My journey begins: how to walk through walls, chop through brick with my bare hands and actually look like I know what I'm doing- 100 days of non-stop Kung Fu training begins today!
You have to have a good sense of humor about your training. I love the focus and intensity of my drills- especially the hardcore singularity of purpose that I feel when I'm training. No distractions or pressure from career or anything else.
But I also love to have fun with the whole thing.
My buddy Tom came over today and we went through some fundamental Hop Gar drills before getting serious about conditioning. After 100 reps with a 16KG KB, it was time for some round robin drills involving clean and presses, roman chair straight-up KB presses and olympic bar pickups. This transitioned into medicine ball/roman chair throw & sit-up reps. Then we just threw the damn thing at each other as hard as we could. Overhand, right and left handed until I was just done. Fun, useful and a good reminder to get creative with the the work that's flexible.
Woke up early and forced myself to get outside and wake up with some Chi-Kung.
Know what?
It works. After ten minutes, I was ready to train- for the next hour and fifteen minutes. Towards the end, I started to feel like I was 'getting it right.' I slowed down my form practice, and concentrated on getting the movement style and breathing down. Becoming rooted and flowing from one stance to the next without thinking so much. Losing the 'stuttering' between movements. For a few seconds towards the end..man, it was great. Supercharged for he rest of the day!
"No time to argue- you throw me the idol, I throw you the whip!"
That's about as much time as I had to hit it today. That's OK- still got in all the forms and turns with forms. Finished it off by upping my iron palm to 30/30 each side. Tomorrow I'll give it the time and focus it deserves.
So my buddy Jarrett, who has been studying Hop Gar and Fu Hok Kung Fu for almost eight years now, passed on this little bit of wisdom:
"Chinese philosopher dudes say that if you want to really get down with something, you have to do it every day- for like, a hundred days."
I like that. It helps me to get a mental handle on getting through this introductory phase of my training and progressing to a point where I'll actually feel like this stuff is clicking. I can catch a glimpse of it every now and then- the more I practice, to be quite honest- so I think this is the way to go. I started today- forms in the a.m and afternoon- and iron palm bag training. (Somebody who is mowing through this uninspired prose might ask at this point: what is that? Or even more importantly- why do I care?)
Iron Palm training is a process that involves daily conditioning of your hands so that they can eventually chop down a tree. No, not exactly. It is designed to gradually toughen the hands to where they become relatively impervious to blunt trauma without becoming numb or deformed or hardened. You should be able to blast through blocks and maybe even somebody's solar plexus with 'iron hands'- and conversely, should also be able to script a delicate bit of calligraphy- Chinese were 'Renaissance' like that, I guess.
The training itself means striking a bag repeatedly in a controlled, forceful (yet relaxed until exact moment of impact) manner using various 'empty hand' blows. My routine: palm down, chop, backfist (knuckles) and front fist knuckle point. Wash, rinse, repeat. Currently doing 25 4-count repetitions for a total of 200 blows per session. After you finish the actual striking, you apply Dit Da Yow oil to yoru hands and massage vigorously- this allows blood to flow to the hand and prevents premature bruising, stiffness or joint damage.
I've enlisted the help of Lee-Ying Arn to show you just exactly how it's done...
Wild, huh? Day 99 tomorrow....
Breakdown of Day:
Forms in the a.m. and in the afternoon- leg training via Kettlebell Lunges/Sumo deadlifts and 100 swings Iron palm: 25/25
