Sticking Hands
Yip Man & Bruce LeeWe start fine and work out. What this means is, we start by rolling the arms around a pinpoint position, as Bruce can be seen doing in this picture (above/right), with Yip Man, one of his main Kung Fu teachers.
Both wrists of both people meet at the same spot, and whoever dominates this spot tends to come out on top in the bigger fight.
If you feel your training partner is putting too much weight on your arms, or tensing up a bit, you can exploit this by pulling his tense arm and deflecting his heavy hands.
You can practice this for decades and still have more to learn. Most of the world's best masters are elderly. Sticking Hands is about sensitivity and quick reactions. Excess muscle is a disadvantage.
Videos
See Grandmaster Samuel Kwok sticking hands with his main teacher of recent years; Grandmaster Ip Ching, the younger son of Yip Man.
Sam has also trained for decades under Ip Chun, the elder son of Yip Man.
Sam has kung fu schools all over the world, but lives in the UK, and has been my teacher for a few years now. There's possibly nobody better in this country with whom to practice sticking hands. Grandmaster Samuel Kwok always has more to teach, but has also been known to ask me how I manage to do what I do. I think my strengths come down to speed and rhythm, and avoiding the uncomfortable moves.
Dance
MJ, Defensive Stance
MJ, Crane StyleDancing means moving the body for fun. Usually in a balanced way. So naturally, this makes good exercise for a martial artist. Just as singing makes good practice for a professional speaker. And some dances have special relevance to martial arts.
Moonwalking (travelling with both feet flat on the ground at all times) is a very useful, advanced practice in martial arts; whereby one adjusts to compliment the position of their opponent, without over-leaning to any side at any time, and without compromising the stability of having two anchors (feet on the ground) at all times.
Varies old styles Chinese Kung Fu, including a couple that I've practiced, have their own traditional ways of practicing what could be described as Moonwalking.
Videos
Tai Chi
Tai Chi is about moving in an optimally balanced way. For example, when an arm reaches far, the stance should be long to support it, or else the other arm should reach the opposite way to stay balanced.
The focus is on using soft moves to gracefully deflect hard moves.
In traditional Tai Chi styles, there is a popular exercise called Pushing Hands which is roughly the same as Sticking Hands.
Videos
See Yan Long Jiang demonstrating some Tai Chi...
