I know how you all feel. You want to be good fighter with good skills. No, not just good skill but extraordinary skills. Legendary skills you hear about in stories and see in movies. "Hitting" attacker without touching them, striking like a sledgehammer, taking extreme punishment, and unleashing amazing power in mere moments. That is why radki is so popular. It promises these skills. However, there is a problem: radki doesn't work. Though, that doesn't mean these legendary abilities aren't attainable. Through traditional training methods you can gain those legendary skills you've only dreamed of.
Projecting Qi for Combat (Lin Kong Jing, Kiaijutsu, and Sunlight Hands): These are the skills and training methods that can allow you to "strike" others without making physical contact.
First things first. You will need to build up some power - internal power. Though we will go over a couple of ways to develop you internal power the best, most effective, and most simple is zhan zhuang. You can read more about it here: Zhan Zhuang
Another drill you can do to help develop internal power is called Blood Washing. It can strengthen your nerve fibers and allow you to project larger amounts of Qi.
Blood Washing: Do this drill standing up, it will help to only wear shorts (females should try to only wear a sports bra, though a t-shirt can be worn if needed). Place your right hand on your left shoulder. With one stroke, rub your hand down your arm to your fingers. Lightly pinch each of your fingers. Again with one stroke, rub up the under side of your arm to your arm pit. Then with one stroke, rub from your arm pit down your torso and outside of your left leg to your toes. Lightly pinch each of your toes. Now, (in one stroke) rub up the inside of your leg to your groin area. At this point switch hands. With your left hand rub in one stroke down the inside of your right leg to your toes. Lightly pinch each of your toes. Now, rub in one stroke up the outside of your leg, up your torso to your arm pit, and down the under side of your right arm to your fingers. Lightly pinch each of your fingers. Then rub in one stroke up your right arm to your right shoulder. Switch hands and repeat. Do about 20 reps. After awhile you can do 50 reps. (To make things faster, after 3 reps stop pinching your fingers and toes and finish out the set with only the rubbing).
(Before trying the candle training below make sure you are able to fully calm your mind. this can be easily attained through meditation. Also Dr. Yang, Jwing Ming recommends actually watching a lit candle in a dark room while in a meditative state until you are able to fully focus on the movements of the flame very easily. You can read his article on it here.
Sunlight Hands Skill: Your going to need a lit candle to do this one. Stand close enough to the candle so that when you punch at it your fist (or palm) is about 6 inches to 1 foot away from the flame. Now you are going to attempt to put out the flame by punching at it. The wind you generate should be forcefully enough to put out the flame and with some practice you will get it. If you pay attention to the postural alignments from the San Ti section of the Zhan Zhuang article when you strike it will be much easier, because this will allow your Qi to flow much more strongly. Also, bringing your thoughts to your tan tien area just before striking and thinking about your Qi leaving your hand as you strike will help too. Remember your Buddhist style breathing when doing this drill. When you are able to put out the candle easily take 8 steps back and continue your training every day until you are again able to put out the flame easily. If you do the training for 30 min a day everyday you will see noticeable results, especially in your striking power and ability to emit Qi. Another training method is to get a large empty trash can (like those big Rubbermaid ones) that comes up to about mid thigh - hip level. Fill it up with water. Without touching the water strike at it 100 times a day, every day. After a lot of training it may seem as though you are getting no where. But after awhile you can easily disturb the water (note: if you can disturb to water on your first try you are too close, so step back). Eventually, it is said, you will cause large waves in the water and your strikes with be very powerful. *
Emitting Qi at a Flame: This can be done either sitting or standing. Simply extend your arm with your index and middle fingers (touching) extended (while the other fingers are clenched in a "fist"). As you exhale extend your Qi to the flame and try to move it (don't breathe too heavily you want the Qi to move the flame not your breath).
