Soft Style

SDK Choy Lay Fut:  Chinese martial arts (in general) are referred to as soft style martial arts.  Our Soft Style Path is based on the hand and weapon forms of Southern Choy Lay Fut Kung Fu.  Choy Lay Fut emphasizes strong stances, fast fists, dynamic footwork and excellent balance.  This Path is designed for people with strong athletic backgrounds, better flexibility, and a respect for the beauty of Chinese martial arts.

This style is based on the Lee Koon Hung  line of Southern Choy Lay Fut.  See a YouTube video of Lee Koon Hung Below:

I learned Choy Lay Fut from his student Mak Hin Fai.  See a video of the young sifu Mak doing his signature form:

Soft Style Hand Forms

  • Basics 1-5: The core movement sequences in the Choy Lay Fut System are all contained in these basic sets.
  • Plum Blossom Fist: This is a long-fist mid-level form which adds some dynamics to the basics.
  • Cross-Pattern Fist (Part 1 & 2): Sup Ghee is the godfather of all Choy Lay Fut forms.  Some people say that if you don’t know Sup Ghee, you don’t know Choy Lay Fut.
  • Escape the Circle: Choy Lay Fut is known for its applications against multiple attackers, and this set is a great starting point for those applications.
  • 5-Animals Fist: Many Chinese styles have a 5-animals form.  The five animals of CLF are tiger, snake, crane, leopard and dragon.
  • Signature Fist: Lee Koon Hung (my sigung) had a distinctive interpretation of CLF and this set was his signature.
  • Tiger Fist: Fu Ying is one of the most dynamic CLF forms with its jumps and kicking combinations, not everyone can be as graceful and powerful as a tiger.
  • Tiger-Panther Fist: Fu Pau has the strength of the Fu Ying, but its footwork is deep and grounded, like the leopard ready to spring.  Fu Pau has few kicks and some awesome counter-punch sequences.
  • Crane Fist: Hoc Ying is possibly the most artistic and difficult forms in all of martial arts.  The crane has fast broad and fast wings with explosive footwork with leaping to one-leg balancing.
  • Level Elbow Fist: Ping Jaan is an advanced hand form which requires all of your basics to be rock solid.  Ping Jaan shares characteristics with several other sets and yet is unique.
  • 8-Trigrams Fist: Ba Gua Sum is the most advanced CLF set.  The energy of this form is so distinct, it makes you wonder whether or not you are cut out for kung fu.

Soft Style Weapons Forms

  • Basic Staff: Good foundational soft style staff, simple footwork.
  • Flat Cane Staff: This set is a mid-level form with some good staff basics.
  • Dragon Staff: The whirling staff of Choy Lay Fut – a lot of spinning and some cool grip changes.  Not very practical, but fun to learn.
  • Long Staff: The Big Red Flag staff is a great long range staff set.  Simple, powerful and very useful for spear applications as well.
  • 13 Lunges Spear: Many people consider this form to be basic, but I have found it to have a lot of complexity and depth.  This one is my favorite soft style long weapon.
  • Right Hand Spear: This spear form is good for developing the thrust.
  • Taming the Tiger Trident: The Tiger Fork form provides a good “warm-up” for learning the Kwan Do.  Because of the size and weight of the weapon, Tiger Fork has some good strengthening benefits.
  • Kwan Do: This is a classic weapon and a beautiful form.  The triple jump and behind-the-back and around-the-head sequences generalize to almost all long weapons.
  • Basic Sword: The single broadsword introductory form – good for coordination and shoulder development.
  • Single Broadsword: Fu Mei Dan Do – The Tiger’s Tail broadsword.  Learn to move your sword like the whipping movement of a tiger’s tail.  This form is awesome for linear sword attack and defense with some cool jumping footwork and great one-leg balancing with the blade.  Single broadsword also helps develop the single stick techniques.
  • Double Broadsword: The double broadsword is my favorite short weapon set – it has it all – beauty, power, and flow.  The double broadsword applies to the double sticks, stick and dagger and the butterfly knives.
  • Double Butterfly Knives: Butterfly knives are a very challenging weapon to master.  This set forces you to develop your left hand and also requires you spin, jump and cut simultaneously with both hands.

Soft Style Drills

  • Bang arms: Great forearm development drill.  Bang arms also has a few cool applications for empty hand to stick and arm bars.
  • Push hands: This shoulder development drill is great for core strength and upper back strength.
  • 5-wheel punch: A partner drill that helps us understand the CLF blocking style, and has some great (simple) applications for self-defense training.