Umbrella revolution and self-defense

The Umbrella protests have been running in Hong Kong for a couple of weeks, with no sign of any rationale solution satisfactory to all parties. There has been clashes with the police who used tear gas, pepper sprays, batons, and protected with professional protective gears. On the other hand, the protestors used more amateurish stuffs: umbrellas, surgical masks, goggles and plastic wraps. In a conflict situation, it is natural to predict that the police will be the aggressor and the protestors the defender. Who is on the right side, morally and legally, is another matter. What is interesting here is that a few days ago, a pro-establishment legislator claimed that the protestors is the aggressor citing that they used umbrellas. He further supported his claims by saying that the legendary martial artist (whose life stories have been inspiring numerous kung fu movies) Huang Fei Hung (黄飛鴻) was famous for using a simple umbrella as his weapon. And nowadays students of master Huang's lineage still practiced a kung fu set using umbrella as weapon.

The questions that I am interested in are: What is the role of weapon in self-defense? And what are the objectives of self-defense?

Some traditional martial artists like to say that their art is to be used for self-defense instead of as sport, as in sports-MMA. To put their traditional practice at a higher level of prestige, sometimes they will claim that their art is more superior because they are more deadly!

Should self-defense techniques be deadly?

Professional fighters are usually prohibited by his affiliated associations to fight in the street - even self-defense pleads will be frowned upon, a high degree of burden of proof will be laid upon the fighter in case of judgment. Years ago prominent Sumo wrestler Asashōryū, one of the greatest Yokozunas, was forced into retirement after found punching a bartender (perhaps bouncer) in a casual brawl at a bar. The bodies of professional fighters are their weapons and are quite deadly, but they won't use it. Apart from the rules of his affiliated association, a professional fighter, who can be considered armed when facing a common civilian, will not dare to risk spending the rest of his life behind bars through inappropriate level of violence expressed in the slightest provocation. A friend of mine, a champion Muay Thai fighter, told me many years ago that he would try his best to avoid conflict situations. "It is only those who know little who like to engage in a street fight - besides the gangsters". The best way to avoid trouble, as he told me, is get away from it rather than fight your way out of it - because, him being a professional fighter, may end up in the losing end - either he wins or losses.

Having said that avoidance is only evading the issue of setting the objectives for self-defense. What are the objectives of self-defense, assuming that we fail to avoid a certain conflict situation?

The first objective in self defense is self-protection. Even the police, who are armed and equipped, need to protect themselves, helmet and shield are examples. In the Umbrella revolution, the protective gears (in particular the umbrellas) of the protestors aim at protection against tear gas and pepper spray. It is interesting to note that at some stage of the protests, when some police used batons, some protestors used industrial helmets and self-made forearm pads and body shields for protection. In martial art, it is blocks and evasion techniques plus the ability to absorb (minor) punches and the ability to do (simply) break-falls.

The second objective in self defense is counter attack appropriate to the level of attack. For the protestors it is a non-issue, and similar an non-issue for professional fighters in common minor conflict situations. For the common citizens, counter attack is to deter further attack rather than to inflict deadly/lethal harms, for most conflict situations. It is interesting to note that the pro-establishment legislator above had "cleverly" changing the concept of umbrella, used by protestors, as protective gears into as weapons of counter-attack. The fact is some protestors were arrested for some legal reasons (whether morally or legally valid or not is another issue) but none was arrested for "attacking" police with umbrella!



Umbrella revolution in Hong Kong

Legend and PR in martial art

People love stories and they love legends, keen to be part of them, in their imagination if not in reality. Lovers would cry over Romeo and Juliet (and [for the saner many] don’t imitate them) and tai chi practitioners dreamed of themselves as Unbeatable Yang, the legendary Yang-style grandmaster who pretended to be a dumb servant, according to a popular fiction that later turned into legendary “truth”, learned his art from a Chen-style master who refused to teach anybody not a Chen. I loved the stories as a kid and still love them today. They feed my imagination and fire my determination to learn. And I belong to the saner many.

It is the same in religion. A few years ago, I chatted with a brother-in-law of mine, a Caucasian who was (and still is) a minister in Canada about the life story of Jesus. “Of course it is not history, as is the history being taught in our Universities. It is a legendary story for preaching Christianity and to convert people”. And my brother-in-law belongs to the saner many too.

Recently I commented on a post in one of my internet friend’s blog and the post was written by a guest author, a sifu resided in the Gulf region - not that the never-ending crisis in the region has anything to do with the topic discussed here. Anyway I mentioned some historical facts in Chinese history concerning the use of certain weapon in the past, to correct apparent errors in the article (which I happen to be familiar about, as I have been living in Hong Kong all my life).

I then realized that I was caught in a cross-fire – apparently some one was trying to create a new legend, unsurprisingly, using favorable data, and apparently for PR purpose. More mentions of misinformation by other commenters. Then I recalled a teaching of my late father “Don’t openly comment on other sifu’s teaching because their livelihood might depend on it”. Old wisdom, whether or not it is still applicable today is another issue, though my initial response was: perhaps I should not have made the comment in the first place. I have no regret.

Today a product or service needs marketing and PR. Every single TV commercial is trying to build a good image story for its product or service. Every product or service would like to create a legend for itself. In most cases, people don’t care about the intricacies (who care about the technical details of Pepsi challenge, other than the image or perception of Pepsi winning the challenge!), they care about image (assuming that no major negative on the part of the physical product or service itself). The whole modern economy builds on marketing, aka legends and myths.

One caveat for marketer (including martial artists marketing their lineage/skills): In the past, people tended to be more tolerant on whatever were being said in legends (marketing/PR). Today, any perceived intentional tampering of the facts, if being found out, will most likely back-fire.  It is OK for Pepsi to claim victory in its Pepsi challenge (though nobody actually bought a cola drink without knowing its brand-name first), it will be disastrous for Pepsi's image if the company had faked the statistics.

The Pepsi Challenge

On killer instinct

Let's face it. We don't need to train our "killer instinct". Every animal has that killer instinct - aroused most for the two most important survival elements: food and sex (not necessarily in that order). One important point, however, we sometimes seem to forget in our discussion of the subject: survival is above food and sex (excepting those species die after the act of copulation, yet they won't act suicidally trying to achieve impossible copulation).

Now for martial art training. Some schools are fond of advocating the training of "killer instinct". They have a point and they do not have a point.

Let's face it again. An animal's response to conflict situation is either fight or flight. When an animal, for example a lion, is in a strong position, its animal killer instinct will be aroused. It will fight! When the situation is not clear as to who is stronger, for example contending for the lucrative position of being the dominant male, a contender will try its luck, testing its own strength against its opponent, and "kill him" when the situation is favorable, and "fleet from him" when the situation turns out to be unfavorable. A contending lion will not fight "to the last drop of his blood", that would be stupid. Contrary to the claim of some martial artists, an animal will NOT fight to the last drop of his blood.

