Tag Archives: jin

Neijia, Xing Yi

Jue 决. Bursting/Exploding

The energy of bursting or exploding with your strike is always an exciting feeling. It makes you feel alive, powerful. Its one of the easiest jings to discuss but the intricacies of this energy is what makes it truly special.

What are these subtleties of this Jing? It involves the funneled connection of all parts working together to maximize the potential power. Like water breaking through the dam, its power is channeled through a specific point, exploding through and past in a gush of raw power. Bursting comes from inside. It starts at the Dan tian. What does that mean though? It’s the center of you equilibrium, its where all movement should start and end. Without a stable platform the energy can be easily dispersed or unconnected. From your center you can move energy anywhere and if you practice you can move this energy anywhere very quickly.

Yet to move quickly you need to bring your legs and root with you. They will follow your center, pushing off then re-rooting where you intend to go. It issue a force that explodes one must have the concept of due ba li within all parts of their body. At the exact moment the strike is delivered a slight sinking energy should be issued to root and allow the equal and opposite energy to extend out their arm or leg. Can when issue energy without this sink? Sure but you will find the power just not quite as strong (but depending on the fighter could still be extremely strong), a piece missing from the puzzle so to speak.

One also must be lifting upward or Ti (or Chui-suspending, many descriptions for it). Neither leaning in either direction (or any of the 6 honestly) and center maintained. You must “hang around your bones” and be stable. If one leans its creates a slight energy draw towards that direction. Is that necessarily a bad thing? No not necessarily, if one leans forward you will direct the energy that way but you may find yourself using more Li (strength) than Jing (power) as it will be slightly slower, not as sharp. When you center is off your power can be disrupted and dispersed more easily. You will not be as quick in any direction, dedicated but limited in a way.

To truly burst your energy your joints must be connected and coordinated. Starting at the foot and going up the leg, twisting through the waist, up the back and through the shoulder to arm to fist takes practice. You must relax, allowing the pulse to freely move through the body and not bind up at some joint. Many people talk of 9 joints or 5 joints or 3 bows or 5 bows: these terms all while independent of eachother hold many similar concepts together, most importantly is the coordination of the body to shoot the power out like an arrow. It must have Ting, or straightness, your joints compact together and explode together.

The energy must come through the shoulder and arm through the fist to a point beyond (Same for a kick as well). It must feel like your sending your strike to penetrate through your target! Use your intent and focus. Yi or intent is highly emphasized in internal martial arts but is discussed in any fighting realm. Whether you figure it imaginary or something greater, the idea of striking through your target adds effects. It causes you to slightly lengthen, to load and unload slightly greater, to move slightly faster and more coordinated. All these effects, while potentially small, can add up and create effects well beyond an unfocused strike.

Here is the other catch on Yi and intent. Your mind most be totally focused on that event. It must brain all its energy into it and leave nothing behind. An amazingly focused mind brings that much more coordination and power. Like an unfocused workout, you just don’t move as well, lift as much, fight as hard. It’s a catalyst to greater effect and truly needed in a fight. The mind must obviously be ready to move into the next event and not be stagnant but it MUST be focused. Note: some people will talk lofty ideals of no mind and connection to nothingness, these are very viable concepts in internal martial arts but are not something typical applied to this. This leads into much deeper debates on ideals that are not necessarily wrong but will bleed over into other concepts.

Internal arts looks to maximize the use of the mind and body, this includes how it strikes. It looks to harmonize the strong and soft, the energy coming in and going out, it looks to move with coordination, it looks to move with power and energy. Any small piece out of alignment or not focused in that moment take away from the whole. You can do 10,000 punches or kicks everyday but without focus, intent, consistency in effort, your power will be limited. Your power will not develop over time as effectively and it will not truly explode through at a level that would be discussed for years to come!

Neijia, Xing Yi

What is Guo 裹?

Master Liu demonstrating Guo Zi Quan from his article, “Xing Yi Quan Ba Zi Gong,” Wu Long Magazine, 1984.3 #30, translated by Joseph Crandall, Smiling Tiger Martial Arts.

The importance of being having whole body power in Internal Martial Arts cannot be understated. To have Fa Li (power) one must have Guo 裹. Most IMA individuals understand Guo in terms of wrapping Jin. It’s a horizontal energy (oversimplified term, all directions are present to ensure centeredness) used for defense and offense. It takes an opponents incoming energy and wraps around it, cutting it off or better yet absorbing it to re-issue.

Great Sifu you defined Guo, so what? Why is it important?

