In the above interview, Michael Babin stated:
In terms of the martial training in tai chi, one of the biggest challenges is finding a balanced approach to the issue of “being soft”. Many teachers, famous and not-so-famous, still tend to advocate that you can’t be too soft and I don’t think that’s correct.
I agree with Michael here, although I suppose that it depends on how one understands and defines fangsong. Although probably possible in extreme cases, I do not think that most humans can be too fangsong, but I think that many practitioners ARE too soft.
So, at the risk of opening the subject of fangsong up again, is there a quantifiable (or semi quantifiable) way to measure fangsong? What quality would one look for to measure fangsong or softness or relaxation? Are they different?
My preliminary thoughts on this are as follows:
If one understands fangsong as being relaxed (as many do, but I think is unsatisfactory), then perhaps fangsong could be measured through flexibility, which is related to muscle relaxation. But if one is anesthetized, their joints’ range of motion is greater than when muscle tone is maintained. I think some muscle tone is necessary, but how much can one release and still maintain sufficient control of one’s structure and keep the joints safe? Would measuring the range of motion of one’s wrist (with vs. without anesthesia) tell someone the degree of fangsong in that wrist?
For many using this approach (i.e., defining fangsong as “relaxed”), I think that they often relax too much and lose the protective and structural supporting aspects of muscle tonus. They often “collapse” or are too “limp” to be able to defend themselves satisfactorily or to issue great forces. But perhaps others on this forum think differently.
If one understands fangsong as being soft, then it may involve muscle relaxation, but does it also involve the “resilience” or “springiness” or “non-resistance” of the body (i.e., not being soft like a deflated ball, but being soft like a properly inflated and resilient rubber ball)? Resistance and stiffness seem to be the opposite of softness, and this typically involves tensing of the muscles, so could this also be measured in terms of muscle relaxation, or would some other quality need to be looked at? Would a measure of the gradualness of the resistance to being bent (if this could somehow be measured) be a way to measure this (without the comparison to the anesthetized range of motion)? If softness is like the quality of a rubber ball being compressed, then would it be analogous to being relaxed but not losing muscle tonus? How could this be measured?
If one understands fangsong as having open (loose and free to move)) joints, then this is closer to how I understand fangsong. While muscle tension also seems to play a part here, it also seems like there is more to this. One can be relaxed but maintain muscle tonus, but still be susceptible to sharp pain when receiving qinna joint locks, for example. But the pain from qinna is reduced when the joint being locked is “open” AND not tensed in resistance. Could this be a measure of fangsong?
As an example, I had attended a workshop where Bruce Kumar Frantzis asked for two volunteers for a qinna demonstration, one who was willing to have the other apply it on them, and the person applying the qinna being someone who had studied it and who could apply a proper wrist lock on the other volunteer. After applying the qinna in order to show the pain response to a properly applied joint lock, Frantzis did a demonstration. He had the person relax the lock enough for Frantzis to slip his finger between the heel of the hand and the wrist that was being bent towards that person’s forearm. When the qinna lock was subsequently reapplied, the recipient did not feel the pain that he had previously.
My understanding of the above is that the first application of the wrist lock compressed or CLOSED the joint. The second version made the wrist OPEN when it used Frantzis’ finger as a pivot. Is this the quality that we should have for fangsong if defining it as open joints? The recipient was the same person and presumably had the same level of muscle tension (or tonus), but the change was in how open his wrist joint was. Can this quality be measured scientifically, or are we just left with receiving joint locks and determining how painful or sudden the onset of pain is?
There is one other experience that I should relate since it influences my thoughts on this topic. There is a TJQ practitioner in my area that had too loose joints as a child, so bad that she needed braces to stabilize her structure until physical therapy could strengthen her muscles enough to support and stabilize her joints (i.e., TOO fangsong?). Although no longer needing aids, she is still extremely flexible in her joints, so much so that I was able to use her as a training partner for qinna practice (applications of the choreographed san shou partner form) without fearing causing her any pain. But since she does not spar or do other practices that involve issuing power (AFAIK), I do not know if her level of joint openness (fangsong?) is detrimental to her structure or power today. But she may illustrate that in extreme cases one could possible be too fangsong.
Any thoughts from forum members (with the great variety of experiences and approaches represented) would be appreciated.
Edit:
Is joint wear (e.g., leading to knee or hip replacement, for example) an indication of joints being too closed and therefore insufficient fangsong? Conversely, would being prone to joint dislocations (e.g., shoulders) indicate being too fangsong? Are these joint issues even related to fangsong?