Splashing Hands

[keith1892]

Hey everyone, this is a thread for talking about really anything but i wanted to make it so that people who are interested or dont' know splashing hands can learn about it. i am currently learning it from the only person in the U.S. that teaches it: Sifu James McNeil. So feel free to ask about it and I will be more than happy to share my knowledge of it & will ask my teacher for questions i can't answer.

[Stiles]

Ok, I'll go first: What is splashing hands?

[inacan]

I'm assuming it's some sort of Palm form?

[keith1892]

here's a good summary of splashing hands: Splashing Hands, developed at the Shaolin Temple in the late 1700's, is a close in fighting system of kung-fu. It was taught to those monks who were in charge of guarding the temple gates. Splashing Hands, named for the way the hands move as if one is shaking water from them, is valued for its explosive, high-speed hand and footwork and its simultaneous offensive and defensive techniques. Historically, only a relatively small number of students learned this system. Even after Splashing Hands was introduced to fighters not associated with the Shaolin Temple, it never became a widely-practiced art. Those who knew the effectiveness of the system were reluctant to share their knowledge with others. Because of this secrecy, it is unknown whether or not Splashing Hands is still practiced today on the Chinese mainland. We do know the style was brought to Taiwan in the late 1940's and early 1950's, where a former nationalist army general taught a selected few students.

[Trent Tiemeyer]

I remember McNeil's books from a LONG time ago.

[David]

Thanks for starting thread :)

Any chance of a few pictures or a bit of video on this, Keith? This shaking hands of water motion is something we use in one of our trademark strikes.

Rgds,
David

[keith1892]

thanks for showing interest in this system: it's a great one. i will be posting some pics shortly, if anyone has read any of sifu mcneil's books or seen the videos, i'd love to hear feedback and/or questions. 10NE fighting, what books did u read? david, the term splashing hands started with another thread & seems to be a common technique in other systems. how do you use it?

[keith1892]

sorry guys i need to figure something out with my computer to post pics...here's the link to my teacher's website: http://www.littlenineheaven.com/spintro.html this will put you on the splashing hands portion but i strongly recommend searching the entire site from little nine heaven to hsing i, to tai chi, to even just reading about my teacher.

[David]

Cheers for the link Keith. The specific technique I alluded to got a mention at the top of the page: the hammer-fist. Keywords such as infighting, sensititivity etc all sound like the same subject area to southern mantis.

It's late and I'm drunk/fatigued now so that's about all you'll get out of me at this time :)

g'night!

David

[shunyadragon]

The practice of 'splashing hands' associated with Shaolin that I know of is the very ancient training method of training using a large stone bowl of water and using hand strikes to splash the water from the bowl. The strick does not touch the stone bowl. When the bowl is empty it is filled again and the process is repeated. This training technique did likely evolve into other techniques, but the practice of 'splashing hands' is likely as old as Shaolin.

There is an ancient story that goes with this training technique. The shortened version of the story goes like this.

A young student was chosen from his village to train at Shaolin. His master had him practice nothing but 'splashing hands' for five years. When he returned to his village to visit he was very discouraged because he felt he learned nothing.

He was the guest of honor at a huge banquet attended by the whole village. He was seated at the middle of a huge oak table in the place of honor flanked by the elders of the village.

He was asked to speak to the village and tell them about the great things he had learned.

Out of frustration he exclaimed, "All I learned was this!" He brought his hand down into the bowl of soup in front of him. With a splash and a huge crash the huge oak table was shattered into splinters.

[keith1892]

interesting story, when i first learned iron hand, i was told to strike water first. splashing hands dates back to the 1700's and is a shaolin system......great story, thanks for sharing.

[SliqueRICK]

hi i do some splashing hands as par of my hsing-i guess this makes you one of my many kung fu uncles

[keith1892]

hey sliquericki'm happy to hear that u practice splashing hands as well as hsing i, both are great arts. who did u learn splashing hands from? how much of splashing hands do u know? and....u can consider me a kung fu brother

[SliqueRICK]

my splashing hands is from tony pinkovsky when he learned hsing-i from mcneal mcneal also taught them like half of splashing hands so he is teaching us splashing hands along with our hsing-i
im not one hundred percent sure what everything is called but i know like 2 browns 3 or 4 advances i know the basics really a couple of the strickes

[keith1892]

so you're in delaware? that's cool, i learned splashing hands directly from sifu mcneil as well as hsing i. i know all the basics, browns 1-10, advances 1-10, small cross, and 4 corners. i hope you're enjoying being trained in both splashing hands and hsing-i. i also hope you can meet sifu mcneil. he's a wonderful person and an amazing martial artist. good luck with your training.

