Reflections on a Feeding Crane kung fu seminar

Posted on Jul 24, 2009 in Martial Arts | 6 comments

“Inchy power.” If I could chose only one topic from the Feeding Crane kung fu seminar I attended in early June, it would have to be “inchy power.” Not only do I smile every time I think of Sifu Liu Change saying that phrase, I am still amazed by what it represents: strikes of explosive power generated with essentially no “wind up,” or chambering.

First, a little background. For about a year now, I’ve been training in the traditional Okinawan karate style called goju-ryu; “goju” means hard-soft and describes the philosophy of the art. Our goju sensei, Rakesh Malik, studies Feeding Crane kung fu as well and has been incorporating many of the exercises (and a kata, Angle Fist) into our training. As we performed the series of exercises, Sensei often told us how Sifu Chang could strike with incredible power—not just with his fist, but with elbow and shoulders, too, thanks to these exercises. The thought of learning to hit with even a fraction of that power made the burning in my shoulders and traps a little more bearable.

So earlier this spring we were excited to learn that Sifu Chang himself would visit Northwest Martial Arts to hold a seminar June 6 and 7. It was a very intense two days! Each day we met at 9 a.m. and trained until 5 p.m. Luckily, much of that was watching and listening; there’s no way I could get through a full day of practice at the intensity level of our usual Sunday classes.

There were only about six of us in the seminar, including some of Sifu Chang’s students from Victoria, BC. Though the size created a sense of personal training, Sifu mentioned how he hoped more people would be able to attend future seminars.

Each day we practiced the sequence of exercises to develop power in our shoulders and back muscles, which is what allows for maximum power with minimal motion: “inchy power.” They’re difficult to explain (watch the video if you’re a visual person), but include shoulder rotations, shoulder drops, whip-like counter-rotation of the hips, and two “element hands:” water hands and fire hands. To perform water hands, you squat down with arms outstretched and legs apart until your legs are bent 90-degrees at the knees. Then you draw your arms in together in front of you as though scooping up water; then explosively throw your hands out to about head level as though spraying that water out. Fire hands is performed standing in a loose sanchin stance (one leg slightly in front of the other). With arms outstretched your hands cross in front of each other at chest level before pulling back to full chamber, palms out and fingers up. (This generates strong tension in the delts and traps in the back.) To finish, release that tension in the back muscles with an explosive pushing motion, hands. Then pivot with a strong hip motion and repeat on the opposite site. In both fire- and water hands, proper breathing is vital: inward on the gathering/chambering motion, outward on the throwing/pushing motion.

When properly developed, the “inchy power” from these exercises triples your available weapons from two fists to two fists, two elbows, and even two shoulders. Yes, being struck with a shoulder can be very effective—trust me on that one! That way, should your hand be broken you could still be effective in a fight. Of course, a more common use of the shoulder strikes would be in-close fighting where you don’t have room—or time—to punch. “Sure,” I hear you scoff, “but there couldn’t be that much power from hitting with your shoulder!” Had I not heard about these techniques from my sensei who’s studied them and seen (and felt!) Sifu perform them, I might not believe they’re effective, either. We don’t see it in real life or the movies, so we’re not familiar with it. But I assure you, it’s real. In fact, you can hear it: Sifu (and some of his students) can produce a “drumbeat” sound just by moving their outstretched arms. Sifu called it “thunder”; it feels like thunder, sure, but it’s not that loud.

