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How would the force developed by Iron Wire be applicable to healing and everyday life? How would that compare to the force developed by Cloud Hands and Golden Bridge, and what would be the key differences in application?
Sifu Barry Smale
If all other things were equal, a person who has more internal force and mental clarity will perform better than another who has less internal force and mental clarity in both healing, especially chi kung healing, and everyday life.
Iron Wire training, when practiced correctly, develops a lot of internal force and mental clarity. Hence, it greatly enhances healing and daily life.
I purposely add the phrase “when practiced correctly” because it is easy to practice Iron Wire wrongly and without being aware of it. It is common to practice Iron Wire, which is an energy exercise, as isometric exercise, which is physical.
The application of internal force and mental clarity from Iron Wire training to healing and daily life can be spontaneous or purposeful.
In other words, because one has practiced Iron Wire correctly, without him doing anything extra, his healing and everyday life will be better. On the other hand, he may purposely employ his internal force and mental clarity in his healing and everyday life.
For example, when he channels chi to his patients in his healing, which can be quite draining, or running up a flight of stairs in his everyday life, he may use some of his force derived from Iron Wire. When he listens to his patients reporting their symptoms, or to his wife complaining of household problems, he may use the same mental state employed while practicing Iron Wire. In both cases, he would be able to understand the problems better.
The force developed in Iron Wire is quite different from that in Cloud Hands and in Golden Bridge. The force is hardest in Iron Wire, less hard in Golden Bridge and softest in Cloud Hands. It is less fluid in Iron Wire, more fluid in Golden Bridge and most fluid in Cloud Hands.
Understanding this nature of the different types of force from the three different force training methods will enable us to use the appropriate force with the best results for different situations in healing and in everyday life.
In situations demanding hard and solid force, like breaking a patient’s bone which was badly set so as to reset it properly, which some confident traumatologists did in the past but not now as Western medical orthopaedic treatment has become excellent, or breaking open a locked fence in everyday life, Iron Wire force would be the most appropriate.
On the other hand, in situations where soft flowing force is needed, like moving a patient’s stiff arm to enhance his mobility in healing, or shoving a stubborn dinner guest away from a heated argument in everyday life, Cloud Hands force will be most useful. In situations between these two extreme Golden Bridge force will be most desirable.
In their application, the key difference is between consolidation and fluidity. Where hard, solid force is needed, we consolidate our force. Where soft, flowing force is needed, we let our force be fluid. Where both consolidation and fluidity are needed, we operate somewhere in between.
For example, in a free sparring competition if you want to break an opponent’s arm as he attacks, you use Iron Wire Force (and Choy-Li-Fatt techniques). If your opponent is strong and huge, and you want to use his momentum to fell him, you use Cloud Hands force (and Taijiquan techniques). If you want to confuse your opponent and strike him, you use Golden Bridge force (and Flower Set techniques).
Most martial artists are limited in their force training methods as well as their range of techniques. Those who practice hard, external arts like Karate, Taekwondo and mediocre Hoong Ka, for example, would use hard, solid force with straight, direct attacks and defences. If they wish to dodge opponents’ attacks or release themselves from locks, they may not be able to adjust their force and techniques readily.
On the other hand, those who practice soft, flowing arts, like Judo, Aikido and Taijiquan, would use soft, flowing force with circular, evasive attacks and defences. If they wish to press into opponents or forcefully control them, they may also not be able to adjust their force and techniques readily.
We in Shaolin Wahnam are special. Not only we benefit tremendously from spread and depth, even if our students have trained only one type of force, they can readily convert it to other types, a privilege not normally available to students in other schools.
For example, other students trained in Iron Wire can only use Iron Wire force, or if they are trained in Cloud Hands only use Cloud Hands force. But our students trained in Iron Wire, not only they have Iron Wire force, but also they can convert it to Cloud Hands force or Golden Bridge force. Not only they can use the force to break an opponent’s arm, they can also use the same force, with some conversion, to shove a stubborn guest away gracefully.
Do you know what the secret is that enables this possibility? Yes, it is chi flow. Of course if they take advantage of great variety of training methods and application techniques available in our school, their results will even be much better.
Grandmaster Wong courses in Barcelona - May 2012: chikung.bcn@gmail.com
Just like Kung Fu and Chi kung classics, an initiated practitioner can use the information to directly enhance the results of their practice. An uninitiated practitioner my find it interesting and informative reading but will not have the personal experience to derive a lot of benefit from it.
It's the kind of thread that if you come back to in 6 months time, you'll find your understanding of the answers has deepened and you enhance your practice even further.
What a treasure trove of knowledge! Thank you so much Sifu for sharing all of this with us. It gives me great insight in my Iron Wire training, as well as explain some of my personal changes going on since I began my practice in this magnificent set.
I´m glad you are enjoying sifu´s answers!
