72: Se-Jong right horizontal fist to double arc-hand block

This set from Se-Jong has baffled me for a long time. I'm still not sure this is what's intended, but it is a use for all the movements.

The instruction to "extend the right fist horizontally" only appears in one other ITF form, Yul-Gok. Many schools perform this like a slow motion punch, but that's not the instruction. To "extend horizontally" is more like a hammerfist strike than a punch.

Given this, what if we use it to push out the opponent's head while grasping their left arm. From here, we can wrap around their head with the supporting arm of the front backfist strike, similar to the gif below.

Source: Kata for Self Defense Shotoryu Goshinjutsu

 

From here the "front backfist" actually becomes a downward elbow strike to the opponent's ribcage.

Walking back-and-left then becomes simply throwing the opponent by pushing down their head. But there is some head-twisting going on. After the downward elbow strike, reach under the opponent's head with your left palm. Then push their left face with your right palm. As you move from here to the twin palm pressing block position, you crank the opponent's head clockwise as you push down, throwing them to the floor.

This head-crank throw may fail if the opponent turns their body clockwise, so instead of falling they end up in front of you.

Therefore, I believe the application of the middle double-arc hand block [1] is simply pushing away the opponent's head to prevent them from tackling you. The key here is the weird orientation: your front stance is facing 45-degrees left, but your "block" actually faces forward, where your opponent's head is.

Taekwondo Time applying a middle double arc-hand block as a tackle defense

In fact, the 45-degree front stance might indicate that you are supposed to get 45-degrees off-line relative to your opponent to push them away from you.

Having your right palm on the opponent's head like this sets up an application for the next three movements of Se-Jong, which I have covered previously.

[1] Note that this is the only use of a middle double arc-hand block in the original 20 patterns. Gae-Baek and Sam-Il utilize high section blocks. So-San tul also uses middle double arc-hand blocks, and follows with an inward knifehand strike, suggesting you may also be pushing the opponent's head. However, the pictures in the Encyclopedia are sometimes confusing because "middle" movements look like high section ones.