HANDFIGHTING
(by Tash and Cams)
I'll try to classify that according to level, really, but it's tough, so bear with me.
1) What all fighters must know...
... if they don't want their nose rubbed in the dirt.
The Guard Stance is a posture that must be known to all fighters. In this stance, the weight is generally distributed equally upon both feet and the fighter can "root" himself to the ground, preventing any sweepings or other unstabilizing moves from the opponent. The fighter can also, in this stance, hop lightly from foot to foot, which leads to quicker moves, better evadings from blows, but much less stability.
There is another guard stance that is well-known, it's the fighter's crouch. When in a fighter's crouch, the fighter will not be able to hop lightly from foot to foot, but will be practically impervious to any sweepings and will easily be able to block any first attack - punches or kicks - with his arms. A fighter crouching has his legs bent almost at a right angle (think this ) and arms spread in front, bent as if to link both hands, ready to parry the opponent.
2) What all fighters must be able to do....
... if they want to have a chance at the opponent.
A - PUNCHING
Basic punches are necessary if your character wants to try and hit his opponent. He's not going to do it by telepathy, now, is he? So let's see what's available.
The jab is the most basic punch. It is straightforward, starting from the hip and the shoulder and generally aiming for right in front - so if your character is tall, it'll be the opponent's face; if he's small, it'll be the opponent's belly or whatever. It is given with the arm that's forward when in your guard stance.
The jab is very easily blocked, so don't expect to knock out an experienced character with the first punch. Deviating a jab can be done using the forearm to push the punch to the side and then counter-attack with your own move.
The reverse punch comes next. It is the same move as the jab punch, but is given with the back arm of your guard stance. It therefore involves a rotation of the hips and torso if you want it to have some sort of strength.
Notice in the picture that the heel is raised to deliver the punch, to leave the hips room to twist. A reverse punch is blocked the same way a jab is.
The hooking punch is given with either hand. As the name suggests, the movement of the fists describes an arc and aims for the side of the jaw or head; if given correctly and not parried, the opponent can easily be thrown to the side onto a suddenly raised knee - but we'll see that later.
You can see in the picture that the blow isn't given only with the arm; the hips, feet and shoulder also twist and rotate to put strength into the punch. A hooking punch can easily be evaded by crouching, which leaves open room for a rib-aimed counter-attack, or it can be blocked by using one's forearm to stop the opponent's arm from colliding, but you need to aim for that.
The uppercut is also a widely-known punch. As for all other punches, to have strength behind it, your character needs to use his feet, hips and shoulders to bring the uppercut. It can be given with either hand, the fist starting at your hip level and coming up to hit the opponent either under the rib cage, pushing your knuckles behind the ribs, or below the chin, havng the other's head snap back.
You can see in the picture that the boxer's heel is up, permitting his hips to rotate, and that his shoulders go with the movement of his fist. He is also demonstrating a counter-attack after evading a jab punch from the other... but I disgress. The uppercut is hard to block but can be evaded by taking a step backwards, for example. Crouching suddenly will only get your character's chin broken by the uppercut, since he'd be diving onto it.
B - KICKING
Legs have much more muscle than arms, and a nicely delivered kick can be very painful for the recieving character.
The front kick is most used, and every character should know how to throw a front kick. Of course, if your character has never thrown one, it won't be as strong and as well done as an experienced character's front kick. What can we see in this pic?
1) The hips, supporting foot and torso rotate. That is because if they didn't, the kick would not reach as far. Here, rotating the hips, foot and torso give length to the kick, and it can therefore reach further opponents. 2) There are different steps in the kick. The first is the guard stance, where you prepare. The supporting foot will root you in the ground so you won't be taken by a sweeping. Second, you arm the kick by raising the knee. Your kick will have more force if you're only throwing out the shin and foot than the whole leg, which is much heavier. Third, the kick. Your character will lash out with his foot. BE CAREFUL : the heel or ball of the foot hits. Never the toes. Fourth, bring back the shin, keeping your knee up. Like that, your leg won't slam onto the ground breaking your knee, and it provides a block if the opponent tries any side kicks. Finally, get back into your guard stance.
The side kick is also widely known, but harder to bring up. It aims, like a hooking punch, for the side of the head or the ribs, depending on your character's height. What can we see in the picture?
1) The back leg gives the kick. It's easier for rotating than using the front leg, though using the front leg is perfectly feasible. 2) Foot, hips and torso rotate to give the kick length and power. 3) The torso leans to the side to help the kick go higher than the opponent's ribs. 4) Another rotation to get back to the guard stance.
C - BLOCKING
Blocking, when your character is not very experienced, is mostly evading. Evasion can be done with sidestepping, backstepping or simple crouching (crouching requires much leg power in order to get back up quickly). However, it can also be done using one's forearms.
An upper block will be used to stop blows arriving at head level from the left, the right and the top. The forearm is used as a shield and comes perpendicularly to the blow. It does not aim for the FIST ITSELF. When the blow is a punch, it aims for the opponent's forearm to push the punch away. When it's a kick, it aims for the shin, not to push it away but to stop it - and it will be painful, but less than taking the kick in the face. When it's a staff or other weapon, it will aim to be perpendicular and your character must be ready for pain and perhaps a broken forearm. If your character wants to block an oncoming staff with his arm, it's really that he can't move to the side.