Guo can be fundamental to absorbing and issuing. All fighting arts look to “suck” in their opponent and take advantage of the position. Blocking is easy but true masters in their chosen art can off-balance their opponent, using their opponent’s strikes and aggressiveness to their advantage. It is circular, coiling, redirecting. You must connect with your opponent, overturn and coil around it, lead it into emptiness. It allows you to gain the upper hand or superior position for the attack. It allows you to gather energy in your joints to release quick and sharply like an arrow.

Some masters will talk of Guo at a deeper level. They will associate Guo with connection and togetherness. The wrapping methods of Guo require the practitioner to connect the Sānjié (三節) or three sections through coordinated movement. The wrapping methods need to be coordinated in the legs to root and absorb, the waist to maintain centeredness and twist as the arms to overturn and accept, and the head to be upright to allow for the energy to sink and gather. When all of this is coordinated it will maximize the effectiveness of your Jin. Now as you get older this Jin will be harder to accomplish as joints and aches will get in the way of coordination. This is one reason to remain soft and supple; to ensure things can connect smoothly and work in harmony. If you do not practice consistently and work towards song/suppleness you will become “scattered.” This will show in your wushu and is something you want to delay in old age as long as possible. Discipline, consistency, hard work — the mantra of the wise, the mantra of wushu experts who can obtain and maintain Guo well into their old age!

Neijia

Duì Bá Lì (对拔力)

Duì bá lì, translated as pulling force, is one principle that applies to all Martial Arts, but is especially important within Internal Martial Arts.  This force can be better understood as equal and opposite force.    Newton’s third law is a powerful player in martial arts.  To exert a force one must also exert an equal force in the opposite direction.  One cannot escape physics.

Now  duì bá lì can be described in a few different scenarios:

  1. It’s the equal and opposite force when striking
  2. It’s the concept of the left side accepting energy and the equal and opposite force exerting out the right side (or vice versa)

The first example is the easiest to understand.  Lets take Beng Quan from Xing Yi for example.  When a person executes the strike the fist comes forward but at the same time the should blade goes back.  This creates a dynamic tension and if executed in a quick and coordinated manner will allow you to express a sharp energy (Jin) at the opponent.   It feels like you are “stretching” in both directions and expanding to its limits. Like the spring coiling and uncoiling, the uncoil is reinforced through the opposite energy, making it quicker, sharper, harder.  Now any combat sport does this and great fighters develop sharp quick punches because they naturally learn to align, sink, and create that dynamic tension (among other talents).  The great thing about internal arts is that it is focused on and constantly conditioned.  To focus on that pulling/pushing force and learning to expand it is exciting and can create a powerful strike.  Another training mechanism is narrowing the focus down to the cun jin level (1 inch power).  This focus further emphasizes the dynamic tension down to the miniscule and can create what some consider miraculous results.

GM Fu Jian Qu executing Beng Quan

In many lineages one must focus on “lengthening” the arm by creating a bigger separation between shoulder and back–thus creating a larger equal yet opposite energy.  Great martial artists like Dong Hai Chuan and Zhang San Fen were said to have abnormally long arms (among other characteristics).  Now though its not impossible for someone to be born this way, most likely their arms were of normal length (as seen through most pictures of them).   Yet when they fought they were able to reach out and create that shoulder/back separation–lengthening their arms and giving the appearance of it being abnormal.

The second example involves has similar concepts of equal and opposite energies but involves the whole body.  When a person strikes you it is blocked and through positioning, timing, and connecting its accepted, followed, and diverted.  At the same time you strike them using the built up energy you have gathered from their attack.  Definitely easier written then done. Now what are you really learning to do?  You must learn position, relaxation, root, balance, whole body connection, muscle/tendon micro-movements/compression/expansion etc…  As a boxer I could play “patty-cake” by slapping someone’s punches down all day and then reacting with my own strike making it look almost simultaneous (and in a sense is still duì bá lì).  Blocking and striking (jìn gōng dài de), while difficult in its own right, is still shallow when compared to the full potential of this skill.  By accepting their force and “nullifying” their strike while at the same time using their energy to compress your tendons/muscles then quickly expanding it and striking while they are still off-balance (aka not ready to receive a strike in return) is truly impressive.  Now consider that this must be accomplished over and over again, in seamless rhythm–energies constantly changing and adapting in harmony without interruption until your opponent is defeated.  A very daunting task indeed!!!  It takes hours of training your body with forms,   partner training, compliant sparring, non-compliant sparring (the same style), non-compliant sparring (different styles).  Like any skill one must work towards it becoming natural (thus leading into the ideals of hua jin) learning to respond to different scenarios which can only be accomplished through disciplined, focused repetition and training.

Overall duì bá lì is an overarching concept in IMA (and all other MA for that matter).  It involves several different training mechanisms, time, dedication, and patience.  One must condition the body into working for this strength and when you have truly attained it your skills seem miraculous and infinite.