origami_itto wrote:Well it's not precisely the same thing.
The pieces of the body are perhaps moving in similar ways but they are motivated differently.
The abdomen is used to coordinate the limbs, but it doesn't "issue" force. The whole body is involved in "storing" energy 蓄勁 (Xù jìn) and "releasing" force 發勁 (Fā jìn).
When we talk about "li" we're talking about the direct force a muscle is capable of exerting through contraction in isolation or in combination with other muscles.
Our "Li" is just one force among many that is present. Intelligently preserving that force and combining it with the other forces and energies at our disposal is what creates the "jin" that we express.
So "issuing" as it were, is a matter of, at a basic level, shifting the weight from one leg to another and sinking and letting that force move down to the ground, back up through the legs, THROUGH the lumbar region.
In the lumbar, we're naturally tracking the force coming up, like a flag in the breeze. It's not generating it, it's following it and not getting in the way. Moving in the same way you describe, but passively.
Since we're not using the muscles in that region to create the energy, we're able to use them to direct the energy. We get a lot more energy out of our legs than we do out of our lower back.
The fingers are connected to each other across the back and down into the waist so the energy naturally tracks those tendon paths.
By using the mind to "direct" the energy (regulate tension between antagonistic muscles to guide it to a path of least resistance) the arms express the spiral waveforms directly, preserving that energy until we release it as force.
I've got more to say about it but will save it for a blog.
What you’re describing can work in conjunction with the FaLi. Depending on your age, marital status, or dating life, you have probably done the exact same tucking the tailbone and rounding the back, thousands of times. It takes little to no effort. You are not even aware that muscles are working while doing it. It doesn’t require any strength. It’s completely ‘Fansong’ and effortless.
Now, using that exact same movement, in the midst of any martial movement that you do, in any position, you can learn and train your ability to do this movement one time, with the same effortless and cold, crisp and fast movement, in order to quickly jolt or bump your abdomen. Which through a lot of practice will get the flesh and skin to travel along with your regular Fajin (or TiFang as I would name it) that you are describing above. This probably doesn’t sound like it would make much difference but after a few months you will begin to feel like your attacks (strikes, pushes, throws…) are increasing in power. And they are because you are recruiting the parts of your body that are normally unmovable. There’s a lot of mass and momentum in the flesh of your body, and it’s not just the flesh. A relaxed muscle also counts as flesh because it’s like a gel and it’s just hanging on your bones. It will make your martial art so much more rewarding and enjoyable to practice. Because the feeling that you get when everything is moving in harmony- flesh, muscle and bone all moving in unison. Feels like real power.