The ABC's Of Practical Poomsae Applications, Part 6: Han Sonnal An Mok Chigi (Inward knife hand strike)

Hi there :-) I am continuing with the ABC's of Practical Poomsae Applications, this time focusing on the Han Sonnal An (Mok) Chigi or Inward Knife hand strike (to the neck). We first encounter this technique in Taegeuk Sam (3) Jang and it is the second technique that we encounter in Poomsae that is illegal in modern Olympic sparring (the first technique being the face punch in Taegeuk i (2) Jang). Some make the case that the "new" Poomsae were made strictly to drill techniques that were used in sparring, and the inward knife hand strike might indeed have been used in "dojang sparring" which did not necesarily follow the competition rules, but knife hand strikes to the neck has been "illegal" in sport competitions as far back as I can find documentation on sparring rules (the early 60s and quite possibly even earlier than that too but I lack documentation). If you are joining us "mid-series", I would advice you to read the whole thing in order if you want to learn more than this single applicaiton, the goal of this series being to provide students with a starting point in finding their own poomsae applications, by looking at individual techniques.

Here are links to the different posts: Part 1 which you can find here, which focuses on Arae Makki, Part 2 which you can find here which focuses on Momtong An Makki, Part 3 which you can find here focusing on Eulgeul Makki, and Part 4 which you can find here that focuses on the spear hand strike, Part 5, which focuses on the knife hand guarding block.




So why are we looking at the inward knife hand strike as this is obviously an inward knife hand strike you ask? I am glad you asked me that question dear ficticous student, because most people encountering this learns that the application is an inward knife hand strike to the neck of the opponent, but the way it is done in poomsae is too slow, making it easy to block and the hand is on the hip for no reason whatsoever. Today we are going to fix this, by utilizeng the whole movement. If you remember way back in the series I have stripped down my approach into three points, the three laws of poomsae application the Nilsen way :-P

1. We use the whole movement
2. We only have one opponent
3. It must work in self-defense or close quarter combat

The caveat in todays post is that I am writing this for new beginners in finding practical poomsae applications. I have therefore removed a few elements from the application I usually teach one on one so that people now can get a simple, yet practical application that follows the movement of the technique. 

First let us look at how it is done:

Chamber of the solo performance of the technique.
Note the extended arm.

The end position of the solo performance
of the technique. The extended arm has
been pulled back to the hip.

Now the trajectory of the strike is wide and circular, so it is rather easy to block. All you need to do to block it is to raise one arm. The way you work around this however is to remove the opponents ability to block. Use the extended arm in the chamber to grab his arm and pull it back toward you hips while striking the opponent. In an earlier post I said that many overthing applications, but you can sum them up, or simplify the process by understanding that most are simply grab-pull-smash. Below you can see the chamber position but this time with a partner which provides context to the application. I grabbed his arm on the side I am going to strike. This can be pro-active, as in removing one of his hands that is in "guard", it can be done if the opponent has blocked my initial strike, I grab his blocking arm, it can be a reverse-grip if he has grabbed my wrist, understand the underlying principles of the applications and you get a lot more than simply one defense againts 1 X attack. 

Chamber position for the knife hand strike, the extended arm
has grabbed the opponents arm and is twisting and pulling it
back toward my hip.

 From this grab you pull and twist at the same time sharply back toward your hip, while you deliver the strike to the opponents neck. The end position of the movement can be seen below:

Here the arm has been pulled back to my hip, which opens up
the target for the strike, unbalances the opponent and removes
a lot of his oppertunities to block the strike. 

Pulling the opponents arm does a lot of things at the same time, all are good for the one doing the pulling and bad for the one being pulled. A few (but in no way all) benifits are:

• Opens up the target area
• Removes the primary blocking oppertunity for the opponent (it can still be blocked by the other hand but it is much more difficult now)
• Unbalances the opponent which makes it difficult to counter
• Increases the force delivered into the target (depending on the attack)
• Gives you a tactile feel of the opponents intentions
• Greatly increases the accuracy of your strikes

Now some who read this post might only take away a nifty way of applying the inward knife hand strike in Taegeuk Sam Jang, but I hope you rather take away how the "non striking hand" is helping the strike itself, and how both hands are working together. If you look at most offensive techniques in poomsae you will find that they more often than not have the non striking hand on the hip. Do'nt overlook this hand, because if you include it in the application you will get a lot more out of your applications :-)

Next time I will look at another common technique that often comes up in Poomsae, the Momtong Bakkat Makki or outward middle section block.