 |
| Source: David Veiras |
The 2nd Dan pattern Choong-Jang is noteworthy for its library of hand techniques. Here I analyze steps 16-20
16: L palm scooping block
17: R outward knifehand strike
18: Turn around into X-fist pressing block
19: R knee strike while opening palms and pulling arms left
20: Land turning into knifehand guarding block
Officially, the pressing block is supposed to be blocking a front kick, while pulling the hands left has no application given in the Encyclopedia of Taekwon-Do. Grand Master Phap Lu interprets step 19 as pulling the leg out of the way after blocking it.
(Source: LusTaeKwonDo)
While it looks neat, blocking a kick in such a way leaves your head exposed. Let's explore another application that's more practical and integrates with the rest of the movements in the set.
We begin with the palm scooping block, which is not used to scoop up a kick but rather to create an arm lock called maki hiji (elbow wind) after your shoulder is grabbed.
In the pattern we lock the opponent's right arm with our left scooping block. We then step backwards for range and execute the knifehand strike to their neck.
If this fails to finish off the opponent (perhaps they block our knifehand strike with their free hand), we continue to manipulate their right arm. We utilize the 180-degree turn into the pressing block as an outer-wrist throw, also called kotegaeshi.
 |
| (Left) Outer wrist throw from General Choi's 1965 book. Turning into the throw makes it more effective. (Right) An Aikido practitioner demonstrates this throw. |
This is an advanced technique, but 2nd-Dan is an appropriate level to learn such a throw.
What of the knee strike while pulling the hands left? We can use this if the throw fails. We continue to pull the opponent's forearm and wrist down to our left as we execute a right knee strike behind their right knee.
 |
| Strike here with your right knee |
This may seem like an odd use for a knee strike, but the purpose is to keep the opponent toppling backwards while we execute step 20 as a throw.
There are two ways to do this. The first is a simple knockdown throw, pushing the opponent's torso down with the knifehand guarding block as you land behind them and turn around.
A second option is to use the knifehand guarding block as a head crank throw. This is demonstrated by Richard Conceicao (a WT instructor) in this video.
