YMAA Chin Na 擒拿
The Chinese Art of Seizing & Controlling
Chin Na (Qin Na – 擒拿) is the traditional Chinese martial art of seizing, locking and controlling an opponent. Rather than being a single independent style, Chin Na is a fundamental fighting skill found throughout Chinese martial arts and forms an important part of the traditional training taught within the Yang’s Martial Arts Association (YMAA).
The Chinese characters Qin (擒) and Na (拿) can broadly be understood as “seize” and “control.” Chin Na therefore encompasses methods of controlling an opponent through joint manipulation, gripping, twisting, pressure, leverage, takedowns and the control of vulnerable areas of the body.
Within traditional Chinese martial arts, fighting skills are commonly divided into four major categories:
Ti (踢) – Kicking
Da (打) – Striking
Shuai (摔) – Wrestling and throwing
Na (拿) – Seizing and controlling
Chin Na represents the controlling component of this traditional fighting system and provides an important bridge between striking and wrestling range.
Origins & History
The origins of Chin Na stretch deep into the development of Chinese martial arts.
Methods of seizing, joint manipulation and controlling an opponent developed alongside Chinese wrestling, military combat and traditional barehand fighting systems. Over centuries these methods were incorporated into many different styles of Chinese martial arts rather than developing into one universally standardised Chin Na system.
Certain systems became particularly renowned for their Chin Na skills, including Shaolin, White Crane, Eagle Claw, Tiger Claw, Praying Mantis and Taijiquan.
Different styles consequently developed different approaches. Some emphasised powerful gripping and joint manipulation, while others concentrated upon sensitivity, leverage, pressure points, takedowns or controlling an opponent's structure.
The result is an enormous traditional body of knowledge containing hundreds of techniques, principles and variations.
Chin Na within YMAA
Within YMAA, Chin Na has been researched, organised and taught extensively by Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming (楊俊敏), founder of Yang’s Martial Arts Association.
Dr. Yang began his martial arts training in Taiwan and in 1961 began studying under Master Cheng, Gin-Gsao (曾金灶), a highly respected master of Shaolin White Crane.
During approximately thirteen years of study with Master Cheng, Dr. Yang learned not only White Crane barehand fighting and weapons, but also White Crane Chin Na, Qigong, Tui Na massage, Dian Xue and traditional methods of treating martial injuries.
This relationship is particularly important when understanding the origins of YMAA Chin Na.
The principal YMAA Chin Na lineage can be represented as:
Traditional Fujian White Crane
↓
Master Jin, Shao-Feng
↓
Master Cheng, Gin-Gsao (曾金灶)
1911–1976
↓
Grandmaster Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming (楊俊敏)
Founder of YMAA
↓
Senior YMAA Masters & Chin Na Instructors
↓
YMAA Schools Worldwide
Dr. Yang subsequently combined this inherited knowledge with decades of research into Chinese martial arts theory and his extensive experience in White Crane, Shaolin Longfist and Yang Style Taijiquan.
The Chin Na taught within YMAA should therefore be understood not simply as a collection of joint locks, but as a systematic study of the principles which make seizing and controlling techniques work.
Master Cheng, Gin-Gsao
A major figure in the YMAA Chin Na lineage is Dr. Yang’s White Crane teacher, Master Cheng, Gin-Gsao.
Master Cheng began learning Taizuquan from his grandfather as a child before undertaking approximately twenty-three years of White Crane training under Master Jin, Shao-Feng.
When the fifteen-year-old Yang Jwing-Ming became his student in 1961, Master Cheng introduced him to the demanding methods of traditional White Crane training.
Their training extended well beyond forms.
Dr. Yang studied fighting applications, White Crane power generation, conditioning, weapons, Qigong and Chin Na alongside traditional Chinese methods of massage and martial injury treatment.
This combination is significant because traditional Chin Na requires an understanding not only of how to lock a joint, but also of human anatomy, body structure, leverage, positioning, sensitivity and the vulnerabilities of the human body.
Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming & Modern Chin Na
Few modern Chinese martial arts teachers have done more to systematically document and disseminate Chin Na internationally than Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming.
Through decades of teaching, research, books and instructional programmes, Dr. Yang organised a vast traditional subject into principles which students could methodically study and understand.
His landmark works include Analysis of Shaolin Chin Na and Comprehensive Applications of Shaolin Chin Na, together with an extensive series of instructional programmes demonstrating Chin Na principles, applications, counters and training methods.
Rather than simply memorising hundreds of techniques, YMAA students are encouraged to understand why a technique works.
Once the underlying principles are understood, Chin Na becomes adaptable. The practitioner learns to recognise opportunities and create or modify techniques according to the opponent’s position and reaction.
What Does YMAA Chin Na Train?
YMAA Chin Na training progresses from basic mechanical understanding towards increasingly spontaneous application.
Training may include:
Joint Locking & Manipulation
Controlling the fingers, wrist, elbow, shoulder, neck and other joints through leverage, rotation and structural manipulation.
