Iron Palm Kung Fu
鐵掌功A method of conditioning the palm, not a martial art in itself. The aim is not a hard hand but the ability to transmit force through the target.
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About Iron Palm Kung Fu
Tie zhang gong, the iron palm, is not a martial art with a doctrine and forms of its own but a method of conditioning the palm, present in both southern and northern Chinese styles. It is a long-term procedure rather than a technique. The practitioner strikes a bag repeatedly, its filling changing over the months: it begins with mung beans, continues with gravel or sand, and in the final stage uses iron shot. The strikes are delivered with every part of the hand, that is the flat of the palm, the back, the little-finger edge and the fingertips, and after each session the hand is treated with the herbal liniment dit da jow, which is meant to limit swelling and damage to the small vessels. The purpose is often described wrongly. The point is not for the palm to harden or to build calluses; the aim is to learn to transmit force through the target, that is to strike so that the impact does not stop at the surface. Toughened tissue is a by-product, not the sense of the exercise. The best-known exponent of the iron palm was Gu Ruzhang, known in the West as Ku Yu Cheong, who lived from 1894 to 1952 and was also famous as the transmitter of Northern Shaolin. It was his brick-breaking demonstrations that turned the method into a legend. Two things deserve to be said plainly. The health claims that circulate around the iron palm are not documented, and training done incorrectly or too quickly does genuinely damage the hand. The procedure therefore belongs under the supervision of an experienced teacher.
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