Now more:
Iron Wire Question-Answer 7
Question 7
Why is the Iron Wire set so easy to be practised wrongly, even by advanced practitioners in our school? Our students and instructors are, for the most part, very skilled in the art of relaxation and know better than to tense when practising any qigong or force training method. Is it because the Iron Wire set involves the making of unfamiliar sounds or are there other factors?
Sifu Zhang Wuji Answer 7
Yes, it is very easy to practice the Iron Wire Set wrongly. Nevertheless, for students and instructors of our school the chance of practicing it wrongly is much less than that for students and instructors of other schools.
As a rough estimate, if they learn on their own from books or videos the chance of practicing the Iron Wire Set wrongly for students and instructors of other schools is about 99%, whereas that for students and instructors of our school is about 75% and 50$ respective.
If they learn from a competent teacher, the chance of their practicing it wrong is about 80% for other schools, and about 20% and 5% respectively for our students and instructors.
As usual, other people may become angry at my estimate or think we are boastful. That is their problem, not ours, but my estimate is made honestly and the reasons are as follows.
One important factor why it is easy to practice the Iron Wire Set wrongly is that practitioners lack the philosophical understanding why and how Iron Wire training develops tremendous internal force and mental clarity. This factor is important but many practitioners, including masters, may not be aware of it. Many also do not realize that Iron Wire training develops mental clarity too, though they know Iron Wire develops internal force but they do not know why or how.
Some Shaolin Wahnam students may be surprised because in our school we usually explain the philosophy of what we are doing. Knowing the philosophy is an exception, not a norm, in kungfu training. Even masters who are very powerful and know that their internal force comes their Iron Wire training, do not know how or why the Iron Wire training gives them internal force.
This is where our instructors and students have a big advantage over others. We know the underlying philosophy. When you know the underlying philosophy of an art, you are less likely to practice it wrongly. For example, if you know that doing A and B gives result R, you would do A and B if you want result R. You will also know that if you do C and D, you would practice the art wrongly.
Please note that here A, B, C and D usually refer to skills and not to techniques. Techniques are visible and external, and hence practitioners are likely to perform them correctly. It is usually making mistakes in skills that cause their training to be wrong.
We know all this, but others don’t. Others often do not know the difference between techniques and skills.
Another important factor which may not be obvious to practitioners is their lack of exposure to the effects pf right practice. This factor, lack of exposure, is related to but not the same as the factor explained earlier, i.e. lack of philosophy. Lack of philosophy concerns theory, whereas lack of exposure concerns experience.
Not only practitioners do not know how and why Iron Wire training produces a lot of internal force and mental clarity, but also they have little chance of seeing the effects of those who have practiced Iron Wire correctly. Hence, it is easy for these practitioners to practice wrongly.
For example, they may become powerful and think that they have practiced correctly. But they fail to realize that their power comes from muscular strength. Because they have little exposure to those who have practiced Iron Wire correctly, who are powerful despite not having big muscles, and have vitality and mental freshness, these practitioners do not realize they have practiced wrongly as indicated by their big muscles, being tired easily and being mentally stressful.
Again our instructors and students have a big advantage over other practitioners. Not only we know the philosophy, we have examples of those with internal force and mental clarity as a result of Iron Wire training. Our practitioners have comparison and reference to check their training.
A third factor why it is easy to practice wrongly ix because many practitioners confuse isometric exercise, which is physical, with consolidating force, which is energetic. This is where our students and instructors may fail. They know the philosophy and have exposure, but they may still practice Iron Wire wrongly because they perform isometric exercise instead of consolidating force.
I know this problem well because I myself made this mistake in my early years of practicing Iron Wire. But I had a huge advantage of chi flow. Although I made the mistake, which I did not know at that time, my chi flow overcame the adverse effects of that mistake and still gave me a bonus. It was much later that I discovered the mistake. Not only I could make corrections, but also realizing my mistake enabled me to have a deeper understanding of how Iron Wire training developed internal force and mental clarity. This enables me to help students achieve results in three months what I myself took a year.
Both isometric exercise and consolidating force enable practitioners to be strong. But the former employs mechanical strength and therefore needs big muscles, whereas the latter employs energy flow which needs relaxation and mental focus.
Force from isometric exercise is external and localized, whereas force from energy flow is internal and versatile. External force is limited to age, size and gender, but internal force is not. Localized force is restricted to striking with the arms, whereas versatile force can be used for anything, including good health, peak performance and spiritual cultivation.
It seems from the information available to us on the Iron Wire Set that Patriarch Tit Kiew Sam personally composed it as a crystallization of his extensive internal force training and experience.
The set that you have been so kind to share with us seems similar to the spirit of Patriarch Tit Kiu Sam's Iron Wire, in that it (to the best of my understanding) combines and crystallises your intensive experience of many useful internal force training methods into a balanced set, building on the established version of Iron Wire taught in Grandmaster Lam Sai Weng's lineage.
