Authentic Shaolin Heritage: Training Methods of Shaolin Monks
72 Arts of Shaolin: (57) Skill of Somersaulting
FAN TENG SHU
Skill of Somersaulting | Brief Description
Excerpt from the book: Jin Jing Zhong. Authentic Shaolin Heritage: Training Methods of 72 Arts of Shaolin >
This kind of Shaolin Gong Fu belongs to the section of exercises “Light Body”. It is also called “Leather Strips” - PI TIAO GONG. The purport of that Shaolin method is: you can climb up and climb down if you have something to catch on. It is necessary to train first somersaults and other acrobatic exercises on the ground. It is obligatory for all those who practise KUNG FU. We shall not dwell on length on it. Then, you exercise in pulling yourself up on a horizontal bar. Clasp the metal bar with both hands, pull yourself up slowly so that the lower part of the stomach should be at the same level with the bar. Climb down slowly then to the ground. Exercise the “windmill” after it - that is rotation round the bar...
< A full description of the training procedure is available in the book: Training Methods of 72 Arts of Shaolin >
... Continue to exercise in such a way, but decrease periodically the thickness of the cord so that at last it should be not thicker than a chopstick. If even in that case you are able to do the above exercises, one can say that you have reached perfection in the skill. You will be able to climb on any complicated surface where is something to catch. That kind of Shaolin Gong Fu is quite difficult, at any rate, it demands 6 or 7 years of training. Many fireman exercise it. I saw my friends showing that kind of Gong Fu. It was a beautiful show.
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
BOOKS: 72 ARTS OF SHAOLIN
