Weakness; what good is it?

Rich Robson — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 02:07:04 +0000

“The weak can overcome the strong;
The supple can overcome the stiff.
Under heaven everyone knows this,
Yet no one puts it into practice.”

~ Tao Te Ching, Chapter 78

A Taoist nun in the Sung Dynasty commented on this:

“The reason people know this but don’t put it into practice is because they love strength and hate weakness.”

We are taught all our lives to avoid weakness at all cost. Too bad. It closes our minds to possible benefits of weakness. As a matter of fact, weakness, when used correctly, has as much value as strength. Denying it is like saying that we should get rid of yin energy and just keep the yang. Then you have nothing!

Good Chinese Boxing Video

Rich Robson — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 01:33:24 +0000

This is a really good video showing old style kung fu guys in a match.

Flowery Forms

Rich Robson — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 21:15:38 +0000

Not understanding the difference between form (practice) and function (fighting) usually results in flowery forms. In practice the postures are indeed fixed so as to have a common ground from which to study principles of kung fu movement. However fighting necessates the abandoment of fixed forms and postures. The postures are subordinate to the principles. When the principles are understood, the postures loose significance.

“Without obvious postures or techniques, you will be effective with one move; if you make the mistake of posturing and posing, you will be ineffective with ten moves.”

Ch’i Chi-kuang, Ming General, 1528 – 1587

“The reason for postures in the martial arts is to facilitate transformations (learning). Forms contain fixed postures but in actual practice there are no fixed postures. When applied they become fluid, while still maintaining their structural characteristics.”

Tang Shun-chih, 1507 – 1560

Internal Energy Kung Fu

Rich Robson — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:59:41 +0000

Brute Force vs. Effortless Power

The practice of kung fu is a science that is learned step by step to reach the level of moving with what the Chinese call “Chi”. Most people involved in the martial arts make the assumption that Chi is a term for some mysterious force which cannot be clearly defined or isolated. Lacking a clear understanding of chi, it is usually cloaked in magic, mysticism and imagination. Too often the mantra of the uninformed instructor is, “let the chi flow.” This leads to a classroom full of starry eyed students trying to imagine a mighty river flowing through their body. Those that are honest with themselves know that such a directive has absolutely no meaning in the real world. Should such a student find him or herself in a real self defense situation, they will realize that a punch coming at their face is very grounded in physical reality and that all their practice at imagination is of little or no value.

Chi, as understood by the founders of kung fu, is actually nothing more than a generic term for energy or power. It is really easy to see why it is so central to kung fu given that a punch, kick, push, etc. requires energy. In short, it takes energy to move and kung fu just wouldn’t work without movement! The question becomes, how does one develop the required energy to move.

What is strength?

As it turns out, there are basically two ways the human body can generate the energy for martial arts. One way of generating power is to tense isolated muscle groups. For example, a punch is accomplished by suddenly tensing the muscles of the arms and upper torso. This is the more familiar type of power to most people. You can easily see the tension and effort exerted by someone as they throw such a punch. It is basically another form of resistance. The basic idea behind training with this type of power is to become bigger and stronger that your opponent. For someone who is big and strong this type of power, though inferior, may be satisfactory. It is known within the martial art arena, rightly or wrongly, as “external energy”.

The other type of energy is not at all like that. It is said that in kung fu the power is in the bones and joints. This type of energy does not require big hard muscles. In genuine kung fu the only real muscle group used to generate power are the abdominals. They are used in such a way as to cause all your bones to move rapidly through space starting with your lower spine. As the force moves travel through each our bones away from your lower spine, each successive joint causes a whip like effect to further accelerate the next bone in line, all the way to your hands and feet. Basic physics tell us that force is equal to mass times acceleration, so the faster a given mass is moved the more force it generates. Your hand weighs a fixed amount, so, short of carrying a roll of quarters in your palm, you can’t increase force by adding weight to your hand. But you certainly can increase the speed with which your hand moves through space. For any given individual, this way of moving is far superior to rough, brutish mucsle power. This type of power is known as “internal energy”.

Internal Energy Can Be Learned By Anybody

Too often it is wrongly assumed that learning internal energy requires 20 or more years. That is simply not true. The fact is that internal energy martial arts can be learned in roughly the same amount of time as it takes to learn any other martial art. Internal energy can be taught to anyone. It does however require the willingness to abandon virtually all of the ideas most people have on how the human body works as a mechanical device. The type of movement required by internal kung fu is not simply a variation or modification of they way most people presently move. Instead it requires a radically new and unfamiliar way of moving.

Internal and External Martial Arts – Bogus Idea!

