How do you build up the shins for the collision of shins?

[Steve]

Duane sent me an email with a good question:

Hello Pak Steve, How do you build up the shins for the collision of shins?

To which I replied:

Good day Duane,

Well, mine got built up by clanging shins with everyone I could find to play with.

And hitting them with sticks and my hands and fingers to harden everything at once.

And rolling a steel breaking bar {about 30 pounds} along them.

I’ll copy Sigung Aric in because he has come up with some more sophisticated methods.

Dita Jow helps too.

We should probably start a topic on the KTS Forum about this.

Good question, thanks.

Steve

Duane replied:

I will go there now to open the conversation. Thanks sir.

I replied:

Great, you may get some other opinions! I seem to have done everything the hard way. :-)> And BTW, I don’t recommend that approach.

To which Aric answered:

Good day everyone.

This is not my opinions, but some long hard years of training and teaching talking. Toughening is something that happens over a long hard training period. When it comes to the hands and feet, you have MANY small bones that can and WILL break. The Chinese, often suggest the following as a training regimen.

Use a bucket of dry, hard beans (Pinto or black) and thrust your hands into this for 90 days. I suggest to my students 100 times, each hand – daily.

After that 90 days, continue for another 90 days, but add another bucket, filled with dry white rice. Again, following the above instructions.

After that 90 days, continue for another 90 days, but add another bucket, filled with steel shot or smooth gravel.

Continue on this regimen regularly. The tips of your fingers should be bruised, but not debilitated. They will become very strong after about 6 months.

Using your hands to punch or allow a lead sap to hit your hands will cause breaks. I have a floating bone over my middle finger, where I used a lead sap Chas made me.

Then the shins. I had my students just do a baker’s rolling pin over their shins every day until it hurt too much to continue, and after a few months, their shins were like baseball bats. (highly advised this).

Forearms get toughened by means of opening doors with them and also the Shaolin Tiger Exercises… We do have video of those out there. J When no partner is available, there is one option, but to use a tree, pole, sign post, or a mook jong.

Well Guys, I hope that helps. I know you only asked about shins, but I figured I’d give ya the whole shish kabob. Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!

Aric

[Duane]

Thank you.I will start with 4 he training.

[Jonathan Pyndus]

Howdy gents,

If I may add my two cents as a graduate level student of/future practitioner of Traditional Oriental Medicine:

Sigung Aric’s methods hit the nail on the head when it comes to the how. I have met/seen/tried many different versions of “Iron Skills” having been fortunate to grow up around a lot of different martial artists. Each school of karate, Gong fu, etc has its own theories and progressions, but the one sticking point I feel obligated to share is that having good Dit Da Jow/Dia Da Jiu is CRITICAL for preventing injuries later on.

According to Oriental Medicine, bruises and abrasions, particularly INSIDE the joints block the Qi/Ki flow of the meridians, which can lead to serious consequences later on. Most Dit Da Jow recipes are based upon a basic formula that breaks up bruises and promotes wound healing.

In the older theories, it is interesting to note that as a martial artist progresses through his iron skills, his skin should be tough but soft, his bones hard but his joints supple. You should not necessarily have a lot of obvious callous or scar tissue. Rather you should present “iron wrapped in silk.” I have actually met men who have this and it is amazing: their hands look almost dainty in their old age, but they can break stones with their fingers.

Make sure that as you practice Iron Skills, you apply Dit Da Jow before and after each training (I prefer to ere on the side of caution, some schools say only before or after). Getting regular massages is good too.

If you are looking for a reliable dealer of Dit Da Jow, I recommend Shen Martial Arts. They have an online store that should pop up on a google search that stocks formulas from several different styles across China, Japan, and Korea. Maybe Pak Steve can check it out and recommend a particular formula that seems closest to what we might need?

Regards,
Jonathan

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