In what ways is Iron Wire as practised in our school similar to the Iron Wire of Grandmaster Lam Sai Weng's lineage, and in what ways does it differ? And more importantly, what unique benefits are to be had from practising our modified composition over the established one?
Max
Answer 8
Yes, the Iron Wire Set was composed by Tit Kiew Sam, the most senior of the Ten Tigers of Canton. His teacher was the Venerable Cheng Caho who learned from the Venerable Sam Tuck, the second most senior disciple of the Venerable Chee Seen, the Patriarch of Southern Shaolin Kungfu.
Although his internal force was tremendous and his fighting experience wide, Tit Kiew Sam did not have extensive internal force training methods. This was the norm. Even great kungfu masters had only one or two methods. The internal force training method of Hoong Hei Khoon, for example, was Triple Stretch, of Yim Wing Choon was Siu Lin Tou, of Huo Yun Jia was Eighteen-Lohan Art, and of Yang Lu Zhan was Grasping Sparrow’s Tail.
Exceptions were kungfu geniuses like Zhang San Feng, Ng Mui, Pak Mei and Chee Seen who knew many internal force training methods.
The internal force training method which Tit Kiew Sam learned from his sifu was Triple Stretch, which was the specialty of his sigung, the Venerable Sam Tuck. It was from Triple Stretch that Tit Kiew Sam drew his inspiration and method to compose the Iron Wire Set. It was recorded that Tit Kiew Sam was very impressed with the tremendous internal force of his sisookgung, Hoong Hei Khoon, who was then over 80 years old. Tit Kiew Sam sought from his sisookgung the finer points of the Triple Stretch Set.
Yes, the Iron Wire Set we practice in Shaolin Wahnam is based on that taught in Grandmaster Lam Sei Weng’s lineage which inherits the Iron Wire Set of Tit Kiew Sam. Grandmaster Lam Sei Weng learned the set from his sifu, Wong Fei Hoong, who in turn learned from Lam Fook Seng. Lam Fook Seng was Tit Kiew Sam’s disciple.
You are also right in your observation that I crystallized my experience of many internal force training methods and incorporated them into our version of the Iron Wire Set. Hence, our version of the Iron Wire Set is quite different from that found in Grandmaster Lam Sai Weng’s lineage.
The general structure, patterns and force training approach in our version are similar to those in Grandmaster Lam’s version. There are, however, three important force training patterns that I introduced into our version and therefore not found in Grandmaster Lam’s version.
The first is the signature greeting pattern from my sifu, Sifu Ho Fatt Nam. This signature greeting pattern is also found in the fundamental set practiced at the Southern Shaolin Temple, namely Four Gates. I find this signature greeting pattern extremely useful as right at the start it sets the Small Universe flowing, roots the practitioner firmly onto the ground, and channels his energy through both arms to the index fingers/
The second pattern is “Big Boss Lifts Bronze Vessel” taken from the Eighteen-Lohan Art. This pattern uses the hard approach to develop a lot of internal force, opens the heart, strengthens the kidney system, and roots the practitioner to the ground.
The third pattern is “Left Right Circulating Soft Bridge”, taken from my specialty, Dragon Strength Circulating Energy Set. It uses the soft approach to develop internal force, and circulates energy to various parts of the body. Although this pattern is not found in Grandmaster Lam’s version it is found in the Tiger Crane Double Form Set of his lineage.
Moreover, although both we and practitioners of Grandmaster Lam’s version use the triple-stretch method to develop internal force, our approach is softer.
Thirdly, we pay much importance to energy flow and employ “Flowing Wind Swaying Willows” after each section as well as at the completion of the set. Practitioners of Grandmaster Lam’s version generally do not do this.
Because of the addition of these methods, we have special benefits in our version over the other version. The internal force developed in our version is softer and more flowing. Its application is more versatile and varied. While the internal force of the other version is mainly used for combat, that in our version can be used for combat as well as other purposes, like overcoming pain and illness, promoting good health, vitality and longevity, and for spiritual cultivation.
Because of our chi flow, we are less likely to practice the Iron Wire Set as isometric exercise than in the other version. If we make mistakes in our training, our chi flow can readily clear out the resultant adverse effects. Practitioners of the other version do not have this advantage.
Because of our understanding and experience in chi flow, we can develop internal force right from the start of practicing the Iron Wire Set. Practitioners of the other version have to generate a chi flow first when they practice the Iron Wire Set, and they are often unaware of this process. Only when they have a chi flow, they start to develop internal force. Hence, our development of internal force is faster than that in the other version.
This thread is good proof of the mental benefits of Iron Wire: Sifu is so immensely generous, wise and knowledgeable! And so much clarity of exposition! All of these are sure signs of tremendous internal force. Thank you so much, Sifu.
And such high quality of answers suggests that the questions were also very good. Thank you, brothers and sisters. And thanks to Daniel Sihing for starting this modern classic.
Dear Family Members,
I just wanted to say that all the questions, comments and answers on this thread makes me eager to experience the Iron wire set myself .
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