Aikido Ki and How to Make It
Aikido Ki is one of the most misunderstood things on the planet. Truth, people enrolled in martial arts classes are taught how to fight, how to win trophies, how to pay their instructor month after month and think they are getting something, but they are not learning martial arts ki.
Ki is energy. Ki is the glow in knowledgeable eyes. It is called ki power, or kung fu chi energy, or by other similar terms.
When you are weight lifting, when you are lifting hundreds of pounds, you are feeding the muscles, your awareness is on the muscles, so the energy goes into your muscles, and not into the tan tien, which is the ki generator of the body.
Weight lifting isn’t bad, it is just for another purpose than building chi power.
When you are learning to fight, to win trophies, to get the gold, you are practicing to beat your fellow man. But beating up your fellow man results in the opposite of gaining martial arts ki powers. Beating up your fellow man squashes him, at your expense, and reduces the glow in the eyes, the fun in the heart.
In the martial arts one should study to the point where you give up fighting.
And learning martial arts just to pay your instructor has nothing to do with ki power.
To build this mythical ki energy thing you need only do your art with certain principles in mind. These principles can be done anywhere, with any art. So even if you have a bad system, or a bad instructor, you can be a good student and make your art give you the glow in the eyes type of chi that I am talking about.
First, as stated earlier, breath to and from the tan tien. Oxygen won’t reach it (it is located two inches below the navel), but air into the lungs starts a wave form of energy that will reach it. Stand with your arms extended and breath deep, you will likely feel a tingle in your fingertips. The energy went into the tan tien, and the tan tien pumped it out to the rest of your body. If you didn’t feel it, then you just need to keep breathing and focusing your awareness until you do.
Second, structure all motion to and from the tan tien. Yes, boxers say throw the punch from the shoulder, and they can put a lot of weight into the strike. But that strike is still as nothing when compared to a martial arts chi powered punch or kick. That punch or kick is going to have a lot more thought and intention and, ultimately, power.
This thing, of structuring all motion to and from the tan tien is the key. So go through all your forms or movements, isolate each motion, and figure out how the energy comes from the ground by sinking your stance, and align the movement and position of your arms so the energy can go out your arms.
Have somebody push on your body postures, find the positions which you can hold with the least amount of effort: that is the key to Martial Arts ki energy.
This thing, of breathing correctly and structuring the body correctly, is the key to all martial arts. Be they Chinese martial arts, Wing Chun Martial Arts, or whatever. So fix your fighting discipline, watch videos and learn from history and do all that you can, because that is what it takes to empower the body, put a glow into the eyes, and become the powerful, enduring personality that you really are.
This has been an article about aikido ki power and how to build it.
Here’s another great article about how ki power unlocks the universe. The most comprehensive book on how to develop Martial Arts Chi Power is at Monster Martial Arts