Internal power course (middleway)

[Patrick]

Hello!

Some of you may know that Chris (middleway) has started his own online teaching/coaching program. I was fortunate enough that Chris (middleway) set me up for free.
My internal background is mainly Yi Quan (Yao Chengrong line), very little chen tai chi and a bit aunkai. Besides that, I am finishing my MSc. in Health and Fitness and working at starting up my own business in Health/Fitness Empowerment. I am only mentioning this, because of this background I am always looking for exercises and methodologies that are evidence based and have a useful application for my clients. The course includes PDFs, videos and Chris is very approachable and helpful via mail and facebook. In the PDFs Chris seems to follow a certain roadmap, where he offers meticulous step by step explanations what makes the internal body (dan tien, ming men, cross body connections, yin yang etc.) and how to build it. Most description of internal workings are often either abstract ramblings with not much value or pseudo-scientific explanations with the same empty value. You find none of this here! The same can be said about his videos. In one of his videos he showed a simple exercise called rowing the boat, where you learn to connect your dan tien/ming men with your arms. After his explanations and playing around with it, older Yi Quan exercises made much more sense. If you are looking for a very fair priced online course, with an honest knowledgeable teacher and a good method for learning the internal body method look no further!


http://www.arts-of-combat.com/OnlineInt ... ourse.aspx

[middleway]

Thanks for the Kind review Patrick.

[Patrick]

Well deserved. I wish someone had told me these details before .

[cloudz]

Yes, Chris is "tha man" as far as I'm concerned. Anyone interested should get on this, no hesitation. You won't find better explained material anywhere; as you have described Patrick. I've seen a sample of it on facebook and I was really impressed with the efforts Chris has made putting this together. I can only imagine the course proper is first rate; having known and trained with Chris a fair bit over the years. More years than I care to count since I first met him, not to mention the way he conducts himself online is sterling.

For me he's the British Tim Cartmell, only "internal" lol (not a bjj black belt yet, but that's a formality the rate he's going!!)

Chris keep up the great work and best of luck with everything.

For reference I have trained with Dan "bodywork", and whilst he is also super first rate and a great guy I believe this material is on a par and well worth a go for anyone interested in taking their internal training further.

[middleway]

Thanks George. Far too kind bro, quite sure I'm not at the level of most people here tbh, but I'm happy if people get value out of the information.

On another note you just got me thinking how long it's been since we first met! how time flys!

Cheers

[I-mon]

Patrick's back on the internal wagon!! Good stuff guys

[dspyrido]

Patrick's back on the internal wagon!! Good stuff guys

Well at the very least we have a written record admitting he does/did something ima. Kind of like AA - "Thanks everyone for the help - I'm a reformed ma and have been ima free for over a year".

Middleway - good luck on this. Sounds like the right target audience are those starting with an aloof limited-english speaking taoist needing to get a more western description of concepts. It's a tough medium to work ima concepts into but the starter you posted was easy to follow. Also at the very least self publishing is a powerful tool to boost your school.

[mrtoes]

Chris is very good indeed and has clearly put serious effort into refining and clarifying how to express and train internal power. From what I've seen of his course material this is by far the clearest written expression of internal power mechanics that I have seen whether classical or otherwise (with the proviso that I'm still waiting for Dan to put pen to paper ) and although it's always far better to get direct contact for this kind of training, for the serious practitioner I can highly recommend this material.

Matthew

[wayne hansen]

How about some examples
Still a pig in a poke at this stage

[middleway]

Hi Wayne, there's the intro pdf here.

http://rumsoakedfist.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=21447

Thanks all.

[Bhassler]

Hi Chris,

Just a thought from an outsider who's not familiar with you or your work (although you do come with great references).

The intro chapter doesn't show much other than that you're not an overt chi-hugger and that you know how to write (both very important things for a course of this nature). If you want to reach an audience that doesn't already know you (i.e. friends and students), then you might look to include something that reflects the practical work in the sample content, as pretty much everyone can talk theory and theory doesn't mean all that much. It really depends on your target audience, though. If the primary purpose is to help your students rather than to make a ton of money and revolutionize IMA in the western world, it's probably not worth the effort...

[Mr_Wood]

Chris, flashy vids is the key and if you need inspiration look no further

Twist, twist, back fist, twist kick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJAHBYG67vE

[middleway]

Hahaha i dont have enough fake tan or white enough teeth to pull of that sort of video

Bhassler,

Thanks for the thoughts. Just as a sort of overview of what i am doing.

First, I am really not trying to put myself across as an 'IMA teacher' in the classical sense ... this is definitely not what i am trying to be.

The online course more like signing up to get coaching from a personal fitness trainer like Steve Maxwell or similar or buying one of his online kettlebell courses. Its a body training course and not specifically a martial arts one. This course is also just and introduction or fundamentals course, there is a lot in there but its not a 'magic pill'.

For this reason, what I can do personally, Isn't actually that important IMO. What is more important is how well i can teach the methods and how well someone else can get them and train them efficiently and correctly. Its not about me, its about how well i can coach. The mistake i have seen across a lot of coaches is that they make it all about them. They throw people around, demo their method and basically show off.

I have tried as hard as i can to go the other way. In the physical course running in the UK we have not done a single combat method (although i have demoed how the power and mechanics feel when asked). With this in mind putting up a vid of me launching people around or even doing 2 person work at all would sort of be a bit dishonest in the context of the course itself. The next physical course here in the UK will be combative and application work now that the guys are working hard on their bodies but i wont offer this online.

I have had a far greater response than i expected, which is great, The FB group has a lots of engagement and the course has a good level of sign up with a lot of great feedback coming from some very experienced guys.

I will edit one of the lecture vids down for people here when i get a moment, They are all an hour long so will pick out a nice section as an example of what we are covering.

If people would like to see me throwing people about i will do one of them too when i have time .. but thats not what the course is about itself

Thanks for the kind feedback all.

Cheers.
Chris

[Patrick]

For this reason, what I can do personally, Isn't actually that important IMO. What is more important is how well i can teach the methods and how well someone else can get them and train them efficiently and correctly. Its not about me, its about how well i can coach. The mistake i have seen across a lot of coaches is that they make it all about them. They throw people around, demo their method and basically show off.

I think this is a fantastic paradigm and even a very fresh and neccesary one in the IMA world!

[Bhassler]

+1 to both of the above two posts.

Personally, because everyone knows it's all about me, I think an edited down snippet of a lecture or any kind of lesson would be ideal. I've kind of gotten to the point where I know my own strengths, interests, and limitations, so I'm not as interested in acquiring more training methods as I am in exploring different training methodologies and models for helping others find their own success.