BUILDING FORCE, EXPLODING FORCE AND TRAINING AGILITY
Big Boss Lifts Bronze Vessel for building force
Question
The Eighteen Lohan Arts, I have read, are generally divided into a section for generating internal force, exploding internal force, and developing agility. Would past practitioners have eventually learnt all eighteen exercises of this set, or perhaps just one or two exercises of each "section," or even just focused on one for their martial arts career?
Much has been said about the wonderful skill of Shaolin Wahnam to generate an energy flow as well as consolidate it into internal force. Do the Eighteen Lohan Arts mostly generate "flowing" force as in Taijiquan or "consolidated" force as in Hoong Ka?
Frederich Chu
Answer
Yes, the eighteen patterns in the Eighteen-Lohan Art can be divided into three groups. The emphasis of the first group of Patterns 1 to 6 is for developing force, the second group of Patterns 7 to 12 for exploding force, and the third group of Patterns 13 to 18 for balance and agility. As an analogy with cash flow, first we learn how to make a lot of money, then we learn how to spend our money wisely, and thirdly we learn to have balance and agility with our money.
The exercises are usually taught as a set. Hence past practitioners would have learnt all the eighteen exercises instead of just a few. They might take a long time to learn all the exercises. I don’t mean to be presumptuous, but I believe we are more cost-effective than past practitioners in learning them. Our students could learn to develop force, explode force and attain balance and agility in just a day or two, but past practitioners, including Shaolin monks, would need at least a few months, though their attainment would be higher than ours. In other words, we learn faster, but eventually they attained more.
The ability of our Shaolin Wahnam instructors as well as students to generate an energy and consolidate it into internal force is unbelievable. I myself could not do as well in my early days of teaching. My early students, for example, took about 4 to 6 months of training before they could generate an energy flow. This itself was remarkable, considering that even masters took a year or two. Hence, when I first introduced chi kung to the public, teaching the Eighteen Lohan Hands in six months, many people, including masters, thought I was crazy. Learning chi kung took years, they said.
Big Bird Flaps Wings for exploding force
Now many people also think I am crazy, teaching Generating Energy Flow in one day. It is too outlandish that sceptics do not even bother to find out whether our claim is true.
Once I could generate an energy flow, consolidating it into internal force became easier for me. It took me a few months. But now, with my experience and understanding of underlying philosophy, I could help students achieve the same result in just one day, as in the Iron Wire course in Barcelona! No wonder many people call me a liar.
The Eighteen-Lohan Art is comprehensive. Some exercises generate flowing force as in Taijiquan, and some exercises generate consolidated force as in Hoong Ka Iron Wire. And still others generate force that lies somewhere in between, as in One-Finger Shooting Zen.
For example, Old Monk Grinds Rice Mill is an excellent pattern that not only develop flowing Taijiquan force, but also illustrates Taijiquan mechanics and typical Taijiquan combat application. It is amazing that one can get the essence of Taijiquan in just one pattern.
In contrast to Old Monk Grinds Rice Mill is Big Bird Flaps Wings, which exemplifies Shaolin methods of generating and exploding force. It is hard, yet flowing, whereas the force generated and exploded by Old Monk Grinds Rice Mill is soft and flowing.
On the other hand, Big Boss Lifts Bronze Vessels, using the triple-stretch approach, generates consolidated force like in Iron Wire. Reverse Hanging of Double Hooks, which uses the Sinew Metamorphosis approach, also generates hard, consolidated force like that of Iron Wire, but the approach is different.
To top it all, Green Dragon Charges at Face, which happens to be my favourite, exemplifies the summation and climax of all these force generating and exploding methods. It is soft and flowing, yet tremendously powerful.
The above question-answer is reproduced from the thread 10 Questions to Grandmaster Wong on Bone Marrow Cleansing and Eighteen-Lohan Art in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum
Night Gusrd Tests Sea for training agility
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