Back to Lion

Last night in DC (Reston, VA. to be more accurate) our group workout included:

Started by standing lion opens it's mouth representative posture, lots of line drilling singular and combined strikes, as well as some application training between sets of line drills.

Worked on combining basic lion strikes in two and three move combinations, working mostly with the one step method. Combining strikes from singular attack methods as well as combining strikes using multiple attack methods. We covered a few strikes from each of the lion's eight attacks. We trained forcing to the outside as well as taking the inside path.

Some basic opening and entering combinations we covered included:
-sweeping open and directly stabbing (as in the lion representative posture)
-sweeping palm changing into stabbing
-hooking open changing into a shooting fist

We also covered attacks transitioning from below the opponents arm with a rising force:
-building off the basic opening+entering combos with a single hand adding upward blocking/rising sweeping to off center or throw
-hooking open and hooking upwards to break the elbow (using two hands), and as a variation hooking open then transitioning to cover the opponents arm and hook upward to the groin (with the same hand)

We were sure to also cover attacking from above using a downward force to attack and control the opponents arm with upright chopping and smashing/point cutting.
1-Transitioning to attack lower targets with arching to the groin*
2-We also worked on transitioning to striking upwards to higher targets with rising cutting and stabbing strikes*

**We including in these combinations drawing attention with the threatening of a stab with the back hand before arching to the groin with the front hand using a chop or rising to strike the chin with cutting.

All and all was a productive and sweaty class. I very much enjoy these chess like combinations that give multiple possible transitions as well as baiting the opponent and forcing reactions. They get hit or they get hit, their reaction just determines how they get hit.