Fen Jin – Dividing the Muscle/Tendon
Using twisting, separating and controlling actions against muscles, tendons and joints to create pain, structural weakness and control.
Cuo Gu – Misplacing the Bone
Manipulating the skeletal structure and joints away from their normal alignment in order to control or incapacitate an opponent.
Pressure & Cavity Control
Applying pressure to vulnerable areas of the body to create pain, weaken resistance or assist another controlling technique.
Seizing & Gripping
Developing the hands, fingers and forearms so that an opponent can be securely seized and controlled.
Takedowns & Controls
Combining Chin Na with balance breaking and wrestling principles to bring an opponent to the ground while maintaining control.
Counters & Counter-Chin Na
Learning to recognise a Chin Na technique early enough to escape, neutralise or reverse it.
Sensitivity & Reaction Training
Developing the ability to feel changes in pressure, direction and body structure rather than relying solely upon eyesight or muscular strength.
Chin Na & White Crane
White Crane provides one of the most important foundations for YMAA’s Chin Na.
White Crane specialises in close-range fighting, controlling the opponent’s arms, attacking vulnerable areas and generating powerful short-range force.
Chin Na naturally complements these skills.
A strike may create an opportunity to seize. A block may become a lock. A failed lock may become a strike, throw or another Chin Na technique.
This continuous relationship between Da – striking and Na – controlling is characteristic of advanced Chinese martial arts.
Chin Na & Longfist
YMAA’s Shaolin Longfist training provides another perspective.
Longfist develops mobility, kicking, long-range striking, coordination and expansive movement. As fighting distance closes, however, striking can naturally transition into grabbing, wrestling and Chin Na.
The practitioner therefore learns to move through the traditional fighting ranges:
Kick → Strike → Seize → Lock → Throw → Control
Rather than treating striking and grappling as unrelated subjects, traditional training seeks to connect them into one continuous fighting method.
Chin Na & Tai Chi Chuan
Chin Na also forms an important part of the martial applications of Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan.
Tai Chi Chin Na places particular emphasis upon sensitivity, yielding, sticking, following and controlling the opponent’s centre.
Through Push Hands training, practitioners develop the ability to recognise tension and structural weakness through touch.
Instead of meeting strength directly with strength, an experienced practitioner attempts to lead the opponent into a vulnerable position before applying Chin Na.
At a high level, the distinction between striking, Chin Na, pushing and throwing becomes increasingly small. Each can arise naturally according to the opponent’s reaction.
Famous Chin Na Masters
Because Chin Na historically exists within many Chinese martial arts rather than as one independent style, there is no single universal Chin Na lineage.
Numerous martial traditions became famous for sophisticated seizing methods, particularly Shaolin, Eagle Claw, White Crane, Praying Mantis and Taijiquan.
Within the YMAA tradition, the most important historical figures include:
Master Jin, Shao-Feng
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Master Cheng, Gin-Gsao
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Grandmaster Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming
Dr. Yang has subsequently become internationally recognised for his systematic teaching and documentation of Chinese Chin Na.
His work has helped make principles which were once transmitted primarily from teacher to student accessible to martial artists throughout the world
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Senior YMAA Chin Na Masters & Instructors
At the head of the modern YMAA Chin Na tradition is Grandmaster Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming, whose decades of research, teaching and documentation established the technical foundation of the YMAA Chin Na curriculum.
Through many decades of international teaching, Dr. Yang transmitted this knowledge to generations of YMAA students, with a number progressing through YMAA’s formal Chin Na training and ranking system to senior instructor levels.
Among the notable senior YMAA practitioners and ranked instructors associated with the preservation and transmission of Chin Na are:
Grandmaster Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming
YMAA Founder & Chin Na Grandmaster
Dr. Yang is the principal source of the modern YMAA Chin Na curriculum.
Drawing particularly upon the White Crane Chin Na transmitted to him by his teacher, Master Cheng, Gin-Gsao, Dr. Yang spent decades researching, organising and teaching the principles of Chinese seizing and controlling.
His books and instructional programmes, particularly Analysis of Shaolin Chin Na and Comprehensive Applications of Shaolin Chin Na, have made him one of the most internationally recognised modern authorities on traditional Chinese Chin Na.
Jim Noble
Senior YMAA Instructor – Chin Na
Jim Noble is among the senior YMAA practitioners to have undertaken the organisation’s specialised Chin Na training and ranking programme.
As part of the generation trained through the traditional YMAA curriculum established by Dr. Yang, his experience represents the continued transmission of Chin Na as a distinct area of advanced study alongside YMAA Shaolin and Taijiquan training.
David Grantham
YMAA Chin Na Instructor
David Grantham is one of YMAA’s notably experienced and formally ranked Chin Na instructors.
After many years of training within YMAA, he was awarded Assistant Instructor in Chin Na in 2000 and subsequently achieved the rank of YMAA Chin Na Instructor in 2007.
