The very first martial arts school I went to taught "Kung Fu". For various reasons I now believe this school was pretty much made up of stuff the instructor knew, and had seen in movies, and didn't actually have much to do with Kung Fu. In retrospect (now that I have studied a few other MAs) it seems like the instructor knew TKD pretty well, and basically invented some forms, and modified TKD techniques to look a bit more "Chinese". That's my theory anyways - I studied there for a year or so, and it was a long time ago. Anyways - one thing they did at this school was a type of blocking that I haven't really seen anywhere else. One of the drills was called "four corners". Basically the arms would be bent at the elbows, held in front of the body, with one forearm parallel to the floor, and one perpendicular. Standing in a horse stance or whatever, we would practice blocking incoming punches by basically sort of pushing them out of the way. The blocks were in sort of a motion similar to what a windshield wiper makes (only turned on it's side for the arm parallel to the floor). The blocks were done with a gentle "push". Later on these blocks became very circular in sparring. The block would end up making a complete circle. I actually was pretty surprised to find that the harder someone was trying to kick or punch me, the better the block would actually work - it would definately throw them off balance. A lot of times it would end up that I would end up grabing a kicking leg from the position I ended up in. I actually think these blocks at this school were better than the ridiculous blocks done in most Karate styles I have ever seen. I think blocking in general is never as good as covering up and evading as boxers do. I've never seen blocks that could handle combination punches very well. I'm not entirely convinced that any of the TMA style blocks really work all that well. I'm curious if this was an actual Kung Fu technique of some sort, or something totally made up. Anyone ever see anything like this?
The very first martial arts school I went to taught "Kung Fu". For various reasons I now believe this school was pretty much made up of stuff the instructor knew, and had seen in movies, and didn't actually have much to do with Kung Fu. In retrospect (now that I have studied a few other MAs) it seems like the instructor knew TKD pretty well, and basically invented some forms, and modified TKD techniques to look a bit more "Chinese". That's my theory anyways - I studied there for a year or so, and it was a long time ago. Anyways - one thing they did at this school was a type of blocking that I haven't really seen anywhere else. One of the drills was called "four corners". Basically the arms would be bent at the elbows, held in front of the body, with one forearm parallel to the floor, and one perpendicular. Standing in a horse stance or whatever, we would practice blocking incoming punches by basically sort of pushing them out of the way. The blocks were in sort of a motion similar to what a windshield wiper makes (only turned on it's side for the arm parallel to the floor). The blocks were done with a gentle "push". Later on these blocks became very circular in sparring. The block would end up making a complete circle. I actually was pretty surprised to find that the harder someone was trying to kick or punch me, the better the block would actually work - it would definately throw them off balance. A lot of times it would end up that I would end up grabing a kicking leg from the position I ended up in. I actually think these blocks at this school were better than the ridiculous blocks done in most Karate styles I have ever seen. I think blocking in general is never as good as covering up and evading as boxers do. I've never seen blocks that could handle combination punches very well. I'm not entirely convinced that any of the TMA style blocks really work all that well. I'm curious if this was an actual Kung Fu technique of some sort, or something totally made up. Anyone ever see anything like this?