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