Grandmaster Tse’s Wing Chun Note 344

24 Leg Techniques Part 11

Noih Hyūn Máh 内圈馬

Now we come to Hyūn Máh 圈馬. Hyūn 圈 means circle and this is the same as in Hyūn Sáu 圈手. Máh 馬 means horse, but in Kung fu 功夫, when we talk about Máh we are referring to the stance or footwork. So Hyūn Máh means Circling Footwork. At the beginning of Bīu Zī 標指 we circle our feet outwards to open the stance. This is Hyūn Máh. When we talk about circling the leg, we do not talk in terms of clockwise and anticlockwise as these are western terms. In the past, in China, time was measured by the time it took for a certain amount of water to run out of a special pot. We also used the shadow of the Sun and the stars in the sky. So in Chinese, when we talk about the direction of a circle we say Noih 内, which means inwards or Ngoih 外, which means outwards. In Bīu Zī the Hyūn Máh is Ngoih and so we can call it Ngoih Hyūn Máh 外圈馬. However we can also do an inwards circle and this is Noih Hyūn Máh 内圈馬.

When we use Hyūn Máh we begin with our feet on the floor. Its application is to circle into the opponent’s leg, either Noih or Ngoih, depending on the situation so long as we make the opponent lose their balance. If we can do this then this is a good Hyūn Máh.

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