Chuen pow cup vs. Woo Ching's White Crane basics.

Side note: the deer from the last post lived!

Most people actually don't know much or even care much about martial arts, let alone Kung Fu or pre wushu kung fu.

But for a time in southern China it was all anyone cared about. Kung Fu was Goksuton, the country's art and 90% of the people in the South did Hung Gar or something like it.

In Taishan Stereotype for White Crane (although called other names and people like yo say Tibetan white crane to distinguish from Fujianese white crane, the truth is, everyone in the the area where my Sifu was from, where Chan Hak Fu was from. Knew bak hok was THAT white crane and everyone sort of knew white crane too. Or the basic, or sometimes the "secret" if white crane. The people calling it a secret are non white crane kung Fu practitioners.  And the basics or secret that was common knowledge was Chuen, pow, cup.

Basically a straight punch, a long range uppercut which can also be used as a block and a downward hammer fist. And an over the head haymaker that can be continuous and double sided.

I have battled. With how to teach the basics but Chuen pow cup has such a ring to it and is so simple that I feel like it holds a real essence there. Like it can be it's own stand alone system if fighting and it is also something so simple that you can put it on top of any Kung Fu or martial arts system. Ie BJJ with Chuen pow cup for striking. The movements also used to be very natural for kids. I feel that the smart phone has changed that. But conversely, these movements can also provide a yogic alignment type benefit.


I feel like three moves us easier yo use as your base than say 11 which is the number of basics my Sifu arranged as a way to convert Hung Gar practitioners to white crane. Those 11 moves are my household "basics"

And while like I said, 3 is a better number than 11, there are aspects important to development that kind of require the 11, even though every dude in Doushan worth his salt in a fight probably got by just fine with Chuen pow cup alone.

1: twisting waist turning body.


What happens if you start with a punch and tell people to turn? They end up not turning. Unless you break it down and hammer it in to people that they have to turn, like all the way, the will lean forward hunch in smart phone frog position and not turn. People hate this basic. But its necessary
2: spearing hand


Dude when would you really hurt with you fingers? Unless you have super hard fingers? Why not start with a punch?

Interestingly, boxers will practice "punching" with a loose or open hand. Also chap sauce helps to strengthen your fingers. Basically this one and the

3: Push hand tui jerng, stiff arm

Work to develop the muscle that help you to have a strong

4: Cheun kuen. Straight punch

The Chuen in Chuen pow cup.

All of the previous moves have their own legit combat applications. Elbowing. Eye poking, nose breaking, and those are used and taught in self defense classes and martial arts studios across systems.


But I am saying that the are also necessary in terms of development of the body. Almost like a physical therapy. In fact, these moves ARE used as physical therapy when treating patients.


The next two moves are hard to learn how to practice, which is why I often take them out of kids classes. I hate watching people practice the moves wrong and I cant get them to do the right move easily. For class I only need them because they feature both in the first form, Sup Ji, and on the fancier lion dance opening. And if done wrong, they don't look good. Done right they look real tough. But for whatever reason even kids practicing for many years will do it wrong.


Interestingly, I have talked to many non martial artists who just happened to use aspects of

5: chuen kuen hew siew hought kiew.

In a real self defense situation with no training. It's just a natural move. The follow up on the move has to be trained though.

6: Chuen kuen chang jerng hought kiew
Is used in many self defense police courses.

So they are useful.

I still hate them as a teacher.

7: ha wu Juen sun
Is probably the easiest basic and is just swinging your arms low. Would you believe  I accidentally used this move as a strike (illegally) in a boxing sparring match?

I never thought much of this move until then. But it came out because it was already in my body.
8 us pow kuen. The pow in chuen pow cup.

9 is cup.

10 is been ngau a back fist and hook which is similar to the drum move in Karate Kid 2.
But we actually turn our waist more that Daniel was turning. And we use it with a more boxing strategy. (Btw Tibetan white crane was mixed with western boxing
Like wayyyyy back. After all the Brits had a presence in Southern China for a long time and there was more exchange than you would think, especially among people trying to make money anyway possible, which included a lot of Westerners. When you think about it, it makes sense.


11 is Cheun kuen jaubyau hei bo. It introduces slipping and lifting the knee in preparation for kicking. It's also great cardio, develop a the look of the leg used in lion dance, and just has that classical Chinese Kung Fu look.

Then of course you do the first ten moves again walking....aiyaH too much to remember if you only do a class once a week....so should I go back to just doing Cheun pow cup?

My thing is. If you really want to practice, you wont care that you can't remember all the moves.....
Then again, maybe people would practice more if I started with just the churn pow cup and then added in the rest as a secret training method....food for thought.