More “what I learned in chin na” postings…

1. Strikers (to varrying degrees) condition their bodies to give and recieve strikes. Well the same goes for practicing your chin na with another person. By taking them to the point of pain you are conditioning and strengthening your partner’s mucles, tendons, and ligaments. You are also helping them to defend against grappling attacks. As one of the senior students told me: “On the street most people who grab or punch you will not be considering how to escape a chin na technique. In here if you’ve had a year or more of practice it’s different.” Then he went on to point out that he probably could not make many of the techniques even work on some of the instructors or senior students who were purposely resisting him.

2. When punching at your chin na partner punch through their body or head like you would if you really were attacking them. On this point my partner and I were corrected on. Senior student said that if you train to arrest your punch short you do your partner a disservice if he or she ever really has to use chin na. What you end up doing is conditioning them to respond to a punch that comes up inches short. He then told a story about his old sifu. Apparently if any students ever pulled their punches short like some styles teach this guy would just lean forward and rest his nose on their fist and ask: “What is that?”

~BCP