Iron body condition in hung gar

[WanderingMonk]

Greetings,

I am wondering what iron body trainings are there in hung gar beside the three star exercise and iron thrad fist?

I am specifically asking about the total body conditionings. I don't have access to an instructor so I am posting my question here.

I know iron thread fist seem to have iron body benefits, but that's at a master level,. What about beginner and intermediate levels?

What do your school teach? I feel that any serious phsycial confrontation would involve taking some blows unless you are technically and tactically superior to your opponent. What do your school teach to condition the student to be able to take blows (beside avoiding it:) )?

Thank you

Wandering Monk

[HuangKaiVun]

When I trained Hung Ga, we did plenty of mobile stance training.

The purpose of mobile stance training was to develop the dantien power in response to giving and taking hits. Having the legs in that alignment trains the body to do just that.

The 5-Animal set has some specific grunts that are designed to match the stomach contractions to the limb moves. Hung Ga fighters believe that using the right vocal grunts will augment the ability to give and take hits.

We also did some arm conditioning in the form of light muscle banging. Leung Ting pooh-poohs this in his Wing Tsun video, though he didn't realize that this was a TRAINING METHOD and not a fighting mentality. Gordon Liu, a famed Hung stylist, is seen practicing this in a short clip during "Shaolin Vs. Wu Tang" right before he moves on to the wooden dummies.

Basically, the foundation of Hung Ga power training is in good posture and breath control. By the time one gets to the Iron Thread set, one's skill at those should be such that the Iron Thread set is merely a FORMALITY.

[illusionfist]

Well basically the Iron Wire set is an advanced form so it really doesn't have beginner and intermediate level applications because this form is reserved for advanced practitioners that have garnered the benefits from the previous forms that built up an internal foundation that needs to be present for understanding the inner workings of Iron Wire. Although it isn't always this way, but most Hung Gar schools do teach Iron Wire as an advanced level set.

Iron Wire is not specifically used for any kind of iron body type training and if any is actually achieved, it is a fringe and unintended benefit.

3 star hitting is a staple exericise found in most Hung Gar schools that develops bridge strength and impact endurance. Full on sparring is also used as one of the simplest methods to getting used to impact. The more you get hit, the easier it is to get used to it. Other methods include two man sets, wooden dummy work, sand bag training, etc.

Peace :D

[WanderingMonk]

Thanks for your answers.

To HuangKaiVun, I guess I'll be doing more stance training to develop dantien power.

To illusionfist, I understand that iron thread set is for advanced player. I was looking for something else that was accessible to beginner to intermediate players. I read from Donald Hamby's web site in which he discussed bending a steel bar with his neck (he is Bucksam Kong's student). He attributed this ability through his iron thread training.

So, I concluded that the iron thread set had iron body benefits.


Wandering Monk

[TenTigers]

We teach Sam Jien Kuen-although not a Hung-Ga set, it is considered either vilage Hung Kuen or Ngor-Mei P'ai. This set is seen in many Fukienese systems-i.e. White Crane, Dog Boxing, Golden Lion, Ng Ga Kuen and teaches iron body training as well as infighting, point mapping, segmented power,trapping,etc. It is known as Sanchin Kata in the Fukien arts that travelled to Okinawa, such as Go-Ju Ryu, and Uechi-Ryu.

[omarthefish]

Of course Tit Sien Kuen is iron body training. It's a pure internal set. NOT FOR BEGGINERS. However, the isometric portions at the openings of Gong Ji, Fu Hok and Sup Yin are all good introductions to the principles involved.