Limping Duck
Limping Duck is a style of wushu that originated in the Guangdong region of China. It is a striking martial art combining elements of crane and mantis wushu styles with irregular, unpredictable, and highly asymmetrical movements of the legs and feet. The style stresses a contrast between balance and stillness in the torso with unnatural, robotic use of the limbs.
Limping Duck is regarded by it’s detractors as detached and irrelevant in comparison to its more popular cousins, partially because the majority of wushu practitioners favor symmetry, reason, and artfulness in the martial arts. Limping Duck centers more on the study and utility of the stranger and thereby less predictable striking capabilities of the body. However, the style still emphasizes a stock-still and rigid torso as the foundation that makes these movements possible.
Techniques
The entire Limping Duck style is rooted in balance. Practitioners insist that any bizarre, uneven technique will be effective if it has a perfect base to originate from. Thus, a student of Limping Duck will spend a large portion of his training honing his balance with exercises called "freezes" that are intended to improve posture. These mostly involve hand motions that trace the body's vertical and lateral centers of balance.
Limping Duck features a variety of stances and strikes alien to more mainstream wushu styles. The default stance is called "preparation". In this stance, the practitioner brings the dominant hand to the eye level in one of four positions, depending on intention, while the other hand is brought to the hip in a fist. The dominant leg is relaxed and lifted slightly off the ground. Movement from point to point is achieved with an array of sweeping and dragging motions with the dominant leg that slide the user across the floor without shifts of weight.
Attacks with the hands include a range of palm strikes and finger jabs, often in conjunction with odd contortions of the elbow that allow the user to attack from unusual angles. Kicks are performed almost exclusively with the relaxed, lifted leg, referred to as the "favored" leg. These kicks typically entail low sweeps and assaults on the shins and knees, with some high snap kicks as well.