Testing Forward Force

[mook jong man]

This is one you can do if you are new and only just starting to do single sticking hands or if you've been doing sticking hands for 20 years . Never think that you are too good to go back and do single sticking hands .

This exercise tests that elusive quality in our arms that we are trying to cultivate called forward force or springy force . This force when trained correctly enables your strikes to spring forward automatically when there is no counterforce , with no conscious thought from you .

You can see in a fight that this is a useful skill to have when fractions of a second count , you can't be standing around thinking " Oh I think I see a gap through there , maybe I should hit through " . With forward force this hitting through the gap will happen automatically or at least it should.

• Get in position for single sticking hands , one partner in Tan Sau and the other in Fook Sau.
• Fook on top of Tan keeping wrist contact.
• Both people are exerting slight forward force from the elbow , which equalises each others force.
• Don't do what I did when I first started and use a lot of muscle , its counter productive and you wear yourself out .
• Just use a very relaxed slight forward pressure , but not so relaxed that your angles collapse.
• This a static exercise so dont go rolling into Bong or raising the Fook. Just keep in position Tan and Fook.
• Both people project their force from the elbow to the centreline , pick a point on your partners chest and concentrate to that point.
• At random times the nominated partner will take their arm away quickly at random , what should happen is that the other partners hands will spring forward and strike the chest in either a punch or palm strike .
• Make sure both people have a go at doing it from Tan and Fook.
• After that practice it from the Bong Sau position , this is a bit more difficult because you have to bring the elbow in as you begin to strike.
• When both partners are happy that their hands spring forward with relaxed forward force on loss of contact.
• They can then start doing single sticking hands as per usual in the dynamic way , but still nominate one person to take the arm away and the other to spring forward.
• People who are at double sticking hands standard should be doing this in normal chi sau with the nominated partner taking one or both hands away at random .
• Some people may find that their hands will spring forward automatically but not exactly going precisely to the centreline of their partners chest.
• This is a problem with them exerting uneven force along their forearm . I know an exercise that can help with this and I will explain it at a later date.