Iron Palm, Iron Claw, Two-Finger Zen, etc

[scottnshelly]

Does anyone on here practice any type of hand conditioning art, such as, but not limited to: Iron Palm, Iron Claw, Two-Finger Zen, One Finger Shooting Zen, Iron Fist, Golden Bell, Iron Shirt?

I'm interested in doing Iron Palm and Two-Finger Zen, but there are no qualified Instructors within 100 miles of me.

[granmasterchen]

It is rather hard to find people that are skilled enough to instruct in these areas any more. I have done lots of training in these areas, but I dont feel that I could properly train someone. I could tell you the info I know, but you could get the same info from several sources online.

[scottnshelly]

Thanks for the reply. I have a beginner's mung bean bag that i have been hitting for a while now. I hit it with my palm, back of the hand, fist and fingers. Is there anything that I should not do while hitting the bag? I know that it is impossible for me to acheive a high state of anything without proper instruction, but i'm hoping if i hit it enough i can at least condition my hands.

Thanks.

[granmasterchen]

That's basically what I did for conditioning. We hit everything from rocks, bricks, thick rough tree bark, boards and so on. We would take bowls or buckets and fill them with dry beans or peas for beginners, work your punches into the bowl and all other hand techs. Then gradually move on to rice, metal ball bearings, sand and eventually gravel. One of the high parts of our test was taking a large bucket, placing an apple at the bottom, filling the bucket with sand and then spear handing throught the sand and snatching the apple. We also did the bowl over an open flame fire like the shaolin did, where we would have a large metal wok and have it full of sand that got really hot (since it was over a fire) and work our strikes into the sand.

[scottnshelly]

That sounds like so much fun. I would love to do the sand or water in the bucket thing, but i have a chain link fence and a neighbors on both sides... I don't want people to talk to me about Martial Arts for some reason. I don't think the wife would like me bringing a big bucket of water into the house and making a mess either.

Ever studied Two-Finger Zen?

Thanks.

[Hudson]

The bucket approach is pretty much how I practice - start out with a bucket of dry rice (Which will also teach you to keep those fingernails short if you don't already), then move up to more dense objects. Also finger pushups for toughening, gradually reducing number of fingers it takes to hold yourself up. This of course relies also on alignment and compression but you still would need strong fingers.

If you can do pushups on your pinkies and pointers and spear hand a bucket of gravel, theres pretty much nowhere to go but down.

[CapitalKarate]

How does this stengthen your hands?

[scottnshelly]

How does this stengthen your hands?

Through conditioning and toughening. Hit your hand on something hard a couple times and see if it don't strengthen it. I don't know the mechanics of it though.

[ncole_91]

For the bucket, is the bucket on the ground and you are punching downwards? Also, for the mung bean bag, could you fill a ziplock bag with sand or something. I am very new to this, but very interested.

[scottnshelly]

For the bucket, is the bucket on the ground and you are punching downwards? Also, for the mung bean bag, could you fill a ziplock bag with sand or something. I am very new to this, but very interested.

Yes, put a bucket on the ground, or on cinder blocks about navel high.

The mung beans should be in a canvas bag, that also helps with the conditioning. If you don't have canvas, rather than ziplock, i would suggest another bucket. You can strike with a fist, spear hand, palm strike, back of the hand, knife hand, elbow, etc.

From what i've read, when the mung beans break down they release a powder that is supposed to help heal your hands.

You can buy these on the world wide web for pretty cheap. I bought mine from some rickity website for less than $20. After I break the beans all the way down, i'll move up to small river rocks.