define hoimun hoi means outside the shoulders. It describes any type of outer attack, block, etc. mun means area within your body's reach. So hoimun means the outside gate, the outside shoulder area, or to put it better "external area". "Internal" being the area surrounding the center line, and the other (hoimun)the area outside your shoulder up-to the arms length.... These are terms that describe your field of range within the movements of your body. There are some specific terms for center line, trajectory line, defending line, lines of impact etc,... There is more than 5 or 6 of either.. please do not feed the stereotypical symbolism of the media. There is also "ngoimun" and "jung sin wai" etc,... though I chose my name as the term for outside gate because I feel like the media does not give anyone enough breathing room to just be theirselves. And I also favor attacking the point of impact which usually occurs at hoimun between two good opponents. If Im speaking out of line or off topic, please excuse me.
Actually this is an interesting topic, as my response was going to be different. Admittedly, my schools take on certain theories tends to break from tradition. Ok KF forum members, let us know, how does you're art handle these concepts? For us, we treat the six gates as a method of subdividing the body. Split by the center line, gates 1 & 2 cover the head to the chest line. Gates 3 & 4 cover from the shoulders to the hips. Gates 5 & 6 cover the legs. All of the gates are bound by the outside shoulder lines. From there we typically use 8 lines to extend those gates off the body. - Matt
I am assuming we are talking about the 5 angles of attack (Kali works a lot within this as well) which is simply the diagonal entry points of attack, and the 6 gates being the three segments of the body split by the centreline (gate 1 head to sola plexus, gate 2 sola plexus to groin, gate 3 groin and below)
We don't actually work with these concepts at all in Lung Ying. However, we do use the three heights and eight directions, which when all sumed up probably amounts to about the same thing. Basicly comes down to different directions and areas in which to attack in both cases I suspsect. I'm also very interested to hear an explaination of these principals from those that do use them.
