I just burned my tongue on some hot ramen, so I’m trying to think of something to take my mind off of it.
So, what’s the coolest thing you’ve ever seen done in person. It can be MA or strength related. I’ll go first, let’s see… I saw a guy bench 460 once… of course, he was probably 300lbs himself, but still that’s a big bench. That is, technically speaking, only 1.53 times his bodyweight (assuming he was 300lbs), but still.
Iron
Me when I snapped a piece of rope with my bare hands!
(true story, very cool!) (I’m a d-ork, not cool)
Also benched 300 pounds a few years ago. 
Ryu
Hey that one guy here (sorry I forgot his name) can post about how his friend was a ninja and could control the wind. That’s dàmn cool, I wish I could do that 
If I had to choose between control of the elements and benching 460lbs, I would pick control of the elements. I also want to be a ninja. Ninjas are cool.
Iron
Nice bench, btw What was your weight at the time, if you remember?
Iron
Iron the wind???
that was 7 when wifey left for the weekend, and he started to do his nails, you missed the makeup, he said sorry fo talking that sheet, didn’t know what he was token, Glue??..
Rye, in the guiness book they have beer pictures…
one record was held by this 76 year old cowboy, he could rip two quarters in a second?, with just his index and ****you digit=imagine buddy grabbed your punch=Ouch.
I’d have to say the image that struck me most was Ynag Jwing Ming performing a white crane jing on the heavy bag during a seminar in our kwoon, bending it at the site of impact (ang god knows this bag is incredibly heavy, it’s been there since the 50’s and the leather hasn’t been changed since, because it’s so thick it’s still in shape!!).
Me and my classmates who saw the stuff were quite jaw-hung at that…what a memory…he then told us one of his classmate had killed someone like that, striking the ribs, breaking them and piercing the heart with the shards of bones…which we had no hard time believing…and the best thing is that he wasn’t happy with his strike because the bag was wobbling slightly, up and down…he told us “if I were a good gong fu master, the bag wouldn’t wobble”…uuhhh…we were all puzzled when we realized he wasn’t joking when he said that, he really was thinking that was not a good strike…I wish I were lame like that
Well
In person: it would have to be the variety of Ling Kon Jin demo’s i’ve witnessed in public and in private.
I know it’s not in person but I watched a video recording of William C.C. Chen punching a board of wood with what looked liked an incredibily soft Tai Chi punch breaking the board. However the good thing about it was that he held an egg inside his palm and didn’t even crack it in the slightest. Other things: has to be Cheng Man Ching footage of him “Penging” one of his Taiwanese students from a stationery position thirty foot away. Pure Taichi excellence in my opinion.
I saw a demo tape of my sifu performing Sun Sook Kit (being able to raise the testicals) and then took a full blown kick to the nads…ouch and iron throat with the chopstick on the throat, several chopsticks held upright on a table then he bent over so they where positioned in his thorat well, and then someone delivered a downward blow to the back of his neck smashing the chopsticks.
I once got kicked in the crotch really hard! I only threw up once.
Coolest thing I’ve seen in MA
Frankly, I haven’t personally seen anything in this category (MA or strength related) I’ve been overly impressed with. I’m still waiting though…
I am sort o fwith budokan. Other then some video taped demos, which I have no reason to believe but can be easily faked, I have never seen anything but very good martial arts in person.
When I was a correctional officer, myself and another officer escorted a prisoner back from a court hearing where he was released. When we got back to the prison Sgt. Hamilton asked the person (size of a mountain ) to turn around so he could remove the manacles. He smiled and said " No problem Sgt. and handed the twisted opened manacles (smith and wesson safety cuffs) to him! So much for the old adage " in the battle of steel against flesh, steel always wins."
Well besides from the fact that my really small and really buffed up shifu (he was like 5,6 and 220Lbs and <10% fat) general MA, like when he’s stand blindfolded, make someone put a cigarette in their moth and do a tornado kick to kick it out of their mouth. I think the most amazing thing i ever saw him do (i catagorize amazing and creepy pretty closely) was when he took his fingers and bended them almost the entire way back to the back of his hand. it was freaaaaky, maybe many people can do it but i’ve never seen it, plus he’s got strength in those fingers, he’d do pushups on one finger a lot, and thumb pushups and stuff.
We did a martial arts exhibition in Chinatown last year with ~16 Kung fu masters that flew in to town. My two favorite things from that night would have to be 1) seeing the Wing Chun Sifu ___ Kwok (name escapes me..sorry) do the Wooden Man Set, he called out the names of all the techniques as he did the whole thing and then broke the arms off the dummy and the dummy off of the frame with his arms at the end. And 2) seeing 5 people hold the tips of pieces of rebar against my sifu’s throat and then watching them all push, and Sifu pushing and the rebar all just bent. Then he took a (sharp) sword and put it to his throat, put the handle braced against something on the floor, and they placed a 100+ lb stone block on his back and broke it with a sledge hammer, bending the sword without cutting him. Both were very impressive IMHO.
-Golden Arms-
I’ve seen some cool things but i can’t say anyone has REALLY scared me. I’ve been very impressed with a lot of guys who could easily beat me a thousand times over but noone whose skill level is completely beyond my imagination. Guess my expectations are too high. Too many old legends in my head i guess.
During a staff striking/blocking drill, my kung fu brother cracked somebody’s staff. Slightly impressive by itself, but then he said “all I did was this…” and hit someone else’s staff. Crack! Broke it into two clean pieces :eek: .
Another time I was working out with a friend at the gym. He was working out on the incline bench press with about 315 lbs., and a couple of big ol’ body builders walked by and said “Easy on that weight, bro. Be careful.” And these guys were HUGE! :eek: . I also saw him leg press about a half a ton one day, too (about 6-7 reps).
I posted this on another thread, but it is worth repeating. The Peking Acrobats. Everything they did was amazing, but there is one stunt that sticks out in my mind.
At one point they had about a dozen people on the stage at once, all running arround doing different things and one of the men was running arround with a large umbrella. It was about the size of the ones that come with a patio table. He had it angled out from his body and was spinning it as he ran. The amazing part is that on the umbrella was a girl on a unicycle. She was peddling at the same rate he was spinning it so she stayed in the same place. Can you imagine the strength, timing and balance required for that. And the whole show was like that and everything was done with a smile on their faces. Well worth the time.
My Sifu was teaching my si hing an advanced spear form and my si hing couldn’t get the correct power in a downward strike with the shaft. My Sifu kept explaining to him about how to get the power right and how to use the hips but my si hing couldn’t get it. So my Sifu demonstrated the move with full power and the spear’s shaft broke.
That was F’n cool.
A non-MA friend of mine slept with 3 different women in one night. It wasn’t at the same time but it was still an amazing F’n accomplishment. That’s real chi baby, yeah!!!
Not what you’re looking for, but…
One of my roommates when I was sick and in the ICU was the physically sickest person I have ever seen, and was also the least lucky - he was young, and it was absolute dumb luck that he got so sick. However, he did not once waver from being the nicest, friendlist, most polite and even happy person you can imagine. When I think of raw fortitude, I think of him sitting up to smile, shake the hand of the doctor and thank him - a feat which, both physically and mentally, will dwarf the heaviest bench ever done.
The roommate I had after him had given himself pancreatis by drinking so much. The doctor told him he would be fine if he stopped drinking, or even cut it down to a couple drinks once a week or so. This man constantly swore at the nurses and doctor, and had beer snuck into his room daily.
Being shown this dramatic contrast really shoved in my face what real strength is.