Author Archives: Wei Joo Lee

SHAOLIN WAHNAM KUNGFU — COMBAT SEQUENCE 3 “PRECIOUS DUCK SWIMS THROUGH LOTUS”

(reproduced from http://www.shaolin.org/review/duck.html)

Precious Duck Swims Through Lotus

Near enough to Strike but Far enough to be Safe

In the first combat sequence in our combat training programme, “Black tiger Steals Heart”, you developed two fundamental combat skills, namely right timing and right spacing. These two are fundamental skills, meaning very important skills that form the foundation of future development.

The third fundamental skill is appropriate force, which is developed in our force training programme like “Golden Bridge” and “One-Finger Shooting Zen”, and which we apply in our combat sequences. It is important that the force must be flowing, and not mechanical or staccato.


Poise Patterns	Black Tiger

Without these three fundamental skills, a person cannot be combat efficient, even if he knows a lot of techniques. This is a common fault with many kungfu students — they think mistakenly that they can be more combat efficient by learning more techniques.

Skills have to be developed methodically, not merely learnt from a book or even from a master. A master provides you the method, and shows you how to do it, but you have to practice and practice to so that the skills become second-nature to you.


Single Tiger	White Snake

Free sparring is not a method to develop skills; it is a method to test whether you have developed the necessary skills to apply appropriate techniques in combat. This is a common fault with most martial art students today — they mistakenly think they can be combat efficient by practicing free sparring.

In this combat sequence, “Precious Duck Swims through Lotus”, you consolidate and improve upon the combat skills you have learnt, namely right timing, right spacing, right judgment and instantaneous change. We also have increased the choice of attack and defence from two to three alternatives.


Golden Dragon	Precious Duck

In the first combat sequence, there is only one choice, which is actually no choice. The initiator attacks with “Black Tiger Steals Heart” and the responder defends with “Single Tiger Emerges from Cave”. Both the initiator and the responder know what the movements will be. The movements are pre-arranged so that being free from worrying what to move next, they can better focus on developing the skills of right timing, right spacing and appropriate force.

In the second combat sequence, the initiator has two choices — he can attack with “Black Tiger Steals Heart” or “White Snake Shoots Venom” — and the responder has to react accordingly. In this third combat sequence, the choice is increased to three, with the addition of “Precious Duck Swims through Lotus”. If the responder makes a wrong judgment, his instantaneous change is more difficult. In the previous two combat sequences, if he judges wrongly, he can still defend against the coming attack — his “Golden Dragon” can still defend against the ”Black Tiger”, and his ”Single Tiger” can still defend against the “White Snake”. But here he has to change his “Golden Dragon” or “Single Tiger” into a “Hand Sweep”.


Hand Sweep	Single Tiger

Two new skills are introduced in this sequence. One is adjusting footwork. This skill is a development of right spacing. After defending your partner’s “White Snake” with your “Golden Dragon”, you have to bring back your front left leg a small step before moving forward a big step with your right leg for your counter-attack with “Precious Duck Swims through Lotus”. If you do not adjust your footwork, you would give your opponent a free advantage, i.e. an advantage he gains without having to do anything. You would have made it easy for him to strike you or fell you to the ground.

The second skill is covering yourself in your attack. You can do this by “taming” his front left hand, i.e. pushing it aside or “floating” it upward, with your left palm maintaining contact with his left arm, while you strike his side ribs with your right punch. Covering yourself is extremely important in any attack. This is what many other martial artists never do, exposing themselves to serious counter-strikes.

In the previous two combat sequences, the counter-attack mode is “first defend then counter”. Here the mode is “no defend direct counter”. As an opponent attacks you with “Precious Duck”, you need not block or ward off the attack first, then counter-attack. While moving your front left leg backward into a left false-leg stance, you directly strike his attacking arm with your hand-sweep.

“No defend” is a misnomer. It is not ignoring your own safety and go all out to attack, which would be foolish. Here, the defence is already incorporated in your counter-attack. As you move into your false leg stance for your counter-attack, you already have moved your body away from his attack.

OVERVIEW


Poise Patterns	Black Tiger	Single Tiger	White Snake

Golden Dragon	Precious Duck	Hand Sweep	Single Tiger

SHAOLIN WAHNAM KUNGFU — COMBAT SEQUENCE 2 “WHITE SNAKE SHOOTS VENOM”

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(reproduced from http://www.shaolin.org/review/snake.html)

White Snake Shotos Venom

How You May Avoid a Heavy Object Crashing into You

After you have developed some reasonable skills in correct timing and correct spacing — two of the most fundamental skills in combat application — you can proceed to developing the skills for fast judgment, quick decision and instantaneous change. This combat sequence, White Snake Shoots Venom, is effective for developing these three skills.

In the previous combat sequence, “Black Tiger Steals Heart”, you are used to defending against the opponent’s middle strike. Suddenly he changes his attack to a top strike. You have to judge correctly, make a quick decision and apply the appropriate defence.


Poise Patterns	Black Tiger

In this sequence, the attack is purposely reduced to only two choices, a middle hand strike or a top hand strike. If there are too many choices, as in free sparring, it would be difficult for the defender to judge, thus defeating the purpose of developing the skill of judgment.

Before this, there is no need to make any judgment because there is only one pre-arranged mode of attack. Now only one of many controlled factors is released, marking the first step in judging and decision making — to judge whether the attack is aimed at the top or at the middle and to decide what response to make. Only very gradually, the control is released. If too many controlled factors are released suddenly, the training would become brawling, not developing skills.


