Defense...

[Josh]

hi. lately, i've been really seeing and respecting Chinese arts. What are Chinese defenses like?? Or in other words, what do the ARTS teach on defense. For example, you've been simply kicked or punched at. Late~Josh

 

[WLMantisKid]

thats a hard question to answer without specifics...

But I think I catch your meaning.

From my experience in Wah Lum Praying Mantis, we do trapping, plucking, blocking, and in advanced cases - iron body.

 

[RHD]

hi. lately, i've been really seeing and respecting Chinese arts. What are Chinese defenses like?? Or in other words, what do the ARTS teach on defense. For example, you've been simply kicked or punched at. Late~Josh

Hung gar works like this: Bridge, Control, Strike.
Mike

 

[7starmantis]

hi. lately, i've been really seeing and respecting Chinese arts. What are Chinese defenses like?? Or in other words, what do the ARTS teach on defense. For example, you've been simply kicked or punched at. Late~Josh

I'm not sure quite how to answer that. In most CMA "systems" there are about a million things you could do in a situation where you get puched or kicked. Thats the whole point, each situation would be different, and each thing you would do will be different, thats the principles of CMA.

7sm

 

[Eldritch Knight]

As 7* said, CMA is all about adaptability. In just about any CMA system, you'll be given a huge load of techniques, with the overall goal being to understand the concept behind them in general, and thus improving your fighting ability as a whole and not as a piecewise sort of thing. I can't speak for other arts, but I can tell you as far as CMA are concerned, yang style tai chi is virtually designed for defense.

 

[Bod]

In e.g. Wing Chun you jump out of your skin and stick your arm in front of your face, elbow in the air, hand about face height. They call this Bong Sau.The beauty of it is how this natural response to fright is converted to the defenders advantage, by practising flowing into other techniques from this position.

If you see agressive hands before they are launched you reach out and trap (control) the hand, or brush it away.

As such the idea of defending against a punch is not really in the CMA mindset. You defend against /redirect certain types of force from a certain direction, and convert into an attack.

You see examples of attacks which the forms are supposed to defend against, but the forms are mostly examples of good movement which can be used to throw, sweep, strike or lock within the same movement.