Fist Under ElbowAn old Tai Chi Master is practicing in the park one day. The old Tai Chi masters movements are tranquilly fluid and soft, harmony in motion. The young thug walks up to the old master and states that with one hit he could break the old master’s bones. He then says, “so what good is this slow moving crap anyway?.” The old master simply smiles and offers his arm to the young man and says hit my arm as hard as you want. The young man slams his arm into the master’s and immediately jerks back holding his arm and howling in pain. The old master reaches out his hand and lightly taps the young man’s arm in a couple of different places and eases the temporary paralysis that set into the arm immediately after the strike. Quite surprised, the young man says, “How can this be? Your arm was held out softly but it felt like it had a crowbar in it and how did you fix my arm so fast?” The old master gently smiles and says, “steel wrapped in cotton. This is just one of the many secrets of real Tai Chi.”
In the Tai Chi classic writings there are statements about the proper body quality of Tai Chi practitioner’s being like steel wrapped in cotton. I have had the good fortune to study with several Tai Chi masters who are well versed in the steel wrapped in cotton method which is sometimes referred to as the “Golden Bell Method”. There are not very many Americans who have been exposed to this high level and secret training method of Tai Chi. To help those who desire to know the training methods as described in the Tai Chi Classics I have produced a video, “Internal Iron Body in 100 Days” to help practitioners who are interested to begin training in this highly internal method of Iron Body that leads to the steel wrapped in cotton method.
Steel Wrapped in Cotton is an extremely healthy form of Iron Body training. Iron Body training is designed to make the body very strong and able to withstand powerful strikes without receiving damage and without getting much or any pain. There are different kinds of Iron Body. Some kinds of iron body are quite external and training often involves striking the body and using impact as well as deadening the nerves to build the body up to take stronger and stronger strikes. Generally speaking striking methods of building iron body are not very healthy for you. Tai Chi Steel wrapped in cotton Iron Body Training is “internal” and VERY HEALTHY for you.
Part The Way & Kick
Steel wrapped in cotton is as much a health practice as it is a martial one. There is a lot of confusion about the difference between steel wrapped in cotton and external iron shirt techniques. In order to help avoid confusion please realize that Steel Wrapped in Cotton is very different from external iron shirt and the practice methods are completely different. One important distinction between the two methods is that external iron shirt methods can be hazardous to learn and unsafe to train while steel wrapped in cotton is generally safe to learn, train and practice. Steel wrapped in Cotton is healthy for you and continues to be healthy for you even into very advanced old age.
Another distinctive benefit to training steel wrapped in cotton is that after the basic training all you have to do to maintain steel wrapped in cotton is to continue to properly practice your Tai Chi with the correct internal alignments, breathing and energetics that are the same as required for other high level Tai Chi practices. This makes it so that you are training steel wrapped in cotton every time you practice your Tai Chi so that you are not having to set aside separate training time for your iron body practice. This is a real benefit in our modern world of limited time and allows you to get more bang for your buck from your training time.
Steel wrapped in cotton training helps to build the internal body mechanics and energy that Tai Chi is so famous for and after steel wrapped in cotton is sufficiently trained you can use this energy to help perform other high level Tai Chi health and fighting skills such as Fa Jing (touching an opponent and sending them flying or touching them and causing the force to go inside of them dropping them where they stand), Peng, rooting, immovable body, etc..
Brush KneeDefensive Applications
Steel Wrapped in Cotton develops the ability to receive, negate & dissipate strikes received. The striker feels like they are hitting a soft pillow with solid steel underneath. This internal quality is a key component of real Tai Chi and it is unmistakable once you have felt it. In the early 1980’s I trained external iron shirt along with my external Kung Fu training and the first time I felt steel wrapped in cotton it did not make sense to me because I did not understand how my instructor could be so soft and so powerful at the same time. With his steel wrapped in cotton he could penetrate my iron shirt and with my training at that time I could not get past even the first layer of his steel wrapped in cotton. This was part of my introduction into the real higher level internal arts that now form the heart and soul of all of my personal training for the last 25 years.
Monkey RetreatsOffensive Applications
When you strike with Steel Wrapped in Cotton you can hit the opponent / attacker anywhere and it will hurt them badly. To the recipient it is like being hit with a heavy crowbar wrapped in a thin layer of cotton. I have also found it to be much like an iron bar that is covered with a thin sheath of rubber covering the steel. Imagine having a heavy black ridged crowbar in your hand and swinging it in a manner so that the weight of it hits the top of an opponents head, collar bone, neck, nose, jaw, or even just on their arm. The strike will normally break, destroy or at least temporarily paralyze whatever it hits. As a result the fight is usually over after just one hit.
The steel wrapped in cotton hit is one basic beginner type of Tai Chi Death Touch. It is referred to as a Touch because of how much damage can be done with so little effort on the part of the practitioner. The practitioner feels very relaxed, calm and soft and to the Tai Chi man it only feels like he is performing a simple strike or touch. The focus of my next article will be on the Tai Chi Death Touch.
In Tai Chi the body mechanics, alignments and ability to use the mind to form and direct your body energy are all part of the study of Tai Chi and eventually many of the advanced practices are designed to work in harmony with each other. Striking with Steel Wrapped in Cotton is simply a matter of training your hands and arms or whatever body part you wish to strike with
(elbows, shoulder, hips, kicks etc) to exhibit the steel wrapped in cotton quality. To that end I have a specific video for iron palm, hand and forearm that are based on the proper training of steel wrapped in cotton for that purpose. That video is titled, “Internal Iron Palm in 100 Days”. It is designed to go hand in hand with the Tai Chi steel wrapped in cotton Golden Bell Covered method.
I thank my many teachers and my creator for the training I have received in these internal Tai Chi methods as I have gained a great amount of personal health benefits from them and the internal Tai Chi steel wrapped in cotton training. I am very honored to be exposing these heretofore secret training methods to the Tai Chi community in the West as I personally believe that in this day and time folks are ready for the real internal teachings that form the basis of high level Tai Chi.
To learn the skills discussed in this article we recommend starting with the “1 Touch Knockouts” package.Tagged as: Steel Wrapped in Cotton
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