Bac Fu Do
White Tiger Kung Fu

The elbow is classified as a ‘Secondary Natural Weapon’ in Bac Fu Do Kung Fu- the extremities such as the hand and foot are ‘Primary Weapons’,the knees, forearms, shins and elbows are ‘Secondary’ ones and the hips, shoulders, teeth and head are ‘Tertiary’ ones. Primary weapons are meant to be used at longer range than Secondary ones, and they at a greater range than Tertiary weapons.

The elbow is one of the most important Secondary weapons in our arsenal, because of its value in delivering knockout power at close quarters.

Most combat encounters invariably get to close quarters, even if they don’t start there, and elbows, knees and head-butts are enormously more useful in most street situations than Jean-Claude Whats’isface’s spinning kicks. True they don’t look as pretty, but the end result is just as satisfying in terms of damage done and personal safety preserved! (By the way, have you ever turned down the sound on a Van Damme movie and noticed how enormously less impresive his moves are on the silent screen....?)

The elbow is very flexible and effective weapon. It is used to great effect in Thai Boxing and has found a home in most combat systems.
In Bac Fu Do Kung Fu, we use the elbow most often as an immediate follow-up to a hand technique in folding/unfolding motion.

For example:

	If I’ve just thrown a straight punch to someone’s face and am at a fairly close range, I can ‘fold’ my elbow over into a strike at the temple. I would also be able to track it through the target and then reverse it into another elbow strike on the way back - then ‘unfold’ it into a forearm or backfist strike as I break contact with the opponent/attacker, or wrap it around the other person’s neck to put on a choke or neck crank.
	If I’ve just elbowed someone behind me in the solar plexus, I can unfold my arm into a Tiger Claw to the groin or a forearm/backfist strike up the temple, neck area, etc.
	If I’ve just struck someone in the chin with a palm strike, I can fold my arm into an elbow under the chin; reverse it into a dropping elbow strike to the face and unfold it into a hammer strike into the face again.

As you can see from the accompanying photos, the elbow, as well as being a very valuable close-in weapon in its right, can be an effective backup to longer range punching attacks. We must remember, however, that it is designed to be used at close range - not brought into close range via a ‘lunge punch’ type move which I have seen used by some stylists. If the elbow is used insuch amanner, the person doing it is open to counter-attack and should have used a more appropriate technique - one involving a Primary weapon.

The development of power in an elbow attack relies on a very strong waist action, complemented by the involvement of the shoulder girdle muscles. The waist action generates the intial acceleration and then, upon contact, the shoulder girdle muscles(Deltoids, Pectorals and Latissimus Dorsii) are contracted simultaneously to get body mass into the attack. The shoulder girdle muscles anchor the arm into the body, to let you strike as a single unit, rather than as collection of loosely assembled body bits!

I also like to add a slight shoulder drop to the action, to get a bit of gravity involved as well, and sometimes use a total body drop or body rise into the target for the same reason - moving with a spiralling motion to really harness the power of the legs to drive the elbow through the target zone. In Bac Fu Do, we also incorporate what we term ‘Horse Trembling Power’ into the move, with good effect. Have a think and experiment a bit.

The potential power that can be developed in a good elbow strike is enormous. I have a photo somewhere of me breaking through six concrete roof tiles (held vertically, so that I could use a horizontal elbow strike.) A really high speed film was used and the photographer captured a stream of tile debris shooting out some four metres from the impact point! If the target had been someone’s temple area, there is no doubt in my mind that the strike would have been a fatal one.

A few years ago, I saw Tom Slaven, of the Zen Chi Ryu Kempo school, demolish a pile of ice blocks ( and I mean big ice blocks!) very successfully with a dropping elbow strike. Tom isn’t with us anymore but (if you’re up there somewhere, Tom) -- it was a bloody good elbow strike!! Tom wasn’t a particularly big boy, but he carved through this pile of frozen H20 like it was made of water!

While not trying to lessen Tom’s feat, I’ve broken up to 15 roof tiles with a similar elbow strike and I’m only tiny; and I’ve seen a visiting Kyokushkai instructor break three bricks with his elbow. Again -- more than enough power to do the job! The same Japanese gentleman also broke three bricks with his head. (See my forthcoming AFA article on Headbutts, folks). Although I do have to report that he lacked a really good short term memory and was absolutely no good at algebra...!

Apart from anything else, the above examples should convince you that an elbow strike has more than enough potential to severly damage a human body. On the other hand, a poorly delivered elbow strike can inflict damage on the person delivering it! I still remember hitting my ‘funny bone’ on somebody’s forehead when he unsportingly ducked an elbow strike that I had targeted on his snot-box. It still scrambled his brains a bit, and it took him a while to get his eyes uncrossed, but I had a tingling sensation for days. (In my elbow, not anywhere interesting..)

Without mentioning any names, I could also tell you about a very embarrassing incident on a telivision show (‘Kung-Fu Killers’) back in the early 1970’s, when a now very prominent Karate instructor actually broke his elbow striking a brick with it, as a part of an on-camera demo! It looked like it really smarted. If I was a crueller person, I would take the piss out of this very prominent instructor at this stage - but everybody who has ever done breaking demos has hurt themselves at one time or another. (Although we all haven’t done it on national television!)

Regardless of the sheer power that can be developed in a good elbow strike, I like to hang onto the guy to increase effectiveness even further. Strikes with the knee and elbow don’t generate the same terminal velocity as a long-range punch or kick. The muscles involved are not really fast twitchers, and you also do not benefit from the same summation of forces that you can achieve in an extended technique that can build up considerable acceleration over a longer path.

Because of the lower terminal velocitiy of knees and elbo strikes, there is a slight chance that such a technique can land on target successfully but that part of its power can be dissapated by moving the opponent’s body backwards. A much faster attack would, of course, inflict damage before the technique overcame the inertia of the opponent’s body enough to push him away from the technique.

Pulling the other person into the elbow/knee, or at least holding in position when it lands, ensures that the maximum amount of power possible can be put into the technique and not be lost by him being pushed away from the impact point. In technical terms, this is known as ‘getting more Bang for your Buck’.

As an example of this tactic, if I have hit someone in the neck with a fore arm of knifehand strike, I will forcefully hook the contacting hand/arm around his head or neck, while simultaneously delivering an elbow to the opposite side of the head with my other arm.

The above hooking move achieves a scissor-type action, moving him into my technique, which achieves maximum power delivery. Alternatively, I could grab him by the hair or ear and merely hold his head still for my elbow strike -- the effect would be better than if his head was not held, but less effective than if his head was forcefully pulled towards the strike.

I hope that, by now, you are totally convinced of the value of the elbow as a natural weapon, and are intent on making your own as potent as possible. For all those people who have a love affair with spinning kicks and don’t see any need to develop effective elbow strikes -- I’d like to wish you “best of luck” for the first/next time some yobbo picks you in a crowded bar or public toilet!

Anyway, I’ve got a new fishing rod to test, the boat's fuelled up, the berley’s ready and the water’s looking good so, in the words of the Immortal Bard: “Sod this, The Fish Are Biting. I’m Off!”

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