Tiger's Claw and Crane's Beak
by Jane Hallander, from Black Belt Magazine

With every muscle rippling, he stands in a deep, low front stance. Slowly, one hand is extended, palm facing outward with the index finger raised. His breathing is measured and precise, correlating perfectly with each movement. Muscles taut, he looks as if he were pushing against a brick wall-and winning.
This is hung gar, one of the world's most popular and misunderstood martial arts styles.
A Southern Chinese system, developed in the later part of the Ching Dynasty (A.D. 1800), hung gar typifies sheer power, formed through the combined training of both internal and external energy sources. It is known best by its most popular training form, tiger and crane (fu hak seung ying).
Fu hak seung ying is not an original hung gar form. It was developed by hung gar's most famous teacher, Wong Fai Hung, about 100 years ago.
Wong Fai Hung first learned martial arts from his father, a hung gar instructor in southern China. As a young man, Wong Fai Hung taught martial arts to members of the emperor's army and be. came known throughout China as one of the legendary Five Tigers of Southern China, five famous martial art leaders. As Wong grew older, he became a doctor of herbal medicine, while still continuing to teach hung gar.

Not only was Wong Fai Hung proficient at hung gar, but he also learned choy gar and li gar, two other southern Chinese martial arts. He took the best techniques and movements from choy gar and li gar, combined them with his favorite hung gar actions, and came up with the tiger and crane form.
Although an intermediate form in the hung gar system, tiger and crane is so important that it must be learned before progressing to hung gar's more advanced sets. Its value comes from its superior stances, hand techniques, and powerful striking power.
Not only does tiger and crane contain most of hung gar's important training principles, but it also illustrates certain special techniques, such as Wong Fai Hung's famous mo ying geuk (shadowless kick), a kick reputed to be so fast that the enemy cannot see its shadow.

Kwong Wing Lam, who heads a large hung gar school in Sunnyvale, California, is a direct descendant of Wong Fai Hung's teaching.
"In 1955, my own hung gar instructor entered a national tournament in Peking, China, and won it with his tiger and crane form," said Lam.
The first part of fu hak seung ying is devoted to hung gar's internal training, a series of exercises that look similar to dynamic tension drills. Called kiu sai (bridge hands), these are the basics of hung gar's internal studies. Kiu sao serves as a method of moving internal power (chi) from the body, out through the striking surfaces of the hung gar practitioner's hands.
Kiu sao exercises extend the most important training concept in the hung gar system, eiu ma, a strong back and stance. Virtually all of a hung gar practitioner's striking power and force come from his back, which unites his body into a single unyielding unit, and his stance, always solid and well balanced.
The tiger and crane form emphasizes basic training, such as kiu sao, in its first sections, before moving on to the animals. After the student has reviewed the essentials of his hung gar basics with fu hak's beginning movements, he finds that it contains far more tiger techniques than any of ,1ung gar's basic forms.

Tiger
"Tiger techniques are designed to make the student concentrate on power, strong movements, and vocal sounds," said Lam.
In much the same manner as karate's ki-ai, hung gar sounds push the student's energy down into his abdomen, creating more power to come out from his hands. However, hung gar distinguishes between different sounds and different types of emitted power. For instance, the wah sound used to drive the practitioner's chi down to his tan tien (the center of the body's internal energy) is only produced in conjunction with a double fu jeo (tiger claw hand technique using both hands to strike). The double fu jao is considered one of hung gar's most powerful strikes.
Hung gar's single fu jao (only one hand is the attacking tiger hand) is a quicker, lighter strike, and requires the sound fu, which places chi higher in the hung gar stylist's body.
The tiger hand (fa jao) must meet precise form requirements in order to deliver the massive amount of power that hung gar dishes out.
"The hung gar tiger hand is similar to the dragon claw in that all five fingers are bent. However, tiger hand fingers are bent more than are dragon claws and are in a more forward position, I like a cat's claw," explained Lam.
A common misconception of hung gar's tiger hand is that the palm heel is pushed forward when striking. This is in- correct and will make it into a heel strike, rather than a fu jao.
Striking with the claw hand thrust straight out at the target is another error. The actual fu jao is completed in a downward motion, again in the same manner that a cat strikes with its claws.

The most powerful tiger hand is the double fu jao. In this strike the hung gar practitioner leans his body forward while using a stance called ji ng ma (bow and arrow stance). Since the double fu jao is intended to utilize the back as a source of power, like a strong tiger, it calls for a stance that's much lower than most hung gar stances. Again the sound is a deep, strong wah noise. Double fu jaos are always low attacks, directed at the foe's solar plexus or rib cage.
Since the target is the opponent's eyes, face, or the side of his neck, the single fu jao relies on quick footwork to gain striking force. A diu ma (cat stance), with the body leaning forward at a 45-degree angle, characterizes the single fu jao.
A fu jao can also be defensive hands in the tiger and crane form. For instance, the lower hand in a double fu jao strike is often positioned between the hung gar practitioner's knee and elbow. He can move it quickly to protect his entire torso.
Only one double fu jao makes use of both hands as striking weapons. That technique is called hak fu jao (black tiger hands). The move positions the upper hand as an attack to the solar plexus, while the lower fu jao is directed at the opponent's groin area.
The single fu jao uses defensive tiger techniques differently. Normally a single fu jao is characterized by quick repetitive left and right claw hand techniques, powered forward by successive cat stances. During the final strike of this advancing and striking sequence the tiger and crane stylist drops his defensive hand to his waist, with the palm turned down, like a cat.