[SliqueRICK]

cool i just had my first hung ga lesson too i might go once every two months cuz the place is so far

[shunyadragon]

interesting story, when i first learned iron hand, i was told to strike water first. splashing hands dates back to the 1700's and is a shaolin system......great story, thanks for sharing.

Yes, the tradition is from Shaolin, but it is far older than the 1700s.

[keith1892]

oh i know iron hand has been around for many many years... i didn't mean to correlate the two sentences together.

[Jon1983uk]

I've just started learning Splashing Hands from apparently the only man in the UK that knows it, Sifu Chris Lomas. He is as some may know, a student of Sifu McNeil.

I had 6 hours of training in Splashing Hands last week and it is not for the faint hearted. :D The basic cross/snap jab attack involes one arm thrusting forwards in a karate-style punch (but the hands are always open until the point of impact; they're drilled open to instill speed into you, and it is *very* fast :)), while th other hand strikes the shoulder, then the shoulder-striking hand thrusts out and 'strikes' a target's head say, while the original punching hand hits the side of your stomach/waist.

You are recommended to throw 1000 punches a day like this, so it's great for the upper arm muscles and stamina. It's very different to Hsing-I (the other style I'm learning) in technique, it's alot faster (at least at first) and therefore you can be a proficent fighter in Splashing Hands in 6 months, while the same level may take over a year to achieve in Hsing-I. It's definitely more combat-focused, with a heckuva lot of punch drilling at the beginning of every lesson.

It's also unique in that you learn to fight first and learn the forms last, the opposite way round of course from most kung fu.

I don't know the whole sylabus yet, but I do know there's 9 forms in total and 10 'browns' (combination sequences) to master. I've learnt brown 1 so far and I've seen all 10 lended together into one super-fast motion. The ai8m is to hit 100 moves in 15 seconds, I've seen it done by some of Sifu Lomas's students and it does look very impressive. :)

It's agony on my toes, feet (there's alot of quick shuffling involved) and arms, and everyone drips sweat after a good 90 minute work out, so it's extremely good for stamina. My previous 6 weeks of Hsing-I training has helped slightly with my fitness, enough for me to give Splashing Hands a go last week and I'm glad I did. To quote my Sifu - "it's alot more fun than jogging!" :D

[keith1892]

i hope you're enjoying the splashing hands training. it's very intense and chris is very, very good. you should also check out his tai chi...amazing..definantly one of sifu mcneil's best. keep training with him and you'll be very good too one day. hopefully one day you can have the experience of having sifu mcneil do applications with you...it's awesome. well i hope you're also enjoying hsing-i. that's a great internal art to complement your splashing hands training. i have gone through splashing hands, most of hsing-i, and the original chen form for tai chi with sifu mcneil. it's a lot to do so i have my hands full for a while. if you're ever in chicago,il for any reason, don't hesitate to let me know and i'd be more than happy to train with you. so, have fun with it all and good luck.

keith

[Jon1983uk]

Ooh, thanks for the reply Keith, good to see I'm not alone with this in the world! :D How long did you do/have been doing the 3 mentioned arts for?

Sifu Lomas is definitely a class act! :) I was always nervous of my kwoon and martial arts in general, even though I'd always wanted to do it. I took the plunge eventually back in July and was greeted by the Sifu. Since then I've grown to like and respect the man. :) He can be firm (if you say you're tired in splashing hands, you gotta drop and do 15 push ups :)), but he's always fair.