Single Tiger	Black Tiger

The two skills of judging and decision are closely related. At this stage the decision is premeditated, i.e. it has already been made for you (basing on the rich experience of centuries of past Shaolin masters) so that you can focus on right judgment and right response. In other words, if you judge the attack aims at your top, you respond straightaway with “Golden Dragon”, if it aims at your middle, you respond straightaway with “Single Tiger”.

Later, when you are more skilful and have a greater range of techniques, you may insert decision making before your response. For example, when you have judged that the attack is aiming at your top, you may decide which of a number of alternatives you will respond, depending on what advantages or situations you wish to create.


Single Tiger	White Snake

Suppose your opponent makes a top attack but you misjudge it to be a middle attack. So you respond with “Single Tiger Steals Heart” instead of “Golden Dragon Plays with Water”. It is a mistake, and in a real fight the opponent’s attack may have pierced into your throat or eye. But, of course, in training your partner would stop a few inches before target.

Untrained persons would just freeze, not knowing what to do. But you don’t. You just tilt your body slightly forward to your side, and simultaneously change your tiger-claw into a dragon-form and “thread” it upward, deflecting the attack. Your partner would have stopped his attack momentarily for you to implement the belated move.

Initially you would be hesitant. There would be a gap of a few seconds between realizing your wrong judgment and making the appropriate changes. But gradually you would reduce the gap until eventually the change would be instantaneous. You would have developed the skill of instantaneous change.


Golden Dragon	Poise Patterns

These skills are, of course, very useful in our everyday life. In the business world, for example, there is a saying that a bad decision is better than no decision. So, if your host asks whether you prefer chicken curry or beef steak, don’t say you don’t know. Make a decision.

Shaolin students are trained not just to make decisions fast but also correctly. But if we make a wrong decision, we do not just remain frozen, and blame others or ourselves; we make correction immediately.

Suppose a heavy object is crashing onto a person. Often, taken by surprise he remains motionless. But you would have jumped aside elegantly. What makes the difference? You have undergone systematic training but he hasn’t.

OVERVIEW


Poise Patterns	Black Tiger	Single Tiger	Black Tiger

Single Tiger	White Snake	Golden Dragon	Poise Patterns

SHAOLIN WAHNAM KUNGFU — COMBAT SEQUENCE 1 “BLACK TIGER STEALS HEART”

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(reproduced from http://www.shaolin.org/review/black.html)

Black Tiger Steals Heart

The Big Mistake Concerning Free Sparring

Most martial art students today make a big mistake in their combat training. They think mistakenly that practicing free sparring is the way, often the only way, to combat efficiency. To a large extent this came about because many people were disillusioned with kungfu, as much of (so-called) kungfu practiced today is merely performing external forms with little or no combat training.

In genuine traditional kungfu, free sparing is never used to train combat efficiency; it is used to test combat efficiency, to confirm that the students can really fight. In other words, it is not a training tool — it is a testing tool. You engage in free sparing only after you know how to fight, not as a means to train you to fight.


Poise Patterns	Black Tiger

Practicing combat sequences is an essential link between form training and free sparring. In form training you develop the techniques as well as the skills that you will need for fighting. In combat sequences you methodically apply these techniques and skills in simulated combat. In free sparring you confirm that you can fight efficiently.

There are many stages and sub-stages in combat sequence training. “Black Tiger Steals Heart” is the first of a long series of combat sequences we use in our school, Shaolin Wahnam, to go through these stages and sub-stages systematically.


Single Tiger	Black Tiger

Most students would under-estimate this combat sequence, thinking it is too simple. This would be a big mistake. The techniques are purposely made simple because the aim of training here is not to learn new techniques but to develop skills. If the techniques are complicated, the students would waste much effort remembering the techniques rather than focusing on developing skills.

Before you even make any move, you must observe the “four modes of preparation” — one, you must be mentally and physically ready; two, you access your opponent; three, you seek an advantage or an opening; and four, when the opportunity arrives you move swiftly.


Single Tiger	Black Tiger

When you move in to attack, you must “ask the way”, i.e. you access your opponent’s strength and weakness, and you open the way for attack as well as prevent him from suddenly counter-attacking. You must also achieve “three arrivals”, i.e. the arrival of the heart, of the feet and of the hands.

The two fundamental skills developed here are right timing and right spacing. And the skills are applicable to both the initiator (attacker) and the responder (defender). In other words, when you move in to attack, you must move in at a right time, and space yourself at a right distance. A very common weakness is that the initiator is too far from the responder in his attack, in which case the responder can counter-strike immediately, without bothering to defend first.


Single Tiger	Poise Patterns

On the other hand, when you defend against an attack, you must move at a right time. A very common weakness defenders make is that they move back too soon. A trained attacker would exploit such a weakness. He would skip the first attack, treating it as a feign move, and follow in with a second attack, striking the defender at a time when he is still in the process of defending the first attack.

Nevertheless, now you should not worry about this skill of exploiting the opponent’s weakness. It is practised at an intermediate level. At an elementary level, your focus is to avoid making such weaknesses. If you can just do this, you would have done well. Many combatants today, including those at black-belt level, commit many such mistakes, thus throwing advantages to their opponents without their opponents having to make any effort.

You must also remember that all combat principles in Shaolin Kungfu are applicable to daily living. You should use these principles to enrich your life and the lives of others. For example you should not blame the traffic if you miss an appointment; it just shows you have not developed the skill of correct timing. You should not blame the waiter if you have been seated amidst a cloud of cigarette smoke in a restaurant; you have not developed the skill of correct spacing.