David
07-16-2001, 12:42 AM
Hi Turiyan. I don't want to put you on the spot cos I know how I hate it...
The recent polemic against you made me visit your website for the first time in a couple of years. I see it’s changed a lot and the content is more martial now – so I read it more carefully.
After visiting your website I must comment on your interpretation of Southern ‘Beggars Hands’ positions. The photos you present are completely unrecognisable as beggars hands in my style for two main reasons.
Firstly, your elbows are touching your abdomen. That is a definite no-no. Chow gar SPM teaches that the elbows must never come in close to the torso because they can be used against you. The positions depicted allow somebody to catch hold of your forearms like a pitchfork and throw you around like a bale of straw – or thrust agaisnt your hands forcing your elbows to attack your own body. No SPM practitioner would do that.
Secondly, you have the elbows and wrists of each arm touching. This is also explicitly discouraged though I admit my studies haven’t revealed to me the thinking behind it. Perhaps (and I have no problem with it per se) your meridian theory explains it.
Page 2 of my own imperfect website at www.mantis.org.uk (http://www.mantis.org.uk) shows GM Ip Shui in SPM beggars hands position. The whole point of the pose is to offer the centreline to the opponent, inviting him into short range. The (as you put it) unhealthy (and I have no evidence either way) practise of hollowing the chest and rounding the shoulders is very good for fighting – at the same time as it makes your centreline harder to reach for your opponent, it also gives you about a fist’s length extra reach to attack your opponent. Also, many techniques involve thrusting the chest out and hollowing the back so it’s not like the art is unbalanced.
The powers of Kung Fu never fail!
-- Hong Kong Phooey
The recent polemic against you made me visit your website for the first time in a couple of years. I see it’s changed a lot and the content is more martial now – so I read it more carefully.
After visiting your website I must comment on your interpretation of Southern ‘Beggars Hands’ positions. The photos you present are completely unrecognisable as beggars hands in my style for two main reasons.
Firstly, your elbows are touching your abdomen. That is a definite no-no. Chow gar SPM teaches that the elbows must never come in close to the torso because they can be used against you. The positions depicted allow somebody to catch hold of your forearms like a pitchfork and throw you around like a bale of straw – or thrust agaisnt your hands forcing your elbows to attack your own body. No SPM practitioner would do that.
Secondly, you have the elbows and wrists of each arm touching. This is also explicitly discouraged though I admit my studies haven’t revealed to me the thinking behind it. Perhaps (and I have no problem with it per se) your meridian theory explains it.
Page 2 of my own imperfect website at www.mantis.org.uk (http://www.mantis.org.uk) shows GM Ip Shui in SPM beggars hands position. The whole point of the pose is to offer the centreline to the opponent, inviting him into short range. The (as you put it) unhealthy (and I have no evidence either way) practise of hollowing the chest and rounding the shoulders is very good for fighting – at the same time as it makes your centreline harder to reach for your opponent, it also gives you about a fist’s length extra reach to attack your opponent. Also, many techniques involve thrusting the chest out and hollowing the back so it’s not like the art is unbalanced.
The powers of Kung Fu never fail!
-- Hong Kong Phooey