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Sifu Jamie Robson opens Grandmaster Wong’s defence and is about to move in to attack

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In today’s free sparring, many martial artists do not realize that they have given away many disadvantages of themselves to their opponents, without their opponents having to do anything. This is what we call “free-offers”. Some examples are rushing in to attack exposing their body openly, or kicking high and exposing their groin.

All the opponents have to do is to exploit these free-offers and defeat the attackers. However, their opponents often do not know about these free-offers, and hence cannot exploit them for their advantages..

In our combat training, the first principle is to ensure that we are safe. It doesn’t mater if we lose a fight but come out unhurt. Some martial arts have a different philosophy. They advocate win at all cost, even sustaining serious injury. Such martial arts pay little attention to safety first. Some are meant to be sports, and as the practitioners are protected by safety rules they often neglect to ensure their own safety first in combat.

To ensure safety, we do not give away disadvantages to our opponents. Not covering the opponent’s guard-hand before attacking, and adopting footwork that exposes your groin are obvious examples of free-offers. Less obvious examples are attacking while your chi is floating, and making movements without focus.

Then we should be able to recognize free-offers our opponent may give us and exploit them. But we need to be careful that they are free-offers carelessly made by our opponents and not feint moves or tactics to trick us.

If your opponents are well trained, they will not give away free-offers. In this case we have to create our own advantages. This can be realized by employing tactics and strategies.

The video clips show how you can avoid disadvantages and seek advantages as learnt and practiced at the Sabah Intensive Shaolin Kungfu Course in March 2007.

Please note that you can download the video clips onto your own computer and view them at your leisure. Place your computer pointer at the picture or one of the links, and right click. Choose “Save Target As”. Select the directory or sub-directory where you wish to keep the video clip. Click “Save”.

Be elegant, focused at the dan tian and mentally calm and fresh

Grandmaster Wong explains that besides the three external harmonies of feet, body and hands, in his poise pattern a practitioner must also attain the three internal harmonies of essence, energy and mind. In other words, his form must be elegant, his qi (chi) must be focused at his dan tian, and he is calm and fresh. If he is tensed, panting for breath or distracted, he would have missed these three internal harmonies, and would perform below par in his combat.
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Correct Spacing in Responding to an Attack

When responding, ensure that your spacing is correct. If you move too far away, you may avoid an opponent’s attack but miss a good opportunity of counter-attacking. If you are too close, you may not be effective in neutralizing his force, and worse, you may be hit.
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The Three Points of Response

Beside spacing, timing must be correct. Of course if you respond too slowly, you would be hit. But responding too fast is also incorrect. The timing of response may be at the initial stage of the attack, when the attack is in he middle of its progress, or when the attack is about to be completed. For convenience, we term them as point 1, point 2 or point 3. If you are at the beginning stage of our combat training, you need not worry about these details. Begin your response when the attack has started, not before.
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Weakness of Responding Too Quickly

Many martial artists respond too quickly to an attack. As soon as an attacker makes a movement, they instinctively bounce away. If the attacker is skillful and trained, this can be a weakness. The attacker may abandon his initial planned attack, move in swiftly and attack deeply following the momentum of the retreating responder. Not many practitioners are trained to do so. But we presume that he is so trained, and must not give him this disadvantage of ourselves. Moreover, responding too quickly negates the effectiveness of counter-attacking if the attacker offers this opportunity. Thirdly, it negates the training of shen, or mind.
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Tactic of Minimum Force against Maximum Strength

A common mistake amongst beginners is to use “Single Tiger Emerges from Cave” to block an opponent’s attack. This pattern is not a block, but a leaning technique. You “lean”, not block, your Tiger-Claw on the opponent’s forearm. When you block, you use force against force; but when you lean you need only minimum force. This is a useful tactic to avoid an opponent’s powerful attack and prevent him from further attacks. Later when you are more skillful, you can use this tactic to lead an opponent’s attacks to futility, then counter-strike him when he least expects it. This tactic is introduced from Sequence 5 onwards.
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Safety First and Exploding Force

