Using Hsing I's Crossing Fist to Defend against a kick

**Diesel_tke** · Posted On: 8/14/2011 8:46am

One technique with multiple uses!

**BackFistMonkey** · Posted On: 8/14/2011 8:47am

Originally Posted by WhiteShark

All the Kung Fu oooing and ahhing aside isn't that just "answering the phone"?

more "wash the hair" I thought... I don't answer the phone for most head kicks... which is kinda sorta what I think I saw ....

Well **** ... after a second viewing, it appears it was an " answer the phone" in defense of a compliant and very friendly ear/jaw level round kick and then it was the good ole fashioned "step in to stuff slow kick, oops my hands are to low to answer the phone correctly"

**Fish Of Doom** · Posted On: 8/14/2011 9:21am

hmmm... seems (as has been pointed out) a usual "step in to jam a kick" technique, as commonly demoed in TMAs, with a bit of forearm deflection added.

shin, meet face unless your timing is very good or the kick is lousy, IMO (also, luck). i could see it working if done as an auxiliary movement for entry movements, however, but not so much (meaning at all) as the common "oh look, a kick! i shall block it!" demonstration as in the video. really nothing more than common sense in covering your face during entry, in case the other guy decides to do the obvious thing and tries to hit you.

**Diesel_tke** · Posted On: 8/14/2011 9:43am

Well, the technique he is doing, doesn't actually get done all the way. Maybe because he stops at impact. He also isn't stepping while doing it. So this technique as he is doing it kind of looks like answering the phone, but really isn't anything close. When doing the crossing fist, you step forward and the arm usually gets extended for the strike further.

He also looks like he is getting his shoulder into it a little in this video.

**Fish Of Doom** · Posted On: 8/14/2011 10:07am

re: getting shoulder into it: if you are referring to medial rotation of the humerus (as if turning it into a vertical or horizontal fist, that might be done in order to get a slight amount of upwards redirection on contact. as for how useful it would be against a committed roundhouse kick, i suspect it'd only result in you taking the kick on your temple instead of your jaw, unless you use good footwork or catch the leg at or just above the kneecap (and again, i consider it inefficient to train to "react" to an attack instead of just drilling a gross motion, in this case an entry movement, and adjusting situationally when you need to apply).

**Eddie Hardon** · Posted On: 8/14/2011 2:09pm

"Wash the hair"..."answer the phone"...good ones. To me, it was "Comb the Hair" - as my sensei described it to us. I may use both your titles instead or as well. Thanks both.

**Diesel_tke** · Posted On: 8/14/2011 5:38pm

Originally Posted by Fish Of Doom

re: getting shoulder into it: if you are referring to medial rotation of the humerus (as if turning it into a vertical or horizontal fist, that might be done in order to get a slight amount of upwards redirection on contact. as for how useful it would be against a committed roundhouse kick, i suspect it'd only result in you taking the kick on your temple instead of your jaw, unless you use good footwork or catch the leg at or just above the kneecap (and again, i consider it inefficient to train to "react" to an attack instead of just drilling a gross motion, in this case an entry movement, and adjusting situationally when you need to apply).

Nope, that's not what I was talking about. It's not the way I train to block kicks either, but it is what it is. He also may have changed the positioning of his hands to react to that specific kick and may have raised his hands to more of a "comb the hair, answer the phone" positioning. But if he did, it wouldn't even remotely be crossing fist.

**Fish Of Doom** · Posted On: 8/14/2011 5:40pm

my bad, then :)

what did you mean by him "putting his shoulder into it"?

**Diesel_tke** · Posted On: 8/14/2011 5:51pm

It just looked to me that he was leaning into it a little bit and letting his shoulder do some of the push. In Chen Pan Ling Tai Chi we do Parting the Wild Horse's Mane that way. But it is more for when you are on the inside and want to use the shoulder to knock the opponent off balance. It just looked a little similar. Clearly not the same, but I was trying to get every bit of useful technique out of what he is doing.

So to me his technique looked like a cross between Crossing fist, "Answer the phone", and Parting the Wild Horse's Mane. But that is me trying to stretch it a little. It could just be him adapting the Crossing Fist to the particular angle of the kick, and I am reading WAY too much into it.

**Fish Of Doom** · Posted On: 8/14/2011 5:57pm

ah. well, i don't even do xingyi so i wouldn't know :p

from what i've seen however, it seems like he could continue the technique and finish the crossing fist if he wanted, but might have not done it because judging by the reactions of the other guy, he'd probably have turned around, ran straight at the wall and faceplanted against it :p