Techniques: Kung fu

Stances, hand shapes, kicks, partner drills, throws and weapons: what kung fu is built from, in plain English, with Cantonese and Mandarin names side by side.

Spellings vary. Southern styles and most UK schools use Cantonese names, in many home made spellings; modern wushu and the northern styles use Mandarin in pinyin. The same idea can look very different: and are both the horse stance. Each style teaches these in its own way, so this is a guide to what families will hear, not a syllabus. ^6,15,46

What families will hear. Most training is built from the same ingredients: stances, hand shapes, kicks, partner drills, forms, sparring and, later, weapons. Northern styles use more kicks and long movements; southern styles use lower stances and more hand techniques. ^1,40

Stances

Stances are the base of every style, and beginners often hold them for some time to build leg strength. ^1,8

Stance	Cantonese	What it looks like
Horse stance		Feet wide apart, knees bent as if sitting on a horse; Hung Gar's is deep and wide
Bow stance	Not confirmed	Front knee bent, back leg straight, like a drawn bow
Empty, or cat, stance	Not confirmed	Weight on the back leg, the front foot resting lightly
Crouching stance	Not confirmed	One leg bent in a deep squat, the other straight out to the side
Resting stance	Not confirmed	Legs crossed and bent low, as if about to sit
Wing Chun training stance		Narrow and upright, knees turned slightly in
Turning stance		Turning the whole body on the spot, in Wing Chun's second form

Sources: ^{6,15,46,105,119}. Shaolin Temple UK teaches the first five as its classic stances in its first class. ¹¹⁹ Wing Chun schools also name steps, such as the arrow step, , the pursuit step, , and the plum blossom step, . ¹⁰⁵ Baguazhang trains by walking in a circle. ⁴⁰

A line of students holding a deep horse stance while their teacher walks past.

Hand shapes

Fist, palm and hook. The three basic hand shapes of modern wushu are the fist, , the open palm, , and the hook, , with the fingertips pinched together and the wrist bent. ⁴⁶
Animal hands. The of Hung Gar; the of White Crane and of Hung Gar's Tiger and Crane form; and the of Northern Praying Mantis, which uses one to three fingers to divert and grab. ^8,10,11
Bridge hands. Southern styles train the forearm as a bridge, , to make and keep contact with an opponent's arm. ^8,105

Five hands showing a fist, a palm, a hook, a tiger claw and a crane's beak.

Wing Chun hand positions

Cantonese	Mandarin	English
	tān shǒu	Spreading, palm up hand
	bǎng shǒu	Wing arm
	pāi shǒu	Slapping hand
	lā shǒu	Pulling hand
	fú shǒu	Taming or subduing hand
	hù shǒu	Protecting hand
	biāo shǒu	Darting hand

Sources: ^6,105. The straight centre line punch and the chain punch, , are among the first things taught, and the UK Wing Chun Kung Fu Association's beginners' syllabus also lists double, side and turning punches. ^6,102

Choy Li Fut strikes with long, swinging arms, the upper body twisting for power, which is called . Choy Li Fut counts 10 hand techniques, including the back fist and sweeping and upward strikes. ⁹
Shouts. Southern styles often shout with strikes; Choy Li Fut practitioners used set sounds for palm, claw, fist, beak and kick. ^9,40

Kicks

Basic kicks taught early in many schools: front, side and turning kicks. Nam Pai Chuan's first grades also include jumping front kicks. ¹²¹
Northern and wushu kicks, mostly in long fist: the front slap kick, crescent kicks, the , the and the , a jumping spinning kick with a slap of the foot. ^11,46
Southern styles kick less and lower. Some Wing Chun schools avoid high kicks, and Southern Mantis keeps its kicks low, short and quick. ^6,11

A wushu athlete leaping high in a jumping kick on a blue competition carpet.

Partner drills

Drill	Name	What it is
Sticky hands		Wing Chun's signature drill: forearms in contact, partners roll, press and strike, learning to feel movement. Beginners start with single sticky hands, , then double, also called rolling hands, . The leg version is ^6,105
Sticking hands, Lau Gar		An advanced form of fighting for brown and black sashes only, because no protective kit is worn ¹⁰⁰
Push hands		Tai chi partners keep contact and try to unbalance each other, learning to yield to force; also a competition ^13,81,82
Set partner sequences		Two person sequences of attack and defence, with or without weapons; a competition event too ^1,41
Free sparring		Unscripted fighting with rules. Optional in most BKFA clubs, though a basic level is needed for grading ^1,100
Wooden dummy		A wooden post with arms and a leg, for practising against a solid target; Wing Chun has a form for it ^6,103

Two people facing each other with forearms touching in the sticky hands drill.

Two people in a park with forearms touching in the push hands drill.

Throws, locks and conditioning

Throws and takedowns are allowed in sanda, in Chinese wrestling, , and in many traditional styles. A brings an opponent down by hooking or striking the legs. ^1,43,84
Joint locks, , are taught by some UK schools as part of self-defence or on special courses. ^100,121
Conditioning. Lau Gar lists hand and body conditioning; Hung Gar's Iron Wire is a strength form. ^8,100
Qigong, breathing and movement exercises, is taught alongside kung fu in many UK clubs; Shaolin Temple UK teaches beginners the . ^13,17,119

Weapons, in outline

Chinese styles traditionally speak of the , and most styles teach some weapons. ¹
The IWUF calls the staff, , the father of all weapons and the spear, , the king. Modern wushu also uses the broadsword, , the straight sword, , southern versions of the broadsword and staff, and in tai chi the fan, . ^20,40,41
Wing Chun has the long pole and the butterfly swords, . Lau Gar teaches the eyebrow staff, rat tailed staff, broadsword, butterfly knives, and spear. ^6,100
Weapons come later. Weapons training generally follows the basic unarmed forms; the BKFA says students must understand unarmed work first; and in Wing Chun the weapons are usually the last forms taught. ^1,6,100

A wall rack holding a long pole, butterfly swords, a staff, a spear, a broadsword and a forked weapon.

Safety in contact training

In BCCMA light sanda for 5 to 14 year olds there are no strikes to the head or face, strikes must use under 30% of full power, a knockout means disqualification, and full kit is compulsory. ⁸⁴ In IWUF sanda, juniors and children may not punch continuously to the face or kick to the head unless the event's rules say otherwise. ⁴³

Reading about a technique is for understanding it. Techniques, partner work and weapons are learned from an instructor, in a hall.

Written from checked sources, listed on the sources page. Pictures are drawn, with computer help, under our direction; none shows a real child. Recorded chapters and words are read by a computer voice; a word not yet recorded uses your device's own voice.