[QUOTE=Lee Chiang Po;861993]K, I think I pretty much agree with everything you have said here. I personally do not see any reason to abuse ones hands to make them harder, and just normal hand training can do that pretty well. I did train my hands, but didn’t use any Iron Palm training as such. I did use hard surfaces and sand though. All this worked to make my hands hold form during a strike. Giving them greater efficiency.
When I was a younger man I worked day jobs as a printer, and I had a young co worker that invited me to attend his Karate school as he tested for his brown belt in TKD. I had followed his training some and we were friends, so I went with him. While there he went through all the drills and forms and eventually was upgraded to his brown belt ranking. Now, while there he introduced me to his Sensei, telling him I was some sort of Kung Fu fighter. This sparked interest and I think some need for showing me that Karate was where it was at. He asked me to give them a demonstration. I explained that we did not do forms like they did, and that I would not make a very good demonstration. He kept insisting and eventually wanted me to show him some moves against one of his intermediate students. I was not liking this at all, and felt as if I were being set upon rather than just being a guest. He explained that his student would use his past boxing skills and I could use my Kung Fu. After a bit of his insisting I agreed, but said I would only block. He understands blocking better so I used that term. He said that I could go full contact if I wanted to. I knew then that he was setting me up. So, we squared off and immediately the young man started trying to tear my head off. I did not strike him once, but managed to ward off all his attacks quite readily. He was fast and strong, and I was afraid that he would connect and ruin my weekend. So I was a bit brisk in my moves. After a few minutes he stopped and went to the side of the mat. He was done, and I was glad of it too. It could have turned ugly. After a while we left and several days later my friend informed me that the young boxer had gone to his doctor and found that both his forearms had fractures in the bones. He told his Sensei that the reason he stopped was that it was hurting his arms.
I have also found that the use of the slap hand is far more effective in some cases than a fist. Especially on hard surfaces like the skull. A hard slap downward at the solar plexus will make a big man lose control of his bodily functions, and a hard slap to the head can knock you out. Striking a head with your fist can injure you as well, and the injury to him is more localized with way less referal shock.
I also use pressure point striking when I can get away with it. Not anything like using acupuncture points and Dim Mak or anything, but soft spots and areas that have exposed nerve clusters, joint hinges, and the such. Also a lot of pushing and pulling to put a fellow off balance so I could get in a few shots at him before he could recover. Now I am rambling.[/QUOTE]
good stuff, WE did arm conditioning exercises “Gatt sao” [sp?phonetic] to toughen the sensations to arm contact with each other and fighting too.
Palms work well, I remember getting into a situation that ended up in a free fight with 3 security guys [me one of them] against 5-6 ? guys at a bar one night before X-mass many years ago. Long story short, a guy charges me after all hell breaks loose, he comes head down arm extended to do a ‘grab and smash’ so i make my space then cut into his timing with the ‘palm from hell’ 
on top of his head…done fight over , he staggered backwards holding his head in obvious pain unable to defend himself…I could have done anything to finish him but was blindsided by a standing scrum of another fight shoving into me …
Another Palm memory we adopted ‘lao saos’ running hand to maintain centerlines whenever outward force was exerted as it came into attack in chi-sao…bad tan pushing out against a elbow in jum…we would release the jum to let the tan slip out [ like letting go suddenly of a tug of war rope] and forming a low palm from the jummed elbow in arm , simply letting the guy impale themselves on the low palm/arm position…many a time we cam close to seeing lunch of the recipient on our feet and surrounding floor areas :D…no force on our part jst release and hold positions to a unsuspecting entry…it taught good tan lines to strike along AND tight abdomens ad firm body control
Another time :rolleyes: random memories, two students of V Kan were sparring as a demo in Central London theater . {btw first time I met S Kwok }…the 2 guys are sparrig and during the session they used palms for the control of cutting % from knuckles…but as the history of the 2 wasnt known [ didnt like each others sparring controls] it became a little war :rolleyes: only nobody but the V Kan students knew this
Sooo it ends up a little harder palms to the face than usual, resulting in one Student needing to go to hospital an hour later , after feeling ‘pins and needles’ in the left side of his face near his nose [sign of a fractured bone] …the x-rays showed a fracture to the facial bone that had damaged the nerve running down the side of the nose / cheek area… it was slightly swollen too , but came an hour after the demo.
More raqndom bits…Ive broken bricks with a palm easy just for the 'hmm abrick…?] while running at night for fitness training and seeing a building site … it takes a few slaps to learn the force and then the mystery is gone , its just a kiln dried piece of material…
And yes bricks dont hit back 
palm angles allow the same ‘elbow’ ideas to work for striking as fists from tan/jum. with
manipulative hand work from the open hands.
ramble over.
back to you
