Articles

Four Corner Defence
By Dave Carnell

We have all heard of the saying, "The best form of defence is a good offence. In JKD this can take the form of attacking on your opponent's preparation or intercepting with your own counter attack, known as the "stop hit", nullifying the opponent's attack. This is probably one of the most efficient ways of dealing with an attack, it requires constant monitoring of the opponent in order to attack on the first sign of .his telegraphed motion.

Although intercepting is regarded as a higher level of counter attack, it requires fine perception to anticipate when the opponent is going to commit himself to attack, sometimes you may find yourself at the wrong distance, or against a fast opponent. You could even be caught unawares yourself and be forced to cover up. This brings us to the realm of defence.

The structure of defence is based on that of an imaginary window frame in front of you, divided in half by the centreline, a line running down the centre of the body, then divided again by horizontal line across the body. A line running across the eyebrows, a line running across the groin and vertical lines down both sides of the shoulders form the outer boundaries of the frame. This structure forms four distinctive areas known as the "four corners". This area is your own airspace. If anything enters these areas you have to deal with it. Keeping within the boundaries of the four corners 'is the art of good defence.

It is possible to defend the four corners with both the lead and rear hand, although Jeet Kune Do tends to prefer rear hand parries, allowing you to hit simultaneously with the lead Chung Chiue (vertical fist).

If you take a right Bai-Jong (ready position) the left uppergate is covered with a TanSau (palm up high parry), or a Biu-Sau (outer forearm cover). Biu-Sau often takes preference as it covers both curved as well as straight strikes. The right uppergate is covered with Woang Pak (high cross parry). This is often seen in Western Boxing, allowing the defender to move inside of his opponent's jab while hitting on the inside with his own punch. The left lower gate is covered with Loy-Ha-Pak, a sweeping semi-circular parry which clears that area.

The low right gate is covered with Ouy-Ha-Pak, a low slapping parry, to clear the opposite side.
It is important to practice economy of movement when using the four corner parries, try to keep within the boundaries. Any excessive movement of your hands exposes your body to further attack. The idea is to move your hand just enough to control the blow. Don't allow your opponent to take advantage of an over extended parry or he could switch the attack to another line.

The parry is different than a block, the aim is to deflect the blow off its intended target. An inch off the target is a good :\s a mile, you still need to be in range to return your own blows.
Try to parry at the last moment, so that you are not easily drawn by progressive indirect attacks. Against a fast penetrating opponent, you may need to parry while taking a step back, adjust the steps to the length of your opponent's weapon, you still need to be able to return the attack.

Parrying is mde safer by angling the body, slipping and adding footwork to be in more advantageous position to return the attack.

Bruce Lee, through his observations of Western fencing, was able to adapt the principles of fencing to his art. He discovered that parrying was the domain of the fencer and the Wing Chun trained Bruce Lee was already familiar with this concept. There was a distinct similarity to the Wing Chun defence and the Western fencers - both used the imaginary window frame type structure which divided the body into four areas. By removing the blades and adjusting the fighting measure, Lee was able to apply the simple parry, the semi-circular parry, the circular parry and the diagonal parry, all of whicg allowed him to vary his parries so that his opponent would be unable to anticipate his form of defence.
It was a tribute to Bruce Lee's genius that he was able to modify and adapt the principles of one art and apply them to another to come up with a better defence.