San Zhan – The Mother Form

San Zhan – The Mother Form

San Zhan is the most important form in the Fujian Five Ancestor Styles. Our Tiger Crane Combination is no different.

The San Zhan (3 Wars) Form is an incredibly in-depth set of principles that completely transforms the body in the early stages and the mind later on. But it had to be taught correctly, as it has many facets that can be taught wrong.

​The practitioner learns to abandon unnecessary movement and muscle use and find/develop the “strings” or jin pathways that connect up the body.

Everything else is sunk and grounded causing a strong stable root and an internal sinking that creates space in the body and the joints. This space and rubbery development of the white tissue gives the famous bouncy body effect that can take a lot of impact and even bounce back an opponents force to them.

Over time a consequence of the internal sinking and the development of the white tissue through the stretching and opening gives the body a very hard quality, often referred to as the iron wrapped in cotton.

The San Zhan form has so much depth, that all that I described above can be found in the first of the three wars. The other two wars come later and take us deeper into the nature of Mind & Shen, allowing the practitioner to develop incredible skill.

Here is a lesson from my online Tiger Crane Combination program on a section of San Zhan.

If you are interested, you can begin learning the Tiger Crane Combination System from home at www.shaolintaichi.online.