Wushu Basics for Longfist, Southfist and Taijiquan by Zhou Jianhua, Matthew Stampe and Matthew Schneider

In the last several years wushu has been growing into a rich part of the North American Martial Arts culture since the early 90’s with the immigration of coaches and athletes from the Peoples Republic of China. With these fresh and enthusiastic teachers ready to develop teams and athletes, there come a enormous amount of informational in which the students would be greatly enriched. Unfortunately the language barrier and untranslated texts take away from the importance of the oral transmission to the meaning of many of the physical aspects of the wushu culture. This article is the result of a conversation with Coach Zhou Jianhua , a graduate from the Shanghai Physical Education University with a Masters degree in Wushu. He has been there and done that when it comes to coaching, competing, judging, and research into many traditional and modern aspects of wushu. In hopes of improving the level of competition in america we will discuss the general requirements for fist, palm, kicks, jump and body.

Tze quan- or straight punch is the most basic punch that uses the flat part of the fist in the front where the knuckles are at. There are three types: front, side, and up. The importance of intention are placed at seeing the object or person when punching and not to look at the fist directly, the fist must be straight neither bent down nor upward.

Zha quan- or smash fist uses the back section of the fist. In the Chanquan routine a example would be smashing the left palm with the right fist in a crouching stomp. This movement in particular begins with watching the right circling arm and when you smash it to the front look forward and simultaneously bring both feet together. This is an important aspect of long fist in making the movements opened and closed.

Pi quan- is hammer fist, usually using the bottom part of the fist, but can also include the forearm. Again there are three types: front, side and running.

chou quan- circle arms upper cut- fish under water or catch a fish. . scooping upwad. This technique uses a special palm touching to the wrist or forearm like in many long fist traditional sweeps and movements.

Guan chuan- hook punching style found in a form that uses smash hand in a long bow stance Uses the place of the tiger mouth as a touching or connection point.

Palm techniques

An zhang- pressing palms- occurs single or double throughout the form. Head turns to view opponent in double. Single is the circle palm press before scale.

Kieow zhang- squat push palms in half sitting stance. Demonstrates the hand palm tilting from the finger tips pointed down and snapping up. Like in the sword tilting.

Tui zhang- horizontal thrusting palm that emits power forward and with side of palm like in the movement left bow stance palm thrust.

Leung zhang- another king of wrist snapping that envolves the flatness of the palm out ward expanding with arm straight.

Pai zhang- outside kick double smash and occurs single form in solo smash ground. Uses a throwing palm technique. Using the whole body power.

Body Techniques

Pan jow- expressed in the movement- punch hook bowstance

Bing jow- elbow- wrestling uses a lot, mongolian technique, ditang uses this.

Shun fa- body snaping – body hip and waist snap with connection with the ground

Foot techniques-

Tan tuei- kick toe, palm strike- kicking over waist or kicking strike to the knee

He sao tuei- circle sweep- back sweep compulsory requirement is 360 degrees, 180 front sweeps are more common in long fist but in real fighting 15 to 45 degree is necessary.

Kicks for speed flexiblity,stamina and endurance, not necessarily designed to fight but improve practice and skill, also to display balance and flexibility for form competition.

Pai jow slap kick- kick for flexibility and speed, sound of slap.

Peun pe twai- straight kick another kick for speed and flexibility

Tsun- straight leg kick

Shou tuei- cross to ear

Tse tuei- sidekicking

Le bei teui- inside kick

Lai bei tuei- outside kick

Bai land tuei- outside cresent kick- jump kick that uses the outside of foot as weapon

Tung king teui jaio- jump slap kick- snap foot/spring leg

Kong shen fun jao- tornado kick uses the inside of the foot

Special stances and balance postures

Tea she pi heng- balance stance with push and hook hands, lift the knee high

Tse twe pe hung- scale, ultimate display of balance and stillness within a form of speed and power.

Shaolin stance- koyu teui hung- not really fighting, another chance to display balance

Half sitting- knee to inside of lef, almost sitting on heel

Full sitting- knee to inside, sitting on ground