Thread: Strength vs Ki.
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Old 06-14-2011, 02:18 PM   #148
Tony Wagstaffe
Location: Winchester
Join Date: Oct 2005
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Re: Strength vs Ki.

Quote:
Mike Sigman wrote: View Post
People posting videos is probably not enough, as witness some of the discussions about Chris Heins' mechanics as he videoed his take on some of the internal-strength common demo's.

Generally speaking, internal strength demonstrations are done without much movement; it's part of the idea that 'movement goes to stillness' and it demonstrates a level of body development/training. Take a look at this video, at the ten-second mark, of Ueshiba bouncing someone away with his thigh:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCjySZuVDkQ

Now, Ueshiba is obviously very old in that video and the actual mechanics of the demo can be seen even by the uninitiated to some degree. I prefer to do a lot of videos with even more obvious exaggeration, a lot of times, so let's imagine 3 levels of that same demonstration (assuming equally overly-cooperative students, just as Ueshiba used): (1.) me doing a very slow and exaggerated bounce, (2.) Ueshiba doing a moderately-obvious demonstration, (3.) Wang Xiangzhai doing a Yiquan version where barely a quiver is seen. The point is that without the person in the video doing some verbal description to accompany the video, there's all sorts of room for the viewers to come up with their own interpretations (right or wrong) of what they saw on the film.

Look at the other side of it.... you can show an explicit film of a demonstration to someone who knows little/nothing and without the helpful description of the mechanics, they can go many years with no development other than the ability to say "that version doesn't look like the other version".

Just a side note on something else, BTW..... "Strength" and "Qi/Ki" always go hand in hand. If someone has great strength they have strong qi/ki. "Internal strength" is about a certain way of using qi/ki, but it is not the only way that qi/ki is expressed. Your local weight-lifter has a lot of ki/qi, but he may never have heard of internal strength and may not be able to demonstrate a bit of internal strength.

FWIW

Mike Sigman
My experience has told me otherwise.....
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