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Old 11-19-2012, 07:27 AM   #102
Lorel Latorilla
Location: Osaka
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 311
Japan
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Re: Mike sigman's internal strength parameters- Have you guys read this; really!

Quote:
Joseph Brown wrote: View Post
Why would you train pure neijia? Because they are fascinating arts that I've been reading about for a long time, and the qualities you mention are attractive. I don't think no-wind up strikes are 'watered' down in non-neijia arts, they are just more powered by local muscle. One advantage of the neijia is that you can deliver significant power without having lots of muscle. But such strikes, done externally, certainly can work (and they are certainly easier to learn and use more quickly, two not insignificant advantages to the waijia). But if they are powered by local muscle (upper body muscle) rather than Dantien-controlled whole body power, all the time (check the requirements for taiji, bagua, xingyi movement), then they by definition aren't neijia. And one thing neijia masters say over and over is that if you want to get good at those arts, you have to go all in, re-training your body to move from the Dantien is hard, even harder if you're training it some of the time and training external arts some of the time.

Ark was actually quite disdainful of Dantien-powered movement when I saw him last (even though, as I mentioned, it was clear he sometimes used such movement). But it's not 'all Dantien all the time' with him, and again, that is one key definition of the neijia.

What makes me want to focus on the neijia? What makes me love Tim O'Brien novels? Just crazy like that, I guess. I'm an amateur, this is a hobby for me...they're fun and difficult in that way that all engrossing hobbies should be. If I were solely interested in defending myself or winning fights I'd still be doing muay thai and kali escrima.

JLB
Thanks for your answers.

"don't think no-wind up strikes are 'watered' down in non-neijia arts, they are just more powered by local muscle. " Interesting. I would say those who are in the non-neijia arts might that their strikes are not powered by "local" muscle. I think Ark, Dan, and Sam Chin would claim something like that. But I could be definitely wrong. I don't want to put words in their mouth. Maybe Dan can chime in? Dan would definitely say that his movements are dantien-powered. What do you have to say about that?

"Ark was actually quite disdainful of Dantien-powered movement when I saw him last (even though, as I mentioned, it was clear he sometimes used such movement). But it's not 'all Dantien all the time' with him, and again, that is one key definition of the neijia."

I have no comment on this besides some questions. In what context did Ark say this? Do you know in what moments Ark said that "dantien" movement is not efficient? And in your case, why would "dantien-powered" movement all the time be efficient?

Unless stated otherwise, all wisdom, follies, harshness, malice that may spring up from my writing are attributable only to me.
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