xiong chuan

Wu Chi, no fixed fighting position.

Often time belts and sashes are needed until the student realizes it's not about the belts and sashes. They are a good motivation tool.

She as in serpant style?

I felt the site did a pretty good job, but since you ask. Gates and doors are pretty much the same thing. Areas, or angles of attack and defense. In my school we use gate switching to create power while we float our mass though stances. For us, bridging would be using a bo sao block to simultaneously block a punch and fujow the face. However, I get the impression that the bridging Noob was mentioning was more of the general contact definition. We also close our gate to minimize atackable areas while trying to open our oponents gate to achieve point of vulnerability! Don't forget the hang leg to cover the lower gate though.

Four Doors Four Gates http://www.tigerandcrane.com.au/photos7.htm http://www.tigerandcrane.com.au/images/ph-4gates.gif The areas of the body to which an attacker may strike, or a defender may block, are divided into the four gates. The above illustration shows that the body can be divided into upper, middle, lower and sub-gates. Below the knee, or sub-gate, a leg check will be used to effectively block, since an arm/hand block to this lowest gate will put the defender off balance and out of stance. In ATAC Kung Fu, punches and kicks to the upper three gates can effectively be blocked by hand techniques. Reciprocally, attacking punches and kicks are applicable to certain gates e.g. side kick - middle gate Chinese front kick - sub gate Tornado kick - upper gate The doors of ATAC Kung Fu represent the directions from which an attack or defence may emanate: e.g. FORWARD or TO THE FRONT REAR or BEHIND TO/FROM THE LEFT SIDE TO/FROM THE RIGHT SIDE

Noob, here is a link with detailed descriptions and pictures. http://www.wahnam.com/KungFu/mural4gates.htm

http://crane.50megs.com/index2.html

I was under the impression that Baji was based on bear and tiger motion.

I was recently taught the beginnings of iron ring punching from the goat trapping stance. The simultaneous trapping and punching is amazing. I can't wait to work on it further.

I was under the immpression that: Catonese = sifu Mandarin = shifu