What are the history and mechanics of Drunken Fist style Kung Fu?

**wingchunnewbie** · Posted On: 10/03/2004 6:54am

Originally posted by supercrap
punching with your wrist, (ie hitting with the back)

Ouch. What a fucking stupid thing to do.

The guy did a ten year stint in a temple to learn it, and by the end of it, could crush bricks between his thumb and forefinger.

Bullshit.

**Zeddy** · Posted On: 10/03/2004 7:16am

Originally posted by supercrap
The guy did a ten year stint in a temple to learn it, and by the end of it, could crush bricks between his thumb and forefinger. Use that on somebody's throat and it's goodnight vienna.

Uh.... WHAT?!

You do realise how plausible this sounds, right?

**Zeddy** · Posted On: 10/03/2004 7:19am

Originally posted by wingchunnewbie
Ouch. What a fucking stupid thing to do.

If he was using the upper part, that's more or less the forearm. I have seen people doing pushups on flexed wrists, but that was meant more for wristlocking, etc. I have no idea how effective/injury prone it made them.

But yeah, smacking people with the wrist itself has always been a dubious thing to me.

**Mr. Mantis** · Posted On: 10/03/2004 10:19am

Originally posted by wingchunnewbie
Ouch. What a fucking stupid thing to do.

On striking with the wrist. Other styles do this besides drunken. Mantis and monkey do it.

There is supposedly training to develop the wrist for this use, though I have not seen it.

Without proper training, striking with the wrist could leave you in lots of pain. This once again demonstrates that not all techniques in whatever styles are good for everybody.

**seeker of truth** · Posted On: 10/03/2004 4:22pm

http://www.angelfire.com/retro/drunken

The history is simple. When a kung fu master would get drunk he would be a drunken master, there is drunken monkey drunken tiger and drunken boxing which is the imitation on a master drunk.

**chaosexmachina** · Posted On: 10/03/2004 5:06pm

I always wondered why the hell they hit people with their wrists bent like some romo... It looks like it hurts, and sounds incredibly retarded.

**FledglingTengu** · Posted On: 10/03/2004 5:14pm

Doesn't Geoff from the about.com martial arts board have an account on here? A good "what's the deal with Drunken Kung Fu" from someone like that would probably be helpful.

**sherekahn** · Posted On: 10/03/2004 5:34pm

Originally posted by chaosexmachina
I always wondered why the hell they hit people with their wrists bent like some romo... It looks like it hurts, and sounds incredibly retarded.

Striking with the wrist is good in blocks and against soft tissue areas. Substituting the wrist for a fist or elbow is (in my opinion) moronic. As far as I am aware wrist strikes are fairly common in the training curriculum of most Japanese/Okinawan TMA, but most definitely the focus is in blocking with some pain (to the aggressor) associated with it and not at all a direct striking method.

Another reason that approach makes sense is because most all of the blocks in the above styles are more general and sweeping, not going for the unrealistic "and then you catch their fist/arm" but more towards you just redirected their strike and kept it from hitting an important area, where as I have mentioned before the conditioning is to make the opponent get some amount of pain just in your blocking as well, etc.

**Meex** · Posted On: 10/03/2004 9:19pm

Originally posted by sherekahn
Striking with the wrist is good in blocks and against soft tissue areas. Substituting the wrist for a fist or elbow is (in my opinion) moronic.

Wrist stikes can be a valuable tool in any fighter's skillset. Bending your hand (toward the palm) at the wrist leaves a solid bony mass available to deliver strikes in any direction, with little movement. Mainly used for infighting (from trapping range in), it can also be used as a clubbing weapon from further distances.

Yes, many (primarily) Okinawan styles use this strike to soft tissue areas. That was not the original intent, but can be reproduced safely in sparring/training.

I have personally broken forearms, jaws, and a cheekbone with a short, quick, twist of my wrist from trapping, and clinching ranges.

(it also allows me to throw three strikes with one motion - punch, wrist strike, elbow.)

If any discount it's (wrist stikes) viability, usefulness, and/or effectiveness, Thank You! The less of us out there, the better.

`~/