This art goes back to more than 100 years ago. SFC was purportedly the ingenious creation of the famous Abbess Wu-mei of the White Crane Five Elements art. It is in turn one of the five elements that constitute the Five Elements Palms. In the course of my 40 years of discipleship with Master Chee Kim Thong, the Five Elements Palms was taught openly to me.
The Five Elements Palms comprises the following five elements: Wind, Thunder, Rain, Mist and Lightning. SFC personifies the wind element. These five elements, as emphasized in Five Elements Palms, should not be mistaken as being synonymous to the five more commonly known elements, namely Gold, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth, that pervades many aspects of our Chinese culture - medicine, geomancy, religion and martial arts.
The ultimate goal of a practitioner in Five Elements Palms is to be able to apply the techniques according to nature's characteristics of the wind, thunder, rain, mist and lightning. Each has its intrinsic presence of ferocity, tenacity, suppleness, agility and is ever changing to the prevailing circumstance.
Master Chee explained the underlying principles that govern the inter-relationship and practical application of these elements are based on the Eastern philosophy of Taoism and Buddhism. It is an embracement of the 'Tao' – the way of life, and a harmonious blend of the Buddhist 'Zen' teachings that gave rise to the forms of SFC.
SFC does not comprise many forms or sets. They are relatively short and the movements are deceptively simple. Its application should be executed with suppleness. There are approximately 20 techniques, some notable ones are open palm, slapping, intercepting and grabbing. The training is very systematic. The application of using the palm is akin to that of a cleaver. The difference lies in its explosive power as opposed to brute strength.
This explosive power can be explained scientifically using Newton's Third Law on the Theory of Motion and Equilibrium. The net force that causes the acceleration comes from an intrinsic energy that originates from the waist down to the heel, it travels up to your hands and finally to the fingers.