We worked on bunkai, or applications, of these exercises. Describing the motions in these bunkai is more difficult than describing the exercises, so instead I’ll simply list a few we practiced for both fire hands and water hands. Each begins with the technique described above and flows into one of the following

• Fire hands

1. Push (the only non-violent application)
2. Pull arm into knee, kick out knee, strike to jaw, back of head (left) and throat strike (right), neck break
3. Pass blocked arm from right to left hand, right elbow strike to floating rib, then to jaw
4. Overhand palm down strike to bridge of nose

• Water hands

1. WH into someone pushing you then “inchy power” thrust thumbs into eyes; if you miss, downward elbow strikes to the chest
2. WH into a push, then grab their forearms, stick to your your armpit, then strike fists into their stomach; this also breaks their elbows; release right arm as turn to the right using still-pinned left arm as a lever; elbow strike to face with right arm

Sound violent? It is. Feeding Crane kung fu isn’t about showmanship and earning points in a tournament; it’s deadly. Sifu explained that the style originated 11 generations ago by a woman. She and others couldn’t rely on physical strength or the police when they were attacked. It was a life-or-death struggle so the aim is to kill your attacker as quickly as possible because chances were he wasn’t alone. (You can read more on the history in an interview Sifu gave.) Throughout the seminar, Sifu referred to making people “go to sleep,” which I quickly realized was a euphemism for “kill.” Whether that was due to a language issue or merely an attempt to make these arts more palatable to our cushy American ideals of non-violence, I can’t say.

But the entire two days wasn’t about killing people and finding new places to acquire bruises. Sifu is also a doctor in Eastern medicine. At one point on Sunday he had us come up one-by-one and kneel. He stood behind us and, taking our heads in his hands, tell us to relax. I watched nervously as Sifu rocked the first person’s head back and forth, back and forth, before suddenly cranking it with an audible set of pops. The first guy got up and walked away, so I doubted I’d have my neck broken. It was a surprisingly good feeling, actually. My neck didn’t pop as much but it did feel… well, looser. After we’d each had a neck crack, we got a back adjustment, too. This was done standing with hands interlaced behind your head. Sifu wove his arms through yours and pulled back, eliciting another series of pops. It felt so good I thought I should pay him $20 as a copay or something. And though we didn’t all get to experience his medicine, one of Sifu’s students was apparently rubbed down with a special balm to heal some bruises after the first day.

I could go on, but this post is already quite long. To finish, I’ll summarize a few other notes I’d made about the seminar:

• We did a series of conditioning exercises to strengthen bones by stimulating them. Sifu advised taking extra calcium so the bones could grow strong. The series was an expanded version of the kotekitae sequence I’ve written about before, and included triceps, shoulders, shins, and thighs.
• Sifu shared many Interesting stories of Feeding Crane history: his grandfather’s “poison arm,” which caused him to go blind; and his grandfather’s teacher’s accusation of spying for China and so was killed by accidental overdose with heroin in a rice field. I wish I recalled more of the details of these stories.

• Using feeling to “see” instead of eyes. Lots of practice arm-to-arm and just feeling what the other person is doing. Get in close and stay “sticky.” It’s an amazing concept that is nearly impossible to describe, but is clear to feel. Getting good at it, I’m sure, would take years of practice. But it does give a little insight into concepts like blind swordsmanship.
• Kata – Feeding Crane kung fu has 21 kata. Went over first one only: “angle battle” or, as we’d been calling it, “angle fist.” All kata begin with the same complicated opening consisting of an elbow strike, water hands, Shaolin salute, and earth hands (which weren’t part of the exercises as its cousins, fire- and water hands were). The style also has a version of sanchin kata but it’s quite different than ours. We didn’t practice it, but watched as Sifu did.
• Sifu feels that the Shaolin kung fu today is just for show, to entertain tourists. For some reason, this point stuck out to me so I’m mentioning it here.

Sifu may return to our area in the future, but said repeatedly he’d hope for more people to attend. If he does come again, I would certainly go if possible. The exposure to a different style of martial arts is very useful. It gives one a chance to see the differences in technique (and some, like Sifu’s punching style) is very different from what I strive for in my karate classes. But the opposite is true, too. All martial arts share some approaches, a desire to improve oneself (both mentally and physically), and history. The fact that Feeding Crane kung fu includes sanchin kata, one of the cornerstone katas in both karate and goju, illustrates this shared history.

On that note of martial harmony, I’ll stop. I need to stop writing and start practicing my “inchy power” exercises!

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