huen sau coat hanger

I had always thought that huen sau was about using your hand to push the attack away from the center line.  I thought that when my hook hand would turn, the pinkie side would “push” it out.  Unfortunately, this is wrong.  
Lets start with an analogy.  A hanger -- the one that you can put your nice shirts on.  The hanger has a hook that used to hold on to a bar.  This is meant for holding downward forces.  When used in this way, the hangar can handle quite a lot of weight.  But what if you were to twist it while it was on the bar?  The hanger isn’t meant to handle twisting forces, so the hook will start to bend.  This bending would also happen to your hand.  Your bendy hand probably won’t be able to push the attackers punch out.
By the way, did I mention that I’ve never been able to  do a huen sau with that twisting movement?  Under pressure, it has become more of  tiny gan sau rather than a twist.  This means that you push down and slightly out.
Your huen sau should be used like a coat hanger.  Your wrist will push it down.  But the huen sau should be used like a hook that will ALSO pull the punch down.  This almost sounds like fook sau.  What makes it less fook-sau-like is the rotation of the forearm.  You do pull down like a fook sau, but towards the end you rotate it so that your fingers point down to the floor.  

At this point, you can give lower palm strike.  BUT you have ALSO give a head strike.  You have two options and the choice depends on what your opponent does.

• If your opponent resists you then strike his lower rib
• If your opponent doesn’t resist, there is a chance that he would go for a head strike the moment you go for a low strike.  In this scenario, your safest option is you strike the head.  Take the center and force him to the outside.

Lastly....if you try to lower your opponents arm, but can’t move it you will have to side step to change the angle of entry.  If you are using your right arm on top of his left arm.  You side step to the left instead of trying to lower.  You will still have to turn the fingers to point to the floor.  Once you establish the position strike/push his lower body.  You don’t have to worry about him striking your head;  The side step makes you too far away from his left arm.  The exception to this rule is if your opponent copies your footwork and body positioning.