View Single Post
Old 04-12-2013, 10:46 PM   #20
hughrbeyer
Dojo: Shobu Aikido of Boston
Location: Peterborough, NH
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 653
United_States
Offline
Re: "Conventional Muscles" and Internal Power

Truth is IS work is not as mysterious as those arguing against it would like to claim. It's a fairly organized body of knowledge with a long history. No two practitioners or schools agree on all of it, but so what--when did two martial artists ever agree on anything? The broad outlines and the training methodology are clear.

All the stuff about fascia and so forth is interesting, but not really the point. Maybe it's fascia; maybe it's not. The work endures, regardless.

One of the things that there's general agreement on is that traditional strength training gets in the way. You can read about Chinese masters 500 years ago complaining about having to give up strength training to get good at internals. And that has nothing to do with focusing on single joints or muscle groups--I know exactly how much of your body you have to integrate to do a squat with any significant weight.

And the training methodology is well understood. It's a lot of solo work, a lot of visualizations, and a lot of hands-on with senior practitioners. And when I say hands on, I mean hands ON--I just read an article by a guy who went to China to train with Liu Chengde and he describes how Liu guided him in the right stance and attitude by pressing down with a hand on his hip pocket. Hip pocket, my ass. So to speak. Anybody who's trained with some of the western experts, including He Who Must Not Be Named, know what that's about.

At this point I'm not much concerned with trying to convince people who haven't gotten on the mat with those who are known to have the goods. Theoretical wanking is going to get you precisely nowhere with this stuff. You don't believe in it? Fine, keep doing what you're doing. And have a nice day.

Evolution doesn't prove God doesn't exist, any more than hammers prove carpenters don't exist.
  Reply With Quote