Four Corners

 

In this cycle, we are working on hubud lubud drill as a template to explore the Hakka 5 gates. This gives students a foundation in Hakka striking and trapping flows, including foot trapping and low line kicking, which are essential elements in the Hakka systems.

One of the key ideas to master when studying Hakka Kuntao is the idea of compactness. Of course this can be applied to all other systems as well, but the use of hubud lubud and the 5 gates provides a great visualization tool for understanding this idea.

I often explain compactness to my students using the idea of a box or "four corners". In Japan, I sometimes use a kanji to illustrate the corners and center line. The four corners represent the anchor points of the torso, namely the two shoulders and the two hips. By watching the two top corners I can easily see my opponent's movement start to develop, which makes their attacking intention easier to predict. Likewise, by watching their hips I can see any adjustment of their footwork, stance or the beginnings of a kicking motion. All four of these can be monitored by watching the center mass of the torso at the sternum, and Guro Fred deliberately put our logo in that spot on the training t-shirts as a focal point for this purpose.

In fighting, our goal should always be to protect our four corners. By doing so, we naturally keep attacks away from the main part of the torso including all the vital organs heart/lungs/plexus/liver/spleen. Throat and groin sit along the centerline but are generally protected if we protect the four corners. In Hakka, typically, the elbows connect to the hip corners and the hands connect to the shoulder corners. This means the hands will rarely go above shoulder height, and the elbows remain pointed downward in order to keep a strong structure.

Likewise, we are usually seeking to get past our opponent's  guard and access their torso by passing one or more of the corners. The strikes in Hakka are often aimed at the centerline and center mass, and traps usually lift the arms above the shoulder line or pin them to the low line at the corners of the hips.

Thus, the concept can be simplified to keeping the opponent outside the four corners of our box while getting access to their box ourselves. Other techniques like low kicks, locks, throws and the like serve only to create opportunities to penetrate the guard and gain access to the vital areas inside the box.

These concepts are universal. Combative knife fighting and shooting also emphasize targeting center mass (center of the box) as the highest percentage targets to render opponents ineffective. Recently, a former President survived an attempted assassination, possibly being lucky because the assassin chose a head shot instead of aiming for center mass.

In boxing as well, we sometimes move the opponent's guard in order to get access to the liver or spleen for body hits, or to either side of the jawline for head hits. If you examine the standard modern western boxing guard, it is designed to protect the four corners by using the elbows to protect the liver/spleen/floating ribs, the forearms to protect the plexus and the hands to protect the shoulder corners and head.

Going forward, when training, it may be useful to consider each technique for how it either protects our four corners or exposes them on our opponent. 

• Is it possible to be more compact and provide greater protection for our corners? What are the most efficient protections for our corners?
• Are there techniques and combinations that are effective for opening the corners of our opponent so we can get in? How can we best get past the opponent's guard?

Let me know what you think.

Train Hard.