The ABC's Of Practical Poomsae Applications, Part 8: Oe Santeul Makki (High outward block and low block at same time)

Hi there :-) In my last post I wrote for a great length of time so I am going to contrast that with a short and (hopefully) sweet post today. In this post I am going to look at the most iconic technique of Taegeuk Pal (8) Jang; Oe Santeul Makki. The technique, template, gibon dongjak itself consists of two arm movements that are both doing the primary movement in arae makki (low block) and eulgul an palmok bakkat makki (high section outward block with the thumb side of the arm). This is one of those classical techniques that are put forward to ridicule traditional martial arts because of its seemingly unrealistic use. You see from the 1930s until recently (well even today) if you look up an application for this move in any textbook you are most likely going to see something along the lines of two persons attacking one person, one in front and the other from the back. Before we begin this post proper though I will link to the other posts so that if you are jumping in on this series you might want to read them in the order they came out.

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 and Part 6 focusing on the inward knife hand strike, Part 7 that lookesd at the outward block can be found here.

The application I am describing can among other places be found within our own Kukkiwon Textbook as seen below:

Despite what the myths and movies will tell you, these "double techniques" are not a way to defend against two people at once. If you truly want to deal with two (or more people) at one time you need to employ a strategy that makes it into a one on one fight, or to minimize the opponents as much as possible. That can be to run as fast as you can for a short distance to thin the herd (people will run after you at different speeds, start to run at different times depending on their individual reaction time, and if you are lucky some might not even bother running after you at all), to use footwork to keep one opponent between you and the other opponent if there are only two, using the environment to limit how many that can attack you at one time etc, practising "double techniques" will not help you at all. If you look at the above illustration you will notice that the "defender" is actually in the worst place imaginable in a multiple opponent scenario. Even if you somehow manage to block two attacks at the same time how are you going to keep that up? Even in the Poomsae the technique comes from you seemingly "block" one opponent from behind and then preceeds doing nothing against him. 

If you have read this series as they have come out you have no doubt read the following before, but it is great to repeat, if you are new to this series please read the next lines carefully as this is my approach to Poomsae applications in a nutshell, only three guidelines:

1. Use the whole movement
2. There is only one opponent
3. Must work in self defense or close quarter combat

I think the series so far has highlighted the first and third rule but this technique is excellent to demonstrate my second. The first application is the simplest one, and this is not my primary application for the technique given its dynamic context, but this series is aimed for the poomsae application beginners, and despite it is not my primary application it is one of my applications for the move, and it is in my own (biased) opinion far better than what the Kukkiwon Textbook gives us.

In short and simple terms, I grab the opponents arm, drag it back and up to open him up and strike his groin. See below for illustration:

This works within the dynamic context of the Poomsae itself as well, one natural reaction to a strike to the groin is to bend forwards. From the groin strike the "striking arm" secures the head and pulls him into an upward strike to the head, this being the follow up move from the Poomsae (Taegeuk Pal Jang). Notice how both hands does something against a single opponent that is in front(ish) of you. No need to get the 6th sense or spider sense tingling to make this work, grab and smash, very simple, crude and effective. Taekwondo is a striking art, so a low hammerfist strike is very much aligned with a traditional taekwondo students arsenal.

The second and perhaps more "fun" application of this movement is as a defense against kicks. You move to the inside or outside depending on what kind of kick you are getting. The chamber for the block (sorry no pictures) has us covering our whole body, this is the defense itself (the chamber being the actual defense is something we have used a lot in this series), and the "block" itself grabs the opponents leg and lift it upwards, the reverse front stance trips him over you leg and the "low block" part is pushing the opponents upper torso so he falls over your front leg. I have a crude illustration below that I drew many years ago but which I still like :-P

See? This is also proof that anyone with a pen and paper (and perhaps a smart phone) can make illustrations to their applications in a pinch. I hope you can make sense of it, but the description I gave of it should be easy enough to follow, one hand lifts the leg up and back, the other hand is pushing the opponent to the side so he trips over your leg. 

I hope you enjoyed this post :-) In my next part I will look at how you can use the dangkinun son (pulling hand to the hip) to easily explain to your students how the strikes are set up  in Kukki-Taekwondo Poomsae, and how the chamber the correct way is important. Instead of explaining that is done like this because that is how some book or teacher says it is supposed to be done you can give your students a real life reason based on combative efficiency right then and there. So Stay tuned for part 9.