Tag: martial arts
Train Your Energy!
You could just replace the word ‘chi’ or ‘ki’ with ‘energy’. Our ability to stimulate it with emotion, store, release and discharge it is our skill in martial arts. Awareness brightens it, sensitivity connects our mind to it, we need to focus to harmonise the different ways it manifests in our body, bring it together and be able to move it. Intelligent emotional intensity empowers and guards it. We do all these things anyway as it’s a part of being alive. We do it badly unless we train it and become skilful. This is why we need to meditate, exercise … Continue reading Train Your Energy!
Tai Chi Is Like Any Other Martial Art
Tai Chi is just another martial art. Like all martial arts it relies on: HealthPostureBreathingBalanceMindfulnessEmotional intelligenceDisciplineA balance of internal and externalA connected bodySmooth movementTechnical skillsSpeedCoordinationPhysicsStrengthFlexibilityTime + effortA good coachStrategyA healthy philosophy toward life These are the basic requirements of all martial arts, tai chi is probably closer to judo than any other art but they are all connected by the above. It’s got its fair share of weirdos but that’s all they are, put them into an environment where they have to have their skills scrutinised and they’ll fail. There are no ‘secrets’ these days, but like any skill it … Continue reading Tai Chi Is Like Any Other Martial Art
Training With A Full Bladder
“You should train with a full bladder”. This was advice from my teacher. It took me a while to understand. The pubococcygeus muscle controls the urinary flow and coccyx and is the lower bridge between the governor and conception vessels promoting the flow of chi. But it doesn’t act alone. The spiralling of the feet to the floor opens the hips and raises the pelvic floor the tightening of the PC muscle in this movement bows the bottom part of the spine helping to connect the 3 bows of the body (legs, spine and arms) connecting, stimulating, storing and releasing … Continue reading Training With A Full Bladder
NTKO’s & Woo Woo
So much martial arts media is taken up on either ridiculing or supporting these subjects. Many of the originators came from a good martial arts background including karate, tai chi, systema and the military. Although I have a deep background in philosophy, Buddhism, Taoism and other systems, I also have a strong background in the fighting arts and the security and law enforcement fields. So I tend to have a very practical outlook. In tai chi we extensively use techniques to block neurology, blood, oxygen and lymphatic systems, we press, poke, strike, and rub cavities, shorten tendons, muscles and fascia … Continue reading NTKO’s & Woo Woo
Personal Alchemy
We need to work on our entire being in our martial studies. We have to educate, discipline and train our fear, anger and desires to be able to listen to and rely on our instincts and ‘gut feelings’. This becomes our driver and is how we become who and what we are meant to be rather than being manipulated by others and our own ignorance. Martial arts is a personal alchemy where we become a strong individual forging our own path and taking responsibility for our own development and studies. The ball is firmly in our court. Continue reading Personal Alchemy
Posting On Social Media
What you post on social media as a martial artist is importantYou should be genuineBy reading or watching what you postGives you the opportunity to be objectiveAnd learn about yourselfIf you put others down, even surreptitiouslyYou only demean yourselfWe often do it without realisingInsulting people followed by a complimentIs a double insult and most people know thisTelling people what ‘not’ to doOr that something is wrongIs insulting those that do itWhy not be positiveAnd put out there what you doAnd let others judgeWhat’s good or badWhat’s right or wrongThe only time you should look down on someoneIs to give them … Continue reading Posting On Social Media
The Enemies Of The Mind
The mind has 2 enemies. Apathy and distraction. There are people that appear to be doing perfect meditation, standing practice and slow tai chi but are in fact faking it by using one of these two enemies of a mindful state. I used to look at these people in awe, not realising that they were ‘mindless’ instead of ‘mindful’, that there was nothing positive going on inside that unfocused shell. Some people are naturally lazy and find it easy to be doing nothing by faking meditation but as soon as something ‘rattles their cage’ in life, they go to pieces. … Continue reading The Enemies Of The Mind
Form And Kata
Form can be practiced by anyone of any age or condition on their own without the need of equipment. They have 3 treasures:Health – they are moving yoga improving posture, flexibility, strength, breathing, increasing emotional intelligence,and mindfulness. Skill – techniques are combined to increase skill levels of basics moving multi directionally to long and short turns jumping and dropping. Application – breaking down each technique and applying it on an opponent to make it work. They can also be ‘coloured’ in different ways. Monk – like a moving meditation to reduce negative emotions. Warrior – as you would use the … Continue reading Form And Kata
When Tai Chi Arrives
It took me a long time to get this. In a lesson with Ma Lee Yang we were talking about the differences between mol gik, tai gik and tai chi. Mol gik is the infinite and tai chi movement creating yin and yang and tai gik inbetween the two. I asked if tai gik was the intention to move and Ma Lee said “no it’s when tai chi arrives”. This really troubled me, did it mean that I was to wait for tai chi to arrive? What happens if it didn’t? I realised the idea of ‘you don’t do tai … Continue reading When Tai Chi Arrives
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