Crane
The crane makes its first appearance in hung gar forms in the tiger and crane set. A versatile animal, the crane illus- trates its versatility in fu hak seung ying by making use of its head, beak, wings, and legs for both offense and defense.
Crane power is fast and light, since its targets are the fragile areas of the foe's body. The correct sound made with a crane strike is op, a noise that produces energy from the solar plexus.
The most common crane stance is diu ma (cat stance). However, it's a much higher diu ma than that of the tiger. Crane blocks and strikes are quick moves aimed at high targets. The back leg is not bent, as is a tiger diu ma stance. Both legs are almost straight, allowing the crane stylist to move quickly in either direction. The crane practitioner's body is turned to the side, presenting a small target. Whereas, a tiger fu jao is a strike that connects with extreme power, crane attacks often have a recoiling appearance as they draw back quickly for the next onslaught.
The most common hung gar crane technique is named hak jui(crane beak). There is a definite way to form the crane beak hand.
"Some say that all five fingers should come together, forming the beak. This is incorrect. That method puts out less power and takes too much time to form the hak jut," said Lam.
The proper way is to extend the first two fingers (index and middle) and connect them to an also extended thumb. This way you produce a smaller surface area and higher impact for striking.
"Crane strikes should be light, quick and directed at targets such as the eye or temple region," explained Lam.
The wrist is used to give forward extension to hak jui attacks. The hand is originally cocked back by the practitioner's ear, as if imitating the cocked head and neck of a crane. Strikes are made straight forward with the wrist extended, not bent. It's incorrect to strike with the elbow severely bent and the crane beak fist aimed downward.
Another common crane technique is called hak yik (crane wing). This is a double-hand block that strongly imitates the aggressive actions of a crane when it spreads its wings for defense.
Strictly defensive techniques, hak yik movements are useful for catching the wrist of an oncoming punch and pulling it to the side and away from the hung gar defender. A kick often follows the crane wing defense, since the hung gar defender's hands block an opponent's field of vision in the same manner a crane's wings would cover his enemy's eyes. Wong Fai Hung's favorite kick in this situation was the shadowless kick (mo ying geuk), a straight snap kick.
Less popular, but still practiced within the tiger and crane form, are the hak ding (crane head) strike and the tai geuk stance.
Hak ding is a high-impact strike made by extending the first knuckle of the index finger away from the fist. It's similar to Chinese martial art's famous phoenix fist, except the index finger is the striking surface, rather than the middle finger as with the phoenix strike. Hak ding's target is the opponent's solar plexus.
Tai geuk is a stance done while balanced on one leg, with the other leg bent in front of the hung gar stylist's groin area. This is a defensive technique, designed to protect the groin from a straight kick.
While 60 percent of fu hak seung ying's techniques are basic hung gar movements, the rest are devoted to the tiger and crane. The movements of those animals within the form match the real actions of tigers or cranes, giving the set a fast and then slow appearance, depending upon which animal is being portrayed. For instance, tiger footwork is done with a somewhat heavy, long step, for extra power. Crane, on the other hand, displays a light, quick step with average length.
Low stances are designed to match the actual application of the striking hands when attacking a low target, not just to give the student a strengthening exercise while he practices his form. However, many of the overly extended body actions are intended to help stretch the student's body and strengthen his overall stance.

Wong Fai Hung also developed a unique two-person sparring form, based on fu hak seung ying. This tiger and crane two-man set is the only sparring form taught in the Wong Fai Hung schools.
The tiger and crane two-man form uses only tiger and crane techniques, with one student portraying defense and the other offense. One of its unique features is that the movements are alternating; both sides learn and practice the same techniques. Students perfect only one side at a time. Then after mastering either defense or offense, they progress to the other side. Hung gar students get a first-hand taste of the applications of fu hak seung ying.
Although Kwong Wing Lam's students must first spend at least one year learning hung gar's two basic hand forms and basic weapons, such as the staff and broadsword, before learning fu hak, it is still considered the most important and popular form in hung gar.
Why should fu hak seung ying reign supreme as hung gar's most notable set?
Because the first two training forms are long and basic, and not as pleasing to the eye. The more advanced ten ani- mal forms deal with internal techniques that most people don't understand and find boring to watch. Fu hak has many interesting movements that make it not only an excellent training form, but also an interesting set to perform in public.

by Jane Hallander, from Black Belt Magazine