First Grappling Form- Fifth Movement: Snake Creeping Down

Hello again, everyone and welcome back to my breakdown of this form.

Today's movement from this form I got from Taijiquan, which, by the way, has really awesome grappling moves.

In the book the movement is shown like this:

In Taijiquan this move is known as "Snake Creeps Down. I found a demonstration of the movement on Youtube to show you how it looks in most Taijiquan forms.

The application of this movement is really awesome and very simple to pull off once you have figured out the mechanics thereof.

For me- just knowing the taught application of a movement is not enough. I have to know how I would use it in a fight as it is a given that you have to make any technique you learn your own in order for it to work under pressure.

The simplest application I got was against a straight reverse punch. 

With this response I do not start by moving into the opponent, but rather turn my body as I guide the punching hand past me and firmly grab hold of the attacker's wrist. This is where I then crouch down with my one leg slipping past against the opponent's lead leg and get my free arm under his thigh. I might strike at the inside of his leg as I do so, but I will nonetheless get his leg off the ground when I rise into a front stance and scoop his leg up. coupled with the pull from the other end the opponent is sure to fall.

Two important things that make this technique work are:

1. The use of the stance: If your opponent is very tall you may upset his balance more easily when you drop your weight to the ground as you pull him down. If your opponent is shorter or the same height as you you will find him losing balance as you rise up and scoop his leg up.

This is where the stances come in. They play a huge part in upsetting the opponent's balance while you maintain yours.

2. The direction of the pull: The opponent is not pulled straight towards you, but rather to your side. I have found that most of my throws and arm locks work best when i pull my opponent's arm away from his chest and more to his side- or- if I can get his shoulder to turn towards me. An arm that is extended this way has the hardest time pulling back. Also- In the forward stance that you see my opponent using in the demo the support are at the front and back, but not at the sides. An opponent is most easily pulled or pushed off balance if force is exerted across the line between his feet.

In the form I can be seen lunging into the opponent with my one hand thrusted out as if I am delivering a spear hand thrust. What I am actually doing is intercepting a clearly visible blow like a hook punch or a haymaker. An example of this is in the demo below.

Both of the above responses are made for defense against a reverse punch, but the movement can also be applied to respond to a front jab or lead hand extended for whatever purpose.

In this demo from the book my leg just had to pass the outside of the opponent's leg while I pull him backwards.

A similar move exists in Judo and Jujutsu. It is called Kata Guruma or "Shoulder Wheel" in Japanese. As you can see from the Youtube video below- it is actually a downright body slam.

Instead of just scooping up a leg- the Judoka pulls the upper body over him while the rising arm lifts the opponent by pushing up against his groin. This push-pull action reminds me a lot of Karate's basic straight punch.

This now concludes the second last post in this series. The last one will be here next week and then we will move on to the form that is featured in the Wenhsiuquan Book on Defense.

I hope you all have a good week and that you will train well.