Hey, I am a boxer and get a lot of blisters. The 'generic' workout and boxing shoes are all too narrow for my wide feet. Do you recommend the merrel glove shoe for boxing? Thank you for your informative kung fu video's!
Absolutely! I dabble with the occasional boxing class when it fits in with my schedule and I wear my Merrells for that. I would try to get one of the less grippy pairs so that you don't have too much friction on the ground.
This was very interesting. I'm not a practitioner of Shaolin, but I've done stuff like Tan Tui. A lot of the Southern family styles (Choi, Mok, Lei, Lau, Hung) and the Hakka styles, Bak Mei, Jook Lum, White Crane and Lung Ying (Dragon) actually prioritize this stance and method to get power in their strikes. Because they are short-bridge/close range styles, they rely on it really. There may be the odd gong bu in some of the more dynamic of the styles but they generally emphasize that once your foot roots to the ground, your punch or palm can shoot out.
Yeah southern and northern styles developed very differently. It's interesting to see how the same ideas manifest in different places though, this stance being used for short range fighting in the south whereas in the north it was a part of a longer range system and almost disappeared when there was a focus on shorter range.
I used to practice Jeet kune do, but stopped for a long time. Then I started practicing again, and for the longest time, I couldn't get any power on the straight lead punch. Only recently I discovered that I didn't have any power because I was using rotational power while keeping my body mass centered, like the yao bu. I switched to lunging and catching my weight with my lead leg like a gong bu, and now I have power in my straight lead again. It reminded me of this video.
Awesome. Yeah it's a pretty common problem people have. If you are in a very square stance then you can obviously rotate for power with both sides, but anything angled makes it much harder.
Fascinating! In my lineage of wing chun we don't use gong bu, but we do gave translational footwork that is similar and performs a similar function. And we agree, punching after the step is not as powerful as punching with the step
I did karate first, and so many little but important things like this were never spoken of for whatever reason. Little things can make a big difference.
Friend this was another excellent and fascinating video. I'd never heard of Yao Bu. A lot of Chinese Martial Arts obsess over perfect upright posture, and this could be another reason Yao Bu is discouraged or forgotten. On a personal note, could you tell me the origin of the footage at 3:17? That brief clip of the broad sword is reminiscent of my own style and my curiosity is piqued.
Thank you! That's true, there are, bent over and leaning movements in Da Tong Bei Quan for example which aren't in more modern versions, perhaps for that same reason. Which is ironic in some ways, because these moves can have their won aesthetic quality. It's some old archive footage from the 20's I found scouring UA-cam. The full clip is here- ua-cam.com/video/OP62rHgs6b0/v-deo.html Not sure the origin of it though I'm afraid. This channel has some interesting old martial arts footage too- ua-cam.com/channels/FRObAfp25EtGlKGiEv8PVg.html
@@KungFit I learned it from xing yi, take a large step and the back leg/foot takes a half step. Obviously it is to keep the feet basically under the body to project more power. Yao bu looks like “dragging” the back leg forward for kinda the same effect?
I like this explanation! I don’t do this Shaolin, but lots of the longfist I practice has these distinct mechanics, but I haven’t really had the names to distinguish them. Even if I still call both of these “bow stance” or whatever, at least it helps to have names to mentally distinguish these two mechanics. Over time we tend to forget parts of things we don’t have names for.
What does “Yao” here mean? It’s not the same character as “waist,” right? I could also see this as old-timey “ao bu” like in Qi Jiguang’s empty hand manual.
Yeah I've seen a few other Chinese martial arts have similar mechanics even if slightly different stance work. Which only makes it more odd that it's mostly disappeared from Shaolin. You're quite right, it helps to have a short hand to distinguish rather than "this stance but with this leg like this, my hips like this...."
@@mulli032 It means shaking. I'm not sure how it came to have this name, perhaps some old story involving its use. It can also be described as rowing step or walking step, because of the position of the upper and lower bodies respectively. Yeah it could be. I've heard of but never actually seen his manual. Don't suppose you know of a place where it's available online?
Mike tyson used to step into gongbu to throw big overhands some of his most devastating punches, yaobu would be like a normal punch in a slightly longer stance than usual in boxing, just for comparison, the detail of moving the head in gongbu for example also can help to dodge incoming strikes while stepping forward, these are all practical positions, not created by chance, the details matter, great analysis!
