Instructor: Terry Bridges
General

Chin Na is the art of Seizing and Controlling an opponent. This is accomplished in various ways, generally in response to an opponent's attack. The Chin Na taught at BCMA is from the Southern White Crane Style. We do not teach it as a separate class, but incorporate it into both the Kung Fu and Taijiquan classes as an integral part of the training. There are a vast number of Chin Na techniques. We do not strive to teach every single one of them. Rather, our goal is to help the student understand and apply the principles which make the Chin Na techniques work in the first place. We accomplish this by teaching several techniques mainly covering the fingers, wrist, elbow and shoulder. Once the student understands these principles, a suitable and effective technique can be applied in any situation. In order to apply any Chin Na technique in an actual fighting situation, one must be able to sense the other persons intentions, react to and intercept their attack and flow with it, never coming into direct conflict with the attacker's power but leading it (and the attacker) into a more advantageous position. For the mid-level Kung Fu student there are also some two person fighting sets which incorporate Chin Na techniques, teaching the student how to apply the techniques in real time. The Taijiquan student will learn Chin Na as part of the Push Hands training. When any application of a given technique is demonstrated there will always be a suitable Chin Na technique demonstrated as well. For more in-depth information on the Chin Na taught at BCMA, please refer to the YMAA website.