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Shaolin Academy speciality Fists.

If you need to use a fist, make sure it works!

Gray Sash Kung Fu Punching and Fists  White Sash Kung Fu Punching and Fists  Yellow Sash Kung Fu Punching and Fists  Orange Sash Kung Fu Punching and Fists  Blue Sash Kung Fu Punching and Fists  Red Sash Kung Fu Punching and Fists  Purple Sash Kung Fu Punching and Fists

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Reminder

Essential Warm-up before each training session

Before any sort of training, do a minimum warm-up. You may have your own routine or use another. There is a whole host of warm-up routines including a full explanation of the Shaolin Academy Warm up, how and why on a sperate page, click here.

Where available, clicking on a "Tile" will open a video in a new window. Close it to return to where you were. Where not available, the can be a written explanation.

Fist Shapes

Square Fist  Sun Fist  Triangle Fist  Knocking Fist  Panther Fist

Yes, the Square Fist and Sun Fist are the same but angled by 90deg. Still, they are the workhorses and rather than say horizontal or vertical square fist, we simply name them so. The Sun Fist, used for Chain Punching is so named because of the similarity to the simplified Chinese ideogram for Sun. With both these you hit inline with the arm. The Triangle fist is used to hit perpendicular to the arm and thus is angled at the wrist differently to protect the fine bones in the back of your hand.

Strike Delivery

Straight Punching  Round Punching  Flick-Whip Punching  Wiping Punching  Projected Punching

There are five ways you can deliver a basic punch or any striking technique. Direct, round, Whipping, Hammering or Projecting. We devote the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th level to a delivery principle and introduce you to the concept of double punching in the 1st, 5th then the remaining in the 7, Panther level. To put this into perspective, the ten Shaolin Academy levels to black sash are just below.

  1. Straight: and direct punching as in a Straight punch. The shortest distance and all that.
  2. Round: Cross Cut Punching as in Cross and Upper Cuts. The favored street punch and possibly the most powerful.
  3. Wiping: When blocks turn into punches and an outside block turns into a hammer fist.
  4. Whipping: Flick-Whip as in Monkey and Ape. One of the quickest punches and a favorite of Bruce Lee
  5. Long Punching: as in, well, long punching. The hardest and possibly the most devastating style, Long Punching.

Strike Permutations

The Wing Chung Chain punching is quite effective and well know so that had to be in the 1st level. To complete the temple levels using the clenched fist, we added the second advanced delivery method, Twin or Two-Punching in the 5the temple level and the remaining all went to the Panther, the 7th technical specialist level. In the same with all the remaining animal fists.

Punch Chaining  Twin Punching  Flick-whip Puching  Hammer Punching  Dual Targeting  Fake Targeting  Morphing Punch

Punches by Sash Level

L1 Gray Sash, Emei Shan

The most effective punch (possibly) is the straight punch, a direct line from point 'A' to point 'B'. The Shaolin Academy way is to aim the center knuckle at the intended target. The straight punch for targets below the shoulder line, square and inverted square to around your shoulder line and the inverted straight punch to above you shoulder line. Not that I say your shoulder line. In Shaolin Kung Fu over twenty different stances allow you to very your height significantly and thus we always reference your body and frame unless we state otherwise.

Gray Sash L1  Straight Punch  Straight Punch Inverted  Square (Sun) Punch  Square Punch Inverted  Chain Punching

L2 White Sash, Kwantung

The second level focus on round punching, mainly on two of the most common street techniques and the by Bruce Lee popularized Inch Thrust, but a bit different. Round techniques like the Roundhouse Punch, can be some of the most powerful techniques and as mentioned, especially the haymaker roundhouse possibly the one most used in brawls despite being the one most easily countered. The Uppercut Punch is not as easily delivered in normal situations, unless your opponents hands are down and then it can be devastating, even killing if the force culminates in the neck.

The round upper cutting Inch Thrust is for the up-close-and-personal encounters and targets the attackers floating ribs. There is much more to this punch then most people know using a finesse that cannot easily be seen when executed.

White Sash L2  Upper Cut  Cros Cut  Inch Thrust

L3 Yellow Sash, Fukien

Another punch the Bruce Lee popularized is the super quick whipping Back Fist. In a time when Karate was just a few punches and kicks, Bruce Lee exposed one of the quickest techniques of all although most people still do not comprehend the fullness of the technique. Hardly anyone ever uses the Reverse Fist which usually only target the bridge of the nose. That said, it is great for targeting attacking arms and legs.

The Monkey Fist is unique and a long held secret in some styles. Exactly as the other two, except it comes from below. Its main targets are attacking arms, people bending forward, chin and groin. The Monkey Punch can end a dispute quite quickly, if you know how to use it.