Running away, in the natural order of things, is not cowardice. It is the best option in the animal world when one is in a weaker position. And we humans have such instinct too. Here comes the "trainers do have a point in cultivating killer instinct". In contact or combat sports, our natural instinct will be "flight" while a facing a (much) stronger adversary. A coach will therefore be needed to instill a "killer instinct" at all times - whether or not his trainee, the fighter for example, is going to face a stronger or weaker opponent. Afterall there are rules and referees, the risk of injury will be minimized. A weaker opponent (in strength or technique) may actually win through luck! And we applaud, the best moment of spectator sports, the underdog wins.

And how about self-defense in the street? I would say it is not a good idea to arouse "killer instinct" under all circumstances. Oftentimes, walking away will be a much better option. Needless to say, it shall be an informed judgment after the testing of strength (and techniques), either in real or mentally. As lions know about it in all ages. A final words, it pays to train ourselves to increase our strength and techniques, both physically and mentally. Worst case scenario: one might need some strength and techniques to walk away from a conflict situation. Who knows?

The stake is high

Defensive martial arts as competitive sports?

Defensive or passive martial arts are defined as martial arts that train only on defensive moves. The most notable styles are aikido throws and tai chi free-style pushing hands. Although there are practitioners claiming to uphold, and therefore trained accordingly, the old roots of the arts as both offensive and defensive practices, they are the exception rather than the rule, and their training, if effective, certainly goes beyond what are now trained in the dojo or public park. (Indeed in Hong Kong there was this one sifu who once bought a short TV commercial and showed himself doing boards breaking technique, common demonstration among karate practitioners).

In competitive sports (like the one-to-one sport of boxing/Sumo wrestling/MMA or many-to-many sport of American football) there are tough physical contacts played under well defined rules (and with forbidden moves). Under these rules, both sides are encouraged to "attack" as this is the best way to score. If both sides choose to defend at the same time, the referee (and the audience!) will very likely to urge both side to "attack". For example, in Mongolian wrestling where there is no time limit for each game, in some rare cases, in particular in important title matches, both wrestlers might become too cautious, they therefore choose to “test out” each other without real engagement in grabbing the other’s gear, sometimes for over an hour! The current rule is that the referee can “make” both wrestlers to re-start their game from the position of each grabbing the gear of the other, to make them easier to launch an attack.

Because of the above inherent limitation of the defensive art, training in that art has to involve a compliant partner (in tai chi free-style push hands compliance is effected by the requirement of arms stay touching with maintaining a light and connecting force (不丟不顶) which effectively turns the game into one that cannot be played without one being compliant). With enough momentum self-generated by his compliant partner, a practitioner can execute spectacular throws. As far as physical training and mind-body healing practice is concerned, it is a perfectly fine way to practice. In particular, without competitive physical contacts, the sports will be much safer, and therefore much "healthier" (I am not making it up, master Wang Xiangzai held this same view and looked down upon competitive sports as being "unhealthy"). There is nothing inherently negative about aikido and tai chi. They are simply different practices. And they are highly effective in achieving their physical and mental conditioning objectives.

However, issues arise from using these practices as self-defense, without supplementing them with other offensive practices/training. Sometimes it is argued as follows:

We are peaceful people. We do not train ourselves to attack; rather we train ourselves to defend against attack. Therefore our art is perfectly good as a practice of self defense.

The main problem with this argument is that those who are not trained with a competitive (which is non-compliant-plus) partner fail to grasp the real-life situation, in particular the fact that your opponent will more likely to cheat than not, trying to win the game (as the old Chinese saying goes Cheating is a normal part of warfare 兵不厌诈). And he does! A competitive sportsman learns it in the hard way, like faking a move, or faking the power supposed to be used in a move. An almost instantaneous correct reaction to a fake move has to be learned in real life, in competitive situation. Even in lawn bowling without physical contacts, older folks are said to be fond of using psychological warfare to outwit the physically stronger young opponents - psychological warfare in addition to physical intimidation. An angry face may be faked, as much as faking tiredness or minor injury. These are all part of a competitive game and participants enjoy playing them! On the other hand just imagine what would happen next when in an aikido dojo or tai chi pushing hands class, a junior practitioner fakes a move (that is supposed to be compliant), throws his sensei or sifu and therefore makes him looks stupid!

In competitive sports, even veteran practitioners got tricked once in while by faked moves and lose their game. In the recent July Sumo Game (Basho) held in Nagoya, a more junior Egyptian sumo wrestler Osunaarashi (Maegashira #3 前頭三), who had not been doing particularly good in this game, surprised everyone by winning two yokozunas 横纲 (Kakuru and my favorite Harumafuji) in two consecutive days (there are a total of 15 days in a tournament with each wrestler fighting different opponent each day). How did he do it? By perfectly legal fake moves. And the two yokozunas accepted their loss with grace.

In conclusion, there is nothing negative with defensive martial art, just that it is incomplete if it is used for training towards confidence in competitive situations.

In a coming post, I shall discuss the excellent healing effect of the defensive martial arts.

 

The theory behind sexual abstinence in the internal arts

“100 days foundation building (百日筑基)” is a common saying among internal practices that advocate the necessity of doing micro-cosmic circulation as a foundation practice. Despite differences in the practice method, during this period, sexual abstinence has oftentimes been said to be an essential requirement. So much so many said that lest there will be a leakage of chi and the practitioner has to do the 100 days again (poor guy, who can’t control his sexual urge for 100 days). Recently I came across a Shalin Nei kung book published by a lineage of Shalin monks in Mainland China (nowadays they on regular students to be lineage students and gave them Buddhist title 法號). The author, a lineage holder, disclosed that there are also such practices in Shaolin. It seems that such method is quite prevalent in internal martial arts, if not all of them spoken out as such publicly.

No pain no gain. As most athletes believe it to be so. But what is the rationale behind. What is wrong with letting our natural urge finds its natural way?

It is interesting to note that in classic text of Taoist meditation (for example the famous Taoist Yoga translated into English by Buddhist Charles Luk) there is a common assertion “The natural way turns into man, the opposite way turns into Immortal”. A riddle (like Zen riddles) that has been puzzling many readers and practitioners for generations. What is the natural way and what is the opposite way?

Like every “secret” of the internal arts, one has to turn to empirical evidence. In other words, only practitioner who has the experience of the practice process can possibly understand what the classics were talking about. Hence what you are going to read below will be an “opinion” if you have no such experience, but if you have practiced the art in any meaningful way, probably under a tutelage of a learned practitioner, you would probably say “So THAT is what the classics are talking about! (irrespective of whether you agree with it or not, at least you know what I am talking about)” Hence I am not disclosing a secret, which cannot be disclose anyway without proper initiation, but simply pointing out an empirical fact that practitioners might not notice previously.

