CHOY MOK
By Jane Hallander
The kung fu of Southern China differs from that of Northern China in several repects. Originally, there were five principle Southern kung-fu systems. They were designated by the word "gar" following the founder's name. "Gar" means family. and, in this case, stands for kung-fu "families."
The five family systems were originated strictly as fighting arts, used to battle the Ching dynasty rulers. Unlike Northern systems, which were older and had evolved during peaceful times when students could study their martial arts for years before reaching higher levels, the Southern systems had to hurry their practitioners' development. As a result, "hard" power was taught first, followed by internal training. This direction was taken because they had to learn quickly how to fight. Stances were wider and lower, and the Southern footwork was somewhat less active than Northern, relying more on muscular strength for defense.
Those were, and to some extent still are, the characteristics of the original five Southern kung-fu families.
The families included hung gar, founded by Hung Hei Gung; lau gar, founded by Lau Soam Ngan; choy gar, founded by Choy Gau Yee; li gar, originated by Li Yao San; and mok gar, developed by Mok Ching Giu.
Of these five original families, only hung gar remains an intact, prominent kung-fu style. However, there are two offshoots of the five family systems that, because of their adaptability to modem times and their unique features, are becoming more popular in the world of Chinese martial arts. These two kung-fu systems are choy mok and hung fut.
Choy Mok
Choy mok is a fairly recent kung-fu system, founded just over 50 years ago. It is a combination of two of the original Southern family styles, choy gar and mok gar. Choy mok contains both the short-range attacks of mok gar and the long-arm techniques of choy gar, however, the emphasis is placed on short distance strikes, and so close-in fighting techniques predominate in the choy mok system.
Choy mok is strictly a fighting style. The sets are practical and are geared toward preparing the student to defend himself with no wasted energy or frills. For that reason, choy mok is a popular system in the Orient for full-contact tournament fighters. Many famous tournament fighters of Southeast Asia represent the choy mok system.
Choy mok's stances are very low, with the waist, back, and shoulders working, together as a unit to produce the power. Choy mok practitioners prefer to launch their attacks from solid, stationary positions, therefore, there isn't much active footwork in choy mok. Fists are used much more than kicks, and kicks are applied only for close-in fighting and are aimed at targets from the waist down. Because of its close-range applicability, its low kicks, and the short, practical hand techniques, choy mok is also considered a good style for women's selfdefense.
Choy mok hand techniques can take the form of either open hands or fists. Since so many short-hand movements are used, speed is important. For that reason, openhand strikes are preferred, and the choy mok practitioner can obtain great speed in conversions from blocks to attacks by using palm strikes. Choy nick stylists use a ying jao or eagle claw hand technique frequently when fighting, and one of their favorite fists is called mok gar sao, a double eagle claw hand used to block and then push or grab the opponent.
Another fist often used by choy mok stylists is the "phoenix eye" fist. The "phoenix eye" is formed by making a fist and extending the bent index finger out ahead of the other fingers of the fist. This reduces the striking area to only one finger, with the others adding support. Thus, all of the striking force is concentrated into a very small area, which causes more damage to the adversary. The choy mok practitioner attaches a spiraling wrist action to his "phoenix eye" fist to obtain even more power and concentrated force.
Although many of the hand techniques are short-distance strikes, the choy mok stylist combines them with small, circular arm and shoulder movements to increase the striking force. This differs from other short-hand systems, such as wing chun, which employs more straight-line hand techniques.
Elbow strikes are also popular in the choy mok system, and are again directed in a small-circle pattern. The manner in which the choy mok practitioner uses small circles in his techniques allows him to easily change from a block to a strike and vice-versa.
A unique feature of the choy mok system is its chi sao ("sticky hand") exercise. It is helpful toward developing the choy mok student's sense of reflex feeling and action. Conceptually, choy mok chi sao uses seven points of arm and wrist power. When the opponent touches one of those seven points, the choy mok practitioner reacts against him with power and control radiating from that point. This is a very close-in type of chi sao sparring, which never lets an opponent gain an opening. This type of close-in touch and attack carries through when fighting, and is characteristic to the style.
Other systems with chi sao exercises (wing chun, white eyebrow, Southern praying mantis) may use the whole arm with a soft, rolling motion as the sensing and striking force. Choy mok's chi sao method is a strictly hard, external type of power limited to control at one of those seven points.
The choy mok system contains several weapons. The staff is the main weapon of the style. There are two types of choy mok staff; one long and the other much shorter. The broadsword and double broadsword are the principle short weapons. There are also other weapons, such as the trident and kwan-do, and even bench forms.
Choy mok is strictly a practical no-nonsense system, a system that bears earmarks of its design for self-defense in urban areas.
Source: IKF, April 1983
