Chin na | ||
The art of seizing | ||
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The art of seizing
Chin na is concerned with seizing the opponent abruptly and painfully
during grappling. Tai chi chuan (dynamic balancing boxing) students discover how to:
Seize
Misplace the bones
Divide the muscles
Seal the breath
Strike cavities
Manipulate fingers and thumbs
Flow between applications
As a martial art, chin na can be practiced in its own right or as an aspect of other systems.
The tai chi forms feature countless
chin na applications.
Locks and holds
Many martial arts employ locks and holds successfully.
They are an effective way of restraining an opponent and/or damaging the
body.
Unfortunately, locks and holds require commitment.
If you hold somebody, you are committed to maintaining the hold using
sustained strength.
At some point you must let go and your opponent is free.
We do not use locks and holds.
Sensitivity
Chin na cannot be used forcefully; it is a subtle skill.
No sane person would allow you to break their arm, so you must become very
sly and spontaneous.
Brute force, strength against strength is not chin na.
3 levels of skill
Students work through 3 levels of 'misplacing the bone' application:
Fixed
Flowing
Freeform
Fixed applications are taught
to 'skilled' students. Flowing and freeform come later.
Martial art
Your basic chin na skills are: breaking, sealing, seizing, splitting and
tearing.
It is important that you can differentiate clearly between them and apply
each skill as the situation demands.
Each ability requires you to be fully connected, rooted and be using the
'baby grip' rather than tension.
Techniques
The danger with training specific chin na applications is that you may come
to see them as techniques.
This is not the approach advocated by Sifu Waller.
Techniques have their place as a study tool. However, they are not a good approach
to use in actual combat.
A technique involves a series of steps employed against a particular attack.
Should your opponent deviate from the anticipated course of action, a
technique could easily fail.
Tai chi fighting method
For chin na to work, you must concern yourself with the underlying
principles rather than technique.
Once you understand how the principles work, you can use them spontaneously
in accord with the requirement of a given situation.
This is more realistic.
Flowing chin na
Once the principles are familiar, students flow from one
chin na application to another.
The ability to flow from one chin na to another has distinct advantages:
It enables you to persist with your intention of inflicting injury
You remain sticky
You maintain control
You demonstrate your skill
You can inflict a wider variety of damage without risk of an effective counter
All of this hinges on two things:
The ability to apply a range of chin na applications in the first place
Stickiness
Stickiness enables you to remain in contact throughout
your encounter, and not give the advantage to your opponent.
Adaptation
Adaptation is essential; you change what you are doing relative to what is
happening.
If your chin na is countered by your opponent, you move into a different one
or adopt a different strategy entirely - such as stepping or striking.
Confusion
By changing your chin na you can confuse the opponent.
You can flow from one type of chin na to another without warning and produce a
different
effect each time.
This will unsettle your attacker.
It is important not to show off or be complacent; an error on your part can
rapidly lead to defeat.
Never underestimate the opponent.
Practice
In class, students are encouraged to apply one chin na and invite their partner to
escape it.
As your partner escapes, apply a different application.
This becomes a yielding game; where the chin na flow seamlessly.
Try it with your eyes closed and your partner countering your chin na.
Why bother with chin na?
It is possible to learn tai chi without studying chin na, but the
art would be far from complete. Chin na requires the exponent to learn a
whole new skill set. In addition to being soft, relaxed, connected, sticky
and adaptive, you must also understand leverage, pressure and biomechanics
in a whole new way.
Relative to say 'pushing hands' or 'form',
chin na is an entirely new area of study. Whilst the applications look quite
simple, often they're not that easy to do at first.
Principles
Real skill comes from grasping the essence of each application and seeing
what the principles are and why it works. That way, the student can apply
chin na more fully and spontaneously.
Formal applications serve as starting place. Once the knack has been gained,
chin na becomes part of your repertoire and can be used freely.
chin na jing neigong neijiaquan self defence shuai jiao syllabus tai chi weapons
Page created 2 March 1995
Last updated
23 October 2023