Can you effectively use your martial arts?

Friday Knight News

Iron Palm training may be the answer to your problem. Striking is faster than grappling, and it is a beneficial component for making grappling more effective. I am convinced that Iron Palm training can help you with any empty hand martial art. If you do not have a method to make connection and avoid damaging strikes from your opponent's there is no need for iron palm, you are already beaten. When it comes to iron palm training for power, it does not matter if you are looking at it from the concept of chi or by using Newtonian physics. Iron palm is just a method for transferring energy effectively while avoiding self-injury. All of the Chinese guys, and other kung fu men I've trained with despite what their style was did the iron palm with the same principles. That is with allowing for stylistic variance and preferences. I had found (by experimenting with several different methods over the decades), that it didn't seem to matter if the practitioner struck with an alternating three or five count rotation or did single set repetitions of individual strikes, as long as the basic rules of energy conduction were followed.

                                                     Dit Da Jow and Iron Bags

The only connection I have to the Chinese arts/kung fu. Is my Kempo Jutsu which I have told my students is an Americanized version of a Japanese version of a Chinese art. When I have trained at seminars from various systems of Southeast Asia, I have often been asked by the master instructors running the event to help out. This is because after they had observed my performance in the art being taught at the seminar they had assumed I had a background in their art. Often I had never heard of the styles, or even the name of the art before the event. The Kempo/Kun Tao that I have has a bit of semblances it seems, at least in governing principles, to many of these systems but not the same kuens.

When I am at home training, I primarily focus on Newton's third law to keep my safety and healing practices under control. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and in an opposite direction on the first body. This teaching dictates that we do not support our body by touching the base of our striking podium as it does not allow the energy a way to leave the body. We also were taught not to strike directly in a straight line as with a karate a palm heel. We were instead instructed to utilize a whipping motion focusing the energy of the blow on the heart of the palm. We started with larger waves and worked to shorter ones.

As a martial artist develops, we seek to progressively shortening the distance between our hand into the target while still achieving maximum force. Often, in the past, when I used to do break-a-thons for charity fund raisers, the martial artist from in the crowd often mentioned that they admired that my brick, glass, coconut breaks where I strike with little wind up and looks like soft slaps. I also offered them the opportunity to join me in doing some breaks so they could verify that I was not utilizing scored or doing any type of cheating. I found over the years that by including martial artists from various backgrounds in these demonstrations allows for a broadening of the martial art community and it goes a long way toward proving integrity.

Short Power/Small Whip

This projection of striking like a whip allows us to transfer our kinetic energy with the wave motion. Charted this would look very much like the sine, cosine and tangent manifestation of a wave. This striking by the repeated up-down curved strikes on progressively hard surfaces (dried beans, iron shot, steel plate), allowed us to condition our bodies (various weapons), for the iron palm. Our goal with iron palm was to strike without muscular effort, and to strike from wherever our hands were in relation to the target. It was considered bad form to pull the hand back in a loading up manner, even during breaking demonstrations. The tendency for martial artists to psych themselves up with deep breathing and repeatedly measuring off the distance before striking the cement blocks never happens in a fight. The opponent would have to be unconscious to allow such an action. Don't get me wrong about the breathing part though.

The breathing is all important with our iron palm training; aka Chi Kung it is also part of the health and healing aspect of the training. Our breathing is also used in our demonstrations, but the goal is to make the breath as invisible as possible. There are several types of iron palm training, but I cannot speak to all of the variations as I am not an expert in them, (to say the least). Suffice it to say that the simple iron palm method that I employ utilizes a yin and yang expression for each of the following techniques; dot, chop, slap, press, and throw. Breathing training, stance, progressive striking surface training, mental imagery, and dit da jow to promote health, recover, and strength for self-defense round out our method. We use home made rice wine and picked our own herbs for our di da jow.

A Good Example of Yin and Yang Training

Even though Sifu Lawrence Lee cautioned otherwise in the above clip, I have found that by the time you can break between 2" to 4" of un-spaced concrete with a back fist it can knock out most attackers without damaging your hand. Still there are no guarantees in a fight, so train accordingly.

My stories are about martial arts adventures that are intertwined with paranormal or supernatural events. The following links are to the Kindle version books from the "Dream Walker” series. Our adventurers find themselves on a quest where they are confronted with both conspiracy and mystery. Their challenge is to unite their mind and body skills together utilizing what they have learned in the martial arts with the transcendental power of dream mediation. They attempt to do this while they are trying to make a life for themselves and elude those that seek to use and control them.

Conversations with a Sage (Book 1 of the Dream-Walker)

Conversations with a Sage: This explores Xander Davidson's early encounters with the mysterious fog like Dream Walking martial art sages. He ponders if they are real or if they are only remnants of his dreams. He mainly keeps this secret world to himself as he tries to copes with abuse, growing up without support or guidance and the mystery of his family's past. 

Xander and the Assassins Gift (Book 2 of the Dream-Walker)

The Assassins Gift: Xander Davidson struggles with the conspiracy of his family and the group that is actively trying to manipulate him to join them or die. The young Dream Walkers learns an early lesson to be careful about whom they let into their circle.


Warriors of Perception (Book 3 of the Dream-Walker)

Warriors of Perception: Xander Davidson and his band of friends embark on a mission to free themselves from their oppressors. They bravely face the challenge all the while vying for the right moment to turn the tables.

Jace Lee The Shift (Book 4 of the Dream-Walker)

Jace Lee The Shift: We find a new apprentice, Adam, that is fighting for his life. He is struggling to understand the amazing skills of his mentor, Jace Lee; a younger man that has trained under Xander Davidson. All the while his mentor attempts to reconcile the fact that his skills do not match up with the other Dream Walkers.


Jace Lee No Agenda (Dream Walker Book 5)

Jace Lee No Agenda: Jace Lee attempts to find himself on a self-imposed vision quest of sorts. Instead he finds himself being stalked by the same group that had previously sought after his teacher, (Xander Davidson). Instead of mastering his odd Dream Walking skills he finds love and the potential loss of his powers.

Jace Lee and the Tutelage of Ming Wu: Dream Walker 6 

Jace Lee The Tutelage of Ming Wu: Jace Lee rejoins his teacher Xander Davidson as they cope with a possible combined threat (the mysterious), Ming Wu and the Council that has continuously monitored the Dream Walkers.