Qi, Jin, Structure, Direction of Forces
by Mike Sigman
IMO the best way to start learning jin is to hold something
in your arms and practice adjusting your structure so that the weight of what
you're holding goes straight through your bones/structure and rests on the
ground. The reason primitive porters can
carry so much load on their heads or shoulders is because they have learned to
allow the weight to go through their bones and rest on the ground: if the weight is allowed to rest on the
ground, that's less of a burden that your muscles have to carry. This is Basic jin 101.
When you are mentally "adjusting" your structure
to let a weight rest at the bottom of your feet, you are using
"intent" or "yi".
Mentally adjusting your structure inside involves the subconscious mind following
your imagined process of letting the weight rest at the bottom of your and
directing a myriad of involuntary-muscles connected to fascia, muscles, frame,
etc. Those involuntary-muscles stress
your structure in various ways that will manipulate the forces from the ground
(or the body's weight, if need be) … the subconscious/involuntary-muscle system
is mainly what we call the qi-tissues. The
Jin forces are the results of actions by the qi-tissues and that's why jin is
called "the physical manifestation of the qi".
Think of the qi-tissues as being a part of the flesh and
connective tissue of the body and going from feet to hands. The qi-tissues provide the stressors that
result in jin-force resultants. So, the
qi-tissues from feet to hands arrange the stressors which yield a force
resultant (jin) that might go straight from the ground (or from the central
weight or from a wall we're leaning against, etc.) to a point of
application. Correct jin-powered
movement is always a combination of the qi-tissues' actions through the
structure of the body and the jin forces that are produced by intent, the
subconscious, and the stressor actions of the qi-tissues.
A force doesn't have to be just vertical in order for the
mind/yi to connect it to the foot (or dantian, for downward forces). A force can come into or go out from the
foot/ground even if the force is going out the arm. The same relaxed "let it rest at the
sole of the foot", also known as "sink the qi" is required and
the mind has to envision the force at the arm going straight to the foot (in
the beginning stages). Later, in one's
development, jin forces appear almost instantaneously, so fast is the
subconscious mind. However, a lot of
practice is needed to train this skill:
it's not something you can just learn at a basic level and hope that it will
appear in action without practice.
Structure
The body's main connections are through the combination
media of bone, muscle, and connective tissue.
If you're going to propagate a force through any medium it must be
connected and coherent without gaps, acute bends, and so on. A major consideration of propagating a force
is how much involvement of the qi-tissues there is, along with the muscle,
bone, connective-tissue factors.
If we push something (Yang qi), our structure allows the
ground forces to use the frame of the skeleton, in addition to muscles,
tendons, and so on to propagate the push: the connection of the body should be
good, of course. If we pull something (Yin
qi) using our weight and a push back from the front foot, for instance, there
must again be a coherent connection for the pulling force to come through …
again with no gaps.
That being said, let's consider some examples of jin/intent
forces going through the body structure:
Example 1. Stand in a
parallel stance, arms by your side, and "sink your qi" such that all
of your forces are resting on the soles of your feet. Have a partner push horizontally (or even
slightly downward) against the outside of one of your shoulders, generally
aiming his push toward the other side of your body and in line with your foot
on that opposite side. Just a light push
(maybe 5 pounds) and the pusher should keep his elbow straight so that you feel
a solid, connected force rather than a springy one from a bent elbow in his
arm. You should concentrate on the
incoming force arriving directly into the left foot if the pusher is pushing
into the right shoulder.
Once you feel that the foot is accepting the force totally
into it (keep your lower back relaxed!), have the pusher stop and walk around
to your other side and do the same push from shoulder to foot. Accept the force immediately into the foot as
soon as he touches you. The pushing
partner should be able to give you feedback as to when he feels the solidity of
the ground at your shoulder.
Repeat this process slowly until you're able to simply
'will' a path from shoulder to foot without moving the rest of the body. If you can do this successfully, you will be
using your "intent" or "yi" to direct the subconscious into
changing the qi-tissue stressors in the body to form 2 different jin paths from
the ground.
Example 2. Stand with
one foot forward, both arms facing forward horizontally at shoulder height. Roll the shoulders forward (don't keep it
square or you'll block the transmission of forces from the ground). Put your weight as fully as possible over the
back foot. Have your partner use his
fist and lightly (but with elbow straight) push into one of your palms, making
sure that his push is in a plane/line with your back foot. Practice getting his entire push to rest in
your back foot. Then have the partner
stop and move to the other palm, but be sure that his push into your arm is
lined up with the push; your shoulder should be forward so that the push is
transmitted cleanly through your body and doesn't stop at a squared shoulder. Imagine a straight line from your palm down
to your back foot in both cases. Notice
how easy it is to get stress/tension in the shoulder unless you have built up some
qi-tissue conditioning to support the shoulder joint.
In the examples so far, we have practiced mentally aiming a
jin force where we want it within our structure.
