A combat application from the set Black Bear Sinks Hips

Black Bear Sinks Hips is the third of the four combat sequence sets in the basic Wahnam Taijiquan syllabus, the other three being White Snake Shoots Venom, Green Dragon Shoots Venom, and Carry Tiger Back to Mountain.

Each of these sets is composed of three combat sequences, making 12 combat sequences together. These 12 sequences in the present version came from the sequences resulting from Striking Hands training. To help students progress more effectively, Grandmaster Wong stylized these sequences in Striking Hands into 12 combat sequences in the original version.

Although they are not exactly the same, these 12 combat sequences in both the present and the original versions were inspired by our first 12 Taijiquan combat sequences in the 1980s. A main difference between the 12 combat sequences in both the present and the original versions on one hand, and the first 12 combat sequences in the 1980s is that whereas both the initiator and the responder in the former use Taijiquan patterns, in the latter the responder used Taijiquan to respond to the initiator using Shaolin Kungfu.

This third combat sequence set, Black Bear Sinks Hips, introduces kicks and felling techniques. All the three important kicks, thrust kick, side kick and sweeping kick, are found in the set. Using Black Bear Sinks Hips to counter a throw would amaze many people.