the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

if you've ever watched the "primitive technology" genre on youtube, it's clear homo sapiens have massive advantages in technology invention and social organization. even with pre-industrial revolution or pre-agriculture "primitive" tools. random one.

In the baguazhang the fighting systems use the yin (female) and yang (male) as the foundation. Females instinctively use an open handed slap. While males instinctively punch. The Xun trigram phoenix is predominantly yin. It’s more difficult for men to learn, where for women it feels natural. It doesn’t have any closed fists or even grabbing.
And strategically it’s difficult for a male to defend against it. So it ends up being what some Yin style guys use to defend themselves if they’re assaulted, because the odds of success are better against the unknown assailants.
The other aspect to this is direction of the strike. If the force is traveling parallel with the bones of the forearm (straight) then it’s yang. If the force is perpendicular to the forearm (a slapping motion) then it’s yin.
So a straight punch is yang-yang. While a hammer fist is yang-yin. And that’s another factor in the structure of the bagua fighting systems.
The Zhen Trigram Dragon is the most Yang because it uses a lot of grabbing and straight strikes. To balance out the Straight strikes it uses open palms. But to strike with open palms you need to be able to pull your fingers way back towards your wrist so that the palm will hit first. It has fists to soft targets. But strategy wise it’s the grabbing onto someone that really makes it yang because of the reaction that brings in an opponent. It makes them more violent.

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Untrained people generally use windmill (swinging) strikes. Bas Ruten could routinely knock people out with a (heel of) palm strike. Imo, the best tool to use depends on the task and target at hand. A fist isn't necessarily the most effective empty hand formation.

Steve James wrote:Untrained people generally use windmill (swinging) strikes. Bas Ruten could routinely knock people out with a (heel of) palm strike. Imo, the best tool to use depends on the task and target at hand. A fist isn't necessarily the most effective empty hand formation.

I added to my post above, while you were posting.

ah good old bas ruten