I only skimmed the book “Avatar: the Art of the Last Airbender” (which is my sister’s book) but it said the “Bending” in the series was based on martial arts moves. In fact, the series was based on the concept of something based on martial arts with an Asian theme, according to the book – the book also states that the creators were fans of martial arts films, Bruce Lee I believe. Therefore Zuko’s move was one of these moves. I suggest that you look the relevant information up on Google Books – you don’t have to buy the book, just type the result Google Book Search and it will direct you to a list of books. Press on of them to get you to the relative page, or if it lands you to the beginning of the book, just go down afterwards. Of course, there is the possibility when you click on one of the books it won’t direct you to the page at all – I just thought that you should know that.