Iron Palm

http://www.shenmartialarts.com/blog.asp?view=all

Got this link from Jim Keating's site. It reminded me of one of my old instructors Richard Ellis who is now deceased. Rich was a Praying Mantis practitioner, specifically he said Southern Mantis. He also had other training such as Judo, Chiba Kai, etc. The thing is he was a long time practitioner of Iron Palm training, both Internal and External methods. Now those of you who know me know that I am not a big believer in chi and such stuff, but to this day Rich was the hardest hitting person I have ever "crossed hands" with and he never looked like he was trying to hit hard. He was always relaxed when he struck and he didn't believe in blocking as such, every block was a strike and usually done with either his palms or his wrists which were as wide as his hands from years of Three Star drills if you know what those are. Sifu Rich was also extremely proficient at locking, trapping and throwing in fact most of his striking was just him "blocking" what you sent at him so he could get close enough to lock and throw or sweep you to the ground. He once told me that the biggest difference between Praying Mantis style throws and Judo or wrestling style throws was the intent, Mantis practitioners want to throw you onto your head not your back.

The way Sifu Rich taught me to use the Iron Palm bag was to have the bag at waste level, raise your arm to shoulder height with your palm facing down then drop your hand to the bag focusing your strike through or beyond the bag, grab/grip the bag and lift to shoulder height letting it drop back to the ground or table. Two other strikes either follow or precede the open palm strike a knife hand strike and a back of the hand strike. Initial training only used gravity for the speed and power, gradually building up the SPEED of your strikes and NOT TRYING TO HIT HARD. The power of the Iron Palm method comes from the speed and intent to strike either into or through your target.