A must know technique for the ladies is defending against a top position attacker.

While there are many varieties of strikes (elbows, hammer punches, et al), and submissions (shoulder lock, arm bar), by far the most effective in my opinion is the rear choke as you render your attacker unconscious.

Scenario: 
An attacker has pinned you on the ground, perhaps with his hands around your neck.

You respond by closing guard (wrapping your legs around his torso), next you clinch his upper limbs (controlling his posture), shimmy to the side and work your way to his back.  Once there, slap in your rear choke (aka RNC) and squeeze...

When the choke is fully applied you will render the attacker unconscious.in 4-7 seconds.

The key on making a technique quick and effective is repetitive drills via partner, grappling dummy, etc.
Practice not only the movements of the escape, but the squeeze as well.  

For increasing your squeeze strength apply the RNC on a training dummy or BOB bag torso.
If you're solo, just sit on the floor - use one of your bent knees and apply your RNC on it and squeeze and hold.
You'll develop your vice like grip in no time.

​Copy and paste this link for a video clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIMj5Be6YNA

Respects and train hard!

Recently during a training session I had the fortunate opportunity to be reminded of some basic martial maxims.

The class focus was on in-fighting techniques to take-down and control tactics.  In this case it was elbow strikes to standing arm bar take-down.  With a few repetitions of the said techniques I decided to show the arm bar escape (re-establishing leverage via pulling in your elbow close to your body or vice versa and then rolling out).  

After successfully escaping the arm-bar exercise my student/partner went into continue mode which became an impromptu grappling match.  I chose to slap in a guillotine in half guard over acquiring full guard (mistake #1: position over submission), after which he eventually powered out.

He then slowed crawled towards the wall with me in tow in half guard.  At this point I am thinking that this would be good for me as I would be able to use the wall to get up (ie wall walk).  Instead of heading perpendicular to the wall, my partner positioned us parallel to the wall and beside my wavemaster tower bag.  Now I am stuck between the wall and the tower bag which meant I had no room to reposition or sweep (mistake #2: not fully analysing or recognizing the situation of potential hazards/obstructions).

At this point I had no leverage and no room to work my bottom game which left me to rely solely on strength on strength tug-of-war for wrist control.  Suffice to say it was exhausting (mistake #3: under-estimating my partners strength and ability - ground game).  

After a few minutes of wrist control war, we reached a stalemate, bumped fists and resumed the class lessons.

Opposed to letting my ego get bruised, I recognized that these lessons were required as it was a needed wake up call to shed the complacency.  I realized I was not fully prepared - yes it was just an exercise, but I should be ready to respond and react on the fly.  


What I took away - always train at 110% and be ready in all situations in the gym and the street!

Best regards - forever learning.
Sifu Ed.

It's been a year since my last post, as I have decided to dedicate this post to my late father who was my inspiration and role model.

Bak Mei is known for it's power generation via luk ging, sei ngoi ging, and baat ging so I've decided to make a video breaking down a simple technique to showcase words to action.

Our focus will be the Arrow punch (Jin Choi).  It is called Jin Choi for the fact that the stance looks like an archer holding a bow preparing to loose an arrow.

The power of the arrow punch comes from the turning of the hip verses just utilizing the shoulders as you would in a boxing jab.  the fact that you are perpendicular to the opponent when the punch hits allows you to twist your hips to facilitate the torque to the strike therefore increasing the power of the "jab".

As always, actions speak louder that words.  Enjoy the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m91-q-tmGqM&feature=c4-overview&list=UU9oJAU6yEtkJXhtOoLC7Qsw

Addendum
Further to the subject of power generation as it pertains to this arrow punch as a "power jab", I've been recently asked by some students the differences in ging (power). I will start off by first differentiating between strength (lik) and power (ging). Simply put muscular strength is blunt and dull while developed power is sudden and sharp.
ie. punching with shoulder vs punching with the waist/hips.

Bak Mei Ging (Power) is classified into the following:

LUK GING (6 sectors of kinetic bridging) aka kinetic chain of biomechanics:
They are gek, yiu, bok, sau, geng, and nga (legs/stance, shoulders, arms, neck, and teeth). This means that all these parts must be coordinated & integrated to allow proper force emission.