Before I confuse you further, the gist of the simple empirical fact is as follows:

Irrespective your training method, the first objective in your training is to build up chi in your lower abdomen: from the Dantian (a point a few inches behind your belly button) downwards to your pelvic floor muscles and backward to your kidney. When such chi energy is built up to a certain magnitude, your lower abdomen will have a burning sensation (the classics mentioned the burning sensation in your kidneys as an empirical evidence to seek for). In chakra terminology, you have opened your chakra(s) there (whatever name your particular lineage names the chakra(s). When you progress further, the powerful chi accumulated in your lower abdomen will try to seek an outlet. When it is blocked at the pelvic floor, it will rise up and move the diaphragm, which initially can absorb some chi. As more chi builds up the diaphragm will bounce back the chi. In chakra terminology, the heart chakra is not opened and therefore chi cannot pass through (the heart charka cannot be opened by chi coming up alone, chi has to come three-dimensionally).

Now different systems will have different methods. To do what? To open the spinal cord to allow the compressed (and powerful) chi to go up the spinal cord. It is the “moment” in practising microcosmic circulation in Taoist meditation, the details of which I will not go into here. Instead I will like to point out a practice of opening the spinal cord through pure physical means: it is jumping up and falling down on one’s buttock with crossed legs, as in “flying” of TM or some Tibetan practice.

How does this related to sexual abstinence? When the pressure is high around our groin area, physical pressure will arouse our sexual instinct (and in seated meditation, erection may arise in some practitioners). Such feeling may become unbearable, seeking a natural release (and a practitioner’s otherwise calm mind will be disturbed). If a practitioner follows his natural instinct, his internal pressure will be released. If however, he can make use of this internal pressure to open his spinal cord (with any method including the TM one mentioned above), he can both got his internal pressure released AND move a step forward in his practice. Once his strongly compressed chi can be channeled to go up his spinal cord, it is easy for him to move it down the front part of his body and back to his abdomen. With success and successive (powerful) microcosmic circulation, he is now ready to open his heart chakra.

PS: Is it necessary to do so? Judge it by yourself.

 

 

 

The importance of training objectives in the internal arts

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don’t much care where--" said Alice.
"Then it doesn’t matter which way you go," said the Cat.
"--so long as I get SOMEWHERE," Alice added as an explanation.
"Oh, you’re sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
(Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 6)

It is true about Alice and more true about practitioners of the internal arts.

A few years ago, a prominent Taoist/tai chi/martial arts (including Muay Thai) master affiliated with a major Taoist temple in Hong Kong gave video-taped public lectures on tai chi chi kung for health. On passing, he made fun of practitioners who did like "one zhan zhuang stance for an hour and another zhan zhuang stance for another hour, tiring themselves out". "There are much easier ways" and he demonstrated his, primarily through activating ones' pelvic floor muscles (including or initiated by anus contraction and relaxation), vocalization and some shaking. Zhan zhuang was included but not "the one hour this and then that" type.

So, is it "the one hour this and then that" type of zhan zhuang no good? Accordingly to our master (and your author's view) the answer is no. For most people doing chi kung or nei kung for health, that is simply not an effective and efficient method. The choice of method should depend on one's training objectives. Thanks to the proliferation of training methods made public nowadays (through Youtube and the like, plus publications, and.... personal blogs of course), a practitioner or his teacher can choose whatever are suitable to one's training objective (assuming good understanding and sound coaching).

This is progress. In contrast, those who still hang on to "their own" traditional methods regardless of objectives, no matter which lineage their claim to have, in my view, have unnecessarily limited themselves to less than the best method(s) for specific training objectives (I have assumed that they indeed have genuine training objectives other than the "objective" of "learning a certain lineage").

Sometimes I was appalled seeing some of these practitioners even refusing to acknowledge the "correctness" an advanced form of a practice (e.g isometric contraction, isokinetic movement or nano-movement). Why? Because their teachers never taught them! I'm not joking, a few days ago, a student of mine told me that he discussed with a few tai chi practitioners the other day, and a sifu vehemently argued that Sink your breath to the Dan Tian  氣沉丹田 is an incorrect concept in tai chi!


Where you want to get to?

In search of esoteric practice

Recently a friend of mine sent me a video to watch. It is called Yogis of Tibet. Among many interesting themes (that I most likely will discuss further in some future posts), there was a short footage of a Tibetan yogis doing stunning yoga/meditative practice in folded leg position. Truly esoteric practice. A practice not to be imitated even by advanced practitioner if without guidance of a qualified teacher. It is just the outside form of the practice. The more inner practice, or areas to focus or manage, were not explained in the video, with good reasons.

Nowadays there are people who just love esoteric practices. Some of these people probably think that by learning some “secret practice” they can take the shorter, and much easier, route to achieve a higher level of perfection. This video footage convinced me that speedy practices are always with hidden danger. Try them at your own risk.

The Tibetan yogis also convinced me that Tibetan monks are highly devoted religious people who would take any risk to achieve their objective of spiritual enlightenment. No wonder many lamas who have fled from Tibet via Dharamsala to the West enjoyed much honors and followers. Truly impressive people of high spirituality.

Chinese practice of spirituality on the other hand has most of its followers seeking a better health. A different contribution to human culture. There are also traditions of esoteric practice developed along certain Taoist or Buddhist tradition.  Such traditions had not been openly discussed in classic texts. Many classical Taoist Neidan texts also condemned some specific esoteric practices. The reason is that there was a parallel tradition of esoteric practice called sexual chi kung (Chamber techniques 房中朮) passed along for the benefits of wealthy royalties or merchants who could afford to have a number of concubines. It is also a historical fact that some of these teachers were (condemned) lamas and Taoist masters (beginning in South Song and becoming more popular in the Mongal Yuen and Han Ming Dynasties). This is also a main reason why some Western folks are keen to “unveil the hidden secret of esoteric Taoist practice"!

Certain mainstream esoteric practices have been passed along the path of martial art. One passed along Taoist-related internal martial art and one passed along Shaolin monks. Recently I read a Chinese book by a lineage master of one lineage of Shaolin kung fu. The master mentioned some esoteric practice of increasing a practitioner’s internal chi energy.  It includes massaging one’s perineum, massaging and pressing one’s scrotum to stimulate chi, and with one easy trick – hold your breath while peeing (I am not joking and the master was serious about that)! It was so written, and it was so reported by your author. I don’t want to mention the name of this book because I am not an advocate of esoteric practice. There are ample easier and safer ways to achieve the same results for most practice objectives.

