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What does Poles Training consist of?

The Poles Training is one of the 5 fundamental technical practices of 6 Dragons Kung Fu (read /// Subscribe (it's free!) or Login to see this content ///):

As for the other 4, it is not a single one but instead a category of exercises from our school
To simplify as much as possible, it consists basically of hitting one or more rigid and static targets

Note – This article has been asked by one of our Core Course practitioners on Patreon (see how to attend our home study classes here Learn Kung Fu online: a beginner-to-expert course).

What is Poles Training for?

In our Kung Fu, the poles are used:

As a target for kicks, punches, etc.
As a target for weapons (training versions, not sharpened, not tipped, not in metal)
To gradually condition our body to impact resistance (read Conditioning check for the impact); at the beginning, we wear the protections (gloves, etc.), then with time, we remove them (see for example 32 trapping drills samples)
To learn to manage unmoveable / strong opponents (using, for example, the 6 Dragons Kung Fu’s state changes, read 6DKF’s interactions: from the strong blow to the light touch)
To learn to calibrate the right amount of power to release in relation to the target’s characteristics (rigidity, solidity, angle of interaction, surface of contact, etc.)
To learn to instinctively manage many of the variables that, in relation to what we want to do, come into play while executing a combat technique (the level of tension, the area of impact, the trajectory, etc.)
To create a base for spatial intelligence and memory (eg. remember where is a fixed part of the fighting scenario, read The most important skill in combat)
To learn to combine our striking techniques to build effective, fast, balanced, powerful and potentially uninterrupted sequences
At a more advanced level, to create a harmony of consecutive and connected muscle chains (start reading Use the body power: the muscle chain)
To learn to maintain balance while striking, pulling, pushing, etc. (read The concept of Dynamic Equilibrium); the idea is not only to work on our body but also on learning to exploit all the active and passive elements of the combat scenario
…

What martial skills develop this practice?

The goal of this exercise is the development of:

Agility
Balance
Spatial memory and intelligence
Precision
Coordination
Defense and attack attitude
Elastic force
Impact conditioning
Speed
Breathing (stamina)
Rhythm (pace)
Combat mobility (legs / arms)
Abstraction (in relation to the opponents)
Offensive automation
defensive / offensive combinations (simultaneous, sequences, etc.)
State changes
Combat multitasking
…

The training area and the necessary equipment

A Poles training area (similar to the ancient Shaolin ones) could be:

On one side very expensive
On the other not so easy to build

It is therefore strongly recommended to start with a more economical version:

A perfect replacement is to use the door jambs of a corridor as poles (they are less hard and arranged at an acceptable distance)
Another possibility is to find a tree, or better, more trees positioned at a suitable distance
…

The training area characteristics

In general, the idea is to find a place where:

We can train without problems (it must be totally safe for us and for the others, read The most suitable places to train)
There are groups of poles-like elements not moveable (metal / wooden / concrete / rock columns, tree trunks, etc.)
Even if the distance between each pole can be random, it is a minimum of 60 cm and a maximum of 250 cm (the ideal is 80 cm)
Even if the height of the poles can be variable, it is at least 20 cm but in most cases 150 cm or higher (eg. to do the high kicks)
The poles have a rectangular, circular, hexagonal, square (etc.) section and their diameters are between 12 cm and 23 cm
Each pole has no sharpened edges and its surface is as much as possible flat / rounded
Each pole is empty or (better) filled inside but in any case, resistant enough not to be easily damaged
Even the adjacent elements of the poles are not easily damageable (walls, wardrobes, etc.)
The space at our disposal is enough big to allow us to practice any kind of technique (even with training weapons, read The basic equipment for training in 6DKF)
…

A note by Master Kongling – A real 6 Dragons Kung Fu poles training area has a lot of other specifics (at least 6-10 wooden poles, etc.), which we will see in detail in the future.

How to perform Poles Training

About safety, there is no specific advice to give for this practice (read How to train without risks), the only aspect we must stress is that if we are not basically conditioned (read Hands conditioning: first approach with a bag of rice) we must

Not address without protections any kind of solid target
Or start to hit very gently

The preparation

Once we have identified a good place to train, it is necessary to prepare some covers to be applied to the poles (even temporary, read Convert into training targets “each” kind of object)
Then we have to choose what kind of protections we want to wear (gloves with free fingers, etc.)
…

A note by Master Kongling – Even if we wear protections, we never have to hit any surface that we do not know at full power. Let’s progress gradually thinking carefully about the responses that our body gives us (breaking the bones, for example, of the hand is easier than it may seem and very annoying to recover).

The exercise execution

How to train during the first approach:

We start with one pole, the first thing to learn is just to push
We have to become able to move our body away from the pole (gradually with more and more intensity) without losing balance
After each push we have to imagine being “magnetically attracted” from the pole, we do not have to lose it, we have to “dance” with it
The first times, the practitioner must not hit but only lean, push and cling to the pole
We can use legs, hands, elbows, shoulders (etc.); the idea is to adapt our body to an effective and harmonious uninterrupted flow
We have to move slowly but intensely, in sync with natural but noisy breathing (read Breathe Yoga: the warrior’s breathing)
We have to focus on full-body rotations, spatial translations (on the 3 axes) and exchanges of weights (between legs, arms, etc.)
Gradually we can increase the speed but always maintaining the focus on balance and intensity
…

After a few weeks, having acquired a certain familiarity with the exercise (and a basic level of balance):

We can start to use not only the push but also the light hit (with hands, feet, shoulders, knees, etc.)
The previous contact exercise is not excluded, it is simply enriched with further and more “aggressive” interactions (punches, kicks, etc.)
When we hit we have to try to include in our flow as many combinations as we can (simultaneous, consequent, etc.) with knees, hands, wrists, etc.
As always let’s try to imagine fighting against real / reactive opponents (maintaining the guard active, etc.)
With time and the right graduality, we can implement more and more power
…

There are a lot of other details to say but as a first approach, we have gone even too far; in the next article of this series, we will see more advanced evolutions of Poles Training.

In-depth video courses

Basic 6 Dragons Kung Fu Exercises – A complete and visual explanation of the 5 fundamental technical practices of 6 Dragons Kung Fu
Advanced speed and reflexes training – All the steps to build real combat speed

In-depth articles

5 wooden dummy drills / exercises ideal for beginners – A video about how to start with our wooden dummy
A Wing Chun wooden dummy like in PVC – A basic “test version” of Wing Chun’s Muk Yan Jong

Questions

Reply in the comments and share your experience:

Can you hit the pole without hurting your limbs?

Author: Master Kongling

Founder of 6 Dragons Kung Fu.

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