SEI NGOI GING (4 internal dynamic forces) / kinetics:
ie. fau, chum, tun, tou (float, sink, swallow, spit).
This refers to how power should be produced and exerted.

BAAT GING (8 manifestations of force) / Kinematics.
This refers to when luk ging and sei noi ging are properly performed and is given proper direction.
They are: bin, got, waan, jong, chung, taan, sok, and pun (whip, cut, pull. crash, rush/charge, flick/bounce, rope, and coil.

As you can see there is much more to Bak Mei than just the external motions. It takes time to become proficient at each level before you can move forward. Meaning that you must understand proper alignment (luk ging), before you can properly practice sei ging. Luk ging and Sei ngoi ging must be understood and properly performed before you can execute baat ging.

Dedicated to Edward Wong, love you always.
1948 - 2011

Bak Mei kung-fu is a style that functions best at the close quarters distance.  With that being said, a Bak Mei practitioner needs to close the distance to employ their tools.   For a successful execution of Bak Mei techniques an understanding of the 3 distances (saam gwaan - which is long range, mid range, and close range) is required along with having the proper counter measures if an opponent attacks with their longest weapon, which would be the leg (ie the longest limb of the human body). 

An answer to an incoming kick is the Boi Jeung (literally back of palm), which is one of the many tools a Bak Mei practitioner can utilize to counter a kick, close the distance, and jam/disrupt the opponents attack.  With the Boi Jeung two basic permutations can be used.  The first method would be a simple stop hit, and the other would be used as a kick catch into a sweep.

As actions speak louder than words, here is a link showcasing the stop-hit for a kick:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS1myqWIAA8&list=UU9oJAU6yEtkJXhtOoLC7Qsw&index=2&feature=plcp
followed by the kick catch into a sweep:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSO-QdDLeWs&list=UU9oJAU6yEtkJXhtOoLC7Qsw&index=1&feature=plcp

While Bak Mei is not known for having a large variety of kicks, the kicks that are present in Bak Mei follow the same principals as most Southern Chinese Martial Arts in which the kick is kept low targeting either the lower or middle gates. 

Another defining point of Bak Mei kicks is that they are hidden, meaning that the kick is either masked behind a feint/deception or a hand strike to distract away from the kick.  A loose analogy would be that the kick is like the snake in which the strike is fast and that there is no warning.

The areas to strike with the kick in Bak Mei are usually focused on the legs, knees, groin, and abdomen.
Some signature Bak Mei kicks include daang gek (nailing kick), tek sa gek (sand flicking kick/groin kick), and chuun sum gek (piercing heart kick).

Food for thought: "A kick to the head is like a punch to the foot" 
Enjoy the attached video clip showcasing the daang gek (nailing kick). 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMCdq7QRarI&list=UU9oJAU6yEtkJXhtOoLC7Qsw&index=1&feature=plcp

Among the many virtues of martial arts an essential trait is patience (Yun).  Patience is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances to allow one to persevere when under stress or strain which is very likely to be encountered in martial endeavour.

As a martial arts practitioner you may at times find it difficult to grasp new techniques or perhaps you become frustrated while working on existing skills.   Patience with oneself allows you to overcome such obstacles giving you the persistence to continue and get the technique right.  Patience can also provide you with the fortitude and mindset of: no matter how menial or boring the drill is, you recognize and appreciate that the effort and quantity invested yields a great improvement of quality on current skills.

It is equally important to have patience for others whether one is a student or an instructor.  This equates to tolerance conveyed to fellow training partners who may not be as skilled as you.  Patience should also extend outside of the training halls because not only is it wrong to just lose your temper and strike out at someone because they bumped into you on the street or looked at you the wrong way, but it is against the martial code of conduct.  As an instructor you may be demonstrating or explaining certain details in high repetition.  Therefore patience for trainees is paramount as you must recognize that students learn at different rates and allows you to comprehend and appreciate the differences in the individual student.

In conclusion while the aim of martial arts is the delivery of swift and powerful strikes, it is equally as important to issue patience to others to endure complications or annoyances with ease and provide you with a means to make the appropriate choices.  After all it is a respectable demeanour which defines a proper martial artist.