Legends of Kung-Fu #19 Choy Lay Fut's 3-pronged attack Choy Lay Fut is one of the most widely practiced styles of kung-fu in the world. The style's name comes from the surnames of the Shaolin masters whose knowledge amalgamated to give birth to this well-rounded fighting style, with "Fut" giving reference to the Buddhist origins of the system. One of the rising stars of Choy Lay Fut is Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based John Wai. Wai began his training as a teen with Wing Chun kung-fu, and then moved on to train in Choy Lay Fut, falling in love with the perfect combination of forms, weapons, and full-contact fighting. In addition to training with Wong Gong (a fourth generation instructor), he spent time under the tutelage of his well-known godfather, the late Lee Koon-Hung, who was considered by many to be most visible instructor of the Hung-sing branch of Choy Lay Fut kung-fu and a prolific action star in Hong Kong. Lee's Hong Kong academy produced many full-contact champions, such as San Francisco's Wong Tat-mau, and Wai was brought up in this atmosphere of graceful forms and powerful fighting when Lee relocated to the US. According to Wai, the Choy Lay Fut system is based on ten elements: chum (downward block), na (grab), kwa (hanging backfist), sou (swinging hook punch), chop (straight punch or stab), pow (uppercut), cup (downward punch), biu (shooting or sideways swinging punch), chong (slamming hit), and deng (kick). One of the nicknames of the Choy Lay Fut style is "kwa, sou, chop", which reflects three of these basic ten elements that its ring fighters use regularly with great success. The first element of the trio, kwa, is said to resemble an elephant swinging its trunk, or dragon swinging its tail, according to kung-fu lore. Technique-wise, the kwa choy (blast) is good for attacking an opponent due to its oblique angle downward, making it difficult to block. Wai relates a story of his teacher, Lee Koon-Hung fighting full-contact against someone with a tight guard position and good blocks, "Lee Sifu did kwa against the guy's guard hands, but he hit the guard hand so hard that the opponent's hand went back and hit him in the face, knocking him out cold." The versatile kwa can also be used to enter in on an opponent as a jab, a block, or a follow-up to the sou choy, with all of these techniques geared towards the head level. It is commonly seen in the tuet jin kuen (iron wire form) set of Choy Lay Fut. The second punch, sou choy, is a true knockout punch, resembling the motion of a dragon with the waist swinging behind the blow to add power. This long-range hook punch is Wai's favorite, swinging on a downward angle to hit either the head or body of the opponent. "You can use the top knuckles or the forearm as your striking surface, depending on your range," says Wai. "With the footwork, a sou choy executed with the rear hand carries a lot of weight, whereas a sou fired off the lead hand would have longer range, so you can use the same punch for attacking different angles. The important thing is that the arm should be bent at the point of contact to prevent injuring your own elbow." Because this is a long-range punch, the sou choy is a little easier for the opponent to see, so it must be delivered quickly to avoid opening yourself up for a counter attack. It is best executed after a combination of hand or leg techniques as a finisher. "Imagine throwing a hook punch to your opponent's neck and hitting him with your forearm. That's what the sou can be like," says Wai. The chop choy, although reminiscent of the panther's paws, can be any kind of straight punch, not just the spade-shaped panther fist, like many instructors say. "The panther fist acts like a knife, with a blade that can pierce or stab, thus it is geared towards pressure points, such as the solar plexus, throat, ribs and the bridge of the nose - which gave it the nickname of 'cheun ngan choy' or 'stealing the eyes' blast in Cantonese," explains Wai. The chop choy is used for quick counters too, and uses the body torque to add more propulsion to the blow. With words sounding like a seasoned boxing coach, Wai offers the following words, "Stay relaxed, just like a good boxer. Don't tense until the moment of impact, so that you get a whipping power with your body. That powers your strikes in a much more effective way than mere brute tension and allows you to combine these different strikes in ways that really capitalize on your opponent's weak or open angles." Regardless of how many different punches a fighter has in his arsenal, Wai ends with one piece of advice, "Lee Koon-hung Sifu always repeated two words over and over again when teaching and training his fighters - 'Fu leen!' That means 'train hard' in Cantonese and is the second of ten rules passed down from the founder, Chan Heung. That's what separates the fighters who become legends from the ones who nobody remembers." -------------- For more information on Choy Lay Fut and John Wai, visit his
website at www.floridakungfu.com.
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