Felling Technique in Taijiquan
Many people have written to ask about the possibility of learning from Sifu Wong Kiew Kit. Please refer to the following for details
There are countless ways to attack, but for ease of study kungfu masters have classified them into four main categories, namely
Counters against strikes and kicks are explained in Basic Self-Defence of Taijiquan.
This webpage deals with counters against felling and grips.
Seeing the graceful movements of Taijiquan, many people are surprised that it can be used for combat. They will probably be more surprised that these graceful movements are very effective both for countering as well as for implementing felling and gripping attacks. Space limitation and downloading time, however, permit an explanation of only one example each in this webpage.
In the first picture below, Tai Chee Yong is about to execute a hip throw. Swiftly I move my back leg backwards and lower my stance, thus thwarting his attempt, as shown in the second picture.
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Following Tai's momentum, I float his left elbow and simultaneously pull down his right forearm to unbalance him, Picture 3. Continuing the movement I fell Tai onto the ground, Picture 4. Notice that initially Tai placed his right leg behind my right leg with the intention of using it as an anchor to fell me. But by an appropriate shift of my back leg and a gentle rotation of my waist I turn the table against him, using the same anchor to fell him instead.
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In Picture 5 Tai grips my right wrist with a tiger-claw. I relax my arm and using my shoulder as pivot, turn my arm in a clockwise direction, simultaneously rotating my waist, Picture 6. This turning will cause Tai to release his grip; otherwise it will dislocate his wrist.
This and the previous example illustrate the Taijiquan tactic of using the oponent's moves against himself. In the previous example, the opponent locked my leg to fell me. By means of a skilful manuovre, I used the same leg lock to fell him instead! In this example, the opponet grips my wrist. With a skilful turn I use his grip to dislocate his wrist!
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However I could not dislocate Tai's wrist, because he released his grip. Continuing my turning momentum, I place my left leg behind his right leg, guard his right hand with my right hand, and press my left arm against his left arm pushing it agaist his upper body, Photo 7. By spreading my left arm I fell Tai to the ground, Photo 8.
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To help practitioners have a better appreciation of combat application of kungfu, including Taijiquan, a new section Combat has been added to Sifu Wong's website.
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