 Martial
arts are truly a part of our life when integrated into our everyday existence.
Major and minor activities are more harmonic and beneficial as our martial
art training habits become subconscious. This process can happen on its
own and/or with the help of intentional integration. An example of the
latter would be shaving every morning while in the horse stance. Depending
on whether one would like also to meditate on shaving while performing
the task, one might end up in the horse stance for 5-10 minutes. What about
vacuuming the floor using shuffle steps or crossover steps? There are many
more examples you all could create. Breathing. While in traffic, keep your
tongue touching the roof of your mouth, breathe in and out of your nose,
and breathe from your abdomen. Meditative driving reduces stress and increases
alertness.
However, some
of the most enjoyable integrative experiences happen naturally. For those
of you who have completed the basic iron palm training and are doing your
daily maintenance, I’m sure you have stories of how your stronger hands
have helped you in seemingly mundane activities. My story is one of a common
American experience during Thanksgiving. My brother-in-law, my nephew his
son, and I went out to toss the football around. Needless to say, at one
point it truly became a family-generational activity as my father joined
us. My brother-in-law is about 6’3" 180 lbs. and all muscle, having played
and could have quarterbacked his high school football team, but chose defense.
I have never seen such a rifle arm in person like this. We soon spread
out over neighbors’ yards, and bullets were flying at me sometimes 40 yards
away. I am a good athlete to begin with but smaller in stature, 5’9" 150
lbs. I caught every ball no problem with sensitivity yet strength. As we
played catch for 45 minutes I realized the ease with which I could catch
the "bombs" coming my way traced to my Iron palm work. If any of you have
had to catch such a pass, you know what I mean by that feeling of a tight
spiral meeting your skin.
The point
here is that my experience of an already fun activity was heightened and
extended, and it was clear to me as we played and I caught balls sometimes
with only a few fingers from each hand, that my martial arts training had
begun to improve the quality of my life at every moment. I hope that such
a realization comes true for you all.
Shi Fu Adam Bottorff is a tennis professional in Michigan
and steers clear of his cat Burt’s Iron Paw.
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