An extremely nice fella and very talented clearly in what he does. He instills respect early on; the Sifu had to go somewhere for a week a few weeks back and I've got 3 friends now who do Hsing-I with me, and they all agreed it wasn't the same without him. :)

He'll teach and then he'll go round the room quietly observing everyone in turn, before popping in with a quick hint and then dashing off to the next person, it adds to the friendly atmosphere of his kwoon to me. You never feel afraid to ask him anything, he's always there with a cheery smile, much different to other martial arts teachers I've heard of. I almost expected a Chinese army drill sargeant when I joined. :D

He teaches the 3 arts you mentioned (he also teaches Ba Gua amongst other things to advanced students that wish to learn), I've had the pleasure of attempting all 3. :) I was quite amazed at just how deadly Chen Tai Chi can be, I didn't expect a form of Tai Chi to ever have applications! :D 2 of my friends so Tai Chi still but I decided Hsing-I had a more even balance of fitness and combat for me, and I knew I wasn't fit enough mentally or physically to do more than one style at once. :D

I started Splashing Hands nearly 2 weeks ago now, since then I've had 4 lessons (there's 3 a week in Splashing Hands, at least until timetable changes in a week) if I remember right. It's pretty painful still but I've always had embarrassingly poor stamina and fitness levels so it suits me well for losing weight. And I've always been intregued by it - it's unique, rare, excellent for stamina and combat, and (as even the Sifu put it) looks beautiful and stylish, in a different way to the internal arts, but certainly no less impressive.

I'd love to meet Sifu McNeil some day, Sifu Lomas says he does visit our school now and then. Our Sifu is actually currently teaching in Ireland this weekend at a fellow kung fu brother's school. There are a handful of other skilled visitors apparently, I'll have to dig some names out. :)

And thanks for your offer, can always do with a sparring buddy! :D I've got a cousin who lives in Chicago as it happens, been meaning to visit him for years now, may just have to do it some day. :)

[Frogman316]

My water style starts with what my Sifu calls Splashing hands. I doubt it may be the same style though. The whole water technique is for breaking out of wrist grabs and all forms of grapplings.

[TheDarkJester]

Wonder if Mantis boxing uses this technique... ??

[onyomi]

Wonder if Mantis boxing uses this technique... ??

Praying Mantis doesn't have the monopoly on speed... but everyone knows it's the fastest! :D

[TheDarkJester]

Monopoly no. :)

76.6743% of shares yes. :D

And yes.. Mantis does use its own version of splashing hands.. I'm gonna start practicing it on my heavy bag ASAP :)

[onyomi]

Monopoly no. :)

76.6743% of shares yes. :D

And yes.. Mantis does use its own version of splashing hands.. I'm gonna start practicing it on my heavy bag ASAP :)

What version is that? I've never heard of anything in PM called "splashing hands," but maybe that's because I don't know the English names for a lot of things. Does anyone know the Chinese characters for "splashing hands"?

[Greyghost]

Praying Mantis doesn't have the monopoly on speed... but everyone knows it's the fastest! :D


lol.......

the scottish art of *** Yu is much quicker.....

[Jon1983uk]

What version is that? I've never heard of anything in PM called "splashing hands," but maybe that's because I don't know the English names for a lot of things. Does anyone know the Chinese characters for "splashing hands"?

Splashing Hands is an extremely fast and brutal 'direct' style of street kung fu developed by Shaolin Monks hundreds of years ago (when exactly escapes me sorry :)).

You can try www.splashinghands.com if you wanna see more. I don't know many other sites about it, alas. :) It's very rare outside of Thailand and China, but I've been doing it for over 3 months now and can say it's darn effective for cardio fitness and combat. :D

[David]

I'm keen to see this system in motion. Bring on the clips!

:)

David

PS Happy New Year to all

[Jon1983uk]

I'd ask my Sifu if I can tape myself and plonk a vid up on here but I can't take critism. :D

He's making a DVD of the animals forms of Splashing Hands at the mo however so I'll ask him if I can put a small clip of it up on here when he's finished. :)

[David]

About time we saw some progress on this! :)

[Jon1983uk]

Lol! Apologises for the ridiculously long delay, my memory's not what it was when I was 21. :D Rest assured I'm back on the case now! :D

I had an op to remove me toenails last month so I've not been back in training yet since then. But I've been able to walk up to my kwoon in the past week, so I'm hoping to hobble up there again on Monday; if we both get time I'll ask him then if he can do anything in the style for the internet. :)
(though knowing my luck he'll just give me his blessings to show the world myself! :D)

There's pics on his site of various moves if anyone's interested in those though in the meantime, but alas no vids yet. :)