Rich Robson — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:20:59 +0000

Martial arts are typically categorized into two broad categories, internal and external. Usually it is said that the external arts use muscle force and the internal arts use chi as the source of power. Now all this implies that a human body is designed to move in either of two different ways. That is simply not true! Your body has only one very precise design and it is either used according to design or not. There is no option.

At best only one of the categories of martial arts uses correct movement, and the other simply does not and should therefore be abandoned. Maybe they are both wrong, but for sure, they can not both be right.

For the present discussion, forget about your flesh and consider your bones. The tai chi classics tell us that the power in kung fu is in the bones and joints. Consider your skeleton. It is a series of bones strung together by joints. The classics tell us, “your body is strung together like a string of pearls”. They also say that, “when one part moves, it all moves”. The pearls are your joints. The old masters counted nine joints. If any one joint is moved it should cause the adjacent joints to likewise move.

The classics speak of nine pearls, or joints. The middle one is located between your 2nd and 3rd lumbar vertebrae. That is where your diaphragm (for breathing) is attached. The Chinese call this joint “The Gate of Life”, an appropriate name considering that is precisely where your diaphragm attaches. Now if that joint moves, which it does with each breath, then, as we have seen above, the joint above (clavical/sternum joint) and below (sacroiliac joint) it will in turn move. But if your clavical/sternum joint moves, then the next one (shoulder) likewise moves. After your shoulder moves, your elbow would move and finally your hand. A similar sequence would move from your center (Gate of Life) downward, ie. hip, knee and finally ankle would move in turn. This, I believe, is a precise definition of chi (movement) flow. No imagination needed. Just learn to move correctly in the real, tangible world.

A bull whip has no mechanism to move itself. It relies totally on the flick of your wrist. The nature of the whip, it’s design, simply transfers, and amplifies, that small force out to the tip. It doesn’t try to add anything of it’s own. Your body should be the same way. Instead of flicking your wrist, flick your center and then let your bones transfer that force to your hands and feet. If you try to use muscles it will only serve to prevent one or more or your joints from reacting naturally, a chi (movement) blockage.

Call it internal, external or banana, that is the one way a human body moves. And not just for kung fu, but for any movement. Indeed, that which separates a professional athlete from an amateur is that the pro understands the intrinsic power of the center and they do not try to add anything to it once the center is moved. They just let that force travel, unhindered from one joint to the next until the baseball leaves on it’s journey to the plate, the golf club connects with the ball, or the racket hits the ball over the net. Everything works this way.

Whenever you read or hear the word “chi”, just think move, movement or moving. It will make a whole lot more sense than the usual description of chi.

Chi

Rich Robson — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:39:47 +0000

If you think of the word “move”, “movement” or “moving” every time you read about chi in the martial arts it will make way more sense than what is usually said about chi.

Specifically, the power in a human body should come from the bones and joints. They need to move. According to kung fu/tai chi there are nine pearls in the body. Three in the legs; ankle, knee & hip. There are three in the back; sacroiliac, 2nd/3rd lumbar (called The Gate or Life by Chinese) and your chest, neck area. In the arms is the shoulder, elbow and wrist. By moving one or more of the bones around these joints you can use the alignment of your skeleton to neutralize and issue force.

I mentioned the Gate of Life. That just happens to be both the middle pearl as well as the attachment point of your diaphragm. When that point moves it sends a wave down your legs through the sacroiliac, hips, knees and ankles. At the same time, a wave travels up to your chest/neck, shoulder, elbow and wrist. Each joint, as expected, moves in a strict natural order. In fact, the force going down from your center reaches your foot at the exact instant the force going up from your center reaches your hand.

Even more interesting, is the fact that as you stand in your still postures, your breathing causes your diaphragm to gently push and pull on The Gate of Life. Thus breathing is the basis of martial art movement. You should feel, not imagine, but actually feel each joint move through your whole body as the diaphragm gently moves the Gate of Life back and forth.

To be clear, I’m not talking about breathing in the sense that air is moving in and out of your lungs. I’m talking about the real, palpable movement that goes from head to toe. There is an ancient text that says, “the men of old breathed down to their heels”. Now if air somehow got down to your feet it would indicate a pulmonary embolism, a hole in your lungs, which is clearly not advantageous to a human being! Instead, the bodies of these men of old actually moved all the way down to their heels. Real movement, not imagined movement.

The classics say, “the body is strung together like a string of nine pearls”, and “when one part moves, it all moves”. Think of yourself as a skeleton and forget the muscles. Just like a bullwhip is used by a simple flick of your wrist, internal energy is used by a simple flick of your abdominal muscles. From there each joint above and below reacts to that flick, such that when it’s reached it’s limit your hand is moving very fast, just like the tip of the bullwhip.

