It's funny how these principles roil around and impact with each other. I see them in all the fighting disciplines, but they seem strongest in the kung fu arts arts of Tai Chi Chuan and Pa Kua Chang and Pan Gai Noon. What's not funny is how you can harm the body as you cross engineer certain movements.
The first notion I developed was that of exploding energy. That's the easiest type of energy to find, and it pops up through all arts quickly, and I found it in Karate. Unfortunately, I found that at a certain point it was causing me severe head pain; I was suffering whiplash from the energy I was exploding through my structure.
Normally, people not studying the eastern disciplines for enough time, people won't suffer this. But if you are a long time student then you will tend to get a little out of your body, and that's when energy starts to be dangerous. My solution to this problem was simply to hit softer, and put more intention in the strike; do less motion and energy and intend more, that's the heart of the matter, and this is a result of developing willpower.
I learned coiling energy after I learned exploding, and through my study of Tai Chi Chuan. Quickly, I realized that I could use this power in other arts, especially Pa Kua Chang. The long stances and the length of time it took to do a technique, however, kept the power from doing me damage.
And, I found that Karate was similarly long in stance, and didn't force too much power through the frame. Where I got in trouble was with Pan Gai Noon. The stances are short, hourglass stances, and you explode, and then twist, the power up the frame.
The power comes out like a freight train, and the body just can't handle it. It took a couple of months, but I started having weird tingles in my body, and my back started hurting. I knew intuitively what was happening.
Corkscrewing the power through my hourglass stances was moving bones out of alignment. Again, the solution was not insurmountable. All I had to do was back off on the energy and lessen the snap and pop. The result was a more mental approach to the martial arts techniques.
It's funny how we all seek power, want more and more power. Greedy gluttons that we are, we don't realize that true power comes not from the magnitude of energy, but from the sensitivity to space within. To create true power, and to make it past the dangers imposed by the finiteness of our bodies, we need to create more space, before and after our martial arts movements, and within our tempered bodies, and that is how you avoid the problems of coiling power in Tai Chi Chuan, Pa Kua Chang, and Pan Gai Noon.
The first notion I developed was that of exploding energy. That's the easiest type of energy to find, and it pops up through all arts quickly, and I found it in Karate. Unfortunately, I found that at a certain point it was causing me severe head pain; I was suffering whiplash from the energy I was exploding through my structure.
Normally, people not studying the eastern disciplines for enough time, people won't suffer this. But if you are a long time student then you will tend to get a little out of your body, and that's when energy starts to be dangerous. My solution to this problem was simply to hit softer, and put more intention in the strike; do less motion and energy and intend more, that's the heart of the matter, and this is a result of developing willpower.
I learned coiling energy after I learned exploding, and through my study of Tai Chi Chuan. Quickly, I realized that I could use this power in other arts, especially Pa Kua Chang. The long stances and the length of time it took to do a technique, however, kept the power from doing me damage.
And, I found that Karate was similarly long in stance, and didn't force too much power through the frame. Where I got in trouble was with Pan Gai Noon. The stances are short, hourglass stances, and you explode, and then twist, the power up the frame.
The power comes out like a freight train, and the body just can't handle it. It took a couple of months, but I started having weird tingles in my body, and my back started hurting. I knew intuitively what was happening.
Corkscrewing the power through my hourglass stances was moving bones out of alignment. Again, the solution was not insurmountable. All I had to do was back off on the energy and lessen the snap and pop. The result was a more mental approach to the martial arts techniques.
It's funny how we all seek power, want more and more power. Greedy gluttons that we are, we don't realize that true power comes not from the magnitude of energy, but from the sensitivity to space within. To create true power, and to make it past the dangers imposed by the finiteness of our bodies, we need to create more space, before and after our martial arts movements, and within our tempered bodies, and that is how you avoid the problems of coiling power in Tai Chi Chuan, Pa Kua Chang, and Pan Gai Noon.
About the Author:
Learn more about Coiling Power, and other types of energy manipulation, in arts such as Tai Chi Chuan, Pa Kua Chang, Pan Gai Noon. Head over to Monster Martial Arts. Pick up a free martial arts book on the home page.