The Power of Blocking

When learning how to use their martial arts for fighting, students are tempted to find their best method of landing their strikes. To actually disable your opponent, you must eventually throw an offensive technique.

My theory on fighting is to begin by learning how to block effectively. Learn how to defend all angles. Learn how to react to different types of strikes and different types of opponents. Learn how to block so effectively that you do not have to think while doing it. If you are able to hold your position in a fight and block everything your opponent is throwing without panic or thought, you are able to free your mind to look for openings that come up. An offensive technique usually will leave an opening but defenders are so busy worrying about blocking techniques that they often do not have the presence of mind to also look for an opening to reverse the momentum. Imagine how easy fighting could be if you did not have to worry about being attacked but just had to throw an appropriate technique when an opportunity presents itself. This is exactly what good blocking will provide for you.

I would like to encourage students of all forms of Martial Arts to spend time focused on the blocking techniques within their styles and how to execute them properly. I believe it is important to spend time seeing a variety of attacks and identifying which attacks give you a problem Once you know your own weaknesses you are able to work on techniques that will cover up those areas. When your blocking is automatic, I guarantee that you will see openings quicker and feel comfortable attacking them.

Correct Posture for Kung Fu

In response to Kai's question regarding proper posture while practicing Kung Fu I would have to say that the ideal posture varies from style to style. In Fut Gar Kung Fu our goal is to always maintain an upright posture as if your spine were a straight stick that is perpendicular to the ground. As you strike or block in Fut Gar you will pivot but not lean. This is the ideal posture for this particular style. Other styles may generate power in a different manner and therefore lean forward as they strike. This is incorrect in Fut Gar as this allows you to be pulled off balance during your strike. Power generation in Fut Gar is through turning of the waist and pulling of the non-striking arm into an elbow.

Combinations in Forms

As students of Kung Fu learn forms they must understand that it is very important to eventually understand where the combinations are in their forms. This goes back to the stages of learning a form:

1. Learning and executing the moves/techniques of the form - Every student begins learning a form by just trying to remember what the sequence of techniques are and how to properly execute these techniques.
   
2. Learning the combinations within the form - Once you know the individual techniques it is time to understand which techniques belong together because they are a combination. These need to flow together in the form.
   
3. Learning large sections of the form - For the sake of being able to practice your longer forms, it is often difficult to repeatedly perform the entire form as a method of practice. The forms can be broken up into sections of 1/3 or 1/4 of the form allowing the student to practice at full power/speed without burning out after a few runs through the form. This allows you to work on transitions between combinations.
   
4. Putting it all together to generate an entire form - This is the combination of all sections into one form that looks correct. The student must be able to maintain their flow, power and speed throughout the entire form.
   

The most difficult transition of all these stages may be going from executing individual techniques to combining techniques into a 3-5 move sequence that looks like there is purpose and belongs together. It should be clear when you have "finished the attack" on one opponent in your form and are moving to the next opponent.