New student asking for help.

I am reading a book called "The Art of Shaolin Kung Fu" by Wong Kiew Kit. It goes into pre-iron fist. I am not doing anything harsh to myself like breaking and resetting my knuckels, just thrusting my hands in rice about 100 times a night. If any of you finds this harmful I would gladly stop.

And that you to all your suggestions and help. I take all advice seriously.

Kempoman, I live in just south of Nashville, Tennessee (USA).


Thank you all again.

My advice is to go with a combination of practicing the most basic stuff, while you learn everything you can at the library. Learn the basic front punch, the basic front ball kick, the knife-edge kick, and rear kick, and the four basic blocks. Focus on the four basic stances, horse stance, neutral bow (feet a little wider than shoulder width, toes pointing at about a 45 degree angle, back heel lining up with front big toe) forward bow (from a neutral bow, turn your hips forward, and straighten out your back leg) and reverse bow (from a neutral bow, turn your hips all the way back, and straighten out your front leg). Practice the four basic blocks, inward (raise your clenched fist, and then throw the block across your body to in front of your shoulder, about two feet from your body) outward (bring your clenched fist over by your opposite hip, then throw the block by coming up and back toward your shoulder, should be about 1-2 feet from your body) upward (from your hip, basically throw an uppercut type punch, but go up to your head and snap out your elbow. Your fist should be higher than your elbow and your arm should be about a foot out from your head.) and downward outward (bring your fist up to your opposite shoulder or ear and throw down back across your body to just past your leg, about 1.5 feet out from your body.) These are the most basic moves, and if you can find pictures or diagrams, or someone to show you how, practicing those and perfecting them until you can find a good school to study in will serve you well.

About the stances, different styles use different stances, but most stances are similar to what I described, so if you end up in a Japanese or Okinawan style instead of Chinese, for instance, you will not really have to "relearn" anything, just make slight adjustments.

Thanks man.

Careful with Iron fist, Iron palm.

WKK's methods are OK, but if you truly want an "Iron fist" It takes alot more than that, and is hardly necessar nowdays (do we need to kill or punch through walls).

Practice basic stances. You should be able to find them in many gong fu books. The "cat" stance as many call them (or empty, Xu Bu), the horse stance (ma bu), gong bu (or bow-arrow stance), Pu Bu (lower stance), and Xie Bu (crossed stance). Also try the crane leg stance (leg up, 45 degree up), and hanging leg stance in there for balance and flow purposes. Sit in them at first for a while, and keep back straight abdominal breathing. Then practice moving from one to the other. The stance should stay LEVEL (no bouncing up and down), unless you are jumping from one to a single leg stance (even then its better training to stay level). Don't be stiff, rigid, and slow, flow from one to the other until you can flawlessly transition from on into the other without too much effort, and deliberation.

Wubu quan is a great wushu form with all the basics. I would recommend that, you can find it in alot of the basic wushu vids. Make sure to use full twisting waist power in every punch, make sure to never stiff, relaxed, but never too bent.

Take a look at the Martial Arts Talk thread and a topic "Advanced punching" started by mike88nbd.

The general rule on training is NOT to damage any of the nerves, in the hands especially. Hence the use of chi gung and medicinal ointment ("dit da jow" --- cantonese pronunciation) It is an ancient warning that damaging the nerves in the hands will affect your eyes in a negative way. Thrusting your fists / fingers into rice / beans / iron beads etc with no proper guidance is extremely dangerous, because what you see in books, videos is just the act, but maybe not the precaution these people take to protect their hands.

There were guite a few good basic methods posted by members before the recent overhaul of the system, after which some of these were "deleted" during the process. A pity.