Although the emphasis in my class is usually on good positioning via good footwork, good technique and not speed, I thought that today I would focus on hand speed. When I say hand speed, the problem isn’t really that my hands are slow, it’s that they are uncoordinated. There is a particular sequence of moves that we’ve had to practise a couple of times that thwarts me every time.
If you are executing The Move you start by chi sauing with both hands on the outside. When both hands are roughly at the same height, you perform a sharp jut sau with both hands to disrupt your opponent’s balance. They should rise onto their toes as they are off balance and you take advantage of this by:
- Covering both their hands with one of yours to trap them. They are both low after the jut sau, so this shouldn’t be a problem.
- Chop to the neck with your free hand.
- Swap hands so that the chopping hand then traps their hands and the other hand chops their neck.
- Rinse and repeat.
My sifu can do this with superb coordination and speed. I, on the other hand, can perform the jut sau perfectly so that my opponent is off balance ….. and that’s it. There is no strike after that because I can’t coordinate my hands. My partner gets off scot free.
The first problem I have is that I can’t move my hands quickly enough from the jut sau to the first trap. The second problem is that somewhere along the way I need to chop with my left hand. I’m right handed and my left hand is really slow and awkward. This is not a good move in general for me!
So I resolved to practise something which I’m sure will help. There is a weights rack in the room at the gym where I practise and part of its frame is at a similar height to my opponent’s hands. How fortuitous. This morning I spent 15 minutes on a very simple routine. I stand facing the weights rack squarely. One hand rests on the weights rack (mimicking the initial trap) and the other chops forward at neck height. The chopping hand then laaps down onto the frame whilst the other hand chops. Keep swapping hands in the way. I started doing 10 reps on each arm, resting, then another 10 reps. Then I just kept doing a total of 50, rest 50, rest etc.
At first when I chopped with my left hand, I was just flinging my arm forwards very awkwardly. After a few repetitions though, I became a little more coordinated. Towards the end the laap became crisper and snappier and coincided with the chop reaching its full extent. Nice! The left is still a little clunky, but I reckon if I spend 15 minutes on this every day for a week, it will make a big difference.
In contrast, my right hand when it chops makes it look like I’ve done kung fu before 
