2026-07-29

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

A student asked a great question last night: In Heian Yondan, on counts 16 and 20 — the first punch after each front kick — why don’t we pull the punching hand back to chamber first? Why do we insist that the hands remain still through the kick and that the punch begin from there?

The typical application for this sequence is that someone is reaching forward to grab you with both hands, you block with a reverse wedge block, then kick and punch twice. The wedge block explains why the hands are there in the first place, but doesn’t explain why the first punching hand doesn’t chamber from the hip.

To me, this is a “sticky hands” thing. In this application, the blocking hand is already in contact with the attacking arm. Why give that up? Pulling that hand back to the hip first takes time and frees up the attacker’s arm to counter, grab, or strike before you can press your attack. Keeping contact with the arm allows you to keep tabs on that arm, even if it’s beyond the edge of your peripheral vision.

But maintaining contact does more than keep tabs on the attacking arm—it also gives your punch a guardrail. The punching arm can follow that line of contact toward the target. Even in darkness or confusion, the attacker’s arm provides a tactile path back to the attacker.