Hello friends,

there is a hand movement that you see alot in chinese martial arts, the hand raises to head level and the fingers are together resembling like a birds beak or something, but i notice in this movement that the hand is behind you, you're not looking at it, so i was just wondering what this is used for, i have a few guesses but i wanted to get a perspective from someone wiser than i in the subject.

good day to you all peaces

I'm a neanderthal beginner in IMA terms (so in all certainty, no wiser than anyone here), but I happened to be in place at the time my teacher was demonstrating some of the applications for this posture to a group of senior students(apparently our style, Hao Family Taiji, has at least 3 applications for each posture), each application of single whip/dan bian that I saw, had the back hand (open not beak shaped in our form), actually grabbing a limb controlling it and pushing/cutting/wrapping with the lead hand. I assume this is why sight of the rear hand is not essential. I've studied external arts previously and always thought this hand formation was used for a pecking, or top wrist strike - seems now that this is more likely another or "hidden" or coded movement, designed to obscure the actual application (?) That said, I'd be more than happy to be enlightened by anyone who knows better.

John T.