Generation And Usage Of Martial Arts Chi Power Through The Circular Flux Of Energy
[I:http://www.aikido-judo-karate.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/AlCase6.jpg] I keep forgetting the fact, when I talk about Martial Arts Chi Power and such things, that I am in one room, and everybody else is in another room. I just wrote a piece on the liberation of energy through circular flux, and my emails and requests for the free matrixing ebook went through the roof. This is one of those things…’You mean people don’t know that?”
Look, let me set things up a little better for this piece. The body is a machine, north and south terminals, and the ability to turn energy within it, and this is the chi phenomena. Unfortunately, there is so much mystical bushwah, and people are locked into certain ways of thought concerning their bodies, that they miss this simplicity.
This idea, though misunderstood, is spread throughout the martial arts, and accounts for a variety of other occurrences, too. In karate chi development depends upon sinking a strong stance–you must bolt the motor down, you know–and analyze how to use circular motion in the snap of the hips, the turn of the wrist, and so on. The problem is that people keep insisting that Karate is a linear martial art when it isn’t.
Karate is linear like a cam; a cam is a rotating part which slides a linear extension in a machine. In karate the hips rotate and drive the arm, which, because the elbow, is not truly linear anyway, creates a complex of turning, rotating, spinning parts to make a punch (or block or kick or whatever) with. Look at an illustration of a cam and see how it resembles an arm or leg.
This concept of straight lines being delivered through round motion becomes more easily understood through kung fu chi based systems. Classic shaolin has jumps and whirls and locks onto the planet which perfectly illustrate the concept I am talking about. Unfortunately, the basics in kung fu aren’t detailed enough to raise but a rare person to a high level level, and Karate doesn’t develop itself as a circular method…the love of power (as false as it is) corrupts, you see.
The easiest art to see this circular flux of energy as the manifestation of proper machine theory is Tai Chi. Unfortunately, people have latched on to doing Tai Chi for the health and sensation reasoning, and people end up asking is Tai Chi a martial art, and missing the point of reality that is necessary to a proper martial art, and which changes a martial art into a machine based energy flux creator. I know, it sounds significant, but I am just trying to get my point across with enough specific verbiage.
Now, the best art for power internal martial arts style, is pa kua. The whole darn thing is an energy flux, though one must realize that the purpose of walking is to ground your each and every step, and to keep the machine running even while in motion. Get that concept, and even the mysteries of pa kua chang should resolve fairly easily.
Okay, that’s the skinny, Minny…you sink the weight and fix the body/machine and swirl the energy inside the body, much the same as you would swirl water inside a container. This has been done in virtually every martial art that has ever existed, though it has been made mystical and confusing. It really isn’t difficult, however, though if you really want to understand the notion of martial arts chi power you need to matrix your art, and matrix your body, then the stuff happens naturally and without much thought.
You can find out more about Martial Arts Chi Power and Matrixing at Monster Martial Arts. Pick up a free ebook while you’re at Monster Martial Arts. 2
How a Study of Speed Relates to Good and Rare Martial Arts
[I:http://www.aikido-judo-karate.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/AlCase11.jpg]Whether you study Karate, Kung Fu, or that rare martial art from Faroutistan, speed is vitally important to the martial arts. If you are going to be successful in freestyle, you must be faster than your opponent. Even in the doing of your forms, speed gives a certain efficiency that is necessary to the successful martial artist.
That said, there is another way of looking at this subject of speed, a way which embraces the entire martial arts and is the mark of your progress over the decades. This is a side which relates to the speed of what is happening inside your head and in your day to day life. I am talking about the speed at which your art is conducted.
The beginner is blown out by the fun of the martial arts, and he races breakneck through his forms. He spends hours tweaking his form, studying the angles of his limb so as to maximize speed of launch. Usually, this process takes about three years, but it can take longer, or lesser, depending on the individual and the art he is studying.
Remember when I remarked about spending hours going over your form? This is the beginning of the middle student, this is where he first starts to understand that the art is more than just good times and gotcha, but a real live window into the soul and potentials of humanity that were hitherto undreamed of. This is the start of developing self awareness, and this is where the student first starts going slower and starts looking at what he is actually practicing.
This middle level is worked on by all of the hard artists, they spend hours doing their forms and studying how to be efficient in motion, and motion eventually reduces to a virtual study of Tai Chi Chuan. Whether the student engages in actual Tai Chi, or just slows his movements down so he can best examine and fix them, is beside the point. What is important is that the student is actually looking and perceiving, not just doing mindlessly.
Awareness you see is an a funny item. Anybody can become aware through the simple process of looking. Thus, this thing called awareness is free, and it is the point to all life.
Without awareness life could not be. Or, one could say that life is relative to the degree of awareness that the looker builds. Thus, the value of the martial arts, as they go at ever slower rates, is that they create more and more opportunity for looking.
That all said, I do not recommend stopping your studies of speed until you, personally, have reached a point which is satisfactory and obvious to you. Live, go fast luxuriously, for you should give full throttle to all stages of learning the how to of combat, even and not matter if you are studying a rare martial art. One should not give up youth to old age.
Al Case has studied martial arts over more than 4O+ plus years, and he is not slowing down. Come on over to Monster Martial Arts and find his free ebook. Or, better yet, head over to Five Army Tai Chi Chuan and see him put out a candle from over a foot away.
The Depth Of Nothing In Tai Chi Chuan
[I:http://www.aikido-judo-karate.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/AlCase1.jpg]Tai Chi Chuan is the art that speaks of emptiness. One must move without force to realize the true depth of this ancient art. And, in Tai Chi, you might run out of energy, but you’ll never run out of nothing.
One must understand, of course, that there are stages of emptiness. The beginning student will have one viewpoint concerning this notion, and the advanced master will have another, and there is plenty of room in between. Indeed, one could almost say there are as many viewpoints of this great nothingness as there are students to perceive them.
In the beginning concepts of Tai Chi give much confusion. The beginning student tries to get in his own way, tries to figure out the mechanistic nature of the universe, and works his way through confusion. Eventually, the beginner starts to realize that there is more to this idea of emptiness than he ever had inkling.
One can perceive space inside the body. The apparent concreteness of organ and tissue gives way to perception. Awareness permeates unhindered through the contrivances of the apparently real body.
This is understandable through practice. The beginning student becomes advanced as reaction time dwindles and begins to move in harmony with the incoming attack. It is a short journey, once started, until the student commits his body to that of the attackers, and is able to draw upon the energies of two bodies.
Eventually the space of the body gives way to the knowledge that there is a great space open to the awakening perception. Indeed, the flesh stops being a dividing line between the student and the rest of the universe. The student becomes master, and his perceptions are not stopped at the threshold of his fleshy sack, but rather are unlimited and as far as he can perceive.
The new master joins arms with new students, and he speaks of great space, and he gives way that the newbie may fall into a new arena of perception, an entire and new and glorious perception of the universe. Slowly, the new student accepts the journey of the master, understands gravity only to reject it in his thoughts, and the cycle continues. The fresh seed grows, becomes sapling, seeks the heavens, undergoing cycles of life that enliven the mind throughout time.
This is the journey of Tai Chi Chuan, endless, immutable, hastened only by the striving towards knowledge of the student. This is the tai chi of a race, of a humanity, and it is a goal and a method and a principle that should be sought by all. What would happen if all governments gave way to the kindness of the people?
Al Case has learned Tai Chi for over 35 years. A writer for IKF for years, his methods are unique, and you can read about them at Five Army Tai Chi Chuan.
