[Trunk]

I wonder what your experiences with hitting practices have been .. ? Mine have been spotty and some input might help.

Way back in the HT days, I tried a couple of dowels taped together: ouch! And the wires taped together: ouch! And the wires-taped-together but all-bent-spread-out: ouch!

Recently, I ordered "healing broom", which is also a wire hitter. Nicer construction than mine that are duct-taped-held together, and finer wires - so I thought they'd be easier on me. And a woman demonstrating it on the website, ("couldn't be bad", I said). I recently received it: ouch!

Wire hitters and I just haven't gotten along.

Hitting with the hands can be helpful. The basic "Chi Self Massage". So far, I've find it's most effective on my upper chest. It kind of thumps deep into my chest, which is the kind of effect that feels satisfying. But hitting by hand doesn't quite do it on other parts of my body ... maybe I need to experiment more with that.

I went to the L.A. Chinatown yesterday with a couple of friends, walked around, ate food, looked at stuff. A shop was selling bamboo swords (aka "shinai", "kenpo stick") and I found that the lower middle section felt really good for self-hitting. There's weight to it and flexibility, by virtue of the material (bamboo) and the fact that it's of four pieces. I bought one ($10), like it, consider it a "good find" for my self-hitting deficiency. I found that I could smack myself pretty hard on my upper back with it, and it felt really good.
(p.s. I wear sweats when I self-hit with the shinai. Provides the right amount of padding for me, plus protects from splinters.)




Any other tips?, experience? hits? misses?

Trunk

[steve f]

Good choice. You can also get shorter shinai that mimic a wakizashi. One thing to be a bit careful of - as they get old and dry they can develop splinters along the edge. Bamboo splinters can be nasty! I used to play at kendo and we would diligiently inspect and trim the edges to prevent splintering (which can be particularly dangerous in kendo but not much more than a nuisance for the way you're using it).
If splinters are ever an issue, there's a cheap tool you can buy to scrape the edges - sort of like a plane.
PS nice photo of the cross-section

[Procurator]

Trunk, on Jan 10 2008, 07:49 AM, said:

Any other tips?, experience? hits? misses?

Trunk

be very carefull with thin muscle areas otherwise you may develop a ganglion

[joeblast]

I got some massage tappers, they seem to work pretty well for me the handle is bendy, not super stiff.

This post has been edited by joeblast: 10 January 2008 - 03:52 PM

[sunshine]

One of the first teachers I met used a kind of bag of certain size and filled it with sand (I believe) and certain herbs... this bag was attached to a kind of string and you could swing back and forth and when swinging to the left o reached the back on the left side and swinging back to the right with delay it swang back on the front to the right to the back again on the right... depending on speed you could hit harder or less hard, depending on height of holding it you could reach different parts of the back... this way it was possible to stimulate the spine and the areas around it depending on wish...



Harry

[mYTHmAKER]

You might want to do some research into the church's method with leather straps
They seemed very happy with their method

[thelerner]

In Golden Bell (Kaishan style) you'd use your own fist at the beginning. Starting w/ an open fist and light tap. As you progressed you'd close the fist and hit increasingly harder as time went by. Later you'd progress to wooden brick, herb and sand bag, later big stick.

Michael Winn was into tapping yourself along the arms and legs to 'wake'em' up.

Michael

[mYTHmAKER]

thelerner, on Jan 10 2008, 09:17 PM, said:

In Golden Bell (Kaishan style) you'd use your own fist at the beginning. Starting w/ an open fist and light tap. As you progressed you'd close the fist and hit increasingly harder as time went by. Later you'd progress to wooden brick, herb and sand bag, later big stick.

Michael Winn was into tapping yourself along the arms and legs to 'wake'em' up.

Michael

Now that you mention I used to do a slapping - hand forearm upper arm -shoulder
then reverse and turn arm over -upper arm- fore arm - hand.
Same with legs.

A swing will do the kidneys and side-
A 90 degree turn will raise arms to hit chest and middle back - see BK Frantzis

A deep sit swing will hit shoulders and center of back - see my sifu

All swings have the benefit of whole integrated body movement.
Breathing from dan tien and not getting out of breath.

Much preferred to various forms of self flagellation.

[thelerner]

In Aikido we'd twist at the waist and let our swinging hands hit near the kidneys (in a 1,2..1,2 rythym). I hadn't been doing it for a while, but before bed I'd stretch forward and backward. Kan who was a top student of Lama Max's told me to do more of that twisting slap daily.

A good idea. Life isn't just forward and backwards, it twists around too.


