I've been having some exchanges with Johnny Kuo, who's an I-Liq Chuan instructor, and a student of Sam Chin.
http://mindbodykungfu.com/ I've been playing with and ironing out various ways to at least get people in the door to the "internal" world, of not only martial arts, but movement, and their own bodies - and its intrinsic strength and power. Johnny lives in my area, so we're accessible to each other.
Below is an email to Johnny, that I thought I could park here for other's consideration, input, and discussion.
===============================================
The whole IMA community has been tripping over itself for a long time,
especially since the internet and forums have come out.
And an even larger aspect is all the people looking in who don't do it,
but think they might, but have no real tangible place to start unless
they go to someone like Dan Harden or Sam Chin.
Now, I agree that Dan and Sam can get people to levels I can't.
But what I can do is get people to the stage where they have good
basic alignment. And I get even do that with writing, illustrations,
and possibly some video.
Part of what I harp on is that there is - at least a certain level -
of intrinsic power in a body that is aligned statically as well as in
basic movements.
There are people out there hungry for this information, and want
to incorporate it, but are confused and don't know where to start.
Yes, Dan and Sam can work with people to build rocket engines.
But even that has to start with a body that has the basic alignments
in place.
It's like people can be taught to align themselves, so at least they
have the kind of natural power they have with a sailboat. And also
just by doing that - working with a natural level of energy - 1. They'll
be less likely to injure themselves and/others. 2. They'll sure as hell
feel a lot better. 3. Their learning of anything will take on a different
quality. 4. They'll be in much better shape - and have some of the
prerequisite programming installed when and if they want to go to
workshops with people like Dan and Sam.
This is where, what I'd call something like IA - Internal Alignment
an important step in creating a better foundation for people. Regardless
if they just want to sail, or go across the bridge and work with people
like Dan and Sam to eventually become jet-powered speed boats.
Interested in your thoughts.
Dan