Improve your balance, strength, focus and martial skills as you master this elegant and effective weapon of Gong Fu with America's most respected author and teacher.

Improve your balance, strength, focus and martial skills as you master this elegant and effective weapon of Gong Fu with America's most respected author and teacher.

Traditional Chinese martial arts (also referred to as kung fu), Northern Shaolin originated in the northern regions of China. It is a component of the Shaolin Martial Arts tradition, an extensive lineage that originated at the renowned Shaolin Temple in Henan Province, China. Northern Shaolin is distinguished by its emphasis on speed, agility, and precision in its acrobatic and dynamic movements. Shaolin practitioners in the North commonly execute an extensive repertoire of maneuvers, such as kicks, punches, sweeps, leaps, and flips. Frequently, the style integrates intricate routines or forms referred to as "taolu," which consist of series of movements performed individually or in a duomic partnership. Conditioning exercises to develop strength, flexibility, and stamina, along with drills to enhance striking, blocking, and footwork, are customary components of Northern Shaolin training. Weaponry instruction may also be provided by some institutions, including instruction with the spear, staff, sword, or other traditional Chinese weapons. Its profound philosophical underpinnings, extensive historical significance, and global and Chinese impact on alternative martial arts disciplines all contribute to the notoriety of Northern Shaolin. From novices to experts, martial artists of every age and background engage in its practice.

Master the northern style of Chinese Shaolin Kung Fu with this illustrated martial arts guide The Secrets of Northern Shaolin Kung-Fu: Pek Sil Lum is a comprehensive guide to the theory and practice of the traditional Chinese art known to the West as Northern Shaolin Kung-Fu. It includes a historical overview, basic positions, and authentic forms and techniques. Pek Sil Lum is especially renowned for its repertoire of kicking techniques, ranging from simple front kicks to jumping twirling crescent kicks to the dreaded tornado kick, and includes open- and closed-hand strikes and a number of weapons forms.

This book details the Northern Shaolin Style set known as "Shaolin #4: Pierce the Heart." For enthusiasts of northern kung fu styles, this book also has the grand calligraphy of Master Paul Tam and Master Tam. There are front views, back views, applications and also information on the four major weapons of kung fu.

This meticulously researched and eminently readable study considers the economic, political, and religious factors that led Shaolin monks to disregard the Buddhist prohibition against violence and instead create fighting techniques that by the 21st century have spread throughout the world.