My mind is still a muddle when it comes to my chin-na lessons. A lot of the techniques are complex and too new for me to remember what’s what. This week we did the line drill again: One side attacks while the other side defends with chin-na. By the time you get to the end of the line you’ve been attacked at least five or six different times. It’s a really good way to work on flow and spontaneity.
The down side? This week was even worse than last and I could only remember a few things! Prior to the drill us “newbies” spent about 40 minutes learning four different single finger chin-na techniques. I have to admit that I REALLY like these because they take very little strength to make work. Better still, at least two flowed very naturally already so I can envision making this stuff actually work and fast! Anyhow, I think trying so hard to focus on learning the single finger chin-na made me vapor lock when I got into the line drill.
Oh well, it’s only been a month so what should I expect?
The last two classes I’ve had three a-ha! moments. Last week in the line drill I actually pulled off part of “turning body elbow wrap”. It’s kinda hard to describe but basically it’s a defense from a grab from behind and you end up getting your attacker in an arm bar. The thing is I was trying to crank and break things. Well the guy that I was cranking on got slightly annoyed and corrected me. Instead of worrying about the arm he told me to maintain the lock and drive his spine into the ground. “Push through my spine!” When I did he went face-first into the ground! After he got up he smiled and said: “There’s a reason chin na means to seize and control!”
Number two was this past week. In the line drill I was trying white crane nods its head again. My problem is when I get those fingers I crank and start to bend at the waist. My attacker who was Chinese yelled at me in broken English: “No! No! You make white crane bow! White crane needs to nod head!”
Number three also happened this past week. While learning the single finger chin na I was grabbing pinkies like you’d hold a screwdriver. Well you can bend a finger but after a point your “death grip” starts to get in the way of the bend. I was corrected by one of the three most senior people there. He told me to get my thumb near the top of the pinky and my index finger just above the knuckle joint. By doing this you create a mini-lever. Well presto! When you do this one correctly I suspect you could control or very easily break most fingers, no matter how big or strong the person is.
My problem is I still want to do things the taekwondo way: Hard and powerful! The reality is that for most of these chin na techniques that is wrong.
I’m also pleased to have found a video that shows some of the techniques I’ve been shown. I’m a very long way from pulling these off as good as the guy in the video. In order of what I’ve done so far:
- Wrap hand 1
- Wrap hand 2
- Turning around Heaven & Earth
The video also has a bunch of stuff I’ve not seen or done.
I’ll close this post with some karate guys integrating chin na into their art. At 1:50 you can see white crane nods. They are doing things a little different but the chin na part is pretty close to what I’m being taught.
~BCP
