H. Sandan, Step 9-10, Countering Ikkyo Wristlock

[HanshiClayton]

Reference page 105 of Mashiro's Black Medicine III: Low Blows, Paladin Press, 1981.

Step 9 of H. Sandan is the anti-clockwise spin that ends in a side stance, tettsui uchi (hammer strike). Step 10 is the oi-zuki and kiai.

Your right hand, having failed in its nukite of Step 8, has been caught and twisted anti-clockwise. Even people untrained in grappling recognize that much, and usually interpret the attack as a hammerlock where your arm gets twisted up behind your back. This could be accurate, but given the context we should emphasize the ikkyo wristlock and arm bar, which would be the choice of a trained Japanese or Chinese fighter. The ikkyo lock can easily collapse into a hammerlock so from the defender's point of view it is much the same thing.

You do the nukite. Have your opponent block the nukite with his right hand. He should apply the jujutsu "pistol grip" to your hand, placing his right palm against the back of your hand with his fingers wrapped around the little-finger edge and his thumb on your index-finger knuckle. Have him rotate your hand clockwise (from his point of view) until the fingers point up toward the ceiling. This applies the ikkyo arm bar. You are headed to the floor unless you do something fast.

Execute step 9. Spin anti-clockwise, wrapping your captured arm around your back. This relieves the pain of the ikkyu lock. Use your koshi waza (hip rotation) to yank your hand out of his grip. As you finish the spin, use the turn to power the hammerfist strike. You can aim at his head, neck, left elbow or ribs, depending on the position of his left arm. This won't be enough to take him out of the fight, so the kata expects us to finish him off with a "pursuing punch" (oi-zuki, step 10). This technique is illustrated on page 105 of Mashiro's Black Medicine III.

How do we know that Matsumura and Itosu used the basic wristlocks of oriental fighting? Because we find the counters to the wristlocks on display in the katas.

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People often embellish this escape by turning it into a winding throw. That's fine, but it forces you to invent a new opponent to receive the oi-zuki in step 10. This violates Occam's Razor by introducing a new fighter to the mix when we don't really need him. I think the original application is pretty clear.

[HanshiClayton]

Sifu Todd Shawn Tei, Wing Chun Kung Fu, Volume 1: Fighting Principles and Concepts, section on Combination Attacks, appx. 45:44.

In this beginner video, the Wing Chun sifu escapes from a right-arm hammerlock by turning anti-clockwise and using a hammerfist to the opponent's face, exactly like in H. Sandan.

Much of H. Sandan is directly tracable to Chinese roots.