Yi Quan – Our Style

Born on the battlefields of ancient China, Yi Quan Kung Fu still carries the same combat philosophies of those times and teaches fierce attacking techniques to match, these are the principles and elements of the no-nonsense combat art.

Yi Quan is a Martial Art based on the 5 Elements and is taught as a very powerful, freethinking, free moving Self Defence style. Yi Quan is extremely practical and very efficient in motion and is not taught as a ‘form’ intensive art.

At around 900 years old Yi Quan is one of the oldest of the ‘internal’ martial arts, and the only internal art proven effective on the battlefield. Based on the movements of weaponry, the basic fighting strategy or intention of Yi Quan has a highly aggressive ‘take no prisoners’ attitude, with the goal of incapacitating an opponent as quickly as possible. There are no flashy, overly complicated or unbalanced techniques.

Since the principles of Yi Quan were honed from the battlefield, Yi Quan favours very direct, shocking percussive strikes and incapacitating techniques that strike precise vital points.

Yi Quan does have grappling techniques known as “Chin Na” (grasp and hold), that are rapid, bone jarring or twisting takedowns. The direction of movement in Yi Quan is predominately linear and moves or strikes to the opponent’s earth line i.e. vertical core axis or gravity line.

The 5 Elements of Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth are the base movements and can express all possible combinations of the upper body which can move downward, upward, forward, outward and inward. At certain levels the 11 Animals and 1 Insect influences are introduced. The 12 Animals can then be expressed and delivered using the spirit of those animals in combat, not mimicry as you may see in other Kung Fu Shaolin based systems. The Animals allow better entry and allow the Elements to flow more freely and give the ability to strike more effectively and powerfully with every part of the body.

As training progresses at a more advanced level, Yi Quan does train in weaponry such as the fen gun, fighting sticks, staff or lance, short sword, knife, baton and throwing stars. Yue Fei was a Chinese patriot and nationalist military leader who fought for the Southern Song Dynasty against the Jurchen (a northern tribe which established the Jin Dynasty). He is one of the best-known generals in Chinese history, and widely credited for the creation of the martial art known as Yi Quan and Eagle Claw.