gongfu

 There is an old saying that goes with longfist and traditional shaolin. This saying, once understould and put into practice, is what gives the techniques their power. “The hands and the feet should be like stones attached to the ends of a rope.” At first hearing this saying, you’ve just started longfist, plum flower boxing or praying mantis, and most of your techniques are big whirling movements. Meteor strikes, hammer fists, hanging punches, big hooking kicks, big hooking punches, sweeping kicks, big tangling blocks etc. From this perspective on gong fu, it is easy to see the meaning of this saying. The body is loose, almost no effort is used anywhere except for the waist and lower back. The hands, when they make contact, must be stiffened, to issue power. Hands like stones, arms like ropes.

 Later, the techniques change. Really, they are the same techniques, just done with smaller circles and in combinations. At which point, it gets easy to forget the importance of the sayings that go along with a style. If you however “forget” this saying, you stop doing gong fu, and start doing your own thing. This saying contains the very essense of northern shaolin gong fu. Recently, sometime last year, I found an incredible discovery for myself, that many people may have already found. It took my longfist to another level.

 I was studying wudang qigong methods, up here in central Maine, under a teacher that studied for years in Taiwan. One qigong punching technique, that is shaolin, he pointed out, that our fists should be held firmly but the arms very loose. He shook his fist, and it looked like a stone attached to a piece of rope. My appifiny stopped the class with a loud “No f’ing way, thats so easy!” obviously directed at myself, followed by a  ”did I just say that outloud” look of embarresment with my hands on my head. All he really did was reword that saying a little, and shake his arm in demonstration of nothing but that one concept.

 I got home and tried it out, and would like to simplify all of my findings throughout my longfist study in this article with two very basic great exercises for shaolin gong fu, including the ”firm fist loose arm” concept, that I think should be done every single day throughout your training.

 The first is the posture that some schools call “preperation” and some call “WuJi” and some call “crane”. It is with the hands at the sides, slightly in front, while you stand upright with the toes pointing out 45 degrees. Often in shaolin, the feet are together, but that is all irrelevant. When you are in this position, simply think of the hands as being heavy, full of heavy liquid. As you feel them filling with heaviness, let the torso become completely loose and relaxed keeping the spine suspended by holding up the head. Standing like this even for a few minutes a day in the bathroom at work or school, in the basement while your doing your laundry, in the kitchen when your cooking whatever, when you aren’t going to be distracted, will greatly enhance the transmission of force in your gong fu.

 The next exercise, is to take your ma bu stance, with your arms at the sides like holding a staff through your abdomen, and try to firm the fists while keeping the arms loose. Using the waist to generate the movement, and the loose shoulder to direct the arm, punch out keeping a loose arm and a firmed hand, when the hand returns to the waist repeat on the other side, and do as many as you want. Even 30 on each arm should show some benefit.

  Enjoy.

 Peace.

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