The levels of iron palm are vibrating palm, shattering palm and then burning palm. Iron palm starts out physical and becomes more and more internal as you advance. The more internal the iron palm, the stronger and more devastating.
Vibrating palm lays a solid foundation for iron palm. It means strengthening the body beyond just building muscle. The tends, ligaments and connective tissue must all be built up and made strong. A chain is only as good as its weakest link, which means the connective tissue, tendons and ligaments must all be iron strong. There are various exercises to accomplish this such as learning Bae Te Gum. Bae Te Gum is a short-form dynamic tension iron shirt exercise that builds internal strength.
Other exercises include the roller bar, grab bag and rolling a weight up on a stick. And lets not forget the horse stance. The difference here, though, is that one doesn’t just stand in a horse stance. One must actively put their attention on something, such as a candle flame, a leaf, a twig on a tree, or even a penny or dime taped to the wall. You stand in a horse stance and put your concentration on one of these while holding the stance in order to build strong mental focus and concentration.
Learning vibrating palm means learning how to meditate correctly. There are 3 forms of meditation: sitting, standing, and moving. You must learn all 3 to be proficient at vibrating palm. Sitting meditation will build strong yin chi energy, standing meditation directs that energy and focus while building strength, and moving meditation circulates chi and moves it throughout the body.
Vibrating palm also includes learning how to move and strike with iron palm. This means learning the iron palm basics, the iron palm form “Heavenly Thunder Palms,” and learning how to apply the moves. The strikes at this level are meant to send the energy into your opponent and cause damage to the organs, bones and tissues.
At the beginner level of vibrating palm, one learns how to break boards and bricks. One can also learn soft-breaking where they put out a candle or break paper hanging by a string. The highest level of breaking at the vibrating palm level is to break a coconut on the ground.
Once one becomes fairly proficient at the vibrating palm level, one moves on to learn shattering palm. Shattering palm is short for “bone shattering.” As the name implies, strikes at this level are meant to shatter bones as well as cause much more severe damage to internal organs. Think in terms of being hit by a freight train. That’s how hard you learn to hit.
Bone shattering training procedures include learning more advanced level meditation, advanced level conditioning and training, as well as learning more advanced ways of doing the “Heavenly Thunder Palms” form in order to generate significantly greater internal power.
Breaking at the bone shattering level includes holding a coconut in one hand while breaking it with the other hand. It also includes hanging a coconut by a string or towel and breaking it while the coconut hangs freely. The highest level of coconut breaking at this level is to lay a coconut on a bed of soft tofu and break it without splattering or damaging the tofu underneath.
The next level of iron palm is burning palm. Strikes at this level leave a red hand print and “burn” the skin and internal organs underneath. There are many different levels of burning palm, all of which are meant to build the chi to ever higher levels.
Naturally, no matter how far you go, one of the most important things is to quiet your mind and balance your energy. If your mind is off balance, your chi will be off balance. That’s guaranteed. One of the highest aspects of iron palm practice is to bring your body, mind and spirit into a state of harmony. When your mind is quiet, when your energy is balanced, you have your life under control. This is essential to the practice of iron palm, because ultimately iron palm transcends all technique, all form, all dogma and becomes something greater, something ineffable that is beyond all words.
The lineage of this iron palm is a mixture of everything that I’ve learned over the years. The only thing I’ve done differently is that I’ve broken things out into a distinct and clear separation of levels. When I was learning, I was simply taught, without any explanation of levels. I find it’s easier to teach students when there is a clear path with distinct levels.
The iron palm and all of my training taught here comes from primarily from Grandmaster Willie Adams, Grandmaster Donald Bohan and Grandmaster James Lacey. Grandmaster Bohan trained extensively in Okinawa and in southeast Asia. Grandmaster Lacey’s knowledge is distinctly Chinese in origin and emphasises the use of meditation. Grandmaster Adams knowledge is extensive in both Chinese and Okinawan arts.
The training curriculum is as follows. We will have 4 different levels. Beginner. Intermediate. Advanced. Advanced-Advanced level. Each level is important to learn, even if you yourself have extensive martial art knowledge. I lay out the foundation in the beginning level and build upon that in the intermediate and advanced levels.
Learn iron palm at your own pace. If you have any questions about anything please email. I am going to look at having private online lessons for iron palm that will enable people to engage me directly. The entire purpose of all this is to pass as much knowledge in iron palm, the training procedures, the meditations, the fighting techniques and the philosophy of iron palm as possible. Pick and choose what you’d like to learn and learn it!
The Beginner Level lays the foundation for everything to come. At the beginner level you will learn: Bae Te Gum Iron Shirt, proper sitting meditation to develop chi, proper standing meditation to develop chi, moving meditation, how to make dit dat jow, proper hand conditioning, strengthening exercises (roller bar, weighted roll-up, grab bag), brick breaking, and iron palm basics along with the “Heavenly Thunder Palms” fighting form.
At the Intermediate Level, you will prepare yourself to break a coconut. You will learn the hand conditioning exercises necessary at this level along with the advanced-level standing and moving meditations that greatly enhance and develop your chi. You will also learn a highly advanced standing meditation that will greatly strengthen your body, mind and spirit. You will also learn to break your first coconut on the ground. The intermediate level is the top end of the vibrating palm. After this, you will begin shattering palm.
The Advanced Level is the shattering palm level, or bone shattering palm. At this level, your training is going to go up a few notches. You will learn the advanced level hand conditioning exercises. You will learn the advanced level standing and moving meditations. You will also learn how to do the “Heavenly Thunder Palms” in a manner which will greatly strengthen your body and make your chi explosive. You will learn to break a coconut in your hand and on a string. There are other strengthening exercises that will help to cultivate your chi and strengthen the body and mind.
The Advanced-Advanced Level is the burning palm level. You will learn to further deep your chi and develop it so that your iron palm strikes penetrate with an essence of fire or being burned. At this level, there are highly advanced meditations taught to develop the burning palm.