Lowering the Gate????

Sigung86

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The technique as I learned it, all those years ago:

Against an upper level punch with either hand from 12:00

- Left foot steps forward into a low horse to 12:00
- Simultaneous left rising block under either punch
- Right vertical or standing Eagle's Beak (Center knuckle punch for Non-Tracy folks) raking down the mid-line of the chest to the top of the pubic bone.

How do you interpret the technique? How do you teach it? What do you suspect you are really doing there? Are there any arcane or "hidden" targets there? How do you modify it if you do?

Sorry for the carry on ... I've seen this technique bantered around for years. I've seen it modified to a half fist strike to the throat, and other such. Just wondering how everyone else approaches it, and so on.

Oh... And for the Non-Tracy audience ... There is a B version taught that is simply the technique used off the other side. It is in the Short #2 kata.


 

Flying Crane

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Looks very similar to how I understand it. For me, I tend to think of the eagle's beak as hitting the armpit and then raking down the side of the ribs. Even the rib rake alone, without the armpit strike, tends to get a strong, reflexive flinching and retreating action.
 

DavidCC

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A blow to the zyphoid process that skips off of it (as opposed to driving straight in) will cause much more difficulty breathing. This skipping vs penetrating was the topic of a recent 'experiment' suggested by Dr. Chapel over on KT... the context is slightly different here, but I think it applies. I can tell you first hand that a gancing blow on this spot really sucks! A penetrating thud you can suck up but the knuckles is different.

if this was a movement from a kata, I might think it was merely suggestive of some other strike or movement and look at it more abstractly. But this is a technique so I think it should be addressed more literally.


I just looked again at the name of the technique, Lowering the Gate, and I do not think it is any coincidence that this strike if done on the line you describe it impacts a number of important pressure points (gates) on the conception meridian.
 

KenpoDave

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A blow to the zyphoid process that skips off of it (as opposed to driving straight in) will cause much more difficulty breathing. This skipping vs penetrating was the topic of a recent 'experiment' suggested by Dr. Chapel over on KT... the context is slightly different here, but I think it applies. I can tell you first hand that a gancing blow on this spot really sucks! A penetrating thud you can suck up but the knuckles is different.

if this was a movement from a kata, I might think it was merely suggestive of some other strike or movement and look at it more abstractly. But this is a technique so I think it should be addressed more literally.


I just looked again at the name of the technique, Lowering the Gate, and I do not think it is any coincidence that this strike if done on the line you describe it impacts a number of important pressure points (gates) on the conception meridian.

I teach it both as a rake down the midline and as a middle knuckle "drop punch." Basically, I strike at a slight downward angle and as contact is made, I sink my body weight.
 

crash2806

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I see this as stricktly a kata technique. It is against a hardbow reverse punch and the eagle's beak, according to book, is through the groin.
 

KenpoDave

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I see this as stricktly a kata technique. It is against a hardbow reverse punch and the eagle's beak, according to book, is through the groin.

That is how I was taught originally, but in the modern styles of kenpo, the techniques came before the katas, so I felt I had to look deeper. I am satisfied that my take on it is usable in the street. I have dropped enough people with it just playing around.
 

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