“Stance training, ‘Three Stars Conditioning’, kicking the pole, hitting the sandbag, and pulling the rattan ring”,” explained Mr. Yip. “The basic Hung Kyun drills we practiced when I was young. You practice these in your lineage, right?”
“Yes, we practice, except … pulling the rattan ring, I do not know this exercise!”
“Oh, you don’t? Then you MUST learn it, my friend!” Continue reading
Get the job done as quickly as possible, create the opportunity to escape, run – that’s our PHK reality-based self-defence game plan in case things go wrong, if you get involved in a fight.
We all know how different a real self-defence is from a sport – no rules, no referees, no weight classes, weapons and multiple opponents might be involved, etc.
To ilustrate some of the differences between sport and combatives, let’s check out an old chart of fouls from the Official Handbook of the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States, and compare it to what we do in PHK. Continue reading
PHK’s “Eighteen Application Drills” (Sap Baat Saan Sau, SBSS) is a series of 18 unarmed self-protection techniques and short combat sequences, covering all 3 ranges/phases.
Sap Baat Saan Sau is a mandatory program for all our PHK beginners (1st Kap).
SBSS’s philosophy can be described as:
“Set of personal combat principles applied to an intentionally limited number of simple self-defence fighting skills that are easily recalled under duress and able to be linked, creating short combative sequences.”
(Modern combatives expert Kelly McCann). Continue reading
One of the worst misconception in CMA is that CMA sparring and fighting needs to look different than [fill in any other art or combat sport]. What works looks surprisingly very similar – and what does not work looks very different.
Guess what – one of the frequently used idioms for martial arts was Kyun Seut, lit. “Art of the Fist”, or Kyun Faat, “Fist Methods”, i.e. “boxing” or “pugilism”.
Another old idiom for martial arts was Kyun Geuk, lit. “Fists & Legs” – basically kickboxing, just the other way round, “boxkicking”. Of course CMA cover also other modes of attack, such as elbow strikes, palm strikes, finger pokes, throws, grabs, joint locks, weapons, etc., but the message is clear – punching and kicking – “boxing” or “boxkicking” – is the foundation.
So – any time I hear “it is just kickboxing”, I wanna punch or kick the guy.
Continue reading
You got knocked down or taken down, and now the adversary is sitting on you and giving you bad beating.
In the positional hierarchy it is one of the worst positions – and if you instinctively roll to your belly, you will get even to worst position. You will not seen adversary’s incoming punches, or you will get choked out.
This is how it looks in in real, on the street. Warning – violent video! Continue reading
A young kid wanted to learn from a famous martial artist. He was poor, and could not afford the regular lessons.
The Master felt sorry for him, so he told him: “Before I accept you as my student, I want you to do following thing: When you go through the bamboo forest on your way from you work and back to your village, I want you sweep the bamboos with your legs, left and right.” Continue reading
Power jabs, finger jabs, uppercuts, hammer fist groin strikes – right leg forward, right hand striking: that is our beginner’s PHK form “Cross Pattern Plum Blossom Set” (Sap Ji Mui Fa Kyun) in a nutshell.
Why right lead, so called “southpaw stance”?
Mark Hatmaker, of the proponents of southpaw guard, observes that there are more “deliberate southpaws” in today’s MMA (about 40%) than in boxing (about 10%), and explains his reasons why: Continue reading
„Snake, Cat and Crane Combined Set“ (Se Maau Hok Wan Ying Kyun), also called „Three Animals Set“ (Saam Ying Kyun), was choreographed by Leung Wing Haang Sifu, who wrote a detailed book about it in 1950’s. The set did not get so popular as his another creation, “Butterfly Palm” (Wu Dip Jeung) and it is taught today just by very few Hung Ga teachers. Continue reading
![Functional Self-Defense Sequence: Strike, Kick, Takedown, Choke [Video]](https://practicalhungkyun.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/practical-hung-kyun-functional-combat-sequence.jpg)
“Combat Sequences” (Wui Hap) ar one of the best bridges between “Application Drills” (Saan Sau), various forms of sparring, and free fighting.
Wui Hap consist of more techniques – sometimes they are pre-arranged, sometimes more free, using a key training (and fighting!) principle called Bin Fa – “variation”, “change”, or “adaptation”.
Today’s video presents a short combat sequence, which contains all four main modes of the unarmed combat, i.e. kicks, strikes, throws, and submissions, in Chinese Tek, Da, Seut, Na. Continue reading
In the Hung Kyun collection of Mr. Lam Jou, one of the most classic weapon skill is “Double Dragon Sabre” (Seung Lung Dou), it is the set that master Lam Jou often performed in his time.
The predecessor of Seung Lung Dou has not been previously investigated. However, the pattern of this sword set is similar to “Single Battle Sword” (Daan Pok Dou 單朴刀). Comparing Seung Lung Dou to Geui Chung Dou the former uses different kind of blades. It should also be pointed out that Seung Lung Dou and the Cantonese “Butterfly Knives” (Wu Dip Dou) have a different origin. So we can assume that Seung Lung Dou was created in the beginning of the 20th century when different martial art styles came together in Hong Kong, perhaps this set is a result of inter-exchange between areas and cultures, it is also Lam Jou’s mastery and comprehensive study of Northern and Southern martial arts. Continue reading