switch side with him. You should still remain with your right side forward but use different set of skills.

During "circle walking", if you have right side forward, when your opponent has

- "right side" forward, you should move your "back left foot" to line up with his both feet first.
- "left side" forward, you should move your "front right foot" to line up with his both feet first.

It is clear now about blind side entry. In a way I agree with your responses to it but it is better to focus just on entry strategy. Please comment on the comparative advantage of blind side entry or entry from the side door of the leading hand instead on the front door. My assumption is that entry strategy should be offensive instead of defensive.

Front door entry:

PRO: You have total control on your opponent. Your opponent's body is completely under your attack. It's harder for your opponent to escape out of your attack. If you think you are better than your pponent, attack his front door.
CON: You have to deal with both of your opponent's hands. Your waist is exposed for your opponent and your opponent can drag you down with him.

Side door entry:

PRO: You only have to deal with one of his hands. It's difficult if not impossible for your opponent to drag you down. You can move into his back door easily. If you think your opponent is better than you, attack his side door.
CON: You only have partial of your opponent's body to attack. It's easily for your opponent to escape out of your attack.

I am sort of allergic to Taiji push hands as well, but just of interest how do you classify the following entry with one leg on the front door and one hand on the side door so to speak:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-Y3IIpMD5o

Yeung wrote:how do you classify the following entry with one leg on the front door and one hand on the side door so to speak:

IMO, if you want to put your leading leg in your opponent's front door (between his legs), you should use your shin bone to bite into the inside of his leading leg. This way, you have control on his leg but he doesn't have control on yours. You can,

- sweep,
- scoop,
- sticky lift,
- shin press down,

whenever you want to.

Are you suggesting that the front door entry strategy should be using the rear stance instead of the forward stance (gong bu 弓步)?

Yeung wrote:Are you suggesting that the front door entry strategy should be using the rear stance instead of the forward stance (gong bu 弓步)?

Your

- back leg is your rooting leg.
- front leg is your attacking leg.

When you stance in bow-arrow stance, you are using your front leg as your rooting leg, your back leg as your attacking leg.