recently I've been going thru the applications of the forms I know and finding the less popular or less taught variations and techniques in the form. Most of the applications are common in San Shou, some are pretty radical, some are very specific to Shaolin boxing taolu. this is common with me, depending on how I feel with any form I know, I start digging deeper in them from time to time. so I'm always in Kung fu nerd mode, ready to talk or spar about it.

Alot of fight analyst have been unfairly picking on fighters using wing chun against mma in matches. because the so called representatives of wing chun in these matches have shallow understanding, if any understanding of how to apply the striking and seizing in wing chun beyond a novice level.

So I have picked apart some of the "wing chun" I learned while studying Songshan Shaolin to extract and share some of the inner working of techniques and postures that these commentators and mma dudes a rendering useless because of poor application.

I saw a discussion going on about how Kan Sao and Fook Sao are useless, so by chance I learned both of these within forms, (kan sao in xiao hong quan as a transition, and fook sao in zhao yang quan and changhu xinyimen quan as transitions) and was taught where they are in wing chun later.

to start, fook sao, itself, from the root, is an encyclopedia worth of application that has probably tens of thousands of variations. I'll focus on a couple I learned.
In xiao hong quan, a popular sequence is "弓步前后三推掌" ("gōngbù qiánhòu sān tuīzhǎng") or 3 lunging palms after another (my rough translation). The transition between each lunging palm is expressed differently depending on who's teaching it. The way I was taught, was to twist inward, say if coming out of L gong bu, one would twist Rward, shrinking the body, the L hand that was pushing, becomes a hook/crane hand (fook sao), to pull in....the you finish the transition moving to R gong bu lunging palm. Repeat the sequence going the other way
on the surface it looks dancy and big because gong bu demands the lunge and full expression of it in the form.
within the handy work, is a plethora of application. This movement, in my opinion, is a great example of how TCMA get taken for granted. Here we have an entry level form at Shaolin, very basic, yet full of brutal application. Some one would HAVE to teach it to you, because lookin at it from the outside, untrained eye, even a martial artist might not see the applications unless they are familiar with how Shaolin stacks and layers technique.
That fook sao hand serves as a stopper to punch or extended arm, so that an opponent wont be able to chamber that arm and use it again. which is genius. unlike boxing, and most striking arts, who block to stop, this (fook sao) doesnt eeven look like a block in application, yet it stops the strike of your opponent while neutralizing the "weapon arm", AND PULLING HIM TO YOU. In that window, xiao hong repeats the sequence to show you, in that space, you can do anything to them within the frame of time you allow yourself, and the taolu repeats the movement 6 times so you remember it. Xiao hong also opens with a variation of the movement
1. hold moon in arms (huáizhōng bàoyuè 怀中抱月)
2. white cloud covers peak ( báiyún gàidǐng 白云盖顶)
3. bow step push palm (gōngbù tuīzhǎng 弓步推掌)
4. hold hand shrink body (bàoshǒu suōshēn 抱手缩身)
5. advance step push palm (shàngbù tuīzhǎng 上步推掌)
# 4 is where fook sao would first appear,
also....
6. turn around draw hand (zhuǎnshēn bānshǒu 转身扳手) for example can be used to slap the eyes with the fingers/push the nose upward/ strike the throat....etc...brutal stuff. Gong bu is used to encourage full expression, though we know in a fight the applications wont happen that way, that common sense. I dont see why people bash the 'taolu' ....jealousy/ignorance ....anyhow the taolu are big fighting encyclopedia, and by the time wing chun was developed, people were good at refining Shaolins bigger forms in to smaller frames with tight execution and applications galore, transmitted by word from teacher to student. So sure, you might get some people practicing these forms who have no idea what to really do with them, because they havent been taught. doesnt mean the form, and surely the art, should be overlooked at useless. lets be open minded here.

NEXT is Kan Sao, which is basically, "tan sao (high) and fut sao (low)" . This happens, as an application, with MANY variations, in Changhu xinyimen quan, where it can be an intercepting block (chin-na)/ Zhao Yang Quan, where it can be one of the nastiest throws (shuai) ever invented, and Im not adding any extra,/ also in Qi Xing Quan as the final move of the Taolu before refreshing yourself.

I'll start with Zhao Yang Quan, because I like the throw. basically this can happen in so many ways, again, I will pick out a couple of my favorites. The first and most obvious time it appears is early in the form, transitioning to "xie bu qie zhang", however, I will highlight where it happens in the sequence of movements #s 18 thru 22, focusing on movement 20. (using Shi De Yang's dvd poetry).
Here one can seize with the hands, trapping any strike and maneuvering the opponent to the ground, over or under. The upward method, could be explained as, (using trapping a R arm strike as an example), trapping the high striking R arm with 'tan sao', pulling the opponents R arm across their face/neck (FROM YOUR LEFT TO YOUR RIGHT) as if choking them with their own arm, while simultaneously seizing the non striking L arm of the opponent with your 'fut sao' hand, and pulling/pushing it across their body (FROM YOUR RIGHT TO YOUR LEFT), hence locking their arm movement, and restricting their body. from here it's an easy hip, or shoulder toss while their arms are crossed in front of them.

the other variation is the nasty one, there is no seizing, and can be used against arm or leg strikes. you basically use tan sao to strike their neck i countering while ducking, sort of to ding bu, can also be done from pu bu, while you duck, as you can guess, you chop their groin violently upward, and proceed to toss them over your hip. I bolded 'ding bu' , because ironically, I was initially taught that ding bu was the original Songshan Shaolin stance that produced the hand position of Kan sao. ding bu variation is another thread in itself.

I have a video thats pretty shabby, but gives an outline of the movement. I will try to get one of my brothers to stand in to get thrown around for sport, in the name of sharing more of the technique which can be better expressed in motion physically, than explained in typing.



Hopefully I can start offering more around here of this type of stuff and spark some more sharing about applications we know and favor (or can remember )

Amituofo