Supreme Guard

[YouKnowWho]

More for the situation of 100% defence, a guard that does not rely on counter attack.

Just to deflect or block your opponent's punches is not good enough. You have to disable his punching ability.

Method 1:

- Left comb hair to block his right punch,
- right comb hair to block his left punch (This is called "分手Fen Shou - separate hands"),
- left arm wrap his right arm,
- right arm lock his head (or over hook his left shoulder).

Method 2:

- Left hand hold on his right wrist.
- Right hand hold on his left wrist.
- Tuck his left arm under his own right arm.
- Free your right arm to ...

The grappling game will start right after that.

[MasterKiller]

Just to deflect or block your opponent's punches is not good enough. You have to disable his punching ability.

Method 2:

- Left hand grap on your opponent's right wrist.
- Right hand grap on his left wrist.
- Tuck his left arm under his own right arm.

The grappling game will start right after that.

Grabbing a puncher's wrists isn't smart, imo. Handfighting and grabbing has it's place once the clinch is established, but I just don't like the idea of reaching out to secure a free-moving hand.

[YouKnowWho]

Grabbing a puncher's wrists isn't smart, imo. Handfighting and grabbing has it's place once the clinch is established, but I just don't like the idea of reaching out to secure a free-moving hand.

I didn't say to grab your opponent's punching arm. If your opponent punches at you, you should use "分手(Fen Shou) - separate hands" to wrap his arm instead.

You can set up your opponent in such a way that he will give you his arm. Just punch him and force him to block your punch. If you throw jab, cross, hook, hook combo, you will have at least one of your punch to be able to contact with his arm. The clinch will start right there.

[MasterKiller]

I have never said to grab your opponent's punch arm.

You can set up in such a way that your opponent will give you his arm. Just punch him and force him to block your punch. If you throw jab, cross, hook, hook combo, you will have at least one of your punch to be able to contact with your opponent's arm. The clinch will start right there.

Oh, ok. You are using strikes to set up grabbing. I'm still not sure about that, but it makes more sense.

[RenDaHai]

Shielding is always the most efficient, which was my point earlier. Parrying/defelcting has it's place, but I usually prefer to use them to open the gate to enter the clinch. For pure punch defense, I almost always defer to a shielding technique.

I concur.

I usually classify it by sensation;

When your hands are separated and you are relying on your eyes to perceve your opponents attack, then you use the shields. When the hands have become entangled as tends to happen after an exchange, then more interesting 'shou-fa' can come into play and you can rely on the touch sensitivity to guide your hands. Theres a pithy Chinese maxim that explains the domain of the sight and the domain of touch and the techniques to be used respectively but I have forgotten it. Something about a Tiger....