Applied Trap Hands
by Mike Casto
First, the material in this article is my personal take on trap hands. I have been exposed to trap hands through several arts and systems but my primary understanding of trap hands comes from my training in Filipino Kali. I will, though, in this article reference some Chinese terminology (Jun Fan or Wing Chun) because most people familiar with trap hands have been exposed to these.
My understanding of trap hands has been influenced by many people but there
were two really big influences I’d like to mention. The first was my
instructor, Guru Ken Pannell at Asian Fighting Arts in Dayton, Ohio.
(visit http://www.asianfightingarts.com
for more information on him and his school).
The second was Guro Dan Inosanto. While I’ve never trained as a student
of Guro Dan, I’ve attended many seminars with him over the years and
he has had quite a bit of impact in my evolution both as a martial artist
and as an instructor. For people unfamiliar with trap hands I hope this
article will serve as a useful introduction. For people familiar with trap
hands this material will be very basic and only my personal terminology/organization
of it will be new to you (and even it may be familiar) but I hope you will
find a useful nugget in my ramblings that you can use.
First, I’ll define what “trap hands” means to me so that we’re all on the same page for the rest of the article. “Trap hands” is a broad term that, to me, simply means “obstacle removal.” I want to place my weapon (i.e.: foot, knee, head, elbow, hand, stick, knife, etc.) on a target (i.e.: my opponent’s nose, eye, throat, solar plexus, etc.) and there’s an obstacle (i.e.: his parry, his footwork, etc.) preventing it. If I remove the obstacle and place my weapon on the target then I have successfully applied trap hands.
I break trapping into 2 categories: Passive and Active. I’ve heard
these terms used by others, but in a different way. For me, an “active”
trap might be the classical Jun Fan “slapping hand” (Pak Sao)
trap. I trap his arm, for instance, to his body and actively hold hit there
long enough to hit him. A “passive” trap might be from a Jun Fan
“jerking hand” (Jut Sao) where I jerk his arm down with my right
hand, then “bounce” off his arm with
a right uppercut into his chin. I’m not actively holding his arm out
of the way but it can’t get back into the action quick enough to prevent
my hit.
In my personal method, trap hands have six timings; one training timing and five applied timings. The training timing is, of course, for training and tool development. It might be from a static posture such as was illustrated in “Enter the Dragon” by Bruce Lee on Bob Wall (connect hands wrist-to-wrist then train the trapping from there). Or it might be from a more fluid and mobile platform such as Wing Chun’s Chi Sao drill or the Filipino Hubad Lubad drill (where my personal understanding of trap hands was developed).
The five timings in application are:
1. I set the timing with a tactile reference (Set/Tactile)
2. I set the timing without a tactile reference (Set/Non-Tactile)
3. I steal his timing with a tactile reference (Steal/Tactile)
4. I steal his timing without a tactile reference (Steal/Non-Tactile)
5. Interception
To illustrate these timings, I’ll use the slapping hand (Pak Sao)
except in the illustration of an interception.
1. (Set/Tactile) As he punches, I lift my right arm in a block/deflection
and this sets a “tactile reference.” As it touches, my left hand
slaps the forearm of his punching arm and traps it to his body (active trap).
My right hand (without retracting or chambering … economy of motion
is critical to the application of trap hands) fires a punch to my target.
2. (Set/Non-Tactile) As he punches, I slap immediately with my left
hand to the forearm of his punching arm and trap it to his body while my
right fires a punch down the now unobstructed line.
3. (Steal/Tactile) As I punch with my right, he lifts his right arm
to block/deflect and gain timing. As it touches my arm, I “steal”
his timing with my left hand and slap the forearm of is right arm, trap
it to his body, and my right punch continues to its target.
4. (Steal/Non-Tactile) As I punch with my right, he lifts his right
arm to block/deflect. Before it touches my arm, I “steal” the
timing with my left, slap, trap, and my right hand continues toward its
target.
5. (Interception) He throws a right cross. I throw a left jab. My
left forearm connects with his right forearm tangentially (this would usually
be accomplished with a body shift to my left so that when I fire my left
jab straight toward his face, it cuts the line of his right cross at a slight
tangent). This moves his right cross off-line and causes it to miss its
target while my left moves straight to its target.
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