Exactly! Everything is there for a reason. It can be surprising how often you do see kung fu like positions in boxing or MMA, they're just there for a moment, but all stances are distillations of natural fighting positions. Yeah you're quite right about the head dodging. First time I used it in Muay Thai sparring closing the distance and hitting the other guy, he was seriously confused about what had even happened! 😂
From my research and limited hobbiest experience in Northern Mantis, Southern 5 animals, and Wing Chun, it was originally a 2 step sequence... The bow & arrow stance... 1-2 in Orthodox British Boxing. Stand in orthodox "squared" front stance with weight on back foot to lunge forward to hit with the "1", that is the "bow" stance because your body becomes bladed as you lunge. Next, twist your hips and thrust your pelvis forward last second to land with the "2", that's the arrow stance. Whereas in Northern Shaolin, their version of the "bow" stance is used more to de-root your opponent. The "arrow" is the loaded jumping front right kick or cannon/meteor fist that follows. The difference is with Southern, your left foot is forward the whole time. In Northern, it's left foot fist, then right foot forward in southpaw as you do your "2" attack like using a qiang spear. Right?
There are certainly movements like this yes. You have multiple front arm strikes in a row like in Qi Xing Quan. You also see a closing of your position with rising as I demonstrate on the bag in this video and also closing and dropping of the stance, with many variations in hand work. But you also have linked techniques where you keep one foot in the front the whole time, the Lian Huan Quan sequence in the video I link to at the end has it, the section of Er Lu Da Tong Bei Quan in this video has it. Shaolin has a very large selection of techniques and footwork. It certainly is useful to be comfortable switching between orthodox and southpaw, but sometimes you want to stay in one position.
@@aaronhuang8640 with the original distinction between gong bu and yao bu, it was called gong bu because the front leg is bent like a bow. The reason the open and closed hip varieties are called the same thing, is because the purpose of the stance is the same, even if the final position is slightly different; they are both for catching the weight of the head. There are so many variations on how you can move your body that I think it is best to define techniques based on their intended use and sub units of those techniques, e.g. stances, hand shapes etc. by what they allow you to do. So when these things were first categorised, if you wanted to catch your weight, you did it with gong bu as the optimum way to do it. Depending on which direction your weight was moving the hips had to move. When it comes to modern day, well that's the problem! Hence my encouragement to think about gong bu and yao bu as distinct positions again. 😄
I love using fencers as an analogy for front arm gong bu strikes, it's a perfect visual example. Plus much of traditional northern kung fu is meant to be applicable to both hand combat and weapons. Thanks for pointing out Mayweather's body jab, that's another great example. Often people throw it with more of a ma bu position, but he definitely uses something like gong bu.
Thank you, this would dissipate my doubts about the long pole form in wing Chun Kung Fu. When I perform a strike on gong bu , If I strike after the step I feel a lack of power, instead when I "launch" myself forward, I feel more powerful
@@KungFit well the long pole has been taken from Shaolin and it became an integration of some lineages of wing Chun, but it is considered as a whole different martial art
Don't forget, if you would like to train traditional Shaolin with me, and improve your fitness strength and kung fu skills, email me at train@kungfit.coach
I don't think the stances are meant to be used in actual fighting, thinking of this I fail to see why is this little change in Gong Bu is even relevant. To me kung fu stances are extreme positions that enable us to train our body in order for the real, and simpler, fighting stances feel easier yet familiar. edit - No fight training is complete without sparring.
In traditional Kung Fu styles the stances are most definitely intended for fighting. Certainly not held, but moved through and into. The stances are often what make movements in forms and drills applicable. Without them they don't work as well. My stance guide on my website goes into this in more detail, but essentially each stance allows you to do a certain thing which other positions can't. I completely agree that stance training is about training your body though. Sometimes we train stances in a more extreme way than we would use them, e.g. holding them for a long time, or xie bu, which I certainly think has become exaggerated slightly within Shaolin to match the others. I also completely agree that sparring is a necessary part of learning to fight, and you can use these movements from a more upright fighting stance without it looking like a 70s Kung Fu movie.
Shaolin is such a large system of kung fu that its literally impossible for any one person to know everything about it. There's plenty of room for different approaches. On top of that Shaolin Warrior Monks are martial artists, not historical scholars; they focus on doing, whilst there are others in the world who like to nerd out on the history and development of Shaolin kung fu. I land more on the doing side, but I think the history can teach us a lot if we pay attention
Really well explained! Good stuff
In Yong Chun Bai He, they have a routine called 13 shaking steps, or Shi San Yao Bu. It is the ancestor to the Karate Kata known as Seisan.
Interesting, I'll have to check that one out.
Hey, I am a boxer and get a lot of blisters. The 'generic' workout and boxing shoes are all too narrow for my wide feet. Do you recommend the merrel glove shoe for boxing?
Thank you for your informative kung fu video's!
Absolutely! I dabble with the occasional boxing class when it fits in with my schedule and I wear my Merrells for that. I would try to get one of the less grippy pairs so that you don't have too much friction on the ground.
This video is right on time for todays practice... Thank you 🙏🏽
You're welcome!
