Taking it lying down.

Here is something that I’ve learned from various sifus in the past and even now, in Sarawak, this is often brought up in my discussion with different TCMA teachers trained in the “old” school.

The concept of “doors” or “gates”.

Many Fukien styles share a common “4^th” door principle and the general idea of this is to steer clear of direct line of force, side step and counter attack from a point either to the outside or inside oblique to the opponent; I like to use the term “blind spot” when teaching this.

Usually starting with reacting after an opponent’s initiative, this then progress to just reading and moving into this range the even before your opponent is able to complete his execution.

This, really, is very fundamental CKF fighting concept that every student goes thru’ in the initial phases of learning to fight.

Starting with big movement to eventually seemingly just moving into the opponent the moment he starts something, avoiding at the advance level, by a hairline.

Then you have “hitting 2 or 3 gates simultaneously” made famous by style like Wing Chun for instance.

So far we are talking about 4 doors altogether. The “5^th and 6^th” is something that is confined to styles that advocate ground fighting and airborne techniques.

The 5^th is below the waist and the 6^th refers to above the shoulder taken at oblique angles.

So which style specialized in these 2 gates?

The one that comes to mind straightaway is “monkey” boxing.

And if you have a chance to watch Ven. Sek’s Saolim Monkey, you’ll know exactly what I am trying to describe.

Exponents of this are either on the floor or leaping into the air to execute their techniques.

So, here are some techniques, done when on the floor that could easily pass off as “monkey” style CKF…….

Achtung!

Thought you might like this …….

And you can get a translated version over on Amazon.com.

Mine is in German so I am just looking at the pics and trying to figure out what the author is saying.

Take the floor, folks……

So everybody is talking about it, the latest flavor in town ….. going horizontal.

And of course you’ll also hear how this is a “new” thing that grew in the west and how fighting in the cage is the “ultimate”….

Okay, I am not going to refute that when it comes to mass communication and entertainment; prize fights TV syndication and capturing popular attention; the west is the real seasoned pro.

Man, these are folks who are able to turn wrestlers into rock stars with big bucks merchandising to boot …. What can I say?

But to say Asians are only concerned with stand up fighting is really, misleading.

Many styles include floor work in their repertoire albeit in varying degrees.

The many Silats in this part of the world have very developed grappling, take downs and control techniques, some very exclusive that you don’t really see elsewhere.

The Indians got got their “Gusti” …… watch clips.

The Chinese got their “Ground Dragon”, “Ditang” and “Python” besides the standard “Chinese Wrestling” which according to many was exported to Japan and later evolved into the many grappling and throwing arts you see today.

Well, personally, I got a small collection of books on “Chinese Wrestling” that I going to post slowly.

Here to start of, a couple of pages from “Sport Wrestling” – the kind that is competed in the Olympics.

I am Iron Man.

From Wiki :-

At its most specific, Northern Shaolin refers to the style disseminated by Gu Ruzhang (Cantonese Ku Yu Cheung). In its broadest sense, Northern Shaolin (Chinese: 北少林;Pinyin: běishàolín, Cantonese: Bak Sil Lum) refers to the external (as opposed to internal)martial arts of Northern China referring to those styles from the Northern Shaolin Monastery inHenan.

Read full article here.