Quote:
Chris Hein wrote:
Hey Joseph,
Do you know if there is video of people doing the "teacher test" with correct examples? A video of Mike Sigman would of course work best, but I would love to watch video of any teacher who passes the test.
I think things like this that we can all objectively look at, hear explanations as to why it was or wasn't what we are describing. Thanks!
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Umm,
I'm not talking about WATCHING video. I'm talking about GOING to see high level teachers. Jeez. If you haven't experienced high level internal arts masters up close then the distinction between what they do and what others do on freakin' Youtube is harder to understand.
Once you have, things get easier. And then you can ask better questions and see more gradations...here's an example, I see what Akuzawa is doing (I've attended three of his workshops, so this is not armchair-observation) as involving some jin and 'suit', but not full-blown internal power or six harmonies movement or what-have-you, and he himself didn't (at least not when I asked him about it three years ago) claim to drive his movement with the Dantien (although he was surely doing so at some points with his downpower stuff, as in shiko...pretty reminiscent of baji). But that IS a defining characteristic of internal power. So Akuzawa has part of the picture, not all.
That's not criticism, it's observation. Another observation...I've seen folks here put I Li Quan with the neijia, I don't get that. I don't know anyone who is serious about internal arts who claims I Li Quan falls clearly into that category. Now, I've not seen that art up close, I've only watched Youtube clips, but given what I have been exposed to, it looks like Sam Chin has *some* jin, but the differenced between him and, well, prominent taiji, bagua, and xingyi practitioners is obvious. Is he a good martial artist? Yeah, he seems to be. But should I be looking to him to understand what internal power is? No, I don't think so. Same thing with Systema. OK, it's soft. That doesn't make it internal. Xingyi is an internal art and it ain't soft.