Now that you know the training methods and techniques that will enable you to use your Qi in combat without touching an opponent, we will move on to some Iron Skills:
IRON SKILLS:
Iron Palm (basic): You'll need a telephone book and something to set it on that is sturdy and comes up to about navel level (a stool for example). Place the telephone book on the stool. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, knees bent. As one hand is chambered (held at your hip in a fist) at your side raise one palm up to about eye height and let it free fall (DO NOT FORCE IT), dropping on the telephone book. You will make contact with the center of your palm. As you raise your hand to eye level place your tongue on the roof of your mouth and focus on your tan tien. As you let your palm drop on to the telephone book focus on the center of your palm. But again, do not force the palm down. Just let it drop. Repeat this 20-30 times with the palm, back of the hand, and knife hand. Doing finger tip and knuckle push-ups will speed up your progress. When you are done training, soak your hands in hot water for awhile.
Iron Body (basic): Before any other Iron Body training you must be able to do this exercise for five minutes at a time. Lie on your back with your hands at your sides. Lift up your head and your feet at the same time. Hold this position for as long as possible. When you can hold this posture for 5 minutes without stopping easily, move on to the other training methods:
1. Iron Board Gong: You'll need two chairs. Lie in between two chairs, with your head on one and your feet on the other. The rest of your body is unsupported. Train like this every day until you can hold the posture for 5 minutes easily. Remember to take it slow. Rushing this can result in a serious back injury, so progress slowly. You will want to be as relaxed as possible when training this skill. Only use the muscles needed to keep you up. Once you can hold it for 5 minutes you can then begin to add weight. Add very little at a time and slowly work your way up. Remember, at all times to be doing the Buddhist Breathing.
2. Push the Mountain: Stand with your feet should width apart knees bent. Tense all your muscles (except the ones in your throat), especially your abs and butt. At the same time you are tensing you should be slowly extending your arms forward as if you are pushing a heavy weight off your chest. Coordinate your breathing and the movement of the arms. Make sure to stay tense through out the movement. Start off with 5 reps and work up to 10 or more.
3. Beating Gong: You'll need a lot of dried beans a few large old socks. Take the dried beans and fill up a sock or two with them (you may want to "double bag" the socks though). Tie the open end of the sock closed. You now have a basic level iron body beating bag. Now stand with your feet shoulder width apart and knees bent. Have a friend lightly strike you with the bag. Starting from the middle of your body and working in a clockwise manner around (avoid striking the groin and face area) the body, front and back. The strikes shouldn't be sharp, but they should be a bit jarring. As your partner is doing this you should focus on the area you are going to be struck at and try to lightly tense only that area. After awhile when you can take it your partner can start hitting you harder and harder. Eventually, you will need to make a sand filled beating bag (when you can take hard shots anywhere from the bean filled bag). Repeat the process with the sand filled bag. Then, use a pebble filled bag and repeat the process. Finally, after you can take hard jarring shots with the pebble bag you can use a large stone bag and after that you can graduate to an iron shot filled bag. But that will be a long time from now.
Self Empowerment and Improved Strength
If you want to be stronger you better be doing your zhan zhuang. But you also need to be doing some push-up, pull-ups, squats, crunches, side bends and hill sprints too. Those exercises will help to vastly improve your endurance and strength. But, if you want a really quick (but temporary) boost in strength for combat your going to need some thing else. The first is self talk. You are going to have to talk to yourself about your skills and how you are going to perform in this fight. Remember these lines:
1. I'm extremely fast, and powerful. I will overcome anyone.
2. My skills are the best.
*you should tell your self these things everyday*
3. I'm going to FUCK this guy up! (best when just about to strike him)
You can also use a favorite quote that gets you really pumped up like:
4. Stand tall and shake the heavens
5. If you want mercy, best not raise your hands! (Li Tsun Yi, a Xingyi fighter)
You have to have a positive mental outlook. That is the only way to overcome anyone, really.
One method world class athletes sometimes use to get an extra burst of strength is called complex training. Basically, in this method you seek to recruite more TypeIIb muscle fibers (fast twitch) for a particular event. Complex training involves combining a resistance drill (in our case, a tension drill) and a plyometric drill (in our case, fighting). Many athletes do this. Like weight lifter doing a few reps of long jumps or high jumps just before Squatting or Deadlifting, or baseball players practicing slow swings with a few bats instead of one. Just before a fight is might be advisable to try this exercise:
The Wall Push: Find a wall. Go up to it and lean on it with you palms (almost as if you are doing a standing push-up). Now, push very strongly with both your legs and arms. You shouldn't move, but rather stay in the same place pushing as hard as you can with the arms and legs (think like you are trying to keep the wall from collapsing). Do one or two reps with a five second hold each rep and go kick that guys ass.