There is one now more well-known mainstream esoteric practice passed the martial art path. It is sometimes called Golden Shield 金鈡罩. The purpose is to shield a fighter's scrotum from being hit. In deep meditation, a practitioner learns how to control his internal muscles around his Dantian - between diaphragm and pelvic floor. One is cremaster muscle which, when trained, can be used to pull up one's scrotum. In Taoist yoga it is poetically called Hiding the horse's genital 馬陰藏相. Interested readers can search Youtube and watch some practitioners demonstrating such skills of shielding one's scrotum from being hit. A Japanese author Yasuo Yoshifuku in his book Science of martial arts "mystery" - the essence of the technique (in Japanese) mentioned this as an esoteric defense method against groin kick (in addition to the traditional methods of leg block and San-Zhan 三戰 stance shield). The author claimed he has tested its effectiveness. Needless to say, practitioner does it at his own risk if he has decided to use it in real combat.

The search of esoteric practice doesn't end here, nor it will ever end....

Tibetan Yogis demonstrating his art - "not to be imitated" as he warned us!

Difference faces of tai chi - an agile interpretation

Nowadays when we talk about tai chi, we have in mind of people doing elegant slow movements. Slow movement tai chi is great for health and structural building, a form of moving meditation if viewed from a chi and meditative perspective. Many contemporary practitioners who are interested in tai chi's martial art origin have abdominal punch taking and fa jing (pushing power) in mind (plus some "applications"). Agility being none-of-the-above. An interesting old video tells us that this was not necessarily the case when tai chi was practiced in the past.

The master in the video below is Dr. Chu Mingyi 褚民誼, a famous politician in the Republic era (and infamous, because he was later executed by KMT for treason) and a renowned student of Wu Jianquan the founder of Wu-style tai chi. Chu earned doctorate degree in medicine and pharmacology at the University of Brussels. It clearly showed that agility was the core concept of Chu's practice of tai chi. According to the video, Chu treated pushing hands as an effective form of tai chi conditioning exericse and that it required a partner who could deliver similar strength. Since finding such partner for regular practice was not easy, Chu (a rich man!) created two very interesting gadgets for his own training (see video).

Agility-focus in tai chi was also shown in another practice video (not shown here) by master Wu Dakui (吴大揆), elder son of Wu Gongyi (吳公儀) - father Wu showed his agility in his famous ring-fight with a White Crane master in Macau, son Wu was famous for his street level combat experience. Not too surprisingly, because in combat, one has to be agile and be able to deliver power at the same time. Power without agility gets one into trouble in real combat situations.

Anyway, it is refreshing to see that tai chi can also be practised in an agile manner, in addition to its slow movement chi-meditation and power generation training (of course and still other methods).  Needless to say, one doesn't need to follow all approaches in practising tai chi. Each student should choose his own cup of tea, as Dr. Chu certainly did so decades ago.

The three essentials of internal martial art - No 3: Nano movements

This is the last article on three essentials of internal martial art. It is the most complex concept, in terms of understanding and execution. In practice, there are different ways to execute this concept, some better some worse, some safer some more dangerous. The essential concept remain the same: Use minute and dynamic joint opening (and closing) to generate chi energy. With powerful energy thus generated, a practitioner will be able to use it to reshape his own body structure and opening blocked chi-channels (and muscle-groups) for different healing purposes.

As explained in some of my previous articles here, our joints are powerful energy source. And one of the way to tap into this source is joint-opening. In all exercises of internal martial art, chi kung and meditation, our mind is to relax so that our breathing muscles and/or bodily movements can gently open and close our joints to liberate the stored energy. Nano-movements are minute movements localized at the joints to liberate energy.

A meditative mode of mind is a pre-requisite. A highly focused meditative mind (and possibly with autosuggestion of being possessed), broad brush movements (rather than the more difficult nano-version) are good enough to induce massive liberation of chi energy in our joints (primarily our pelvic and shoulder joints).  In Qing Dynasty this method was particularly common in China's Shandong province, which led to the Boxer rebellion and the invasion of the European Imperial powers in late Qing. Nowadays, a lighter version of this Boxer stuff is still practised as spiritual combat (神打) and self induced chi kung (自發功). I am not referring to these practices.

Recently I came across a video by a HK Chen-style tai chi master demonstrating his version of tai chi nei gong. During the past decades, masters from different internal disciplines are opening their practices to the public, and put up video for free in the internet, with detail explanations. An overflow of information rather than a lack of information. The problem is to digest rather than begging for food! Good for the humble and painstaking practitioners, bad for folks seeking secret formula to solve all their practice problem. In the internal arts, it is not "No pain, no gain". It is "Practice, patience, practice and patience". Any way this master, whom I found have many interesting points to share (and for viewers to digest), started shaking his body to generate chi!  A more controlled movement, but from my perspective it resembles more self-induced than nano.

The most important teacher using the nano-method is master Wang Xiangzai, a famous internal martial artist whose understood and took from many internal arts and was able to digest and reinvent old techniques. The traditional tai chi method is a rocking movement from arrow stance to seated stance in a continuous process. It is interesting to note that different students of Wang used different methods of nano-movements. Clearly master Wang had experimented with different methods and tried them on his students at different periods of time. Master Wang's teachings in nano-movement and other techniques changed during his teaching life, not necessarily the later the better, all changes enriched his teachings. He even changed the name of his style during his life time: he originally learned XingYi(形意）. Then he incorporated techniques from other martial arts and created his own style: YiQuan (意拳）. Later he changed YiQuan's name to DaChengQuan (大成拳literally translated as Major Achievement Style).

In master Wang's practice, nano-movements are executed in combat stance. I would like to show two variations below:

1. Testing jing in six directions (六面爭力摸勁) - with a focused mind, a student is to do nano movements in six directions (up/down, front/back, in/out - some add left/right to make eight directions), finding points of maximum resistance at minute points at his joints with a focused mind. The result is like a floating joint in the socket.
2. Front back rocking - it is similar to tai chi's rocking movement but the movements here will be more minute, and therefore it is more difficult to practice but if practised correctly the result will be better.

These are easy methods that interested students can try and experiment by themselves. The reasons why students generally find them difficult to learn is firstly they do not have trust in these methods (for one thing it is against market economy to offer goodies for free, and such thinking is correct in most cases), and secondly they lack "Practice, patience, practice and patience".

Ref: First article - Second article

Classic combat stance by a DaChengQuan master - Wang Xuanjie

Self defense against terrorist knife attack

On the last May 1 holiday, I went to Guangzhou for holidays. A minor incident happened when I took the subway to the train station heading back. It was the golden holiday and the subway was crowded. I managed to get inside the jam-packed train while standing precariously with my back facing the closing door. When the door was closing, some people rushed in, pushed me in and gave me a heavy bump. I had to steady myself making leverage with my rooted front foot and me left hands' fingers striking the closing door once to give a balancing force so that I would not be pushed against the ladies standing in front of me. I was not pleased. Much to my surprise, a male voice in my back yelled out accusing me striking him with my elbow! "Come on, you bumped onto me!" I replied. He wouldn't stop cursing me with abusive language, and his wife joined in. Thanks to my meditative practice, I was not annoyed and kept my mouth shut after stating my position on the issue. Without me joining in the chorus, the couple finally stopped cursing me. I didn't want a fight, which is not an uncommon ending in situations like this.

