Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Billy Bob Thornton Does Redneck Hsing-i Kung Fu?
I've been thinking quite a bit about close-range fighting lately, and remembered this great scene from an otherwise depressing movie, "Chrystal".
I won't cover the plot too heavily, but Billy Bob Thornton's character has to settle a score with a former rival in this scene.
What I find interesting is he is basicly using a redneck form of the Chinese internal art Hsing-I. Now, this is not true to the actual art, but the two big techniques he uses are a chop-kick to the shins and knees, and a heavy overhand palm strike or slap.
Let me say, I love this, and this is kind of how I close the gap also. In true Hsing-I, the practitioner would not retract the kick and keep the gap open. He would instead drive through the opponent, "occupying" his space.
None-the-less, this is a pretty good representation of how a low kick to the shin or knee sets up a great overhand slap.
I am curious who choreographed the fight scene...
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4 comments:
"Now, this is not true to the actual art, but the two big techniques he uses are a chop-kick to the shins and knees, and a heavy overhand palm strike or slap."
It's fun to see a Hollywood fight scene that doesn't involve wire stunts or over the top punching.
The palm heel was my favorite. Especially with the neat set up of looking away. :-)
Wim
I think people underestimate the effect of kicking to the shins. There is a triple-yin meridian crossing at spleen 6, lots of nerves not protected by muscle, the knee joint, etc.
Low kicks are also somewhat out of view when all the attention is on the head and torso.
And I also really like a more realistic movie fight.
That's why I incorporated the skip kick in Combat Sanshou ad a basic technique. It's pretty versatile and works well for setting up other techniques.
You can shoot it at everything from the ankle to the knee and it frikkin' hurts. My personal favorite is a short, snapping kick from the clinch. Opponents seem to really dislike that... :-)
Shin kicks rock. I trained with a guy that was big into the whole Combato/CQC/Faibairn thing. One of things he showed me was when attacked, simply cover your head by tucking the chin and bringing the arms up. Then start kicking the shins, alternating as you drive forward. When the person stops punching because of the repeated shin kicks, blast them with palm heels.
He used this as a corrections officer and said it worked every time.
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