Shaolin monks hone their kung fu skills in the courtyard of the Shaolin Monastery. Murals in the White Hall of the Shaolin Temple.

Authentic Shaolin Heritage: Training Methods of Shaolin Monks

72 Arts of Shaolin: (19) Swimming and Diving Skill

QIU SHUI SHU

Swimming and Diving Skill | Brief Description 

Excerpt from the book: Jin Jing Zhong. Authentic Shaolin Heritage: Training Methods of 72 Arts of Shaolin >
Such techniques as “Diving into Waves”, “Walking on the Bottom of a Water Pool”, “GONG FU of Eight Parts” are called “Swimming Skill”. Earlier people called it “fitness to water environment”, but today they say: “swimming technique”. This skill belongs to the inner Shaolin GONG FU and is based on the inner force (energy). It is in very close connection with every-day life of people. Not only those who learn Martial Arts, but all the people have to learn it. For instance, you swim in a boat and suddenly the wind has risen and roughness has appeared, your boat can overturn. If you can swim, you save your life, if you can’t, you can perish. The ability to swim is especially important for those who knock about the world. If a man really wants to learn swimming very well, he must train himself hard and persistently. There are some people who can swim well, but they train themselves according to European techniques. They do not know that we also have our own excellent techniques. Some pages in novels about Middle Ages knights describe how heroes show their swimming skill...
<  A full description of the training procedure is available in the book: Training Methods of 72 Arts of Shaolin >

...Using this description as a guide, one can master all kinds of swimming techniques. But mind and heart are needed to comprehend all these and in order to comprehend it you need practice, it is not enough just to read. One has to train oneself and everything will be all right.

72 Arts of Shaolin: (19) Swimming and Diving Skill

72 ARTS OF SHAOLIN | Brief Descriptions

(1) Diamond Finger - (2) Twin Lock - (3) Striking with Foot  (4) Pulling out Nails - (5) Ringing Round a Tree - (6 ) Four-Part Exercise - (7) One Finger of Chan Meditation - (8) Iron Head - (9) Iron Shirt - (10) A Series of Blows - (11) Sweeping with an Iron Broom - (12) Hand - a Bamboo Leaf (13) Jumping Centipede - (14) Raising a Weight of 1000 JINs - (15) Celestial’s Palm - (16) Method of Hardness and Softness - (17) Cinnabar Palm - (18) Lying Tiger - (19) Swimming and Diving Skill - (20) Sluice Shutter weighing 1000 JINs - (21) Covering with a Gold Bell - (22) Finger Lock - (23) Luohan’s Exercise - (24) Lizard Climbs the Wall - (25) The Art of Lash - (26) PIPA - (27) The Pole of a Falling Star - (28) Poles of Plum Bloom - (29) The Art of Stone Padlock - (30) Skill of the Iron Arm - (31) Fist like a Bullet - (32) Soft Bones - (33) Frog - (34) Piercing the Curtain - (35) The Force of Eagle’s Claws - (36) Iron Bull - (37) Skill of Eagle Wings - (38) Hand of Sun Rays - (39) Exercise for Groin - (40) Iron Bag - (41) Method that Reveals the Truth - (42) Skill of Tortoise Back - (43) Skill of Deft Jumps - (44) Skill of Light Body - (45) Iron Knees - (46) Technique of Jumps - (47) Palm of Iron Sand - (48) Pulling a Silk Thread - (49) Method of drawing in YIN - (50) Rubbing and Thrusts - (51) Stone Pile - (52) Neither Lances nor Broadswords Can Wound - (53) Gong Fu Flight - (54) Hand of Five Poisons - (55) Skill of Water Separation - (56) To Fly Up to the Ridge and to Walk on a Wall - (57) Skill of Somersaulting - (58) Pole of Cypress - (59) Ba Wang’s Elbow - (60) Pinching a Flower - (61) Pushing a Mountain with Palm - (62) Technique of Horse Saddle - (63) Skill of Nephrite Belt - (64) YIN Fist Method - (65) Skill of Sand Bags - (66) Piercing Through Stones - (67) Pulling Out a Mountain - (68) Claws of Mantis - (69) Gong Fu Bag - (70) Palm of Guan Yin - (71) Raising a Pot - (72) Rubbing Palms

About 72 SECRET ARTS OF MONKS FROM THE SHAOLIN MONASTERY

    Main Secret of the Shaolin Training in the Authentic Shaolin Book

    Jin Jing Zhong. Authentic Shaolin Heritage:Training Methods of 72 Arts of Shaolin (Tanjin, China, 1934)