Wow! This fixes A BUNCH of things for me! Thank you!
You're welcome! Glad it helped
This was very interesting. I'm not a practitioner of Shaolin, but I've done stuff like Tan Tui. A lot of the Southern family styles (Choi, Mok, Lei, Lau, Hung) and the Hakka styles, Bak Mei, Jook Lum, White Crane and Lung Ying (Dragon) actually prioritize this stance and method to get power in their strikes. Because they are short-bridge/close range styles, they rely on it really. There may be the odd gong bu in some of the more dynamic of the styles but they generally emphasize that once your foot roots to the ground, your punch or palm can shoot out.
Yeah southern and northern styles developed very differently. It's interesting to see how the same ideas manifest in different places though, this stance being used for short range fighting in the south whereas in the north it was a part of a longer range system and almost disappeared when there was a focus on shorter range.
I used to practice Jeet kune do, but stopped for a long time. Then I started practicing again, and for the longest time, I couldn't get any power on the straight lead punch. Only recently I discovered that I didn't have any power because I was using rotational power while keeping my body mass centered, like the yao bu. I switched to lunging and catching my weight with my lead leg like a gong bu, and now I have power in my straight lead again. It reminded me of this video.
Awesome. Yeah it's a pretty common problem people have. If you are in a very square stance then you can obviously rotate for power with both sides, but anything angled makes it much harder.
Especially since the JKD stance is so bladed. Really need to push off for power.@@KungFit
Great analysis.
Thanks!
Fascinating! In my lineage of wing chun we don't use gong bu, but we do gave translational footwork that is similar and performs a similar function. And we agree, punching after the step is not as powerful as punching with the step
It's cool how you see the same principles popping up in different ways in different martial arts
In the Yuan Kay San Lineage is Wing Chun, this 1-2 jab-cross boxing version the chain punch is used.
I did karate first, and so many little but important things like this were never spoken of for whatever reason. Little things can make a big difference.
Yeah a lot can get lost over the years unfortunately
Friend this was another excellent and fascinating video. I'd never heard of Yao Bu. A lot of Chinese Martial Arts obsess over perfect upright posture, and this could be another reason Yao Bu is discouraged or forgotten. On a personal note, could you tell me the origin of the footage at 3:17? That brief clip of the broad sword is reminiscent of my own style and my curiosity is piqued.
Thank you! That's true, there are, bent over and leaning movements in Da Tong Bei Quan for example which aren't in more modern versions, perhaps for that same reason. Which is ironic in some ways, because these moves can have their won aesthetic quality.
It's some old archive footage from the 20's I found scouring UA-cam. The full clip is here- ua-cam.com/video/OP62rHgs6b0/v-deo.html Not sure the origin of it though I'm afraid. This channel has some interesting old martial arts footage too- ua-cam.com/channels/FRObAfp25EtGlKGiEv8PVg.html
Is a yao bu the same thing or idea as ban bu or follow up step?
Not sure, ban bu doesn't ring a bell. I may just know it my a different name. Do you have an example clip?
@@KungFit I learned it from xing yi, take a large step and the back leg/foot takes a half step. Obviously it is to keep the feet basically under the body to project more power. Yao bu looks like “dragging” the back leg forward for kinda the same effect?
I like this explanation! I don’t do this Shaolin, but lots of the longfist I practice has these distinct mechanics, but I haven’t really had the names to distinguish them. Even if I still call both of these “bow stance” or whatever, at least it helps to have names to mentally distinguish these two mechanics. Over time we tend to forget parts of things we don’t have names for.
What does “Yao” here mean? It’s not the same character as “waist,” right?
I could also see this as old-timey “ao bu” like in Qi Jiguang’s empty hand manual.
Yeah I've seen a few other Chinese martial arts have similar mechanics even if slightly different stance work. Which only makes it more odd that it's mostly disappeared from Shaolin. You're quite right, it helps to have a short hand to distinguish rather than "this stance but with this leg like this, my hips like this...."
@@mulli032 It means shaking. I'm not sure how it came to have this name, perhaps some old story involving its use. It can also be described as rowing step or walking step, because of the position of the upper and lower bodies respectively.
Yeah it could be. I've heard of but never actually seen his manual. Don't suppose you know of a place where it's available online?
Mike tyson used to step into gongbu to throw big overhands some of his most devastating punches, yaobu would be like a normal punch in a slightly longer stance than usual in boxing, just for comparison, the detail of moving the head in gongbu for example also can help to dodge incoming strikes while stepping forward, these are all practical positions, not created by chance, the details matter, great analysis!
