Ok i've been reading up on the lesser known schools and technuiqes of Kung Fu. One method the IRon palm confuses me. How does one best cultivate this technuiche? and is it one really worth having in your arsonal?

Second? Shaolin Long Fist Kung Fu, Is this a form or a style? the definition of this seems unclear to me and i studied it for a while.

FLexibility in the legs? what strecthes can get that back to me in the shortest pirioud of time?

Archery? Can this really help my hand eye or is this pretty much a dead end art?

Again as some one asked, short of sparing what is the best way for reflexes to be upper? My answer was creative I need something a little more concrete.

Push ups do they really help punching power? If it does what excersize would help kicking speed?

A biggie here being a man of small funds WIng Chun Dummies Are they worth the money or does any one have a Idea how to build your own? Might be a fun project...


any way Feel free to email me driect or what ever night all

Ok the first thing you must understand is that there are hundreds of clubs out there that profess to teach these things. The reality is they do not. I watched this TV show called "Fight School" the teachers there were getting the students to hit ice buckets with the back of their hands and palms. They claimed this was Iron palm training. Not to mention the fact that they students had never done any Iron palm training before, top practitioners would not do this training. I know this because 1) one of my in laws has been doing it for decades and my instructor had to learn the basics of it from an Iron palm master. My point is these instructors were being sold as experts but the reality was they knew bugger all about the training. This I have found is true for 99.99% of clubs I have been to. It is incrediby rare to find an instructor who knows more than forms.

On a side note, which Long fist did you learn, Northern or Southern?

As for flexibility, I recommend not to look for quick fixes. Try out some Yoga classes, they are generally very good at developing flexibility that is strong and healthy. The quick methods usually make your kicks weaker than they can be. Have patience martial arts is for life not just for showing off.

There are many things that can help you hand eye coordination. Computer games for instance.

There are lots of games you can play to increase reflexes. But personally I have not really trained reflexes through games any more, as they are only useful at a basic level, you do have to spar to get to the next stages.

Push ups are very good as they build triceps, but you should also think about your shoulders, your abs, your back and especially forearm, wrist and fingers. These are all components of the punches power generators.

For you legs to leg raises i.e. lie on your back and raise your legs lots of times. Squats in various positions, helps build stability in your legs very important when kicking.

A dummy is merely a dead object which completely lacks animation and thus any form of reality. With this is mind you can use anything, I use a door, cubboard anything or appropriate hieght for what I want to practice. Just need a bit more imagination which is what you have top do with the dummy anyway. I never use the wing chun dummy, although I do use a dummy in the shape of a man at the gym. It has been useful to practice landed my strikes correctly on and anatomically correct object, but you can not directly translate what you practice on the dummy to a live opponent.

Question everything, Know nothing.

Jack, your point on push ups is sound. A friend of mine does a lot of push ups, but not on his palms. He uses the finger tips to support the body thus increasing strength in the fingers, wrists, and forearms, he can punch some I can tell you, but I'm conscious of arthiritis (because of the stress on the joints) later on in life, something from which he suffers badly. Do you think this is down to this? He's only in his early forties!

Push ups on fingers are fine. But I recommend to build up to it and then build on the number or push ups you do on them. As far as I am aware this does not increase the likelyhood of arthiritis. To be honest I do not believe anyone can say what exactly causes artiritis.

I used to do them a lot, but have recently neglected to do them so much. It is not suprising your friend has a strong punch. If you have strong fingers you can make a tighter fist. a tighter fist is more solid. The more solid an object the harder it will hurt.

Question everything, Know nothing.