Chinese Iron Palm - Part One
by Mark Jensen -- Student, Wing Lam Kung Fu

Introduction
I had been a student at Lam Kwoon for about six months and one day was practicing Hung Gar's Gung Gee Fook Fu (Tempting the Tiger) form when Sifu came up to me to give me a lesson. This lesson was different, though, because instead of making corrections to my movements, he had me stop and show him my hands. Before I came to study with Sifu Lam, I had studied an Okinawan form of Karate. In this system we were taught to do our hand training by punching a makararwa, which is a flexible board with a rope tied around it. He looked at my hands, which were all bruised and swollen from my last practice, and shook his head. "If you keep this up, by the time that you are fifty you will not be able to use your hands," he said. Of course, this really concerned me, particularly since I play the guitar. I asked him what I should do. He gave me a bottle of Dit Da Jow, showed me how to apply it and told me that when my hands heal, we would talk again. In about a month's time, Sifu then introduced me to Chinese Iron Palm.

A Little of the History
Throughout the history of Chinese martial arts, the practice of hardening the body, hands and feet has been an integral part of basic training. Kung Fu practitioners needed some way to improve their power, their ability to withstand blows, and their ability to inflict great damage on their opponents, all without causing any damage to themselves. Necessity is the mother of invention, and this is why "Iron" training evolved.

Until the early part of this century, practitioners of Iron Palm were not as eager to show off their skill as today's Iron Palm practitioners are. Their life depended on their skill and they did not want to reveal their "secret weapon." The premier reason why public Iron Palm demonstrations are common today can be traced back to the Northern Shaolin Grand Teacher Ku Yu Cheong, one of the most famous Kung Fu masters of the first half of the Twentieth Century.

In China prior to World War II, martial arts were neither as important nor as popular as they once were and an effort was being made by the Chinese government to revive their popularity. The government sought to rid themselves of the "sick man of Asia" stigma by recruiting well know martial arts teachers and deploying them throughout the country to promote and teach their arts for health and fitness. After moving to Guangzhou to teach, Ku Yu Cheong chose to advance the Northern Shaolin system by taking part in demonstrations showcasing the differences between the Chinese martial styles. To prove himself and gain students, he gave many performances, most of which included demonstrations of his Iron Body and Iron Palm techniques. One of the most famous pictures of Ku Yu Cheung that survives today shows him breaking a stack of 10 bricks without any spacers between the bricks.

While in Guangzhou, Ku Yu Cheong taught many students. One of his top students was Yen Shang Wo. Yen Shang Wo moved to Hong Kong to teach the Northern Shaolin system along with Iron Body and Iron Palm. From Hong Kong, the art migrated to North America via Yen Shang Wo's students, one being Sifu Wing Lam.

Iron Palm Equipment
When I began my Iron Palm training I had to make my own training bags because Sifu did not yet sell any Iron Palm training equipment. The student starts off with a beginner's bag made of thin canvas material that is approximately 10 x 10 inches in size and filled with Chinese mung beans. My wife made me an empty bag and I went off to the oriental food market to purchase the beans. I kept asking for "monk" beans so they had not idea what I was talking about. After relating this to Sifu, at the next class he provided me with all the mung beans I needed for my bag. When it was time to change to the intermediate bag my wife again made me another bag and I purchased the required gravel from pet store. The intermediate bag is the same size but is filled with gravel that is approximately 1/4 inch in size. From there the student moves on to the advanced bag, again the same size but filled with 1/4 inch iron or steel ball bearings. Buying the ball bearings was the biggest challenge for me. I finally found some being sold as ammunition for slingshots in a sporting goods store. I bought all they had and asked the manager to order more. He must have thought I was crazy when I told him what I wanted them for. Because you want them to rust, the ball bearings have to be iron or steel and not lead, stainless steel or chromed steel. Over time and with use, the rust formed on the balls will get absorbed into the hands of the practitioner, giving them a heavy, iron-like quality.

The Four Types of Strikes
Iron Palm practice consists of striking the training bag four times with one hand, using four different strikes. The same strikes are then repeated with the other hand. The body is held in a stable stance, most commonly a bow stance or a horse stance, and is externally independent from the striking motion. Only the arm is used to "whip" the hand down onto the bag.

The first of the strikes is the Palm (zhang) strike, an internal strike in which the student whips his palm down onto the bag. The hand is held with the fingers straight out and the thumb slightly bent and held close to the index finger. The palm of the hand should be slightly concave so that when contact with the bag is made there is a small space between the bag and the hand. The second strike, also an internal strike, is done with the back of the hand (zhang bei-back of hand). The hand is raised and held in the same manner as in the first strike, but contact with the bag is made with the back of the hand. The third strike is made with the side of the hand (pi) and is similar to the Karate chop. This is an external strike in that much more muscle is used. As the hand is approaching the bag, the wrist joint is used to snap the side of the hand down onto the bag. The last strike is the Tiger claw (hu zhua) strike. This strike is an external strike for the sole purpose of conditioning the tips of the fingers and building the strength of the hand.

Training Practices
The length of time that a student spends on the first two bags is three to six months each. Once the student reaches the advanced bag, they will stay with it for the rest of the time he trains. When you start with a new bag, start training with short sessions of five to ten minutes gradually working up to 30 to 45 minutes a day. At the beginning of each practice session, the student should warm up first with a beginning and then an intermediate bag before going to the advanced bag.

After every training session the student should rub his hands with Dit Da Jow, a Chinese herbal solution used to toughen the skin, dissipate any bruising, and neutralize any effects of the iron's poisonous rust. The student rubs the Dit Da Jow into their hands for fifteen to twenty minutes after each training session. The medicine is rubbed on one hand by the other in a circular motion for about five minutes. The student then rubs the hand with a pushing motion toward the arm. This is done to ensure the circulation of blood in the hand is moved back toward the heart.

Conclusion
At this point, you might be asking yourself "Why would I want to spend 45 minutes everyday beating my hands against a bag filled with steel balls?" This is a good question and I can only speak for myself. There are many reasons why I practice Iron Palm. I have always believed that you need some kind of hand conditioning so that you will not break your hands in a real physical encounter. In the beginning, this was the paramount reason why I trained Iron Palm, but over the years, it has become secondary. I also enjoy the meditative aspects of training--and the concentration and dedication required to train everyday gives me great satisfaction. But still this is not what drives be. During a good training session, when I can feel the "glove of Chi" around my hand, I sense a feeling of energy being thrown from my hand as it strikes the bag. It is like a yoyo going down and then up. I become aware of the distance that the energy travels and I start to play with it, trying to control it. It is a feeling in my hands that I have not obtained from anything else until it started to study Baguazhang. This is why I train.

If practiced correctly, Iron Palm can become a very rewarding part of any Kung Fu practitioner's training system. But I must stress that it should be done correctly. If not, if the timetable is rushed or if there is not enough time for any injuries to heal, then permanent damage may result. So be careful! For myself, the knuckles on my right hand are larger than those on the left because of my previous makararwa training. After 18 years of practicing Iron Palm, my hands look and function normally and I still play the guitar as well or better as I ever did. This is one of the hallmarks of this method of Iron Palm training--the hands are not disfigured at all. It should be noted at this point that this article has been presented as general information on the subject. If the reader chooses to add Iron Palm to their training, they should do so under the instruction of a qualified teacher, though seminars, and/or training tapes, and always follow the instruction to the letter.

Mark Jensen is a long-time student at Lam Kwoon, training in Hung Gar, Baguazhang, and Iron Palm.