Exactly! Everything is there for a reason. It can be surprising how often you do see kung fu like positions in boxing or MMA, they're just there for a moment, but all stances are distillations of natural fighting positions. Yeah you're quite right about the head dodging. First time I used it in Muay Thai sparring closing the distance and hitting the other guy, he was seriously confused about what had even happened! 😂
From my research and limited hobbiest experience in Northern Mantis, Southern 5 animals, and Wing Chun, it was originally a 2 step sequence... The bow & arrow stance... 1-2 in Orthodox British Boxing. Stand in orthodox "squared" front stance with weight on back foot to lunge forward to hit with the "1", that is the "bow" stance because your body becomes bladed as you lunge. Next, twist your hips and thrust your pelvis forward last second to land with the "2", that's the arrow stance. Whereas in Northern Shaolin, their version of the "bow" stance is used more to de-root your opponent. The "arrow" is the loaded jumping front right kick or cannon/meteor fist that follows. The difference is with Southern, your left foot is forward the whole time. In Northern, it's left foot fist, then right foot forward in southpaw as you do your "2" attack like using a qiang spear. Right?
There are certainly movements like this yes. You have multiple front arm strikes in a row like in Qi Xing Quan. You also see a closing of your position with rising as I demonstrate on the bag in this video and also closing and dropping of the stance, with many variations in hand work. But you also have linked techniques where you keep one foot in the front the whole time, the Lian Huan Quan sequence in the video I link to at the end has it, the section of Er Lu Da Tong Bei Quan in this video has it.
Shaolin has a very large selection of techniques and footwork. It certainly is useful to be comfortable switching between orthodox and southpaw, but sometimes you want to stay in one position.
@@KungFit why do they all call it the bow stance when it can mean very different things?
@@aaronhuang8640 with the original distinction between gong bu and yao bu, it was called gong bu because the front leg is bent like a bow. The reason the open and closed hip varieties are called the same thing, is because the purpose of the stance is the same, even if the final position is slightly different; they are both for catching the weight of the head.
There are so many variations on how you can move your body that I think it is best to define techniques based on their intended use and sub units of those techniques, e.g. stances, hand shapes etc. by what they allow you to do. So when these things were first categorised, if you wanted to catch your weight, you did it with gong bu as the optimum way to do it. Depending on which direction your weight was moving the hips had to move.
When it comes to modern day, well that's the problem! Hence my encouragement to think about gong bu and yao bu as distinct positions again. 😄
Watching how Mayweather uses his body jab or how fencers lunge can be useful for how to make lead hand strikes useful at long range with gong bu
I love using fencers as an analogy for front arm gong bu strikes, it's a perfect visual example. Plus much of traditional northern kung fu is meant to be applicable to both hand combat and weapons.
Thanks for pointing out Mayweather's body jab, that's another great example. Often people throw it with more of a ma bu position, but he definitely uses something like gong bu.
Thank you, this would dissipate my doubts about the long pole form in wing Chun Kung Fu. When I perform a strike on gong bu , If I strike after the step I feel a lack of power, instead when I "launch" myself forward, I feel more powerful
That's cool! Glad a video about Shaolin has helped people from other styles too! 😁
@@KungFit well the long pole has been taken from Shaolin and it became an integration of some lineages of wing Chun, but it is considered as a whole different martial art
Don't forget, if you would like to train traditional Shaolin with me, and improve your fitness strength and kung fu skills, email me at train@kungfit.coach
I don't think the stances are meant to be used in actual fighting, thinking of this I fail to see why is this little change in Gong Bu is even relevant.
To me kung fu stances are extreme positions that enable us to train our body in order for the real, and simpler, fighting stances feel easier yet familiar.
edit - No fight training is complete without sparring.
In traditional Kung Fu styles the stances are most definitely intended for fighting. Certainly not held, but moved through and into. The stances are often what make movements in forms and drills applicable. Without them they don't work as well. My stance guide on my website goes into this in more detail, but essentially each stance allows you to do a certain thing which other positions can't.
I completely agree that stance training is about training your body though. Sometimes we train stances in a more extreme way than we would use them, e.g. holding them for a long time, or xie bu, which I certainly think has become exaggerated slightly within Shaolin to match the others.
I also completely agree that sparring is a necessary part of learning to fight, and you can use these movements from a more upright fighting stance without it looking like a 70s Kung Fu movie.
Bro no one know better than shaolin Monk - - - go to market and sale patato
Shaolin is such a large system of kung fu that its literally impossible for any one person to know everything about it. There's plenty of room for different approaches. On top of that Shaolin Warrior Monks are martial artists, not historical scholars; they focus on doing, whilst there are others in the world who like to nerd out on the history and development of Shaolin kung fu. I land more on the doing side, but I think the history can teach us a lot if we pay attention
@@KungFit ok . . . Still monk is monk . . Shaolin monk. .