Grandmaster Wong demonstrates how to roll forward correctly to execute “Black Tiger Steals Heart”. Here the spacing is one and a half steps. Notice that Grandmaster Wong starts with his back leg, rotates his waist and complete with his punch – the three factors (feet, body, hands) constituting the three external harmonies. Notice also that Grandmaster Wong asks the way with his leading hand which ensures his own safety first, and his punch spirals out from his waist with the force exploding from the dan tian.
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Helping One Another in Combat Training

Remember that in combat training, the one in front of you is not your deadly enemy but your sparring partner. You should, therefore, help each other. Here, Sifu Jamie of Shaolin Wahnam Scotland helps Dr Rosaline of Shaolin Wahnam Malaysia. It is quite obvious that although her sparring partner is more powerful, Dr Rosaline does not feel uneasy. In fact she is enjoying the practice.
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Threading to Minimize Opponent’s Force

The “thread” is an effective technique to realize the tactic of using minimum force against maximum strength. First, Grandmaster Wong shows the application of the thread with wrong timing and wrong spacing. Then Grandmaster Wong shows its application correctly. Notice that it is not a block. When you apply a block you meet force with force, when you apply a thread you minimize your opponent’s force.
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An Example of a Free-Offer

This video clip shows a common mistake made by many students, i.e. moving into an opponent’s guard hand. It is a free-offer. The opponent would just strike you as you move in.
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More Examples of Free-Offers

Here are more examples of free-offers. When moving in to execute a low stance arrow punch as in the pattern “Precious Duck Swims Through Lotus”, students often move in too close, thus moving into an opponent’s strike. They also fail to cover the opponent’s guard-hand, thus exposing themselves to counter-attacks.
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We wish to thank Mr Godfery Kissey of Ogingo Videography, Penampang, Sabah, Malaysia for kindly provideing us with the videos. (Godfery is also a member of our Shaolin Wahnam Family.) His telephone number is 60-88-731788, and e-mail address is godfery@pc.jaring.my.

Overview 1 : The Fundamentals
Overview 2 : The 16 Combat Sequences
Overview 3 : Are they Performing Kungfu Dance?

1. The Basics of Shaolin Kungfu Training
2. Fundamental Combat Skills
3. Defeat you Hand to your Opponent, Victory you Create Yourself
4. Avoiding Disadvantages and Seeking Advantages
5. Basic Principles and Tactics of Combat
6. Skills derived from Sparring can be Rewardingly used in Daily Life
7: Some Secrets in Practicing Genuine Kungfu
8: Various Ways to Move into an Opponent

9: Applying Combat Sequences in Sparring
10: Linking Sequences to be More Combat Efficient
11: The Secrets of Continuous Cannons
12: The Mechanics of Continuation
13: Marvelous Techniques Beget Marvelous Techniques
14: Perfecting Forms and Developing Force
15: Applying Tactics in Combat
16: Objectives of Form Training in Solo

17: Being Fluent in Kicking Techniques before Applying them in Combat
18: Using Tactics in Kicking Attacks and Defences
19: Different Levels of Sophistication in Sparring and Fighting
20: The Legacy of Uncle Righteousness: Secret of Continuous Cannons and their Counters
21: Benefiting from the Experiences and Teachings of Past Masters

22: Poetic Patterns Can be Very Deadly
23: Moving Back One Step when in Diffiuclt Situations
24: Linking Sequences to Form a Kungfu Set
25: Felling Techniques in Kungfu are Different from Judo and Wrestling
26: Butterfly Palms and Hiding Flowers are Excellent in Countering Felling and Gripping Attacks
27: Let Mercy Flow from the Hands

28: Benefits of Solo Set Practice -- Combat Sequences 13 to 16
29: From Pre-Choice Sequences to Free Sparring
30: Allying Shaolin Patterns Correctly and Spontaneously in Free Sparring
31. Shaolin Kungfu against Boxing and Kick-Boxing
32. Shaolin Counters against Wrestling Shoots
33. The Secret of Grandmaster Ho Fatt Nam
34. Why Shaolin Kungfu is Technically Faster than Boxing
35. Shaolin Techniques, Tactics and Strategies against Boxing

36. Revealing Secrets of Past Taijiquan Masters
37. Overwhelming Opponents with Just One Pattern
38. Poetry and Elegance in Effective Combat

• Intensive Chi Kung Course
• Intensive Shaolin Kungfu Course
• Intensive Taijiquan Course

• List of Certified Shaolin Wahnam Instructors

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