How to Do Lau Gerk aka Kick Defense | Wing Chun

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So the next technique we're going to practice is something called Lau Gerk. Lau Gerk is actually just kind of a slang. It literally means to scoop the leg or scoop the leg of your opponent. It works very well against roundhouse kicks which are quite commonly when you're fighting karate tae kwon do or kick boxing. Roundhouse kicks are very, very common, but it's for a higher level roundhouse kick. If someone giving you a low kick or mid level kick, we have a different solution for that but this is against for someone maybe trying to kick you a little bit higher. At least to the elbow or higher or towards the head.

So, first we have the hand techniques. Alright and they come from the Siu Nim Tau form. If you start from the standard Wing Chun prefighting position, you're are going going to use Gwat Sau which is actually a sweeping motion from the 6th set of the form. You're are going to use the side palm which is going to go all the to the edge. Then you are going to scoop up with the Lao Sau hand and then you're are going to cut forward with the Fat Sau like that.

So when we teach it first we teach it in four steps. So we go 1, 2, 3 and the chop is 4. And then when the students can get that, we compress it into 2. So we go 1 and 2 together. And 3 and 4 together. Now 1 and 2 are very important, because this is what's going to keep your head protected in case the kick is very, very fast, but idly we want to go in and launch the guy as soon as we can. So, we have this only as a safety measure. There are other styles that actually practice a (?) against the round house kick. This we can do if we are caught off guard but standing there and blocking somebody kick full power with your forearms is not the best thing is a self-defense situation. We want to do things that aren't causing damage to our body. We don't always have forearm guards and shin pads when we fight on the street. We need things that work, you know, regardless if whether we have pads or not.

So a real simple progression if we have the wing chun person over here and the person firing the roundhouse kick. What I like to do is, when he takes a step to set up the kick, I'll have my student practice just the first part. So when he takes the step for the kick for the kick, he's going to step in and get his hand ready to go. Alright because this is the most important thing. So he goes for the set up step, hand is in, hand is up here to protect. He's already closing the the gap. The second part, okay after he takes the first one, he goes in. The kick comes, and then when we makes contact he's going to scoop and launch him. This way here. And the idea is to throw the opponent off balance with the kick. Now you have to be very careful when you practice this because you don't want to dump your partner on there head. So we're going to do it slow a few time and then we're going to go from there.

Alright, so you step in, slow and then launch. Like this. Okay. And then we do it in 2 action at first so that the students can get the technique down. 1 and the 2. And then eventually we do it with the passing step all in on action. This way. And that's Lau Gerk.