Minor incident as I said. Reconstructing the incident again back home, I think the poor guy's rib cage did bumped right onto my left elbow when I tried to balance myself with my left hand.

A few days later, I read the news that the Guangzhou station had a terrorist attack whereby four Xinjiang men chopped up people. Six were wounded, one of the strikers was killed, one arrested. Scary news of terrorist attack for political reason. Luckily it didn't happen on the day I was there.

We can avoid a fight in conflict situation, but we cannot avoid a terrorist who happened to decide to chop up people! Let's forget about the political issue of whether the terrorists were also the oppressed (act of terrorism cannot be forgiven even with a good cause), as common citizens, we have no choice but to defend ourselves in such situation.

A counter-terrorist attack expert in China has the following advice to common citizens for knife attack:

1. Run away as quickly as you can
2. Failing that pick up some hard object (like a chair, a stick..), and use it to protect yourself when the attacker chops
3. Failing that (i.e. no hard objects around), protect your vital parts with your arms - in particular your neck and your abdomen. Knife strikes at those areas can be fatal.

Well, the expert didn't advise us to enrol in a martial art school to learn simple steps as how to disarm the knife of an attacker. The fact is the police won't do that, they simply shot him down.

Simple steps?

Self defense in a civilized city such as Hong Kong

When I was a kid, Hong Kong was not a safe city. Young people learned martial arts to protect themselves. Fights were common. Mugging in dark corners was the rule rather than the exception. I was living in rougher part of town when I was young. And my youthful friends always joked that it would be news if there was a family in our vicinity that did not have at least one member ever mugged under knife point. Even when going to a cinema in a busy district, honest kids had to be careful not to be pushed to a corner in the foyer and being asked for a few bucks. In darker corners, gangsters might simply just jump out and gave a lone-walker a number of punches (for the well-built victims, minor knife cuts could be the precursor) before mugging him.

I am sure there are still many places like this around the world now. No more like this in Hong Kong. The city is almost as safe as Japan. Self defense has a different meaning.

A few days ago I read an interesting piece of news of a court case under which two men fought in a restaurant. Both were hurt. The prosecutor charged both of them fighting in public. One guy (Mr. A) pleaded guilty and was fined HK$2,000. The other guy (Mr. B) pleaded not guilty, arguing self-defense, and therefore had to appear for trial in front of a magistrate who would deliberate a judgment after hearing all evidence presented by the prosecutor and the accused.

There was no disagreement on the fact of the case: The case happened in a restaurant serving tourists from mainland China. In a table, a tourist (Mr. A), apparently after drinking some alcohol, lighted a cigarette during his meal. It was illegal to smoke in a restaurant otherwise both the restaurant and the offender will be fined (when caught by a smoke prevention inspector). Apparently a waiter of the restaurant alerted a lady tour guide who came to the man and asked him to stop smoking. Mr. A was furious. He used abusive language, pushed the lady tour guide and seemingly wanted to assault her. A male tour guide (Mr. B) came to her rescue. Mr. A was more furious. He wanted to assault Mr. B but was stopped by his fellow tourists. Some time later, when Mr. B was backed to his table eating, Mr. A suddenly came to him, pushed him on the wall and started punching him at his face. Scuffle ensured. Mr. B managed to pick up a ceramic tea cup to strike (and break) the head of Mr. A who returned with his own attack of ceramics which missed their marks.

The police came and arrested Mr. A and Mr. B. Both were charged with fighting in public and to be appeared in a magistrate’s court. In all fairness, the magistrate in this case gave a verdict satisfactory to all standers-by. Mr. B was acquitted for acting in self defense and for not having used undue violence when protecting himself.

From the legal point of view, Mr. B has to prove two things, firstly he has acted in self defense and secondly he has not overly used violence. When the verdict for Mr. B was out, more people were being alerted to the incidence. Some netizens were angered by the lenient punishment made towards the assaulter. Only HK$2,000 fine for smoking in public AND beating up a fellow citizen. Smoking in public alone demands a HK$1,500 fine, that means assaulting someone carried a fine of HK$500. More or less the sentiment.

The magistrate however has little choice. The prosecutor’s case of fighting in public place is a much lesser offense than assaulting a citizen in public place without provocation. Has the police or prosecutor being lenient to Mr. A because he was a tourist not familiar with HK law? Is it because they (p and p) thought Mr. A has already got his lesson with his head smashed? Or is it because it is now the tendency for them (p and p) to relegate most decisions to the court? Nobody knows, but common citizens have to live with this new fact of life.

Lesson to learn: martial art teachers teaching the self-defense stuff should be on top of the current legal environment, and therefore plan their systems and advise their students accordingly, in order that their students will not end up in greater trouble defending themselves in unavoidable conflict situations.

Myths in martial art

Traditionally myths have been important in martial arts. In Chinese folk culture, the most popular setting where myth is played out in earnest is a place/society/area called Wu lin （武林), literally translated as martial field, and people there are called people of Wu Lin (武林中人). The mythical place is still recreated continually nowadays, among some Chinese and Western kung fu enthusiasts.

Myths, of martial arts and otherwise, are practically useful, for example, they are great motivator for action for those who believe in their particular myths. It makes perfectly good sense to those who believe in their respective myths. And embraced by people of education and good standing in society. What then is myth?

We may use myths to explore why something is the way it is, or what we are to do with it, but a given myth remains just an interface. It is through us, through embodiment and direct interaction, that it is made immanent. There is no transcendent realm beyond the symbols, and in themselves, the symbols are empty shells. The myth is living because we are ever-changing and transitory. In other words, we are living, and myth too is living. It is a part of us, our mirror. It is like the moon in relation to the sun — without the sun, the moon would cast no light, but in the presence of the sun, it appears to have a light of its own. If this seems far-flung, consider this statement: coming world conflicts will be driven by ideological forces along cultural fault lines. In other words, by our ideas about ourselves, others, and the nature of the world we live in. Ideas are not just ideas, when they take hold of us.

The above is taken from the Introduction of the book the Immanent of Myth, a collection of articles on myth.

Myths can only be understood within the total framework of a certain myth, and they only make sense to the community of people who share the same myth.

Recently a friend asked me to look at a TV feature in Youtube. Two Caucasians, program hosts, came to Hong Kong to visit a local Wing Chun academy whose sifu has good international fame. Wing Chun has become famous in the West through the legendary Bruce Lee. A couple of years ago, a friend of mine in Switzerland asked me to bring him a special-edition model of Bruce Lee, in his famous yellow track suit, for himself when I visited him. He told me that he had been practising Wing Chun for some years, loved its practical fighting styles and, more interestingly, he told me that he felt very like Bruce Lee when he pracitised his Wing Chun.

