Iron Wire and Taming the Tiger sets taught by Sifu in Helsinki, Jan 2010

[PM]

happy to hear that you are all having a good time!

[Martin Do]

Wonderful

Hello everyone,

Absolutely beautiful, and brilliant. I am so happy for everyone there, particularly for you Max and Nick (who is also on the course) because I know you both personally and see week in week out how passionate, dedicated and humble you both are as students of the Shaolin arts.

May everyone's practice continue to be enjoyable and rewarding.

Best wishes from an enveous brother

Martin

PS - a loving Yaaaaaaaah to all the tigers and tigress in 2010, chinese year of the tiger .

[Anthony S]

Another quick comment while I have literally a minute or two--

The Iron Wire set may be the longest one we have. We are only 3/5's of the way and it is already around 8 minutes excluding the important Chi Flow requirements strewn throughout the set. We'll give you a report when we finish but it may be as long as 15-20 minutes. Yet, one is more energized when one completes the set.

[Mark CH]

Looks like everyone is loving it over there. Look forward to your report Anthony.

Best wishes
Mark

[Andrea]

It is great to hear everybody is having such a fantastic course. Happy continuation to all!

2010 will without any doubt be another fantastic year with all those special arts being taught . Lucky us!

Thank you Sigung!

Andrea

[Anthony S]

How special and useful is Iron Wire training?

Sifu mentioned that it is typical that one would progress in one’s force training by replacing one’s Golden Bridge training with Iron Wire training. This may assume that one has attained some reasonable standard in Golden Bridge and is then ready for something even better. Iron Wire training contains fundamental Tiger Claw training and develops Golden Bell. Sifu himself used Iron Wire training to develop Golden Bell. As mentioned in Sifu’s Q and A the Iron Wire set trains one in 12 different manifestations/applications of Internal Force. Even though the force is very “hard” it is still internal it is very versatile and cultivates health.

After a session of practice today I noticed a physical expansion of my wrist and forearms. I asked Sifu if we will need to start changing our watchbands and shirts due to this phenomena and Sifu mentioned that he himself has trouble getting shirts to fit his arms due to this “issue”.

Sifu also explained that even if one reads Lam Sai Wing’s book on the Iron Wire set one will find that it doesn’t explain anything to the uninitiated. It is written for those initiated and only they will understand it. The book is very concise.

I will treasure the Iron Wire always. It conveniently packs so much value into one set and is so much fun and pleasurable to practice.

[Mark A]

Nice

[George]

Parting the clouds to reveal the sunshine

What a course this is...

Anthony Sipak certainly wasn't joking about me sleeping - for the first 3 days I've spent pretty much all of my free time in bed. It's a curious feeling: being mentally fresh and physically full of energy but knowing that you really need to sleep now.

To say that we've been building some internal force is to say nothing. I was feeling so full that I could only eat breakfast and some yoghurt and fruit throughout the day. Any more and I would feel bloated and unwell. And this is taking into account the -15C (and below) weather outside.

Anyway, on a more important note: what an amazing set the "Iron Wire" set is. On more than one occasion I could feel various meridians on the back of my legs and on the sides of my body as if they were hot/cold wires - so clearly I could count them if I focused.

At the end of one session I tried doing the "Flicking Fingers" exercise as external form only (from a discussion with Anthony Sipak) and suddenly I had the "wow" effect that I have never managed to achieve so far. It is as if my meridians were scraped clean and this external movement alone was enough to fill them with energy.

So: a powerful force building exercise plus the Small / Big Universe training and Golden Bell training methods (and the rest) all thrown in. Not too bad a deal, I think.

Today's session was the big one for me, which is why I am finally writing this post (from the bathroom, because Dan Sisook is passed out next door).

For many months now I have been feeling rather calm and peaceful, often happy and content. But I was missing the joy that is the hallmark of our practice. I have found this today. I am certain I wasn't the only one.

Thank you Sigung and I am sorry I caused you to worry.

A few words on the "Taming the Tiger" set (and it deserves more). It ties in so very well with the "Iron Wire" set, is rather long and full to the brim of advanced techniques and skills (to be developed). It's awesome really.

As a result of these sets I had another amazing experience in chi flow today: I experienced the essence of the Dragon and the Tiger. It's ... not easy to describe in words and I'm not going to try because I might get a bit tearful again and that might be dangerous for my laptop. Those who know will know.

Time for more sleep.

Best wishes,

[Jeroen]

It's sound like an amazing course.
Looking forward to hear your story, Mike, when you're back in the Netherlands

[Anthony S]

I haven’t said much about the Taming the Tiger set and it’s applications.

First of all, this course is essentially a Special Kung Fu course similar to courses Sifu conducts in Malaysia wherein attendees focus on specialized training like Dragon, Tiger/Crane, etc. As we know Sifu traditionally only conducts these types of courses in Malaysia. Thus, anyone who has attended one of Sifu’s Special Kung Fu courses can understand what this course is. It is conducted the same way.

Besides learning the lengthy set (I think it takes more than 5 minutes to complete, I’m unsure of the number of patterns) Sifu has created a 2 man combination sequence incorporating nearly all of the patterns (as of today before we start the final day) so we are able to understand and practice the applications immediately. So again, those who have attended Sifu’s Special Kung Fu courses before and experienced the amazement of the application of different exotic patterns can understand what we are experiencing. As always Sifu reveals numerous secrets of performance and application.

Some of us had planned to attended the Tai Chi Chuan course that had been planned for each morning but was cancelled. We all seem to agree that this was another blessing in disguise considering the limited learning capacity of us given the demands of the Iron Wire and Taming the Tiger sets.

My heartfelt thanks to Sifu for generously and patiently conducting this course and sharing his lifetime of experience for our benefit.

We also get to enjoy the camaraderie of the worldwide Wahnam family attending the course which is very special as well.

[AlexBaranosky]

I'm glad to hear all of you experienced such a great course.

[Omar]

Wonderful! Life is warm and beautiful even up in the cold north.

Congratulations to all, this is inspiring.

[Luo Lang]

good to hear that the training is fun!

So if I am right, we must be aware now that some Baby-Tigers are around the world

Sorry couldn't resist...

[PM]

interesting reports, thank you, please continue, i am all ears!

[Anthony S]

OK, a few more comments on the amazing course

As we completed the last section of the Iron Wire set this evening we learned and experienced that Sifu added a section taken from the Dragon Strength set. Again we were amazed at the power. In fact during dinner I mentioned to Sifu that I realized I was making a very bold statement but that I felt that if someone practiced the Iron Wire set as we were taught for some time that the person would likely win in a fight even if they possessed no martial arts training or experience simply because of raw power. Sifu agreed.

During the graduation dinner one of the participants mentioned that he had personally observed that our beloved Sigung Ho was in the training hall with us and spending a lot of time assisting in the class in various ways including helping each individual student. So again, this was a very special course.

Finally I will say that despite Helsinki being very, very cold (Molly and Josh, Minni has nothing on Helsinki..) the Finnish Wahnam family made us all feel very, very warm.