The Silly Magic of Asian Martial Arts versus Reality

 

Taking Out the Slack and Completing the Circle

 

Muscles and tendons work by pulling/contracting; we can only push with the bones and internal pressure within our "suits".   When we straighten up the body from being leaned over, we do it by contracting tissues, mainly the tissues on the back sides of the body.  When we lean over and contract the body, we do it by contracting tissues that are mainly on the front, inner, and undersides of the body.  The point is that most of our body movements are made by contracting and pulling tissues, even when we Open and expand the body.

 

To maximize and make efficient any pulling of tissues within the body, we need to strengthen the tissues and take out the slack.  Here's an example for people to try, in terms of what "taking out the slack" can entail:

 

Stand in a comfortable stance, right foot forward and the right arm stretched out in line with the back and front feet. Keep the weight evenly between the feet.  Don't stiffen the arm.  Make sure that the armpit is Open, not bent at an acute angle. Check that your body tissues are slightly extended and connected throughout your body.  Have a partner hold your right forearm and push gradually and lightly (no more than 3-4 pounds) but constantly toward your left, rear foot.  You should concentrate on letting the push go easily through your body so that the incoming force rests completely within the sole of your left foot.  Wiggle your hips to check that your lower back and torso are relaxed.  Hopefully, if you can accurately replicate the situation, you will see how jin (the forces) and qi (the tissues, slack, etc.) work in partnership.

 

Your partner should then stop the forward push, slowly, and gradually change to a direct pull along the same line as the push was, in line with the feet.  You should let your right shoulder be relaxed and let the pull go through your body to the left shoulder blade and directly to your right foot in front.  The idea is to feel the pull immediately in your right foot.  One trick you can use is that, even though your partner is pulling on your arm, pretend that they have hooked their fingers around your belt and are pulling your middle with the belt.  Let the pull be fully absorbed by the sole of the front foot.  Feel the pull in the front foot immediately, as they start pulling.  Allow your weight to sink/drop with every pull.  Sinking your weight utilizes the other side of gravity: the downward pull of weight.

Once you get the general idea of how the push-pull-push-pull mechanics work, have your partner do a number of slow, gradual changes between push and pull until you have adjusted your body where you can comfortably change from grounding the push and pull changes with no overt movement of the body.  You can grasp from this example what the idea of "no slack" means, in terms of connecting the solidity of the ground (the Qi of Earth) to your arm.

 

The idea is to not break the connection of the arm to the ground, so that your partner is actually feeling the strength of the ground via a no-slack connection, not your muscles, when they push and pull.  In other words, you do not use muscular strength, you take advantage of the strength of the ground (gravity) for your power.

 

"Completing the Circle"

 

The push and pull described above is linear, but let's pretend that we now take our extended arm and move it in a clockwise circle (without a partner) and pretend that we are moving the arm and body while we're underwater.  In other words, imagine realistically that you're moving your arm against the resistance of water.  The upward and outward expanding half of the arm circle requires a "push" scenario, mainly using the tissues and muscles of the back and outsides of the body and limbs: this is Open.  The downward and inward contracting half of the arm circle requires a sinking and a "pull" or contraction, mainly using the tissues and muscles of the front and inner/undersides of the body and limbs ("heavy side down").  In order to maintain the power from the ground to your hand, there must once again be a "no-slack" connection at all times during the arm circle.  The only way to maintain that constant no-slack connection from the ground and going from Back to Front to Back, etc., is for the power to constantly spiral out through the limbs and torso.  But you will need to work that out for yourself, over time.

 

If a person does not constantly maintain a no-slack connection to the ground, they will have to intersperse periods of muscle, using the common strength li, rather than the jin-mind strength.  That's why the admonition is to move in complete circles: if you break your circles/spirals, you have a tendency to begin use muscle to fill in the gaps.

 

A reasonable person who follows the logic of the above and the need for continuous changing of forces through the various "channels" or "meridians" of the body should be able to deduce why the role of the dantian/tanden is so important.