Anyway, in this video, the program hosts' first meeting with the Wing Chun sifu and his group was in the rooftop of a building, dark in the evening. There was a circle of standing Wing Chun practitioners (fighters!), featuring two fighters doing deadly (staged) fights, with "deadly" results.. Legends had it that Bruce took part in many of similar rooftop fights (which was not mentioned in the video, instead ringing a bell in our Subconscious). The program hosts were told that gangsters in "those days" loved to learn Wing Chun because its way of fighting was most suited for fighting in dark alleys where most gang fights happened. The Caucasian hosts were mesmerized (or looked mesmerized, truthful to the myth), nobody questioned whether gangsters preferred taking time off to learn Wing Chun or preferred winning fights through ambush by sheer number and surprise, and probably with the help of butcher's choppers too. The darker elements of our society never played fair.

The Caucasians were to learn Wing Chun from two different sifus and were to fight with other Wing Chun fighters a few days later, needless to say using the Wing Chun techniques that they were going to learn. To make the encounter more interesting, one of them was commented as too weak physically to engage in brutal combat. What was the advice? He was asked to drink blood from a snake - a legendary booster of masculine energy. Another was asked to train in a sampan (another myth element) and the poor guy was thrown to the smelly water. The two incidents revealed a subtext: the myth of national superiority for a people that had been bullied upon in recent history, a common myth in Wu Lin stories including those in Bruce Lee's films.

At the final test, reality ruled, despite the rooftop. The fighters could only score points using Wing Chun techniques, which when translated under a protective gear environment, all techniques being used were continual short straight punches with occasional short front kicks. Needless to say, these rules are favorable to those who are used to using short punches and short front kicks. Such rules of course cannot diminish the power of myth for the fighters, in the arena of Wu lin, everybody could be a Bruce Lee or a street fighter even though he might be a lawyers or accountant who has never quarreled with his neighbors all his life*.

Myths have always been important in human society. Men lost their lives upholding the patriotic myth. Our Romeo and Juliet lost their lives in the myth of love. The modern man has actually become emptier for losing most of his myths which had been enriching his lives for a long time.

Perhaps we can still have a choice. We can enjoy our myths like we enjoy our arts and literature. We can cry over new versions of Romeo and Juliet on TV, but we watch carefully any sign of self destructions of our kids. We can practice like one Bruce Lee, but we won't go around believing that we are invincible or finding trouble with the drunks or gangsters in the rougher parts of town.

* A few years ago a Wing Chun master accused one of his best former students of opening a Wing Chun academy nearby using a similar logo. The master did not resolve this conflict with a Wing Chun fight (protected or non-protected), he tried to settle it in court by suing the other guy. Our master lost his case in court. Now the two academies are still standing nearby.

PS: As with all Harvard case studies, a disclaimer is warranted here: the above case study is for academic learning and discussion, in no way it makes any judgment on the effectiveness or efficacy of the style mentioned and/or the masters/fighters concerned.

 

Ip Man and Bruce Lee

True combat spirit

What is true combat spirit? Is it winning a fight? Is it fighting for one's own style and win? Or is it winning in a street fight?

In the seventies, for some years, full contact fights were very popular in Hong Kong, not until the government banned them for "safety reasons" (the bans was lifted only more than a decade later). Together with a couple of martial arts enthusiasts, I was often on audience seat. True martial art combat spirit was shown.

The Thai fighters insisted on fighting on Thai rules, but allowed the Chinese fighters to fight bare handed (gloves were said to hinder joint-locking, but it proved later on the ring that standing joint-locking for throws or submission was impossible between professional fighters). Some kung fu masters detested those who took part in these fights. Some claimed they would win in life and death fights with the Thai fighters. Some claimed the best kung fu fighters would not take part in these fights as spectator sports. Some claimed those fought were stupid enough to lose their fame in artificial rules that they were not familiar with, etc etc.

Yet fighters with true combat spirit at those days could not resist the temptation to test their skills in all situations, under any rules - provided they considered themselves fit enough to do so, provided that they were not fights for personal grudge and provided that the fights were relatively safe for themselves and their opponents. They were not interested in fighting for their names or the names of their respective styles. They were not interested in life and death fights. They were not interested in creating myths for themselves. Publicity was not their game. True fighting spirit was.

Most of these kung fu fighters lost their fights. They looked cheerful afterwards. Some of them became well-known trainers of full-contact fights today, and some run their own respective academy with their names on. Their students are not interested in whether or not they had won or lose with the Thai fighters. They are interested in whether or not their teachers can train them to be good mixed martial artists on the ring. They want to learn true combat spirit. I believe their students have made the right choice.

Kung Fu vs Muay Thai

Iron shirt for real

Iron shirt (鐡布衫) or Golden Bell shield (金鐘罩) have been legendary martial art techniques, appeared in various martial art stories or fictions. The ability to withstand, partially if not completely, physical strikes (of bare hands or weapons) have always been important in physical combat. Nowadays professional athletes of full contact ring combat have to train themselves to take in a lot of bare hand (or foot) strikes (and to a lessor extent amateur athletes). Although protected by pads (gloves, padded floor and in some cases protective gears), an athlete needs to take tough training to prepare themselves for such challenges. It is comparative safe for trained athletes, professional or otherwise, afterall we are talking about sports. Not so in the old days in Dynasty or Imperial China.

How was it like then? How did civilians train themselves for the tough situation of physical combat in the old days? And why endangering oneself as such, with the understanding that protective devices or a referee was absent? And finally, how effective can iron shirt be? Able to withstand weapons? Were those marital artists fooling themselves?

To answer these questions, we have to dig into reputable historical texts rather than legendary stories of martial artists or martial arts. History facts can be quite different from myths. The latter is more polemical, faith inducing or motivational in nature. Same for martial arts, same for religions.

In the past decade, researches flourished among academics in China and the West. Much interests have been expressed on the many uprisings (rebellions or revolutions) and the authority's response to such events, in mid to late Qing Dynasty. Many of these researches made use of recently available official documents. These documents were reports of front-line officials written, to inform their superiors, during different stages of the uprisings, and documented confessions of arrested rebels after the event. With the objective for better prevention in future, many Qing Emperors dug deep into the reasons behind such uprisings. So much so, some of the rebels were questioned in details for years before their final execution (leaders were always executed brutally). Another source of information were verbal accounts from the peasants who are still alive today.  Due to these efforts, many books were published on societies, groups such as Big Swords Society (大刀會) and White Lotus Buddhist sect (白蓮教).

The Big Knife society was associated with armed civilian groups organized by rich families to protect their villages, oftentimes against bandits (and uprisers). White Lotus was famous in raising armed uprisings against Qing Emperors (interesting enough due to latter widespread and heavy persecution by the authority in late Qing Dynasty, many of these groups turned en-bloc to Christians to seek protection from foreign priests/evangelists).

The gist of the matter is: whenever groups had to engage in serious life-and-death combat situations, they would seek martial artists on Iron shirt (鐡布衫) and Gold Bell shield (金鐘罩) to teach them the techniques. Oftentimes martial artists were successfully recruited to join in the cause of the groups too.

