Dragon Claw is not a Dragon Claw

What is a dragon claw?  It is a martial arts posture where the middle, index, and thumb are extended or partially extended.  The Pinky and the ring finger stay flexed.

The misconception is that the three fingers are used to grab things.  When was that last time you played the three prong claw game?  The one that tries to grab the doll and usually drops it?  Its pretty hard to grab with three fingers too.

So what is a dragon claw?  The dragon claw actually grabs using the pinky and ring finger.  That is why it is flexed; it represents the grab.  the other fingers remain relaxed.

Wait… but thats two fingers!  Isn't that worse that three fingers?

Wrong.  It is not 2 fingers.  It is 2 fingers and a palm.  I regularly use this hand posture when driving and it gives me plenty of grip.

Dragon claw palm view

Dragon claw side view

Dragon claw griping the steering wheel

Dragon claw griping the steering wheel

Sunday notes

1. Palm that floating rib!

When doing an inside palm strike after u get the opponent hand away using tang or pak, you wanna strike the rib not straight on but with a upward force, of course that's street stuff so be careful 

2. Watch out for that big swing, elbow ain't gonna save ya

A technique used to counter a consecutive lower straight accompanied with big fat swing to ur head/nose, can be found in the 1st section of 11 hands: zhen sau (震手) + elbow block/hit.  Now of the swing is too big, the technique became very dangerous, while u can be better off if you go in with the elbow to hit in the face of your foe, I still wouldn't use it, would u?? How would u use this technique? 

3. Shaolin vs Hongkong, chisam and yipman

The set up@@@@@@@

HK: grab the hand (same hand) from outside 

Shaolin: huen and grab the wrist(third section of 11 hands) using same hand, the other hand pushes on the elbow

HK: straighten out the trapped arm and strike the thigh (the start of 2nd section of SLT)

4. See white eyebrow video on my YouTube channel will be up soon 

Wing chun is art

When I think of something that would gives me satisfaction I think of food, human interaction, movie, writing, singing, running, wingchun, mid night hiking and driving around town and other myriads if activities. But some comes and goes quick and easy, easy come easy go right? 

Well, among those things that satisfy us (or me, to be precise), there is something in common in some of those activities. Something ubiquitous, something grounded in the human nature, (aside from food of course, man are made of food and lust) and something that transcends the basic needs of human existence.

ART. 

Art doesn't have form, association, loyalty, purpose or desire. And I say this is fortunate. Fortunately art is without a form for we can creat them in myriad ways. Fortunately art is without association for we dot have to pay membership to own them, same with loyalty. Fortunately art is without purpose for it doesn't create conflicts between people of different purposes. Fortunately art is without desire so we can. 

Wingchun, like many activities that give us satisfaction is an art, without form, without association or loyalty, no purpose not desire. It simply is, and our job is to enjoy the aspect of art in wingchun. 

techniques - hung gar kicking and 116 pak + throat + punch

blocking the round house kick to the thigh:
tensing thigh and twisting it outward, can supposedly mitigate the force.

blocking the knee kick:
twisting the thigh inward so the force landed at the back of the knee, as if to cup the kick.

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116 dummy #24-26

L: outside pak sau - cutting the throat - jut sau 
R: outside pak    -    outside pak          -  lower punch

Grip strength is more important than you think. Especially if you practice wing chun

Wing chun is not known for grip strength.  People do not know it for grabbing people, nor do they know it for ripping muscles off the bones.

What it IS known for is its punching.  Fast. direct. deliberate.

The bottom three knuckles handle most of the impact.  The middle metacarpal is strong.  The ring and pinky metacarpal are soft, flexible, and bendable.

Looking at the fist from a high level shall reveal how soft it really is.  A bundle of bones attached together with nothing more than tendons and small muscles.

If your grip is weak, there is a good chance that your fist is also weak.  Weak hands soften the impact.

Grip strength will help you hit with a much harder fist.


