View Single Post
Old 04-06-2007, 05:20 PM   #3
Ecosamurai
 
Ecosamurai's Avatar
Dojo: Takagashira Dojo
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 570
United Kingdom
Offline
Re: The internal 'how to' thread... let's hope

Quote:
Chris Hein wrote: View Post
Internal is a set of natural body movements so it's a bit hard to brake down directly but I'll do my best.

Producing force.
First the body must be relaxed from head to toe, using no effort (by effort I mean no unnecessary muscular force to remain standing, but of coarse muscles will be engaged to remain standing.) The motion will begain with the lower muscles in the calves, and move up the body in a continues fashion, with all muscles along the path of force firing in order, then relaxing after they fire. This will create a current of force moving up your body, and being released at the desired location (Hand, elbow shoulder, hip, knee, leg etc.). The body acts like a whip, the motion being started in the lower body, and traveling out to the desired location.

Rooting force.
Kind of the opposite of the former. This means taking force into the body, and directing it back down into the ground. In reverse direction from before. taking the force into your body from what ever location (hand, head, shoulder, hip etc.) and directing it through your body via skeletal alignment and support muscles back into the ground.

There are also other tid bits about how to align properly, and how to fire your muscles in order. How to direct force in specific directions etc., but that's the super basic brake down of what I would call internal.
Interesting but I think it's a bit too super basic breakdown-ish. It doesn't detail methods used to train and teach, rather a description of what you call 'natural body movement'. So I think it's more of a definition than a description of a 'how to'. Also, the word 'natural' has peculiar connotations and often leads to misunderstanding so I think it's probably a good idea not to use that word too often. For example is air pollution natural? No, man-made. But aren't humans natural creatures? Yes, evolved from apes. So then if humans are natural creatures surely their actions are natural too and therefore air pollution is natural? Er..... Just an example of the trouble you can get into using the word 'natural'. I only used it in my post because one of the ki tests is usually referred to as 'stand naturally', though I find the word a misdirection because it is a decidedly unnatural way to stand when you compare it to the way most people stand. In the case above I think of it as just a label and pay it no real attention. Same as the word unbendable in the unbendable arm test.

Mike

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."
-Martin Luther King Jr
  Reply With Quote