In one of the official reports, there was an account on the training of Iron shirt (鐡布衫) and Gold Bell shield (金鐘罩) - in a report submitted to the Emperor by a front-line official. The report was quoted in "The origins of the Boxer Uprising" (written by Joseph W. Esherick of the University of California, San Diego).

"其习法时，贫者不收贽仪(学费)，有力者以京钱六千为贽，夜半跽而受业，燃灯焚香，取新汲井水供之。以白布画符，其符鄙俚不经，有'周公祖，桃花仙，金 罩铁甲护金身'等字样。传艺者并不能书，或不识字，多遣人代书之。另授以咒，诵咒焚符，冲水令其跪饮，即于灯上吸气遍吹其体，复以砖、棍排击之。诵咒三夜 即能御刀，谓诵久即火器亦不能伤矣。大致略似运气之法，气之所至，猛击以刀可以不入，而稍一顿挫，则仍饮刃也。愚民无知，惊为神术"。(江苏徐州道阮祖棠的报告)

In short the report said, using blessed drink, meditation and mantra under a folk-belief system of inviting spiritual power, a practitioner is transformed into a trance stage. At such stage, his body will be hit with poles and bricks. After three nights of such conditioning (with poles and bricks strikes on his body), sword will be used. The official commented that it was similar with chi-kung. When a practitioner's body is chi-filled, a clean and quick strike by a sword would not harm his body and will be bounced back. However, if the striker (or the practitioner) hesitated, the sword would slit open a practitioner's body.

According to the historians, both rebels and country folks supporting the regime learned Iron shirt or Golden Bell shield. In the rough and tough arena of street fights, the ability to take on punches and weapons (under certain conditions) would definitely be useful.

Nowadays in Hong Kong, there are still practitioners doing the old Iron shirt or Golden Bell shield. They are mostly Taoist sects (see my previous post: A world without miracles). And some martial artists are still fond of demonstrating taking punches (or feet stomp at a height) at the abdomen.

Iron shirt

The concept of overt and covert power

Recently a tai-chi brother of mine gave me a new e-book on tai-chi theory. The author used the concept of overt power (ming jing 明勁) and covert power (an jing 暗勁) , together with adaptive power (hua jing 化勁, as used by XingYi grandmaster Guo Yun Shen 郭云深, to explain the use of internal power or jing in tai chi. It is nice that the author freely adapts internal martial art concepts in formulating his own theory. Today I read a new post on a nearby friendly blogger that also talked about the subject matter. So I decided to write a bit on the subject too. True to my own style (I mean my style of writing), my exposition will be concise, operational, and not mythical.

In doing internal power training (like 24 style tai-chi Neigong), one needs to train both overt and covert power. By covert power, the power source is from one's extremity mainly referring to one's stretched hands and fingers. With one's stretched fingers energized, Qi will be made to flow via one's arms to one's shoulder blades and one's torso. In application, power will be generated from activation of one's energy source from one's torso (a bigger mass than one's fist), as triggered by one's stretched hands/fingers. Without such transmission, it is not covert power, just brute force (which, by definition, uses only the power of the fist and forearm). For advanced practitioner, the power triggering point will be one's middle finger. A closer look at the statue of Bruce Lee's combat stance in HK's water front will let your understand what I am talking about.

In some expositions in internal martial art texts, overt power has sometimes been downgraded. It is actually very useful. The use of overt power is more versatile and higher speed can be achieved without too much loss of power for the trained practitioner. In certain situation, full-body power cannot be generated, like when one is lying on the floor on one's back. A prominent MMA fighter comes to my mind, the pound-for-pound champ Andersen Silver. With his back on the ground, Silver can deliver TKO punches or powerful punches that stunned his opponent so that he can execute a successful submission arm lock. Silver can be seen doing speedy Wing Chun wooden dummy work as an expression of overt power (see below).

Covert power is actually Wang Xiangzhai's "muscles-as-one" 肌肉如一, and it is the definitive training objective of all internal martial arts. Training-wise, it demands more internal relaxation/loosening (song 松) in the training process. In terms of stages, it is best to start with covert training, and the best training concept in overt training is Wang Xiangzhai's "point-stretched, body-relax/loosen" （點緊身松).

Needless to say, a single post cannot go into details the relevant training methods. Interested readers can search for relevant posts in this blog.

Anderson Silver doing Wing Chun wooden dummy

Tai chi as isokinetic exercise

Isokinetic exercise is an exercise that provides a variable resistance to a constant limb movement. These kinds of adaptive exercises usually require equipment that can quickly accommodate changes in resistance.  It is superior to isometric exercise because movement allows the muscles to exercise at different lengths while working at maximum (i.e. both extension and contraction muscles work together) at all time.  One example of an isokinetic exercise is a stationary bike that responds to a constant leg movement by the user. The resistance offered by the stationary bike may vary, while the speed of limb motion and subsequent revolutions per minute stays the same.  Simple elastic band is the simplest isokinetic tool.

The slow movement of tai-chi, with proper training, can be executed as an excellent isokinetic exercise, without using any equipment or aid.  In essence, the first step of the training is doing zhan zhuang (in particular combat stance) to develop whole body contraction (muscles as one), which in fitness lingo being isometric exercise that I explained in the last post. The next step is more difficult.  A practitioner has to do slow and mindfully focused movement, often time with silk reeling to further drag the movement.  The criterion of success is that one has the zhan zhuang muscles-as-one feel even in slow movement.   Wang XiangZai's YiChuen explained this process in detail and called it Feeling strength 試力。 Not all tai-chi practitioners consciously train this way, so don't be surprised if your tai-chi coach doesn't make use of this training concept (He might even say: This is not tai-chi...:))

Fair to say it is not easy to train up one's body to be able to perform tai-chi as isokinetic exercise.  For those who prefer instant noodles instead, they may perhaps consider using an elastic band, with the full understanding that they will not be tasting anything near the real thing!

Alert readers may ask: How about pushing hands?  I shall leave it to a future post, stay tuned.

Leg movement with elastic band

zhan zhuang and isometric exercise

Isometric exercise or isometrics are a type of strength training in which the joint angle and muscle length do not change during contraction (compared to concentric or eccentric contractions, called dynamic/isotonic movements). Isometrics are done in static positions, rather than being dynamic through a range of motion (from Wiki). The benefit of isometric exercise is that it can exercise both the extension and the contraction muscles at the same time, because of the resistance generated. It can do more training within the same time period, workout enthusiasts love it, Bruce Lee being one. The practical problem with this kind of exercise is that your muscles are only worked maximally in part of the movement range. And a second problem, more serious I should say, is that it is boring. You can perhaps search in Youtube for some free demos with left arm working against right arm or vice versa, and make a judgement on your own.

