Time for the Drunken Fist

I was watching the movie The Forbidden Kingdom, when during the fight between Jackie Chan and Jet Lee I noticed when Jackie used the Drunken Fist in the fight.

 

 

The hand position I noticed was the one he used as if he held a cup of wine in his hand, even though it was empty.

 

When I was training with Ernest Rothrock,  I know he showed me that one time, though no version of drunken fist was in my studies.

 

Of course I have seen it used many times in kung fu movies, often by Jackie Chan.

 

I am not commenting on the use of drunken kung fu, just on that fist formation.

 

One evening years after I had been shown the hand formation, I started messing with it, trying to see if it had value for use.

 

I formed the hand formation of the thumb and index finger curved open as if holding a wine cup in one’s hand, and the other fingers curled closed.

 

Then I tried lightly striking with it in different ways.

 

I discovered various ways it could be effective. But the one that intrigued me most was when I was striking with the entire first section of the index finger as one unit, the striking surface the first bent knuckle and the finger aligned with the wrist. It formed a very hard striking surface when aligned to the wrist, even without conditioning for use as a strike.

 

A strike into the side or front of the neck, into the armpit, into the ribs on the line as shown on the bubishi,  into the solar plexus, into the groin, among other locations, would be quite effective. And unexpected by many when used that way.

 

Of course the ippon ken can be used just that way too. A bit different than just forming the ippin ken fist and striking with the bent knuckle, imo.

 

This just brings to mind other unusual striking surfaces that can be useful.

 

 

 

For fun watch Jackie Chan and Jet Li go at it.