Iron Palm Training

 

Copyright by Joerg Quade

If you want to succeed in a fight  you need another very fundamental quality besides skills like technique, speed and a fast reaction : What I mean is "Kung". While the training of techniques and forms is important to develop mobility, flexibility and speed , the "Kung" - which is so to speek the spice in the soup - strengthens the Chi internally and toughens up the skin, tendons and bones externally. This leads you to the insight that techniques are the "jacket" of Kung and that Kung is the basis of each technique. A Chinese proverb says:

"Training the exercises of fighting but not the exercises of Kung will bring you nowhere when you have reached a high age."

In some martial-arts circles people talk about "ornamental fists" or "decoration legs". They say this because they jeer at those who neglect the training of the Kung. The internal part of the Kung (Chi) can be trained by several Qi Gong exercises like the 18 Luo Han Gong. The external part is trained by the "Iron Palm" methods. 

There are three principals which are very important for success:

1) step by step progress

2) perseverance and continuity

3) using suitable medicine

The pictures below show you examples of the "indirect" Iron-Palm method. It is called indirect method because the skin does not come into contact with the training material (sand or iron filings).