Suiken is the actual name for it, I think. Anyway, I’ve seen it in a few movies, and I’ve read some about it, and I know this: it’s a very physically-demanding style that emphasizes staggering and quick movments to confuse your opponent and catch him off-guard, along with some rather creative angles of attack and dodging maneuvers. Could somone tell me more about the style, and how it works?
basically drunken fist is just a method of self defense that doesn’t look like a method. It exists to be misleading and trick the opponent into thinking that you’re not a threat, so you can end a fight quickly, and the staggering motion serves to make you harder to hit, especially the swaying of the waist. A target that’s constantly at motion is a target that is seldom solidly hit, or at least that is the idea.
i’m not too sure where the idea came from, I’ve heard legends of drunken gods, but yeah… take them with a grain of salt like any of the legends about the origins of a style. My teacher told me that the style was created in bar fights, and that’s something I’m willing to believe. I’m not sure about specifics though. Drunken fist is probably the hardest style to accurately trace the origins of, due to the nature of the style and the teaching methods involved. I’ve tried to dig up research online, to little avail, so I’ll echo the above, anyone that can tell me the roots of this style would recieve my gratitude. I’d like to know a bit more than legend and rumor, something more tangible would be nice.
http://www.tiendaowushu.com/Articles2.html
Article from Karate illustrated in 1985, might tell you something.
As with many Chinese MA’s the history is mixed in with a lot of legends. I haven’t heared of a complete system per se, but there are styles that contain these “drunken” forms. Some are, Monkey and Pak Mei. The Northern Eagle Claw system’s version of the “Eight Drunken Immortals” form has the most logical claims. It was said to have been created by Lau Fat Mon during the early 20th Century, in order to qualify for a military slot with the Chinese Armed Forces. AFAIK, his inspiration was from a popular Taoist legend. It seems to also have been the form that Jackie Chan’s character learned in the movie “Drunken Master”.
Yeah, “Eight Drunken Gods” was the style in Drunken Master. Anyway, thanks for the info so far. I hope I get some more responses, though…
So Jackie Chan didn’t invent it? lol. I read somewhere it was the “Eight Drunken Celestials.” Bottom of this site has one definition: http://www.chi-lin.org/bober1.htm
It was because of Jackie Chan that I went though all sorts of trouble to be able to drink Chinese rice wine. It tastes like weird sake. It’s not as cool as I thought it was based on the drunken boxing films. 
I also tried for a long time to learn about drunken styles but it was very hard to come up with any specific useful information. I did dig up one book full of drunken kata but that’s all it was; just a drawing of things from some kata.
I had a friend who trained at the Jackie Chan Stunt School in Hong Kong. His dad was a master of the drunken boxing style believe it or not.
Not wanting to tell tales, but he got in a lot of trouble for, literally, getting drunk and drunken boxing people to within an inch of their life. Couple of times, further than that. One attribute you have to develop is the strength of your wrist. By push ups on your wrist, punching with your wrist, (ie hitting with the back) and you also need to develop the pinching and grabbing strength of your fingers.
The guy did a ten year stint in a temple to learn it, and by the end of it, could crush bricks between his thumb and forefinger. Use that on somebody’s throat and it’s goodnight vienna.
Wow, that was really something.
And I read it all the way to the end. Do you think that reflects poorly on me?
mechanics
Drunken is one of those “exotic” Chinese styles. Which means that you really have to be a bad mother fucker to pull it off.
Drunken is physically demanding, for two reasons. The first as stated earlier here is developing the off balance one micro second, completely focused the next, which is really what it’s all about. The second is that you are required to fall all over the place. There is lots of ground rolling, breakfalling, forwards, backwards, etc.
It’s really cool to watch.
It’s one thing I wanted to learn, but never did, and glad I didn’t for the sake of the injuries I would have inevitably received.
history
For what its worth, I have the origins of Drunken emerging around 1430A.D. during the time of the Ming Dynasty with a man known as Kao Fu.
As with any Chinese martial arts history question, these things are up for debate, which I could care less about.
Originally posted by supercrap
punching with your wrist, (ie hitting with the back)
Ouch. What a fucking stupid thing to do.
The guy did a ten year stint in a temple to learn it, and by the end of it, could crush bricks between his thumb and forefinger.
Bullshit.
Originally posted by supercrap
The guy did a ten year stint in a temple to learn it, and by the end of it, could crush bricks between his thumb and forefinger. Use that on somebody’s throat and it’s goodnight vienna.
Uh… WHAT?!
You do realise how plausible this sounds, right?
Originally posted by wingchunnewbie
Ouch. What a fucking stupid thing to do.
If he was using the upper part, that’s more or less the forearm. I have seen people doing pushups on flexed wrists, but that was meant more for wristlocking, etc. I have no idea how effective/injury prone it made them.
But yeah, smacking people with the wrist itself has always been a dubious thing to me.
Originally posted by wingchunnewbie
Ouch. What a fucking stupid thing to do.
On striking with the wrist. Other styles do this besides drunken. Mantis and monkey do it.
There is supposedly training to develop the wrist for this use, though I have not seen it.
Without proper training, striking with the wrist could leave you in lots of pain. This once again demonstrates that not all techniques in whatever styles are good for everybody.
http://www.angelfire.com/retro/drunken
The history is simple. When a kung fu master would get drunk he would be a drunken master, there is drunken monkey drunken tiger and drunken boxing which is the imitation on a master drunk.
I always wondered why the hell they hit people with their wrists bent like some romo… It looks like it hurts, and sounds incredibly retarded.
Doesn’t Geoff from the about.com martial arts board have an account on here? A good “what’s the deal with Drunken Kung Fu” from someone like that would probably be helpful.
Originally posted by chaosexmachina
I always wondered why the hell they hit people with their wrists bent like some romo… It looks like it hurts, and sounds incredibly retarded.
Striking with the wrist is good in blocks and against soft tissue areas. Substituting the wrist for a fist or elbow is (in my opinion) moronic. As far as I am aware wrist strikes are fairly common in the training curriculum of most Japanese/Okinawan TMA, but most definitely the focus is in blocking with some pain (to the aggressor) associated with it and not at all a direct striking method.
Another reason that approach makes sense is because most all of the blocks in the above styles are more general and sweeping, not going for the unrealistic “and then you catch their fist/arm” but more towards you just redirected their strike and kept it from hitting an important area, where as I have mentioned before the conditioning is to make the opponent get some amount of pain just in your blocking as well, etc.
Originally posted by sherekahn
Striking with the wrist is good in blocks and against soft tissue areas. Substituting the wrist for a fist or elbow is (in my opinion) moronic.
Wrist stikes can be a valuable tool in any fighter’s skillset. Bending your hand (toward the palm) at the wrist leaves a solid bony mass available to deliver strikes in any direction, with little movement. Mainly used for infighting (from trapping range in), it can also be used as a clubbing weapon from further distances.
Yes, many (primarily) Okinawan styles use this strike to soft tissue areas. That was not the original intent, but can be reproduced safely in sparring/training.
I have personally broken forearms, jaws, and a cheekbone with a short, quick, twist of my wrist from trapping, and clinching ranges.
(it also allows me to throw three strikes with one motion - punch, wrist strike, elbow.)
If any discount it’s (wrist stikes) viability, usefulness, and/or effectiveness, Thank You! The less of us out there, the better.
`~/
The area of impact with the wrist is on the radial aspect. It helps to go from extension to flexion with the strike. Gives it that extra snap.