The Right Way of Making Chi in the Martial Arts
I should probably call this the ‘Al Case’ way
of making chi in the martial arts
I haven’t seen anybody else talk about this,
which is one of the great mysteries.
What I do is that simple.
The body is a machine.
A machine has to be attached to the ground.
Then the machine must have a dynamo of sorts.
Think windmill,
then translate that to the body
and you have it.
Of course,
there is more to it.
When you do Tai Chi this is what you are doing,
unfortunately,
the Chinese didn’t have such things as logic and physics,
so we get ‘mystical’ terms
which are really just rooted in the science of their day.
Instead of talking about ‘grounding’ your energy
as you would in electricity,
you get ‘rooting’
as you would for a society that is more agrarian.
I know,
weird,
and probably a bit misleading,
but accurate,
especially if you do understand something of physics,
and are willing to apply it to the body.
So your stance becomes the ‘grounding’ mechanism.
You sink your weight,
shift between stances,
and the energy goes up one leg and down the other.
passing through the tan tien,
and out to the arms,
and when you ‘windmill your arms,
make circles,
and make ‘energetical connections,’
the chi starts to build.
But here’s a better way to understand it.
Make a circle with your thumb and forefinger.
Have somebody pull it apart.
They do it easily.
Now draw a circle on your hand,
making a circle of the thumb and forefinger.
Suddenly your hand is strong enough to resist great force.
You’ve just used energy.
Not muscles,
which are up in your forearm,
but the idea of energy running around and around your hand.
Okay,
now imagine that for your whole body.
When you do a move
you imagine energy running through your whole body.
Maybe you make a circle of your arms,
easy to do in,
say,
the first move of Pinan Two,
or Pinan Four.
Now imagine the energy running in a circle
around your arms.
Bingo.
Now,
you have to change that concept for different moves.
My favorite is to add a circle to the move,
and pretend I am drawing circles in the air,
and making my arms into a dynamo.
While I don’t talk about this energy,
this way of making energy,
in the Chiang Nan book and course,
that is the place where
I probably best demonstrate the concept.
Monkey Boxing is probably the art I use it the most
and specifically for combat.
But Chiang Nan is more concise for the concept.
Here’s the link…
Chiang Nan
I hope you have fun with this concept,
it is a wonderful way to start to understand
all those mystical Chinese arts.
Okay,
guys and gals,
Have a superpendous summer of martial arts!
Al
And don’t forget to check out the interview
BTW
I wrote a whomper stomper of a novel called
The Bomber’s Story
It’s all about who owns the United States,
filled with conspiracy and shootings and riots and…
there’s even some martial arts woven into the plot!