Example 3. Your body can send force paths from the ground,
the center-body mass, or a, for instance, solid wall behind your back to some
point of application within your frame/body-structure. If you are solidly in contact with a
reasonable-sized object, you can direct forces into areas within that
object. In other words, the stressors
that your qi-tissues set up can direct (to a moderate degree) force from your
frame into another frame that is in solid contact (a contact which allows a
solid connection for a push or a contact which allows a solid tensile
connection for a pull). When you
push or pull these connected objects (or people) you must be sure that you do
not break or skew the connection with your own frame and also the ground.
Have your partner hold your upper arms while you
simultaneously hold his upper arms and allow him to push into you until you
feel his push resting as much as possible in your back foot. Stand with the
right foot forward for a first attempt. Try to put as much of your weight as
possible over the rear foot so that you don't simply use the back foot as a
brace. If your weight is fully into your
back foot and you're not falsely compensating by leaning forward, you can check
yourself by wriggling your hips. If the
qi-tissues are holding the incoming push, the mid-section of the body is freed
up. You should now be able to slide the
right foot back until your feet are parallel.
Take some time to familiarize yourself with this process.
As your partner pushes into you (he should be somewhat rigid and NOT LEANING INTO YOU), let the ground accept his
force and try to return the force from the ground straight back into the exact
direction of the incoming force. This is called "returning his strength". If you are returning your partner's push precisely
from your foot back into his incoming force, your partner is effectively
pushing into the ground: the harder he
pushes into you, the harder he is pushing himself away from the ground. If he is pushing himself away from the
ground, all you should have to do is add a little force directly back into his
push to make him push himself away.
Example 4. Holding
each others' upper arms as before, let partner push into you with a steady
(unchanging) rigid force while you "ground" it, letting the force
from the ground go directly back into his overall pushing force. If you're doing this correctly, you should,
as said before, be able to wriggle your hips as a check. If you can easily wriggle your hips, you
should be able to exactly maintain partner where he is (e.g., don't let him feel anything you do) as you bend your knees slightly and bow your lower back slightly outward. With the back bowed and the legs bent, you now have a source of power to push directly back into partner's push. Try not to use your arms at all during your first attempts and practices: never let the hands and arms come back toward the body once you start your push or you will break your power and use arm/shoulder strength.
Example 5. If instead of returning force from the ground directly
back into partner's push, what if you return it at a slight angle? Think of this example as containing 2 Forces that you control at the same time. When you and your partner hold each others' upper arms, let him push into you (adjust your hips and legs as necessary and think of receiving his force into your foot) until you're comfortable that the ground is holding his push/force. Check by wriggling your hips. Keep holding partner with that primary force-path and generate another path back up into partner that so that it pushes his middle-mass back between his feet and slightly upward. As long as he is pushing solidly into you, remember, he has become a part of your structure ("become One with your enemy"), so do not do anything to break the solidity of your union. If you start just trying to move him with your arms you will destroy the whole-body unity.
▦▦▦▦▦
There are many details and tangents that could be discussed and a lot of the directions may not make much sense to someone who has not felt or does not understand how jin is made from intent. However, I was just mentioning some basic details to get people mentally receptive for the short video clip below.
In the video clip, Kuroda Tetsuzan is showing 2 basic tricks to Chris Crudelli of the old "Mind, Body, and Kick Ass" series on TV. The first trick involves what appears to be a variant of arm-wrestling while laying on the ground and only using the little fingers. Let me briefly explain the essence of how it works.
When partner/Uke pulls on Kuroda's pinky finger, Kuroda allows the torque to connect to his whole body, not just the pinky or arm. So Uke is attempting to twist Kuroda's whole body and there is a jin path from Kuroda's grounded body back into Uke's body ... not just Uke's pinky. Kuroda maintains the unit-body connection and turns his body and Uke's as one unit, flipping Uke onto his side.
In the old days, Kuroda would be said to have "sent his Qi into the Uke", but really Kuroda is just making his frame and Uke's frame into one frame and he uses jin to move that unit body.
Later, when Chris Crudelli is unable to do the pinky trick, Kuroda 'assists' by putting his hand on Chris', but what Kuroda does in reality is join his body and a jin path to Uke through Chris' hand ... then Kuroda simply uses a straight jin path to push Uke over.
The second trick Kuroda shows involves connecting himself with Chris via a pull, while they're both standing. When you are pushing a unit-frame involving a partner, you can push in various directions into his frame; when you are joined via a pulling tension, you can pull on various parts of that person, as long as he is in a solid connection. In this case, Kuroda shows a pull to parts of the face and to Chris's heart area.
I'm not much of one to practice show tricks, so I'm pretty sure I'm not as good at this trick as Kuroda is, but I can duplicate it to a reasonable degree. However, there is a caution in my mind ... notice that Kuroda signalled where Chris would feel the pulls: that's suggestion and you have to allow for that being a factor.
That being said, here's the video: https://vimeo.com/247695491
Comments
Post a Comment