How does zhan zhuang, or more exactly combat stance zhan zhuang, compare with the usual isometric exercise for strength training?

Practitioners of Wang Xiangzai's YiChuen like to do combat stance for training. On the look of it, there is no resistance, a practitioner just stands there, perhaps with some nano movement. Quite unlike Bruce Lee, and quite unlike the Youtube demo guys. Indeed one has to learn to do combat stance with muscles contractions and relaxations in order that one can make one set of your muscles working against the other set instead of pitching your arms together like the Youtube folks did. I shall explain more about the mechanics in some future posts, here I would like to mention other benefits of doing combat stance, in addition to sound and effective muscle training of the isometric type.

Firstly, doing combat stance can open, align and strengthen one's joints, in particular one's shoulder joints. It is actually the two sides of the same coin. In order that one can work isometrically, a practitioner has to align his joints with subtle aligned force; and when one contracts one's muscles isometrically, the aligned joints will become more aligned, more opened and more strengthened.

Secondly, with combat stance, since this is a kind of zhan zhuang [and therefore a kind of chi-kung], chi will be guided to spread evenly around the whole body for both all round physical and mental training.

Last but not least, one can do combat stance with arms set at all possible directions (i.e. not limited to the standard stance, hence solving the practical problem as mentioned above. For example, when doing the Rhino (in 24 styles tai-chi Nei Gung) or Taming the Dragon (the name use in most kung fu systems), one can start with Santi (三体), and stance by stance, extend one's front arm, and finally twisting one's body to a full Dragon. The number of intermediate stance to choose shall depend upon the body condition of each individual practitioner.  This is how I teach my students doing the Rhino.

And doing combat stance is fun!

Bruce Lee doing isometric exercise

The foundation of Jackie Chan's kung fu

During Jackie's time when he was a kid, there were two famous private Peking Opera groups in Hong Kong doing performance and taking on kids to train for a career in Peking Opera. One of them was owned and headed by Master Yu 于占元(his daughter was the famous actress Yu suZhou 于素秋). Those were the days when parents preferred sending their kids to grammar schools targeting a career in engineering rather than opting for a career in the performing arts and Peking Opera in particular. And the parents turned out to be correct, initially, because Peking Opera was a dying industry in Hong Kong. Jackie Chan planned to switch his career to become a chef in Chinese cuisine in Australia before kung fu movies got a hit and he later turned into a super-star.

What is the foundation training for a kid in Peking Opera as a career? Or for that matter, in acrobat, as a career? Training something as a career (now and then) demands a much harsher program than how we train ourselves (and our students, for some of us) for mind and body fitness. There are two important training methods for training a kid in these professional disciplines, and the special thing about these methods is: They are very simple!

The first method is the pre-puberty chi kung that I mentioned in previous post, interested readers can check HERE.

The second method is simple squatting. I will dedicate more posts to discuss this interesting and important training method. Suffice to say, the required form to do proper squatting in professional training is to have one's feet together (i.e touching), toes touching the wall (which also means, facing the wall), and do 30 - 50 squats in one set, many sets a day, on day one. After some training, a kid will be expected to do it fast pace at 300 - 500 counts (up/down = one count) per hour for at least 1/2 hour each set, many sets a day.

This post is in response to Bernard's post on sword play and Peking Opera in his post Mei Lan Fang and the sword. Interested reader can follow the link and check at Bernard's blog.

Tai-chi stretching and aikido

Some of the training methods in tai-chi workout (or gong 功) look very simple. Oftentimes too simple to look effective. Many non-practitioners are skeptical, some practitioners (even some despite years of practice) cast a unbelieving glance. It includes the simplest of all simple tai-out workout: dropping your arms in free-fall in tai-chi stretching (太極松功).

Recently I came across an aikido text (Aikido Exercises for Teaching and Training by C.M. Shifflett). The technique is called Udemawhai-Undo in aikido. And Shiffelett had the following to say about the method:

1. Raise arm to the highest point possible without straightening, stiffening or locking the elbow.
2. Allow the arm to drop, of its own weight, to the lowest point.

It was followed by this good explanation:

"The same technique of dropping with gravity underlies sword techniques and other tools for hammers to hoes. These fall of their own weight. They are not forced up or down. To do so is tiring and inefficient."

The similarity between tai-chi and aikido have been studied by some practitioners，for example The Science of Aikido (合氣道的科學 by 吉九慶雪, I read the Chinese translation), where some aikido techniques were compared with similar techniques of Chen style tai-chi. Open analysis, comparison and discussion can certainly help the healthy development of each art form.

I shall explain the intricacies of the hand dropping workout from a tai-chi perspective in a future post.

The Science of Aikido

The myth of pre-puberty nei gung

Some years ago, I saw a documentary on local TV. A team of doctors from US filmed an acrobatic academy in a rural area in China where they trained up little kids to do stunning acrobatic act including the extreme back-bend done by young boys and girls. The reason for the documentary was that these western doctors thought that such extreme back-bends will be detrimental to the growth of young kids and they wanted to check it up, partly for humanitarian reasons. After the trip, which include detail observations on the training method as well as detail medical checks on the training kids, the doctors concluded that the training method was sound, and would do no damage whatsoever to the kids. The doctors were satisfied with the health conditions of the kids, they were not interested in the training methods which they couldn't figure out the logic in the first place.

It is the legendary pre-puberty nei gung (童子功) that most practitioners of Chinese kung fu talked about, but few discussed about. Classical Taoist meditation also laid a strong emphasis on the milestone of puberty, saying that if a kid can be trained before 15, he can directly train on the level of macro-cosmic circulation instead of going through the stage of micro-cosmic circulation. In this post, I shall limit my discussion to the acrobatic training

The core foundation training of a pre-teen acrobatic is chi-rubbing by an experienced coach or trainer, at three areas: the abdomen, the diaphragm and the rib cage. An adult's hand is large enough to cover a major part of the kid's body and able to activate the fascia, muscles, bones and organs, with the objective of connecting them into whole. "Muscles as One" (肌肉如一) or "Body as molten metal" (身如铅灌). Different areas will necessitate different method of chi-rub, and will require a good pair of listening hands of the coach and the total trust towards the coach on the part of the student, otherwise he or she can't relax enough for the body to react accordingly to each rub. Only after this foundation has been built can actual back-bending exercises be started. And with this foundation, careful step-by-step bending can proceed fast and without damage to the student's spinal cord.

This kind of chi-rubbing can be done best for a pre-teen kid, after which the body will grow bigger, more rigid, and less trust and relaxation. I was told some traditional martial art schools still practice this kind of chi-rubbing, and on adults, by experienced sifus, behind closed door, as closely guarded secret, without knowing that the acrobatic school coaches openly allow the public (including the parents of course, nowadays no parent will allow their kids to do chi-rub behind closed doors) to visit, see and film.

Which school? which style? How do I know, it all happened behind closed doors...:):)