Yellow Sash L3  Reverse Punch  Back Punch  Monkey Punch

L4 Orange Sash, Wudang

Only one recording currently but the explanation to these punches is fairly straight forward and almost identical to the previous level in the PUNCHING (delivery). The Whipping Punches from the precious level use the triangle fist's center knuckle. This is not good if you wish to kit something hard. For strikes to hard surfaces, like the forehead, the hammer punch is best. It is delivered exactly the same as the Back, Reverse, or Monkey punch, except, just before impact, you "Flick" the wrist into the hammer shape. The third Hammer, the inverted Horizontal Hammer works the same as an Inside or outside Block from Gray Sash, but turned into a strike. For more info, check out. Shaolin Academy Blocks Gray Sash.

The Knocking Fist uses the middle fingers center knuckle, much in the same way as if you were knocking on a front door. Generally you would target the chest but for a better defensive outcome, the part just under the nose is much more effective.

Orange Sash L4  Hammer Punch  Hammer Punch Horizontal  Hammer Punch Inv.

Please train the Hammer Punch the short version, from in front of your body not from beside your ear. The one mostly shown here is the Long Fist Hammer Punch that we cover in Red Sash, Tiger Kung Fu.

L5 Blue Sash, Two Handed Punches

Sometimes people over complicate things. This is just the same as what you learned, just with both hands at the same time: The Twin punches are like a solid push, just with fists. Almost all the Twin Punching techniques can be used for almost any of the previous Fists, except the Gorilla Punch. That is, as it is. All five option are demonstrated by Sifu Martyn in the form of a Twin Punching routine.

Punching with both hands at the same time is rarely taught outside of traditional kung fu styles mainly because it is rarely practical. But for Shaolin Kung Fu, this is body, mind, and skill development and thus very important to Shaolin practitioners. Usually, most people have a dominant hand which is then better coordinated and stronger. With this exercise we help the other hand to catch up and become just as usable in defence as the dominant hand. So, you may never use a twin punch to defend yourself but practicing the skill will help you in many ways, including control, targeting, timing and judgment. Your 'other' hand will also become more coordinated.

  1. Punch with both arms equally strong.
  2. Impact with both arms at the same time.
  3. Start with gentle, slow punching and gradually increase strength and speed but only as much as your weakest arm.
  4. Synchronize your breathing to exhale on impact.
  5. When working on a bag, listen to the impact to know if your achieving your outcomes.

Note - One recording the five punch variants.

Blue Sash L5 Mirror Punching  Assymetrical Punching  Bi-directional Punching  Opposing Punching  Gorilla Punch

The Gorilla Punch is a proper traditional technique. Its correct usage is shown in the Red Sash, Tiger level. First you need to train to impact with both upper and lower fist at the same time before you learn the traditional technique. The targets for this technique are the opposing pectoral muscles and floating ribs, ie., left chest, right floating ribs or right chest left floating ribs.

Advanced Shaolin Animal Kung Fu Levels

L6 Red Sash, Tiger

The Tiger is a just do type of style. While others are hesitating, the Tiger finishes the job. Building on the tigers ability of a sudden leaping attack, we allocated the Long Style of Kung Fu punches to this level.

Red Sash L6  Long Punch Reverse  Long Punch Back  Long Punch Ape  Long Punch Inv Round  Long Punch Gorilla  Long Punch Roundhouse  Long Punch High Upper Cut
Long Fist Uppercut Long Fist Roundhouse Long Fist Reverse Cut Long Fist Meteor Long Fist Scraping Long Fist Hammer Long Fist V Hammer

L7 Purple Sash, Panther

The Panther is the tactician, technician, and strategist. It knows every technique in detail. The Panther kung fu stylist needs to understand the system of techniques so there is a lot of Punching and Fists to cover: especially the Panther and Animal Fists.

The Panther is always different, unusual, unconventional, even chaotic but, and that is a big but, you first need to learn everything in a structured and understand order before you can also understand chaos. Many believe the absence of order is chaos but in fact the other is more correct. The universe is dark with tiny areas of light and so too, the universe is chaos with tiny areas of order (just go with this analogy). Understand the order that most human beings need to have and then you will understand how chaos works.

Square Fist  Sun Fist 
Triangle Fist (Shape)  H + V Hammer Fist  Inv Hammer Fist  Dragon Fist  Leopard Fist  Phoenix Fist  Phoenix Eye Fist
Knocking Fist Meteor Fist Scraping Fist
Panther Fist  Archer Fist Snow Leopard Axe Fist

From all this, you need to learn the Fists, some of which you already covered. But now you need to know them well including how to use their Permutations:

Purple Sash L7  Hoprizontal and Vertical Hammer  Inverted Hammer  Dragon Knuckle  leopard Fist  Phoenix Strike  Phoenix Eye Fist  Knocking Fist  Meteor Fist  Scraping Fist  Panter Fist  Archer Fist  Snow Leopard First  Horizontal, Vertica, and Inverted Axe Fist 

Permutations of Punching, again.

Chain Punching  Reflick Punching  Jack Hammer Punching  Fake Targeting  Duel Targeting  Tranforming Punches
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