*(There are other, more esoteric methods for Self Empowerment - think "power-up". However that is outside the scope of THIS article. Look for another related article in the future)*
Quick Qigong for an added boost:
1.Iron Crane Flaps Its Wings: Stand with your feet shoulder width apart knees slightly bent. Lift your head up as if being pulled from a string and slightly tuck in your chin. Place your tongue on the roof of your mouth. Hold your arms up at shoulder height and out at your sides as if you are about to "flap you wings". Your palms face down and there is a light bend in your knees. Using Buddhist Breathing, bend your knees, slightly squat, and inhale. Exhale and stand back up while at the same time pressing your arms downward (flapping your wings). Inhale, slightly squat again, and bring your arms back up to shoulder height. Repeat this slowly about 5-20 times.
2. Crane Spreads its Wings: Stand with feet shoulder width apart tongur touching the roof of your mouth. Hands held at chest height, arms extended (leave a slight bend in the elbow), and pointing to the front. The palms face down (think Franknstein). Inhale and spread your arms out to your sides. Exhale and return them to their original position. Use Buddhist breathing. Do 16-20 reps
3. Touching Heaven and Earth: Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, slightly bend your knees, tongue to the roof of your mouth and interlace your fingers. Raise your interlaced fingers above your head, and stretch upwards as you slowly inhale. Slowly bend over with your arms still extended as if you are going to touch your toes. Exhale as you do this and feel the stretch. Do 10-20 reps.
4. Monkey Squats: Stand with your feet together, tongue touching the roof of your mouth, knees slightly bent, and palms on your knees. Slowly squat down as you exhale and stand back up as you inhale. 10-20 reps.
5. 6 Healing Sounds Meditation: This is an exercise designed to improve the functioning of your internal organs. Sit in a chair, back straight, hands holding each other, and use Buddhist style breathing (don't worry about keeping your tongue to the roof of your mouth). Do these exercises in this order.
- Focus on your Lungs and inhale deeply. Exhale and gently make the S-s-s-s-s-s sound trying to feel it vibrating in your lungs, while visualizing your lungs being bathed in WHITE LIGHT. Repeat at least three (3) times.
Then…………
- Focus on both your Kidneys (located on your back, to both sides of your spine, and just below your rib cage) and inhale deeply. Exhale and gently make the Ch-u-w-a-a-a-y sound, trying to vibrate it in your kidneys, and visualize your kidneys being bathed in either DEEP BLUE or DEEP BLACK light. Repeat at least 3 times.
Then…………
- Focus on your Liver ( located to the front, right side of the body just under the lower part of your rib cage) and inhale deeply. Exhale and gently make the Sh-h-h-h-h-h sound, trying to feel it vibrate in your liver, as you visualize your liver being bathed in EMERALD GREEN light. Repeat 3 times.
Then…………
- Focus on your Heart and inhale deeply. Exhale and gently make the H-a-w-w-w-w-w sound, trying to feel it vibrate in your heart, and visualizing your heart being bathed in a bright RED light. Repeat 3 times.
Then…………
- Focus on your Spleen (located on the front, left side of the body just under the lower portion of your rib cage) and inhale deeply. Exhale and gently make the W-h-o-o-o-o-o sound, trying to vibrate it in your spleen, while visualizing your spleen being bathed in bright YELLOW light.
Finally…………..
- Inhale deeply. Exhale and gently make the H-e-e-e-e-e-e-e sound, while visualizing a large "rolling" (as if from a bread roller) feeling traveling down your body. It begins at the head and works its way all the way down to your feet. Vibrate the sound down your body in this manner. Repeat 3 times.
6. Now you can take a moment to relax and re-adjust your mind.
Hopefully, this article will be a good starting place for you out there wishing to give the traditional training methods a chance. Remember, the key is daily practice - no matter how much you do. 10 minutes a day, 7 days a week is better then 35 minutes a day, twice a week. Just make sure to do something every day. That is how you get good "gung fu".