5: Choong-Jang head crank with thigh kick throw

Source: David Veiras

Traditional forms are often confusing at first glance. But when I first saw Choong-Jang I thought, "This form I get. This looks like a self-defense form." The form has eye pokes, throat strikes, low kicks, strikes with the elbow, strikes with the palm heel, and downward throwing motions. Choong-Jang borrows heavily from the retired form Woo-Nam[1]. Studying differences in the sets might reveal things about the form's design.

In this post I'll provide an application for the set

• Back stance knifehand guarding block
• Step and slide forward into back stance side elbow strike
• Shift into back stance knifehand guarding block
• Front leg side kick
• Land turning 180-degrees into cat stance twin palm pressing block

Use the first move as a block (using blocks as blocks; how novel), deflecting an opponent's attack inward. Grab their arm and pull it towards your hip (reaction hand) while striking their ribs with your elbow. The slide is used to increase the strength of the strike and bring you closer to your target. From here we'll add a small hidden move: a shoulder bump, which will force our opponent to lower their head.

Source: One Minute Bunkai

Inner-thigh lift throw from the
Encyclopedia of Taekwon-do

So far so good? Next, use the second knifehand guarding block as a head crank. Grab the opponent's head with the chamber (right hand under, left hand on top), and use the "block" to crank the opponent's head counter-clockwise, from your perspective. (Aside: if you haven't been following, this is a common alternate application for the knifehand guarding block. If you bring your palms in parallel, it's like you are holding a head in between them). To complete the throw, kick out their left thigh with the front leg side kick. Turn 180-degrees and continue to crank their head, eventually pushing it to the floor (twin palm pressing block).

The throw is mechanically similar to Judo's uchi mata (inner-thigh lift throw), which appears in the throwing section of the Encyclopedia of Taekwon-Do (right image). In an uchi mata, the kick is used between the opponent's legs in order to lift up their inner thigh. Also, in modern Judo a skipping side kick, rather than a simply front leg side kick, is used to get more leverage. In Choong-Jang I think the intent is more to kick back the opponent's leg, but if you miss the front thigh then you can turn the technique into an inner-thigh lift throw instead.

Please note that this application can potentially hurt someone's neck. Grabbing your partner's clothes while practicing the throw is safer.

Bonus: Woo-Nam version

This set has changed from its original version in Woo-Nam. In this version, the movements after the side elbow strike[2] are:

• Bring both fists to the right hip ("cup and saucer" or "small hinge" block), while raising the left leg
• Left leg side kick to the side
• Land forward into back stance twin palm pressing block

In this case the throw is just an o soto gari with a head push.[3]

Left: The set from Woo-Nam, performed by C.K. Choi. Source: Byresha Boraiah
Right: An o soto gari throw

O soto gari throws are common in the forms. Perhaps that's why when Choong-Jang was made the set was reworked into a different kind of throw.


[1] The reason Choong-Jang is part asymmetric and part symmetric is that the asymmetric sections are based on Woo-Nam, whereas the symmetric sections are new material added by Kim Bok Man and Woo Jae Lim, who made symmetric forms. Woo-Nam is often referred to as "U-Nam", but according to C.K. Choi this is not the proper pronunciation.

[2] In some performances of Woo-Nam, a front stance upward elbow strike (with the front arm) is used instead. It's hard to say which is the original version, but the intended application seems to be a strike.

[3] The opening set of the original Koryo (a Kukki-taekwondo form) has the same application, except a low X-fist block is used to push down the head.