Tongbeiquan (Through-the-Back Boxing)
通背拳A northern Chinese style that carries force across the back from one arm into the other. The arms stay relaxed like a rope and stiffen only at the instant of impact.
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About Tongbeiquan (Through-the-Back Boxing)
Tongbeiquan, literally fist passing through the back, is named for the way it generates power. In most striking styles the movement starts in the leg and runs through the hip into the arm; here the ribcage also opens and closes and the shoulder blades move across the back, so that force is transferred from one arm to the other across the trunk. The arms meanwhile stay relaxed and hang like a rope with a weight at the end — they stiffen only at the instant of impact. Visually the style is unmistakable: long swinging strikes led from above or from behind, open palm more often than fist, the body turning while the arms circle around it. The speed is high and strikes come in strings, because a relaxed arm returns at once after landing. The style comes from northern China and its strongest lines are in Hebei, especially around Cangzhou; tradition mentions masters from Ningxia and dates its origin to the seventeenth century, though lineages can be traced with certainty only from the nineteenth. Tongbei is often trained together with piguaquan, since they complement each other — tongbei supplies reach and speed, pigua the hardness of the landing. By tradition the style divides into several branches — most often named Qi, Ma and Shao — which differ in the degree of swing and the depth of the stances.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.