Quote:
Andy Kazama wrote:
Hi Budd,
I agree with what you are saying. I could have worded that much better. I guess what I meant to say is that Intent (the use of the dantien to balance opposing forces) is by far the most important piece of the puzzle. I can sit in my car and work on IP by using intent, but I agree you should probably get on a mat and do some work as well. Luckily, I am not in the same boat as some of the other poor saps in ATL who are possibly still sitting in their cars 24+ hours after our 2" winter storm...  Thanks for the clarification. |
Ugh, I heard about that mess in Atlanta and have sympathy. We get rough weather up here in Buffalo but for the most part the infrastructure is in place to handle it well.
I know there's different approaches to training internal strength and what is internal, etc. I think the dantien is very important, but initially, I'd argue it's better to learn how to articulate and slowly strengthen it while concurrently training jin (mental management of gravity and ground forces) and your body's internal connections. At some point of development you'll be able to bring them all together effectively (and it won't seem like an unnatural thing - suburi when done well, I think is a good example of where they can all fit together in a solo practice - IF the right elements are in place), but each one requires its own attention (as each is a bit "alien" from generally learned movement). Without that foundation it's like trying to effectively cut with a sword using a blunt stick and holding the wrong end with a cross-fingered grip (even practicing that in suburi would at least be . . awkward).
But that's my thought on internal strength as a set of pre-defined skills. It's not to do with how much of a push to the chest you can receive or whether you can use ki on the ground. There's some fundamental basic milestones to cross before all the tools are ready to be used effectively together.