There is a common knowledge among various Chinese Kung Fu systems - there are 3 gates of arm defense in bare hand combat, which are the Wrist Gate, Elbow Gate and Shoulder Gate.
If you have heard about what is Pak Sau in Wing Chun, Punch Parrying in Boxing, those are using the palm (lower than wrist) to bring off a coming attack. Therefore, it could be said that the attack cannot pass the first gate, the Wrist Gate. If I use my hand to catch the coming attack or even punch away a coming attack, it is also said the attack cannot pass the wrist gate because the contact point is the palm which is lower than the wrist.
Wrist gate is the best choice as it drives away a coming attack which gives you lots of time to counterattack. Imagine how vulnerable your opponent is when he is only attacking the air besides you. We can even put wrist gate defense as an opening for a counterattack. However, Wrist gate is hard to land accurately on the coming attack as palm is comparatively small against the space your opponent can use for an attack. As a strategy to break the 3 Gates of Arm Defense, Chinese Kung Fu has a jargon -腕關踢打， 肘關擒拿， 肩關纏摔 which means keep kicking and punching if your opponent is defensing by wrist gate. Your opponent could hardly land all his Pak Sau or Punch Parrying accurately if you keep punching and kicking.
For the Elbow Gate, it is comparatively easier to land/block accurately on the coming attack than the wrist gate but the counterattack opportunities are fewer than the Wrist gate. The inner block of Taekwando, the upper block of Karate and Kung fu, the Bong Sau of WingChun, in which the contact point is the lower arm from elbow to wrist, is defined as the Elbow gate of defense. The strategy of breaking through the elbow gate, from the Chinese Kung Fu jargon, is the Qin Na or arm catching and anti-joint (elbow) lock.
The Shoulder Gate is the easiest one to block accurately on the coming attack. The Helmet Guard in the Peekaboo of Boxing, or any of those arm-covering motion plus lifting up the shoulder in Philly's Shell are all regarded as Shoulder Gate defense. The Shoulder Gate is the easiest one to accurately block because the defense line is placed right in front of your opponent's target so even if your reaction is not that fast, you can still have a chance to block successfully as your defense line is close to your body. In Wrist Gate defense, you might even need a successful anticipation of your opponent's attack before you can successfully land an accurate parry.
However, the Shoulder Gate defense cannot gives any opportunity or helps to counterattack. Upon a successful Shoulder Gate block, the body of the defense is still under the effect of the attack's momentum. For example, if my helmet Guard blocked a left hook, the force of the left hook would keep pushing my body to turn left a little bit. This turning left motion limited my counterattack really much but my opponent is free to place another attack as his left hook's force has passed to me and he is free to do another attack. For the strategy in the Chinese traditional jargon in facing the shoulder gate defense, it suggests close contact grappling and throws.
The 3 Gates of defense is a general knowledge among various Chinese Kung Fu system. Hope you enjoy the illustration here.
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