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Obstacle
Every student faces one obstacle that dwarves every other: muscular
tension in the body. The arms and shoulders are usually the most tense.
No matter how many times you are asked to relax, the tendency to be tense
remains.
Your body must be neither tense nor flaccid; you must find that point where the
absolute minimum of muscular effort is sustained at all times.
Habit
The primary cause of unnecessary tension is habit. You have spent a lifetime
overexerting and now it feels perfectly natural and normal.
The arms of a true taijiquan master are like iron bars wrapped in cotton.
They are extremely flexible yet internally strong and heavy.
When grasping an opponents hand as in pushing hands practice,
the taijiquan masters hands are very light but the opponent cannot get away
from him.
He can release intrinsic energy from his spine like a bullet from the muzzle
of a gun.
His strike is lightning swift and clear-cut like the breaking of a stick,
without the slightest exertion of muscular force.
(T T Liang)
Your mind
Being relaxed yet strong (without trying) seems counter-intuitive; it simply
does not make sense to you. It goes against everything you think concerning
strength.
This psychological habit is what causes the physical problem to occur. All
change must begin in the mind - that is why Tao/Zen reading is absolutely
vital.
Taijiquan skills
Your body alignment is important in taijiquan; it supports neigong by using
physics to your advantage.
By positioning your body in a favourable way - relative to an opponent - you
have access to more strength.
Listening, stickiness, 4 ounces of pressure, 5 bows, yielding and softness -
all serve to teach you how to have power without recourse to brute force.
Every taijiquan drill is an exercise in practicing these qualities, but the
exercise is wasted every time you resort to aggression and tension.
Strong is wrong
If you feel strong and powerful in your movement, you are not using neigong.
Whenever you find yourself thinking: "I hardly did anything" - you are
learning.
Silk
Silk is an unusual fabric. Traditionally it was worn by samurai and European
knights beneath their armour because projectiles could not easily penetrate
the fabric.
The material is exceptionally strong and flexible; it is innately soft,
resilient and supple. Yet delicate.
In silk arms, the fist moves very fast, covering both sides of the opponents
body from top to bottom, fluidly changing from straight hits, to sideways
cuts to hooks, like the tip of a piece of silk blown in a high wind.
As this
occurs, the arms and elbows appear to be boneless as they seamlessly bend
and fold like undulating cloth.
(Bruce Frantzis)
Care
When harvested, silk must be drawn from the cocoon very carefully. A minute
degree of tension must be established and maintained; with no abrupt
movements or lags.
Any variation in tension and the thread will sag or break.
Silk arms
Silk arms is more of a concept than a drill. Your arms must be like silk
ribbons - connected, flowing, loose, adaptable - with no extraneous tension
whatsoever.
They must be free to move without the slightest impediment. Any stiffness in
the joints or muscles will break the flow.
Strength
Where does the strength come from? Qigong, neigong, form, connection,
alignment and gravity.
Until you believe in the neigong and have faith that it exists within your
every movement, you remain tense.
You imbue your form and applications with muscle tension in the hope of
possessing a strength that is already present.
The irony is that you cannot use your whole-body strength until you stop
exerting externally.
Do not try
External effort is about trying, about doing - whereas the internal is about
allowing.
If you have trained neigong for months and practiced qigong regularly, your
limbs are already strong; so doing is not required.
Hard-style attitudes
Many kung fu (Chinese boxing) instructors have an external martial arts
background. This is valuable experience but also an impediment.
Different
Taijiquan approaches combat in a very different way to the hard-style arts.
If you apply external methodologies and tactics to taijiquan, it simply will
not work in self defence.
At best, you'll have an external parody of taijiquan. At worst, you'll
simply be defeated.
External obstacles
Training internal and external martial arts at the same time is not so good
- the approaches contradict one another. The external art will impede your
taijiquan progress.
You cannot train external and internal arts simultaneously and hope for the
internal to work. Under pressure the external would come out, not the
internal.
They develop
training methods like silk arms where they can twist and bend their joints
like a piece of silk, making their movements highly fast, reactive,
unpredictable and mobile, which makes it hard to grab or lock their joints.
(Bruce Frantzis)
Movement
Taijiquan is concerned with whole-body movement, with the emphasis upon the
movement itself; the how rather than the result.
Physical movement is largely concealed within the body, and only a small
fraction is visible during the application. External arts are strength-based
and focus on speed and aggression.
The limbs move independently of the rest of the body, with a more
superficial connection throughout the frame. Strength is used against
strength.
Internal approach
An internal form is different to an external one. The emphasis is upon how
you perform the movements: which combination of body skills powered your
frame.
Neigong cannot be incorporated fully into an external art because neigong
requires the body to let-go and release stored tension.
Muscular usage must be imperceptible; at no time should you exceed 4 ounces
of pressure.
Tentacles
Taijiquan limbs are like boneless tentacles; heavy, loose, fluid yet
connected. No sense of strength should be felt by the student. If you feel
strong, then you're external and tense.
You should feel to be weak and yielding - which takes a leap of faith in the
practitioner. Only by letting-go can jing be released. How can it come out
when you hold it in?
Getting it
The true sign of skill in taijiquan is your ability to remain absolutely
soft and gentle throughout your practice. You will find that grace and
fluidity emerge and you will be hard to manipulate.
Your movements will become smooth and flowing, and you can spontaneously
adapt to the changing nature of the moment. Strength will be present in your
every movement, yet you will be unaware of it.
If you let go of your
muscular strength your body will start relaxing.
(Bruce Frantzis)
Sung
More skilled students learn to feel only the movement, and not their own
body. This is called 'sung'. Until you stop being tense, this kind of skill
is not possible.
Every time you move, relax. Then relax again. Repeatedly remind yourself to
let-go.
Page created
18 April 1995
Last updated
09 December 2023
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