Aplications of Leopard Fist?

[White Raven]

Hi, all. I have never practed kung fu and i admit i am ignorant. I was wondering why kung fu students practice forming and striking with leopard fist. To me it looks weaker than forming a regualar fist. Where ever i read about Leopard style, the words "speed" and "agility" always manage to turn up. How does Leopard fist enable fast strikes? What are the typical targets when your hands are clenched like a Leopards? Any useful links also appreciated. thanks for your patience.

[CEB]

This is secret stuff.

[ling hou]

Well, in my style of Hou Quan (monkey boxing) we use what is a classical leopard's fist.
The way we use it is to split muscles: i.e. think of hitting the shoulder on the front where the pectorals major and the deltoid overlaps. Because you are using a smaller surface area (leopard's fist) you can penetrate into the tissue which a normal fist cannot (larger surface area).

[Lame Leopard]

The main advantage of the Kung Fu Leopard Fist, or Half Fist in Kenpo, is that it can reach into a smaller target area than the regular fist. The throat is a good example of this. If someone lowers their chin, there may be just enough room to get the Leopard Fist in. The penetration factor mentioned in the previous post is also important.

[sean_stonehart]

Kurt is spot on.

You use the pao kuen or leopard hand to split & divide to dig deep into soft tissue areas.

Think of it like this.... in gardening or ditch digging... you use a a pickaxe or something similar to go very deep very quick. A thinner, pointed tool at the point of impact as opposed to a larger/wider tool than say a flat head shovel.

Same with the fist. In Choy Li Fut we use that fist about 90% (give or take) of the time or more when we clinch up a fist. Vertical, horizontal or twisted, it's all the same. A small surface area carried with energy & intent into a soft tissue target area for maximum effect as opposed to a larger, "blunt" object like a normal fist.

I'm not knocking a regular fist, absolutely not. But for specific applications & targets, it's hard to beat. That is of course if proper training & conditioning have been to done to prepare the hand for useage like that.

[Jow Ga Soldier]

Kurt did nail it on the head. I always thought of the Leopard or cougar fist as more of a piercing technique. The fist is more like hammer. The cougar fist is more of knife or spear. It's definitely helps when attacking those soft and small places that a fist can't get to. I think it has the capabilty to do some serious damage. Do any other practitioners notice how brual these animal techniques are? (cougar, snake, crane, tiger, dragon, eagle etc) It seems like these are the ones that put exclamation point of fight.