Short strike wasn't my translation...
...although I'd probably translate it the same way. Duan (tun) means short or brief. Duanbing xiang jie means close quarter fighting. Da means strike as in the four basic attack ti da shuai na. When Lam Sifu and I began the lyrics translations from his notes, the titles of the forms had already been translated by some previous student of his. These titles, along with their unsystematic romanizations from Cantonese, were perpetuated in our school. I decided to honor that when we did the lyrics translations. It's a bit problematic, but not as problematic as the translation of dao as broadsword. Don't even get me started on the O-mei - Emei issue. :rolleyes:
Anyway, that doesn't really answer your question. I've always interpreted that title as referring to the fact that #6 is a short form, at least in comparison to most BSL. It's a fairly common title for a form. I've heard it used in other systems to refer to completely different forms, but right now, I'm blocking on where...