A big part of internal training is “standing on the stake” or some variation of still postures. Why? It’s simple. First, even though you appear to be standing still, your diaphragm is still moving with your breath. Like I said, that same movement is the basis for all movement from the center. This is “cultivating the chi”.

Next you learn to move it to your hands and feet, or to cause “the chi to jump out of your belly”. That requires your body to be in such a state that the wave will move uninhibited up and down through each major joint. If one of those joints doesn’t move correctly it would be called a chi blockage.

That state or quality of body is called “sung” by the Chinese. It is neither flaccid nor stiff. It is like one of those big advertising balloons of Ronald McDonald. He has a definite shape, but if the wind or some other force acts on it, it will move naturally, while still maintaining it’s basic shape. In the same way, your body, specifically your skeleton, has a designed shape. But your skeleton should be willing to change into whatever shape it needs to in order to channel whatever force acts on it, eg. a punch, in such a way that the force is directed “into the void” instead of knocking you down and/or out.

More on the Purpose of Tai Chi

Rich Robson — Tue, 04 May 2010 20:26:20 +0000

To study a martial art for the sole purpose of self defense indicates a certain level of insecurity. Why bother with all the hard work unless there is a fear that, at some future time, it will be necessary to avoid getting attacked and beat up? That’s insecurity.

Yang Lu-Chan (1883 – 1936) was a kung fu/tai chi master who said,

“Even the ferocious strength of such ancient warriors as Meng Pen and Hsia Yui is of no interest to practitioners of Tai Chi Chi.”

This should not be construed as saying that if you study tai chi or some other art that there is nobody in the whole world that could beat you up. Such thinking is ridiculous! Be reasonable; no matter how skilled you may be, all bravado aside, there is bound to be somebody who could prevail against you in a fight at any given time. Relative to this discussion, there are two types of people in this world; those who could beat you up and those that couldn’t. Who cares which is which? Are you going to look at everybody who walks past you and wonder which category they are in? What a waste of thought!

Instead, Yang Lu-Chan is simply saying that no thought is given as to the effectiveness of the art purely in a martial sense. There is no obsession to become “number one” in the ring or on the streets. Instead, the main reason for study should be health and longevity. The focus ought to be on increasing your resistance to sickness and disease rather than bullies. In comparison to this, the practical, or martial, skills are a mere trifle.

By the way, after a few years of studying a martial art, you will naturally increase your ability to withstand a real life assault. Just don’t worry too much about that part of it!

Why Tai Chi?

Rich Robson — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 16:57:07 +0000

Why was Tai Chi created? Chang San-Feng created the art of Tai Chi around 600 AD. He desired longevity for all the worthy men of the world and not simply that they practice the superficial techniques of the martial arts.

Yang Ch’eng-fu on Tai Chi

Rich Robson — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 01:25:35 +0000

Yang Ch’eng-fu (1883 – 1936) is considered one of the few real old school practioners. Here is some of his writings with my comments.

“Tai Chi Chuan was not created merely to brawl with ruffians. Rather, the immortal, Chang San-Feng, invented this soft martial art as an aid to maintaining good health.”

Tai Chi is form and function together, making it good for both self defense and overall health. Most of us will never get into a fight, but we must all live with some level of health. Nonetheless, a brutal attack, should you be unfortunate enough to ever experience, will certainly have an effect on your health. With self defense as an adjunct to your health regime you have nothing to loose but much to gain.

“Those who practice faithfully will see results in three years.”

You may have heard it takes 20 years to learn internal martial arts. False. It should take the same amount of time as any other type of marital art, internal or external. That assumes you have a teacher who knows what he is talking about and that you do, as Yang Ch’eng-fu said, practice faithfully.

“If one should ask about it’s usefullness, the answer is that it allows usto use no stength and yet not be intimated by strength. If someone possessed of great strength should attack us, then our supreme softness is sufficient to defeat them.”

No matter how hard a guy can punch, he can’t hurt the air. And what is softer than air? You should be willing to change the shape of your body, ie. move. You simply allow your body to change in a way that blend’s best with the attacker’s moves. If you freeze or stiffen up, then his punch will land.

Avoiding Haste

Rich Robson — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:53:33 +0000

“When beginning to study the Tai Chi form, one must absolutely avoid haste. Every day thoroughly practice one or two postures and it will be easy to appreciate their inner essence. Those who practice too much at one time can only scratch the surface.”