Biu Jee 標指 (finger jab to eyes)

Biu Jee 標指 (finger jab to eyes)

If I were in unavoidably lethal but weaponless combat, with no goal but victory over the opponent, and could only have one move, it would be fingers to eyes (with uncut fingernails – the longer the better).

Bruce Lee doing a Jak Jeung 側掌 vs Dan Lee.
Bruce Lee demonstrating Jak Jeung (sidewards palm) with Biu Jee (finger jab to eyes).
Bruce Lee demonstrating a Finger Jab (Biu Jee)
Bruce Lee demonstrating a long-reaching version of the Finger Jab. Notice the rear hand is covering his chin – it’s ready to intercept anything that might come back at him, while also ready to follow up with another strike.

In Japanese Karate (Kara Te), the basic flat-handed version of a finger jab, is called Nukite (Nuki Te, 貫手) which means Piercing Hand and is often translated as Spear Hand.

Fingernails can help a lot

Fingernails can make a lot of difference in empty-handed combat. They’re especially useful for ladies – as an equalising force – but not only for them, since God gave men fingernails too.

Fingernails increase your range, not only because they extend the length of your reach, but because their hardness & sharpness combined with the sensitivity of the primary target (eyes) means you barely need to reach your target and flick your fingers to achieve the desired effect. Nail-less finger strikes require more pressure and motion, not only closer range in order to reach.

It’s also easier for an empathetic warrior to be dispassionate when flicking fingernails because you don’t ‘feel’ the target in so much gory detail when you make contact via nails.

There are three main strike-oriented styles in finger & nail based combat: Snake style (darting fingers, snaking arms), Tiger style (pawing & clawing), and Crane style (incorporating the Crane Break).

  • Snake style employs darting fingers from maximum range, as in JKD. This is also typical of Wing Chun finger strikes (Biu Jee) in Ip Man lineages.
  • Tiger style is more defensively structural, using neutral Chi Sau range Wing Chun structures, with Yi Quan style pawing hands – like Xing Yi monkey paws but with a tall uncontracted posture – plus a pinky-first fist-clenching style of raking like we see in Wing Chun forms.
  • Crane style finger striking is equal to what is known as the Chicken Beak Hand, or the Chicken Head Strike, or the Eagle Fist Strike, in Karate and other Japanese martial arts. Notice the common theme – they’re all birds, because fingers are pinched together into the shape of a beak, for their protection, and the hand strikes in a pecking action much like a bird would peck with its beak. This stronger structure is useful if you’re worried about breaking your fingers when doing finger strikes. It also makes it more possible to target the temple and other areas more durable than the eyes, while focusing the impact force into a very small surface area for an acute reaction, although the result would be less guaranteed so I wouldn’t personally recommend you worry about this until you’ve mastered the fundamentals already.

There is also Eagle Claw style, but this is more of a grappling style – it’s concerned mostly with wrist grabs, throat grabs, elbow grabs, eye gouges, nut grabs, etc. Eagle Claw is best done with only slightly protruding fingernails – this is not something I teach – I’m focusing on styles compatible with indefinitely long nails here. Styles where you won’t get yourself tangled up either.

Bruce Lee doing a Hok Jui 鶴嘴 (Crane Beak) strike
Bruce Lee demonstrating a Hok Jui 鶴嘴 (Crane Beak) strike on his student Taky Kimura. It’s also known as Chicken Beak in Japanese martial arts. Notice how the lower hand is doing a simultaneous block using the same hand structure.

The Role of the Fist, in the Way of the Nail

With long fingernails, the fist is different – you can not fully clench your fist without stabbing yourself in the palm. So you do a Tai Chi Single Whip hand structure instead – you can still punch this way. It should be more of a cleanly measured precision shot. Ensure you have a straight wrist during point of impact. The fist may twist one way or the other, to help drive the ‘glancing chipping’ or ‘sinking digging’ energy like the Drilling Fist from Xing Yi. Alternatively, you could drive your Single Whip shaped hand straight forward, to strike with the PIP knuckle of your index finger which will be slightly more protruding than the other knuckles – this is the Phoenix Eye punch. All these finesse-demanding punches have their place in the way of the nail, but punching still has less range than finger-striking, and fingernails give you even more range.


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