Lesson 1: Marriage of gravity to increase leverage of movement. By dropping your weight first then stepping back with your right foot to your left forward bow you will have much greater leverage in affecting their center of gravity and creating space away from your opponent on the opening move. If you do not drop your weight and your opponent is holding low on your arms you will likely find that your your right leg went back but your center went nowhere!
Lesson 2: Weapon proximity. With both of your arms pinned, frankly your striking options are limited anyways. However, the ridge hands are already conveniently located near a vital target so no point in making things difficult -- take the easy shot.
Lesson 3: Bracing opponent for the blow. Our left crane hand pulling down on their right shoulder allows us keep their weight over their feet so we dealing with their knees or kicks and it fixes their weight into a position to force the target to full absorb our strike. It is not how much power you generate that matters but how much of that energy is actually absorbed into a target. The bracing insures that retreating is at a minimum so that energy absorption is at a maximum.
Lesson 4: Covering out by clearing your opponent. The right reverse thrust punch at the end to the sternum is to clear our opponent away from us. This is assuming we do not feel it necessary to deliver more damage before clearing. Striking the sternum is an excellent target for moving an opponent backwards. Hitting below this target area (solar plexus or stomach) would cause more folding of the opponent than actual clearing. Wait for this sternum punch to be thrown with the actual shift to the forward bow. DO NOT allow your punch to impact before you have planted from your knee into your forward bow. (It can start slightly before you plant but should not impact until you have that foot on the ground and are actively driving into that forward bow.)
METHODS OF DRILL:
1. You need to have the biggest person in your class squeeze you in a solid bear hug and compare dropping the weight and then stepping back with trying to just step back to the forward bow.
2. Play with varying the timing of your reaction to when the hold is first being set, almost fully set, and is fully set. Note -- dropping the weight first is not needed if they are in the early stages of setting the hold. In this case your expedience in creating distance will serve you better than the lowering of the center of gravity. Also play with skipping the step back and ridge hand altogether if you intercept earlier in the hold. The step back and ridge hand is to create distance once in the bear hug but if the hold is not fully applied that right knee will offer significant deterrence!
3. Have your partner stand at bear hug range while holding a kicking shield so you can apply the technique with full force.
4. In a "worse case scenario" that the hold is so substantial you cannot even apply the opening move try pinching the inner thigh to create some space. (Still a viper snake strategy.)
WHAT IS IN A NAME? The bear hug (our opponent) is countered (disabled) by our actions.