Internal and External Martial Arts – Bogus Idea!
Martial arts are typically categorized into two broad categories, internal and external. Usually it is said that the external arts use muscle force and the internal arts use chi as the source of power. Now all this implies that a human body is designed to move in either of two different ways. That is simply not true! Your body has only one very precise design and it is either used according to design or not. There is no option.
At best only one of the categories of martial arts uses correct movement, and the other simply does not and should therefore be abandoned. Maybe they are both wrong, but for sure, they can not both be right.
For the present discussion, forget about your flesh and consider your bones. The tai chi classics tell us that the power in kung fu is in the bones and joints. Consider your skeleton. It is a series of bones strung together by joints. The classics tell us, “your body is strung together like a string of pearls”. They also say that, “when one part moves, it all moves”. The pearls are your joints. The old masters counted nine joints. If any one joint is moved it should cause the adjacent joints to likewise move.
The classics speak of nine pearls, or joints. The middle one is located between your 2nd and 3rd lumbar vertebrae. That is where your diaphragm (for breathing) is attached. The Chinese call this joint “The Gate of Life”, an appropriate name considering that is precisely where your diaphragm attaches. Now if that joint moves, which it does with each breath, then, as we have seen above, the joint above (clavical/sternum joint) and below (sacroiliac joint) it will in turn move. But if your clavical/sternum joint moves, then the next one (shoulder) likewise moves. After your shoulder moves, your elbow would move and finally your hand. A similar sequence would move from your center (Gate of Life) downward, ie. hip, knee and finally ankle would move in turn. This, I believe, is a precise definition of chi (movement) flow. No imagination needed. Just learn to move correctly in the real, tangible world.
A bull whip has no mechanism to move itself. It relies totally on the flick of your wrist. The nature of the whip, it’s design, simply transfers, and amplifies, that small force out to the tip. It doesn’t try to add anything of it’s own. Your body should be the same way. Instead of flicking your wrist, flick your center and then let your bones transfer that force to your hands and feet. If you try to use muscles it will only serve to prevent one or more or your joints from reacting naturally, a chi (movement) blockage.
Call it internal, external or banana, that is the one way a human body moves. And not just for kung fu, but for any movement. Indeed, that which separates a professional athlete from an amateur is that the pro understands the intrinsic power of the center and they do not try to add anything to it once the center is moved. They just let that force travel, unhindered from one joint to the next until the baseball leaves on it’s journey to the plate, the golf club connects with the ball, or the racket hits the ball over the net. Everything works this way.
Whenever you read or hear the word “chi”, just think move, movement or moving. It will make a whole lot more sense than the usual description of chi.
