One minute it's an eye-level block, the next a vicious attack from below. Very sneaky and relatively uncomplicated, now that I'm starting to get the circle idea down.

"Tiger and Dragon Go Into Hiding" is seen at least three times in the Hun Gar/Five Animals style. It first appears as the first half of the "Five Animals Salute" opening of Southern Fist (nán quán, 南拳, pronounced “nan chu-en”), better known to us as Poison Hands / Iron Body. It then appears again in the opening and closing segments of the Five Animal Short Form.

Because it has a ceremonial role opening and closing these forms, it's often overlooked as an application. But it's actually excellent self-defense, combining a punch-block, a joint-lock (an arm-bar), a low kick (knee break), and a take-down (if you spiral down after the knee-break into a crossover stance) into one fluid movement. It redirects your opponent away from your body, and re-uses much of their energy into their own take-down. As Borat might say, Very nice!

It seems every rotation at each level of training my favorite self defense techniques change. Mostly because the way I play with the different techniques and the way my body learns to maneuver with the movements. My favorite by far (well there are two of them but I will only mention one) from this rotation is tame the tiger.

When working with the technique I imagine my whole body is a real metal industrial size strength crane equipped with everything from hydraulics to that guy in the hard hat working the controls; just trapped in a little persons body with a wrecking ball as a fist. When I twist my hips to the right after evading and redirecting a strike my left hand turns into a hammer fist (the imaginary recking ball) and whips around performing a crushing blow against the right rib cage of my partner/opponent.

Any thoughts on this technique??

A.I. Jason