Michael

[Wun Yuen Gong]

UU ca use a bundle of Bamboo chopsticks tapped up at the end this is cheap and easy and the vibration gets to the bone marrow.

[Smile]

I have an old Chia's wire hitter and a new bamboo version he sells on his site. I can't practice hitting for a long time (meaning every day) as it realeases a lot of energy from the bones and makes meditations almost impossible to do. At least in my case.
I like the "healing broom" and maybe will order it and see if I like it. These days, I like to do a self-massage (using hands) after a mediatation, covering every part of the body.

[Starjumper7]

Wun Yuen Gong, on Jan 10 2008, 08:35 PM, said:

You can use a bundle of Bamboo chopsticks tapped up at the end this is cheap and easy and the vibration gets to the bone marrow.

Thank you, this sounds like the kind of tool/idea I've been looking for. It seem sto me a little longer and more flexible would be better though.

This post has been edited by Starjumper7: 11 January 2008 - 10:06 PM

[Bum Grasshopper]

I learned a technique at a recent chi kung seminar where you slap the bottom of your feet, concentrating on the ball of the foot point 100 times per foot, feeling the chi pulse up from the foot all the way up out the top of your head. I haven't been able to do it at home because my dog thinks I'm crazy and barks wildly whenever I try it!

[Wun Yuen Gong]

Bum,

Its not a richy mooney video is it?

Lin Kong Jing?

[Taomeow]

Vigorous slapping after a taiji practice, bare hands. Everywhere you can reach -- grab one arm at the elbow, swing it over the opposite shoulder, totally relaxed, and use it as a slapper on the back, neck, and shoulders. Legs, bottom to top, with both hands simultaneously. Ears with fingertips. Kidneys with loose fists, in upward spirals.

I use tools sometimes but not for slapping -- for guasha treatments. One jade, one water buffalo horn. The jade tool is for physical impact and the horn, for emotional/spiritual. I mostly use the jade one. A guasha treatment is quite painless but in any area with any hidden problem it will leave bruises that look horrible for a couple of days (without hurting one bit), due to the special technique of application that causes any trapped intracellular fluid to get pulled from deeper layers of the tissues to the surface and get promptly processed and removed. If anything hurts -- or used to ten years ago! --or is tight, blocked, etc., a bruise will appear there, while nothing happens in the problem-free areas. I've used it on other people too and had to ask for a written disclaimer in advance because in some cases this painless and relatively gentle procedure, with force of application comparable to ordinary massage, can leave one looking like a victim of major violence.

Bum Grasshopper, on Jan 11 2008, 10:13 PM, said:

I learned a technique at a recent chi kung seminar where you slap the bottom of your feet, concentrating on the ball of the foot point 100 times per foot, feeling the chi pulse up from the foot all the way up out the top of your head. I haven't been able to do it at home because my dog thinks I'm crazy and barks wildly whenever I try it!

LOL! Why don't you give this slapping to the dog first, to make him understand?

[Smile]

Wun Yuen Gong, on Jan 10 2008, 11:35 PM, said:

UU ca use a bundle of Bamboo chopsticks tapped up at the end this is cheap and easy and the vibration gets to the bone marrow.

A bundle of Bamboo chopsticks
They are not heavy enough to vibrate the bone but good for massage.

[Trunk]

Smile, on Jan 12 2008, 07:48 AM, said:

A bundle of Bamboo chopsticks
They are not heavy enough to vibrate the bone but good for massage.

Since you've mentioned them twice now, I take it that you like them.



Looks like about my speed as far as a that sort of hitter. The wire ones just don't feel good to me.

I'm really enjoying my bamboo sword as a hitter. Goes deep but doesn't hurt. I do wear sweats when I hit with it. Feels like it gets into the bones and core of the torso (from the high back, the only part of the torso I use that hitter on).

Thanks everyone for their replies!

[Trunk]

joeblast, on Jan 10 2008, 03:52 PM, said:

massage tappers.. the handle is bendy, not super stiff.

I have one of those tappers, it's been sitting in a corner for too long. Found that it's handy for B.Grasshopper's suggestion, tapping Kid-1 a bunch. Definately does something.

Bum Grasshopper, on Jan 11 2008, 10:13 PM, said:

.. slap the bottom of your feet, concentrating on the ball of the foot point 100 times per foot, feeling the chi pulse up from the foot all the way up out the top of your head.

~ later edit ~
Haven't been tapping 100 times, but only until I feel the pulsing in my head. Really like the effects. Good before bed.