Well yes and no John,
I could hurt someone with a fist full of coins, but that does not make it whole body force.
mixjourneyman wrote:Do you think [whole body force is] important? Or do you emphasize other qualities?
Walk the Torque wrote:Well yes and no John,
I could hurt someone with a fist full of coins, but that does not make it whole body force.
Walk the Torque wrote:Mix,
There is also another question involved in this query of the expression of power; and that is how we express whole body power. This is very much wrapped up in the method or methods of your generation of power. For instance, if you you were to use the shortening of an arc in say, the arms, thereby condensing the power into a smaller area; this would result in the arms moving in smaller circles and appearing as if the power was not a) being expressed in the extremities and/or b)very strong at all; yet it is.
Another thing to remember is that if you are not in contact with another body when doing your fa jin movements, then you are retaining the power inside your body anyway because it is not being transfered anywhere.
As for being soft; there are a number of reasons for using it in your training. 1) if you practice being really soft, you learn how to guide the force through your body better because you can feel more deeply what you are doing. 2) relaxation aids conductivity 3) it is possible to train near total relaxation with 100% stretch. 4) being soft reduces the risk of adverse effects of 'trapped' force in the body
Having said this though, it is possible to become too soft, and in this case one should HTFU
cdobe wrote:Walk the Torque wrote:Mix,
There is also another question involved in this query of the expression of power; and that is how we express whole body power. This is very much wrapped up in the method or methods of your generation of power. For instance, if you you were to use the shortening of an arc in say, the arms, thereby condensing the power into a smaller area; this would result in the arms moving in smaller circles and appearing as if the power was not a) being expressed in the extremities and/or b)very strong at all; yet it is.
Another thing to remember is that if you are not in contact with another body when doing your fa jin movements, then you are retaining the power inside your body anyway because it is not being transfered anywhere.
As for being soft; there are a number of reasons for using it in your training. 1) if you practice being really soft, you learn how to guide the force through your body better because you can feel more deeply what you are doing. 2) relaxation aids conductivity 3) it is possible to train near total relaxation with 100% stretch. 4) being soft reduces the risk of adverse effects of 'trapped' force in the body
Having said this though, it is possible to become too soft, and in this case one should HTFU
Good Post John
I'ld like to add two additional arguments for softness:
1) The greatest active force of skeletal muscles can be generated from the state of rest. This is a physiological fact. (My physiological knowledge is not in English terms, so I have a hard time expressing myself here) It is a function of the sarcomer length.
2) Increasing your maximal strength has a lot to do with neurological adaptions (especially in the early stages). You can increase your maximal muscle strength without ever tensing a muscle for about 20%. Here's some recent researchhttp://www.psyjournals.com/content/vh41375276335755/?p=52bb1c0a0b404579a14aa8bcd101140a&pi=0
CD
I was taught that it in ba gua is not tension that is inherent, but tautness.
To understand the difference, make a fist and squeeze it tight, that is tension.
Now open your hand and extend or reach out with your middle finger until you feel a slight buzz. The muscle tone that results is tautness. The coiling and twisting of the body produces this tautness in ba gua.
A good analogy is a rubber band, you stretch the rubber band in one direction and let it go, it was taught with stored energy and then the energy is released.
So to in ba gua, with coiling and twisting of the waist and body, the muscles and sinew are made taut, and then it is released like the rubber band.
By remembering this principle and applying it to my jibengong, shen fa, even the tien gan practices I was able to understand and build the connections that are used to establish whole body power in every movement.
Mut wrote:Thanks Walter! I love talking about rubber bands, Instead of tautness we use the term muscle extension as opposed to contraction, but tautness may be even better term.
Walk the Torque wrote:cdobe, just so you know, Walk the torque is not John.
all the best
Conn
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