I came upon this realization after a few weeks of hitting the bag.  I had to limit my power cause I could feel my hand reaching its limit.  I would not dare go beyond its limit.  i am not looking for a broken hand.  But then I decide to enhance my grip for a totally different reason.  I wanted to be strong.  Strong hands help make you feel strong.  Thick forearms are also quite intimidating, but I digress.

I discovered that my hand to handle stronger impacts.  My hands desired a strong impact.  Something that could challenge them.  I was shocked to discover that I had surpassed my  previous limitation and my hands were asking for more.

So again.  what was I afraid of?  I have flattened my knuckles from hitting too hard and it has affected my dexterity.  The grip training helpped prevent my knuckles from feeling flattened.  It was a good feeling.  I believe the grip training strengthened my whole hand and tightened the ligaments.  Everything got stronger.  I could hit harder.

If you want your punches to have impact, you must train your hands.

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exercise tips.

grip squeezers with that spring thing are the worst.  I've lost interest countless times.  Here is an alternative.

materials
get a thick rod. a meter long would bee perfect.  3 feet would be ok too.  attach a weight to one end.

Exercise 1
Hold the bar like a hammer and hold it like you hold a suitcase by your side.  lift and lower the heavy side SLOWLY

Exercise 2
flip the bar to that the heavy side is on the opposite side (pinky side).
Lift and lower slowly.

Exercise 3
kneel down and sit on your heals.  On the balls of your feet.  place the non weighted side under your shin ; this shall be the fulcrum.  The grip the middle.  the free end shall have the weight on it.  grip as tight as you can then release slowly.  When the bar is almost to the point of dropping, start gripping again.  THE KEYWORD IS "SLOWLY"

Buzzing Mitt

It is spring time.  It is also bug time.  Flying bug time.  If ind my self dodging like crazy.  Especially when I heard that buzz of their wings close to my ears.

Imagine a special glove that will help you evade.  It is equip with a speaker that sounds like a bee or a a fly or a swarm of them.  the closer they travel to your head the louder it will sound.  Bee sounds naturally send a chill through us.  We can use it to our advantage.

It will help us Pavlov style.

For those of you that don't know Pavlov, he is famous for getting his dogs to salivate whenever they hear the bell.  He reinforced this behavior by ringing a bell at the same time he served food.  Done enough times, it provoked the salivation with just the bell.

Glove is meant to help you see and hear the glove.  Sound can give you a sense of how close something is.  Vision can help too, but it can be fooled.  Beginners usually stay way to far away.  They block when punch is too far to ever hit them.  they dodge punches that would never have landed in the first place.

The bee sounds come in to play.  When it gets close our natural instinct is to freak out and move away! We will associate the sound with the image of the punch.


take away the sound and we will move away from the punch as if we were dodging a bee.

Buzz like a boxer
Punch like a bee

word connotations

Every word has a subtext that prevents it from being identical in meaning to another.

The word punch is an interesting one.  it is a type of strike.  A kick is also a type of strike.  But these two strikes have different connotations when they are used outside of striking.

To "punch through" is a penetrative meaning.  Like Puncture.  Puncture an object.  What happens if you take off "r" sound at the end?  It starts sounding like the word punch!

What does it mean to "punch it in"?  this phrase would be used for a quick jab at a specific point.  Like if a button was stiff, you would punch it.  Or if you were to dial number on to a phone, then the phrase "punch in the numbers" would means you are pressing them rather forcefully and deliberately; not caring if it was damaging the button.


what about the word kick?  For a machine, you'd kick start it.  Why would they need the word kick?  It makes sense if you are using your foot to stomp a lever on a motorcycle.  "kick into high gear"  means hurry up or it means to start up rather abruptly and go fast.  I think the work kick has its connotations in making something go or begin.


In the game of fighting.  Particularly Muay Thai, they always start the round with kicks.  A few will go in with punches, but kicks help start the fight.

why would I bring muay thai into the wing chun blog?  Aren't they like... enemies?  Nah, My sifu combined both arts.  A lot of the techniques are similar.  muay thai fighting is a good way to pressure test your wing chun.