His extensive training also encompasses Shaolin, Taijiquan and Qigong, illustrating the way Chin Na connects the different branches of the wider YMAA curriculum.
Master Robert Wąs
YMAA Master of Shaolin & Taijiquan & Chin Na Instructor
Master Robert Wąs of Poland is one of Dr. Yang’s senior disciples and one of the leading figures in the development of YMAA in Europe.
Beginning his official YMAA training in 1989, he trained extensively under Dr. Yang and other renowned Chinese martial arts teachers. He subsequently achieved YMAA Master level, together with senior ranking and extensive experience across Shaolin Kung Fu, Taijiquan, Qigong and Chin Na.
For many years Master Wąs has travelled internationally teaching YMAA Kung Fu, Taijiquan, Qigong and Chin Na, helping transmit Dr. Yang’s curriculum to subsequent generations of European instructors.
Master Pedro Rodrigues
YMAA Master of Shaolin & Taijiquan & Senior Chin Na Instructor
Master Pedro Rodrigues of Portugal is another of Dr. Yang’s senior European disciples and has played an important role in the development and preservation of YMAA throughout Europe.
A YMAA Master in Shaolin Kung Fu with extensive training in Taijiquan, Qigong and Chin Na, Master Rodrigues has taught internationally for many years and continues to transmit Dr. Yang’s traditional curriculum through seminars, camps and instructor training.
Together, Masters Robert Wąs and Pedro Rodrigues represent an important direct connection between Dr. Yang’s generation and today’s European YMAA schools.
Paul Moran
Shaolin Instructor 4th Duan (Shaolin level 9) & Senior YMAA Instructor – Chin Na
Paul Moran of YMAA Ireland is a senior YMAA practitioner and instructor whose training encompasses the organisation’s traditional Shaolin Kung Fu, White Crane, Longfist, Chin Na, Sanda and Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan curriculum.
Through many years of continued study within YMAA, including training under senior international YMAA Masters and instructors, he has progressed through YMAA’s formal training and ranking structure and continues to teach and preserve Chin Na as an integral component of traditional Chinese martial arts training in Ireland.
Rather than teaching Chin Na simply as a collection of isolated joint locks, the YMAA Ireland approach maintains its relationship with White Crane, Longfist, Taijiquan, Chinese wrestling and practical fighting applications.
Continuing the YMAA Chin Na Tradition
The transmission of YMAA Chin Na can therefore be viewed as a continuing chain:
Traditional Chinese Martial Arts & Fujian White Crane
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Master Jin, Shao-Feng
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Master Cheng, Gin-Gsao
↓
Grandmaster Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming
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Senior YMAA Masters & Chin Na Instructors
Jim Noble • David Grantham • Robert Wąs • Pedro Rodrigues • Paul Moran
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Today’s YMAA Instructors & Students
Through this continued transmission, Chin Na remains a living component of YMAA training rather than simply a historical collection of techniques.
Students learn not only what technique to apply, but why it works — developing an understanding of anatomy, leverage, angles, sensitivity, timing, balance and control which ultimately allows Chin Na principles to arise naturally within practical martial application.
Chin Na for Practical Self-Defence
Chin Na is particularly useful when simply striking an opponent is either inappropriate or unnecessary.
Depending upon the circumstances and the practitioner’s skill, Chin Na may allow an attacker to be restrained, moved or controlled without immediately relying upon heavy striking.
This makes the study particularly valuable for understanding:
• Escapes from grabs and holds
• Standing grappling
• Joint control
• Balance breaking
• Restraint and control
• Takedowns
• Counters to grappling
• Transitions between striking and grappling
Against a determined attacker, however, Chin Na is not practised in isolation.
YMAA training recognises that successful application requires correct timing and positioning and may need to be integrated with strikes, footwork, balance breaking or wrestling.
This is why Chin Na is best understood as one component of a complete traditional Chinese martial arts system rather than as an isolated collection of self-defence techniques.
The Goal of YMAA Chin Na Training
The ultimate goal of Chin Na training is not to accumulate hundreds of memorised joint locks.
It is to understand the principles behind them.
Students initially learn individual techniques so that they can understand leverage, angles, body mechanics, anatomy and control. With continued practice these movements become increasingly instinctive.
The practitioner learns how one technique can flow into another when the opponent resists, escapes or changes direction.
At an advanced level, the practitioner does not necessarily decide beforehand which Chin Na technique to perform.
Instead, through sensitivity, timing and experience, the opponent’s movement reveals the technique.
This reflects one of the central ideas within traditional Chinese martial arts:
“Do not simply collect techniques — understand the principles from which the techniques are created.”
Within YMAA, Chin Na therefore represents much more than joint locking.
It is the study of seizing, controlling and understanding the human body’s structure, and an essential link between the striking, wrestling and internal skills preserved within traditional Chinese martial arts.
YMAA Chin Na – Seize • Control • Understand • Apply