Grandmaster Tse’s Tàijí Fist 280

Now we only have the last two Tàijí Bājìn 太極八勁 to look at, and they are, Zhǒu 肘 and Kào 靠. Zhǒu means shoulder and Kào means elbow. They are both striking, but they are different. Understanding when to strike with the elbow is easier, but striking with the shoulder is more difficult as we need to very close to our opponent. So, these to Jin are about distance. Striking over a long distance is Zhǒu, and although it means elbow, it also covers the hands, the fingers, the legs, in fact any part of the body we use to strike with which is further out than the elbow. So, it represents all strike like punches and kicks. Anything we use to strike that is closer in than the elbow is Kào. So again, although Kào means shoulder, it also cover the back, chest, hips and even the head. Using any of these parts to strike with is Kào. We rarely see anyone use their chest, hip, back or to attack their opponent, but we often see people use their head.

In Tàijíquán 太極拳 we can use any part of the body as Tàijíquán is a circle, like a ball, so we can use any part. Therefore, it is important to realise that striking further out is Zhǒu and striking close to the body is Kào.