| Home History & Organization Kung Fu & Styles Shao Lin Gallery Contact Us |
| ||||||||||||
|
The Shao Lin Foot and Leg Use of the Legs As the old saying “Southern Shao Lin is 70 percent used of the arms and hands, and 30 percent use of the legs and feet: can give us a distorted impression as to what Shao Lin is really all about. To indict Southern styles of Shao Lin as being primarily methods of using hand techniques and Northern systems as those that specialize in leg techniques loses validity when Shao Lin such as that of the Hood Khar Pai is analyzed in detail. Hood Khar Shao Lin techniques make good use of the legs. Any exponent who trains in the methods of this system quickly comes to realize the importance of the legs in his training. Thought the legs are things on which to stand and move during the execution of Shao Lin techniques, they also have the additional important role of being used as weapons when one deals with an aggressor.
The foot and leg are used in various combinations to deliver the concentrated force of the user’s body into a powerful action made against vital points on an aggressor’s body. The most basic uses of the feet include the front thrust-kick, the front snap-kick, and the roundhouse kick. There are two basic types of front thrust-kicks; both are called Deng Jiao (Mandarin), and Lap Kah (Hokkien). When the Shao Lin exponent use the whole flat under surface of this foot (or shoe), that is, the sole, as a striking surface against a target, the shock generated is not as great as it is when he uses his heel as a striking surface. The former kind of thrust-kick is intended to stun an aggressor or to knock him off-balance rather than to injure him; it is this kind of kick that is usually applied against a training partner. However, when it becomes necessary to injure an assailant, the exponent uses his heel in a thrust-kick fashion; target areas such as the solar plexus, groin, or ribs are commonly impacted in this fashion.
Shao Jiao (Mandarin) is a name that refers to the roundhouse, or hook, sweep, and sickle kinds of kicks made by the Shao Lin exponent; either the heel or the instep may be used as a striking surface to both moderately high and low target areas. Only the basic kind of roundhouse kick, one in which the instep is used as a striking surface, is considered at here.
Hood Khar kicking techniques are typically Southern in nature in that they are more conservative than are most of the kicking tactics used in the Northern Style of Shao Lin. This means that the Hood Khar kicking actions are delivered only to moderately high or to low-level target areas. This is done not only to effect a minimum time of delivery for the kick, but also to avoid the great possibility of counter attack that arises when a kicking leg is raised high to reach target areas on the assailant’s upper body. The basic kicking methods that are shown , limited to the following target areas:
| ||||||||||||
