Stone River Kung Fu

Cannon and Hammer




The Cannon and Hammer set is primarily a used to teach power generation from stances. The power generated from moving into, out of, and while in a stance is focused into the techniques. Being a straight line form, the fighting ability is not as easy as it would appear.

The Cannon and Hammer set requires that the practitioner be in good physical shape. You don't want to skimp on the big exercises. The Pushups, the squats, sit-ups, chin-ups, and body conditioning are all fundamental to success with this form. Stance work is also required. Moving into and out of deep stances will not work if you only train to hop around and get one lucky strike in during your random, drunken barrage.

One Stance, One Punch was a basic form that used the posture to fight. Cannon and Hammer (CaH) uses the strength of the Stance-work to power the techniques. Not quite at the level of the Karate concept of the perfect technique at the perfect moment, CaH uses the stance for defense and the limbs to attack. This is important since, I am guessing, you don't want to eat punches all day. While there are many arm movements which can, and do, block; they mostly move limbs aside so that you can safely step into that location. Once the step is assured, the strike then expresses power. The important detail is that you are stepping to a location where the opponent's strike does not impede your own. At this stage your stance-work should already have power and it is time to learn how to use it.

There aren't any kicks in this form. All of the leg attacks are simply the result of moving with a stance with power. This technically makes them sweeps or knee strikes, depending on the hight of the target. This can be considered the level just before kicking. You don't want to break the stance in order to kick, but you don't want to avoid leg contact either. The answer is to simply slam the stance into the opponent.

Now we get to the fighting. In Combat, it takes more to fight someone than simply punching hard. You must punch correctly. Your opponent should be week, and if not week than he should miss entirely. Tactics involve setting the moment up in such a way that every action is powerful and is performed from a direction that the opponent can't defend from. Cannon and Hammer moves from the assumption that two objects cannot fill the same space. Two stances cannot have equal stability when they are compared against each other. These statements are to build the proper mind set to fight with Cannon and Hammer.

When stepping into the oppponents stance, you step where they aren't. When turning from one stance to another, the leg will be striking from the side and the opponents stance should fail. The Punch is just a punch and only needs to hit the opponent. The Stance is everything. How your stance hits the opponents stance and how you step past the target are the crucial moments in this form. All of the applications begin and end with the stance and its location in relation to the target individual.





This page has been visited times. This page was last updated Novamber 30, 2007