ATLA Martial Arts: Ty Lee’s Fighting Style
Another long-scroll post ahead!
As always, I just want to say that I know very little about the technical aspects of most martial arts so take these analyses with a grain of salt. These are just surface-level comparisons I’m making based off what I’ve researched on the internet. If you practice any of these martial arts, feel free to elaborate or correct me on any details.
Watching compilations of Ty Lee’s fight scenes, it seems that her style varies depending on the opponent.
Generally, if she’s confident that she has the upper-hand, she appears to use White Crane Fist (白鶴拳). This is most apparent during her 2-against-1 fight with Katara and every fight she has with Sokka.
The most obvious indication that Ty Lee is using White Crane Fist would be the “beak hands” or gōu shǒu (钩手) she often employs when fighting. As you might have guessed, White Crane Fist seeks to imitate the movements of a crane, particularly its sharp pecks.
However, when her opponent is at a distance from her, she’ll extend her reach by using “sword fingers” instead of “beak hands”. Sword fingers are used for lightning generation and Azula often uses them for firebending as well, so it’s might have been a technique that Ty Lee picked up from the Fire Princess.
According to this website, Crane Fist emphasizes circular movements, grace, and subtlety. The style also requires strong balance, reach, agility, and speed over brute force— all qualities of Ty Lee. Finally, Crane Fist frequently targets the tender spots of the body, hence why Ty Lee often aims for the rib cage or armpits when she fights. It also explains why Ty Lee was not prepared when Sokka countered one of her strikes with his exceptionally hard head. All in all, never challenge Ty Lee to a tickle fight.
According to oral tradition, White Crane Fist was invented by a woman named Fang Qiniang (方七娘), who combined her training in Shaolin Kung Fu with the movements of the white crane to create a new martial art. This makes the style especially appropriate for Ty Lee, as Shaolin is also the fighting style of the Fire Nation. Plus, Ty Lee is a very girlish character so it fits her personality to use a style invented by a woman.
When Ty Lee is disadvantaged in a fight, usually when facing armored opponents, she switches to Phoenix Eye Fist (凤眼拳).
Depending on the source, Phoenix Eye Fist is either a separate style descended from White Crane or simply techniques within White Crane. Either way, the two styles are very similar. The most obvious difference between White Crane and Phoenix Eye are the ways the hands are held: Crane uses a “beak hand”, while Phoenix Eye uses a one knuckle punch (a fist with the fore-knuckle extended).
The advantage of the Phoenix Eye Fist is that it focuses all of your power into a single hard point, giving each blow greater strength and impact. As a result, Phoenix Eye Fist techniques often focus on strikes to the spine, in addition to the usual “soft spots” (throat, groin, etc.) targeted in White Crane.
While I’ve never practiced either style, Phoenix Eye seems a bit more vicious than White Crane, considering all the spinal attacks. It makes sense that Ty Lee usually only uses this technique when her opponent’s back is covered in armor. Nonetheless, digging your knuckle into people’s spines with all the force of a punch is really brutal. Ty Lee is easily the scariest non-bender in Avatar.
If you’d like to see a real-life demonstration of White Crane Fist and Phoenix Eye Fist, click here.
1. Maybe Ty Lee’s gravity defying leaps are meant to emphasize her bird-like fighting style? Also, Ty Lee’s use of circular movements and tendency to get behind people in a fight does add credence to the “Ty Lee has Air Nomad ancestry” fan theory.
2. She also uses Phoenix Eye Fist hands when she fights a non-armored Suki at the Boiling Rock, though she never lands her signature spine jabs. I wonder if Ty Lee’s use of a more brutal style means that Suki was just that much of a threat or if she was fighting that way to appease Azula, who would not approve of her showing mercy during a fight.
Her variety of styles is also another indication that Ty Lee was never a very villainous antagonist, as she only ever uses as much force as necessary to take down an opponent. Jeong Jeong would very much approve of her self control.
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