View Single Post
Old 08-12-2010, 09:22 AM   #138
Lee Salzman
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 406
Offline
Re: What paths lead to internal power??

Quote:
Mike Sigman wrote: View Post
I agree with that. As long as the person doing the "borrowing" isn't claiming all he knows is from his own brilliance or that he's been doing all of it "for many years". If you remember, I pointed out that I've seen this same game played for decades; it's fairly common. So far I haven't met any self-made modern experts who can move with the dantien and who aren't shoulder-reliant. That's the core of what I've been trying to say: before people start distracting conversations about winning fights, I'd be satisfied with just watching them move without being shoulder/arm dependent. If they're great fighters with some rudimentary jin skills but a lot of shoulder and non-hara movement, my question is about why that sort of movement is being called internal strength. Same point I made with the car-wrecks story.

Think about it......why, if someone's internal-strength is so good, do they still use their shoulders and not their hara's? Ever see a Chinese or Japanese martial art that didn't stress the fact that the hara should be used?

FWIW

Mike Sigman
Out of genuine curiosity, if we are to think about it, I would like to ask: if all these people are using their shoulders in connection with their other skills, and this is to be taken as detrimental, then is that because they have determined an actual use or benefit to that in spite of this claim, or does this actually detract from their skills? I'd just like to understand why/how this is limiting their displayed ability, before we take it as a given.