Lan Sao/Bar Arm

[fa_jing]

I've posted this question in the Wing Chun forum, but I'm interested in getting the JKD perspective since I saw this included in a trapping post on the main forum. How do you apply the Lan Sao in JKD? Examples please.

-FJ

[SifuLMDII]

Hello fa jing!

The lan sao is used to bar out one or both of the opponent's arms. It basically pins the arm(s) to their body long enough for you to land a clean strike.

As an example, we will use a compound trapping drill from a reference point. The reference point will be highline outer wrist to outer wrist engagement. Partner A will execute a pak sao/lead straight punch. Partner B will execute a very economical rear hand woang pak (cross slap) parry. Partner A will then slide their pak sao hand across and pak sao Partner B's woang pak hand at the wrist. This action is like a snake crawling from one arm to the other. Contact is never lost, and constant forward pressure is applied. Partner A's second pak sao turns int a clamping grip at the wrist. This completes and forms the lan sao. Now both of Partner B's arms are trapped and their lead arm is pinned to their body by Partner A's lan sao. Partner A is now free to pound away with his free hand! If executed correctly, this all takes place in less that a second!

IMPORTANT NOTE: When teaching this to students, I emphasize the fact that the elbow of the lan sao arm should be touching the partner's ribs. If done correctly, there is much pressure here, and their lead arm is trapped in the triangle formed by their body, your lan sao, and their rear arm. This involves constant forward pressure, and is extremely effective if done correctly!

This is just one example of the lan sao. I hope this is explained clearly enough for you to understand, and I hope this information is useful in some way to you!

[fa_jing]

Thanks for the info. I can see that in some applications, the bar arm is applied with a grab. I see this as being very similar to an inside lop sao. The difference being a matter of feel. The Lan sao is probably more of a control, while lop sao is more of a yank. Perhaps the terms could even be used interchangeably for some situations.

I did understand your example, we train trapping hands drills that are similar.

-FJ