Fa Jin (發勁) in Tai Chi refers to an energy discharge and the more you study, the more you find.

It’s cultivated in layers from meditation to standing exercises, to martial qigong exercises, to tai chi form, push hands, springing hands and weaponry. There is no short cut as it’s a combination of every skill we learn in the art.

The problem with social media is that it’s dumbed right down into ‘body whipping’ or people hopping around like demented frogs when in fact it’s much, much more and has an incredible amount of depth. My teachers referred to it as more of a ‘pin ball’ in a pinball machine.

It has a scale of use from one to a million or more, it can be soft, subtle, or strong and powerful. It can be a gentle or hard push, twist or pull to disrupt, it can be a strike, poke, stab, slash, bump or butt. A strike can be like a whip, an iron bar or a knife.

To be skilful and effective it has to come from a directional pulse from the feet, be manipulated by the waist and discharged at the extremity of the technique. The energy is stimulated by intent, stored in the tissues by stretching, twisting or compression, then released to travel through loose tissue and joints to be discharged into the opponent.

The real skill is in the subtlety and making it fit for purpose using just the right amount and type of energy to be effective. It’s not usually the ‘blunt’ instrument shown in social media videos.

Like all ‘magic’ it’s a trick, a skill that requires in depth knowledge and a lot of practice in the areas outlined above. It’s used in all good martial arts at a high level even if it’s not called ‘fa jin’.

By Steve Rowe