Martial Chi

I spent last weekend at an excellent "Internal Strength" seminar given by the legendary Mike Sigman. He's a superb teacher and has managed to distill the basics of the internal martial arts into a few simple concepts and drills. Most importantly he emphasised that although the word "Chi" is used to describe the strength and power that can be developed using these methods, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the wishy washy mystical Chi that you often hear people wibbling about. In fact it's much better translated as connection to the ground, or solidity, rootedness, etc. Essentially what you are striving to achieve is the ability to contract and release your fascial net and elastic tissues of the body to store and release force like stretching and pinging an elastic band. You're also striving to maintain correct structural alignment to allow a sort of effortless solidity and strength. That's all, although of course, it's easier said than done. He described it like your body was covered in a rubber suit metaphorically speaking, so for example, if you contracted the suit across the back and shoulders it would pull up your arms. You can apply this to all parts of the body although the bits that connect to what aren't always entirely apparent.

So in essence all of the Tai Chi forms are really just ways to practice this stretching and releasing and a complete form should cover stretching "the suit" over all the bits of the body. He's also restored my faith a bit in the martial arts in general. Interestingly as well, he commented that martial Chi not understood that way in China so it's a uniquely Western misconception probably caused by poor translation - people without a martial background translating martial texts - which has been passed on and become institutionalised. It's also a sad fact that all the people who are practising forms without understanding the underlying concept of stretching and training the elastic parts of the body have been wasting their time!