There are many boxing arts.
Although they use
different forms, for the most part they don't go beyond
the strong dominating the weak, and the slow resigning to the swift.
The strong defeating
the weak and the slow hands ceding to the swift hands
are all the results of natural abilities and not of well-trained techniques.
From the sentence "A
force of four ounces deflects a thousand pounds"
we know that the technique is not accomplished with strength.
The spectacle of an old person defeating a group of young people, how can it be due to swiftness?
(Wang Tsung-yueh)
Jing
The delivery of power through the undulation of the body is only the
beginning.
Once this amoeba-like way of moving has become comfortable and easy, you
must then learn how to channel kinetic
energy more skilfully.
What matters is the
effect.
When you strike an opponent you need to be certain that your delivery
produces the required outcome.
The effect of your strike is called 'jing'.
It is your opponent's experience of your delivery.
Not every jing involves striking, but for the moment we are only
considering the striking aspect of jing.
13 postures & jing
By coordinating your limbs and the internal movement of your body with your
intention, you can deliver kinetic power in radically different ways.
The core differentiation is called 8 powers and is part of 13 postures.
These 8 powers are the basis of all tai chi: wardoff, rollback, press/push,
squeeze, pluck, split, elbow and bump/shoulder.
You must be capable of delivering each of the 8 powers.
Each jing possesses a distinct quality which marks it as being notably
different to the other jing.
The recipient should be moved in a particular way and be capable of
identifying each jing by how it felt.
Once you have mastered all 13 postures, you can explore variations and
permutations.
There are over 50 jing qualities offered to our students, including leg
jing.
4 ounces
Instead of thudding your clenched fist into the opponent, you undulate your
entire framework and emit a specific jing.
The kinetic energy wave meets the opponent, you apply no more than 4 ounces
of pressure and the work is done.
If you apply more than 4 ounces of pressure, much of the kinetic wave will
bounce off the opponent and back into your own body.
Which is not so good. Adverse feedback can cause arthritis, muscular tension
and pain.
Remember: if it feels strong, you are doing it wrong.
Gravity striking
Beginners learn how to 'gravity strike'.
This is the ability to deliver a soft, heavy blow into the opponent using
gravity.
As the ability improves, more and more of the body is used and the power is
amplified.
Once the entire body is performing the strike, it becomes very formidable
indeed.
The initial movements are quite large and obvious, with the spine and hip
kwa notably opening and closing as the framework coils and releases the
joints.
With practice, the movement becomes fairly innocuous. This process is called
'internalisation'.
Instead of an obvious outward show of movement, much of the work is
performed within the body.
This requires considerable relaxation.
Softness
Once the amoeba-like tai chi body skill is easy and natural for you, it is
necessary to consider the
effort-to-power ratio.
The aim is to produce an increasing amount of power with less and less
effort.
Every deliver can become more
effective, less visible and easier to perform if you reduce the
level of muscular tension within your body.
Muscular tension impedes the kinetic energy wave, causing it to get caught
in the shoulder, elbow or hand.
Psychological and emotional tension also blocks energy.
Being
soft and
dreamy will result in a greater
release of power.
This may seem incongruent to the chronically tense person, but consider:
if an unconscious person were hurled at you, how easily could you cope with
their mass and body weight?
Softness allows you to connect to another person's body without alerting
their nervous system and provoking an instinctive flinch reaction with its
associated tension.
Fa jing
Fa jing is a natural extension of the
whole body movement.
Some beginners believe that fa jing is just some sort of hip/waist shake
but this is not correct.
The body needs to move in the amoeba-like way already described.
You need to be loose and fluid, emotionally
calm and collected.
Fa jing is a natural outcome of this process of moving the body as a whole,
and channelling kinetic energy in the form of jing.
When the delivery is super-soft, you can perform it spontaneously.
This sudden emission of kinetic force is fa jing.
The entire body opens and closes in an instant, with all body parts moving
together.
Your
intention and
shen supply the final components.
Unlike the gravity strike, fa jing is always very abrupt.
It occurs over a very short distance with no preparatory movement being
visible to the observer.
Without fa jing your tai chi is incomplete.
Without gravity striking abilities and the amoeba-like way of moving you are
not capable of doing fa jing.
Page created 2 June 1999