A lower block will aim to block kicks or weapons coming for the thighs or between the legs (which, yes, does happen). When your character is in a fighting crouch, he will be able to block those with his forearm. However, when your character is standing, the only way to block those is using his own shins, raising his leg to parry as he would have done with his forearm. There too, it can be incredibly painful (the shin is a very sensitive bone and blocking a run-on staff with it is HELL. Believe me.) and a nicely delivered staff blow can break the bone.
3) What only trained fighters will know
A - PUNCHING
The back punch is a punch aiming for a knuckle collision with the side of the opponent's head. There isn't too much rotating, but a good sharing and shifting of weight is necessary.
In this punch, there are steps. The first is arming the punch, by putting the elbow out and shifting your weight. Then comes the actual hitting, where the forearm lashes out with the fist, aiming for the side of the head. When done, come back into guard stance. This punch would be blocked by an upper block, forearm to forearm.
There is a variation to this punch for skilled fighters. Once your character has delivered this blow, stop him at step 3 of the picture. Right then, the other fist lashes out as a hooking punch, making a wide semi-circle and aiming for the other cheek. Do not stop the movement there, your character will then rotate entirely, spinning to bring the left fist once again as this punch. It is a three-punch blow, very hard to escape, but also very demanding on balance and speed.
The ridge hand can, when done correctly, be very painful for the opponent.
It is a blow delivered by the fingertips. The hand is straight, fingers kept together but straight too, and the fingertips are aimed either for the temple or, usually, for the small "hole" at the base of the throat, right over the junction of the collarbones.
The palm heel strike is also a move that, when done correctly, can seriously wound someone or even cause death. In this move, your character will hit with the heel of his hand.
Fingers are curled in the bear paw position and the blow starts from the shoulder. It is armed by bringing the elbow back, then lashing out with the whole arm. The blow generally aims for the nose, coming from under and pushing up. The nose is easily broken by that, and if the bone is pushed into the brain, it's death.
B - KICKING
With a certain level of experience, your character can come to do some pretty fancy kicks.
The axe kick is useful when your character is tall or when he is faced with a shorter character. In order to lash out with an axe kick, your character must start in guard stance. Then, the back leg comes up in a wide semi-circle - if it's the right leg, the circle will go clock-wise; if it's the left leg, the circle will go counter-clock-wise. Anyway, leg comes up in a semi-circle very close to your body - close enough to have your shin knock a cig from your lips, maybe. When at 12o'clock, bring it down, putting your weight into it, aiming your heel for the top of the head or the shoulder muscle of your opponent. It can also be used to open up your opponent's guard.
The double side kick starts exactly like the normal side kick, except for stage 4. As it is, the kick is first aimed at the opponent's ribs. Once it has been delivered, fold your leg like in step 4 of the normal side kick, but, without putting your foot down, immediately attack again, this time aiming for the face. The kick should go like this : raise folded leg, lash out for ribs, fold leg to arm, lash out for head, come back to guard stance.
The roundhouse kick is hard to master and takes lots of practice, if not lots of training. It might be a bit Shang-fighting, so yeah, not to be seen too much in brawls... anyway. The kick starts in guard stance. For this example, we'll take a guard stance with the left leg in front. To perform the kick, the fighter will take one step forward, right leg cming to step out, then spin. The left leg goes up and out, straight, while the torso comes down. The whole body rotates to bring the kick into the opponent's face. It can be performed with either foot.
C - SWEEPS
In order to get the opponent down, sweeps are sometimes necesary. To sweep someone's feet out effectively, the fighter has to drop and rotate 360° with one leg out. There has to be strength and speed behind it, for the element of surprise is a necessary touch, otherwise the opponent will just shift his weight and your character will hurt himself... or will get stomped on. Which is not pleasant. Here in the picture, we can see the sweeper didn't go fast enough - there's an axe kick aimed straight for his back here.
4) What your character can know after years of training and practice
A - PUNCHING
Jumping punches: Same basic concept as the afore-mentioned punches. But leaping forwards, this is intimidating and more powerful although less accurate.
Knife hand strike: open hand stabbing towards the solar plexus or throat. Good for knocking wind out and earning time to perform a more powerful technique.
Dropping reverse punch: To a fallen opponent, a punch that has your whole body weight behind it because you are literally dropping onto them fist first. It is surprisingly easy to break a wrist doing this.
B - KICKING
Jumping front snap kick: Jumping forwards puts all your power into this. Ribs get broken if they’re in the way, but it’s not all that terribly hard to block or dodge if you know what you’re up to. Starting in a left stance, the back leg would come up like to knee someone, and then swap the weight and jump with the foot that’s on the floor to kick out with that foot. All the knee movement is for is propulsion, lifting you high and more powerfully.
Jumping axe kick: This is a kick that involves flexible hips, and the strength of your entire leg, swinging the foot diagonally across your body, straight-legged, and effectively dropping it on the opponent’s shoulder or head, if your char is tall enough. This actually is banned in modern competition because it breaks people.
Jumping side kick: Pulling the front knee up to the body and propelling yourself upwards and forwards in stamping motion towards the body of your opponent, gaining ground and sometimes knocking them down.
So ends the handfighting tutorial. Before you use those techniques for your characters, please remember their strengths, weaknesses and levels of training. A character with a bad knee won't be kicking like the picture right up here, and neither will a character who's fighting for the first time! And of course, remember that over 50, people rarely fight at all.... *giggles*
Also, we didn't put this tutorial up so you can use it on real people, so don't try it. All of these moves could be dangerous if you try them out without training and could result in serious damage to yourself or someone else.
Now you've read all about how to RP a fight, click here to see an example transcript of two characters fighting hand-to-hand.
Onward to using staves or back to the Art of Fighting.