One of the biggest pieces of the IMA puzzle that I was missing in the past was the need for sensitivity training. Most people, East or West but especially us Westerners, are caught up in a quest for power. As I’ve alluded to in numerous postings over the past months, we use various external things as signs of progress despite the fact that most of those things don’t allow us to see actual progress in an IMA paradigm.
So what does?
Many people have heard the cliche of four onces defeating a thousand pounds (or is that deflecting? Depends on who you ask.). But what is at the root of such an ability?
Sensitivity.
IMO this is one of the things that many of us are missing in our training and that’s why we keep training the external part of the IMA paradigm and use those measures to judge progress.
Power and sensitivity training aren’t the same. They are opposites in many ways, yet both are needed. Unfortunately, sensitivity often proves to be the most elusive. Yet without it, I just don’t see how we can claim to be doing IMA.
Look back at the taiji ball post I made recently. The real difference between the two ball practices isn’t just about range of motion, etc., that I mentioned in the post. It’s a difference between power and sensitivity training. Notice that Chen Qing-zhou breaks contact with the ball. Tactile skills are NOT being emphasized in that training. The weight of the ball seems most important.
But notice how the other guy, Shi Xiao-ming 史晓明 (who I wrote about here), uses the ball to train his sensitivity. The contact is constant because he uses the ball to condition his tactile skills. The movement is unbroken no matter where the ball is. He has to listen, adhere and follow in order to work the ball that way.
I think the importance of listening, adhering, and following are well known. And yet, it’s sensitivity that allows those qualities to bloom, not power.
Tomorrow I’ll talk about why most of us miss this training.
13 responses so far ↓
1 David // Feb 23, 2008 at 2:12 am
I agree, sensitivity is a huge part if the internal arts. In relation to Taiji, since it is based from Taoist philosophy and the theory of balance between Yin and Yang, sensitivity is the yin aspect of training. A very profound idea told to me by my teacher is that Taiji is really about learning to relate and work with reality the way it is rather than the way we wish or hope it to be. Our training in Taiji allows our awareness of this reality to increase, thereby, making it seem as though we are becoming more sensitive, more internal, more powerful, etc. The reality is that we just are… take gravity, it works the same whether you are aware of it’s force or not, but bringing your awareness to the reality of gravity and it’s effects on the body allows us to relate to it to gain power, speed, relaxation, etc. Taiji is our reality, we train to regain this awareness.
2 wayne hansen // Feb 23, 2008 at 6:07 am
when i first met my teacher he would prod and pull,move my legs with his knees,drag my foot with his and generally manhandle me into the correct position.
i kept wishing he would just let me do the moves by myself,however i persisted because he was the best i had seen.
little did i know he was passing on both yeilding and sensitivity to me which over time developed power.
the internal arts are passed from hand to hand.
the exact way your teacher touches you will be passed on,his sensitivity becomes yours .
this is what is wrong with the current trend in bash and barge pushing hands.
if you want to learn that type of energy play rugby they are much better at it(especially since they all got wrestling and bjj coaches,and spend hours weekly training that way)
so relise that each time a real teacher practices with you he is pushing his skill into your body.
3 Uchi Deshi // Feb 23, 2008 at 7:27 am
The hardest thing in Aikido is giving up strength and learning to trust the power of being connected - senstivity!
4 Pete // Feb 23, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Is there anywhere in Taiwan where people can do full-contact (leitai) fighting using the internal arts?
As “BlackTaoist” (pseudonym on Youtube for Sifu Rudy Curry and others in NYC) has stated: “the truth comes out in the fight.” It seems to me, that we will never know whether we are really building real-fighting ability in the internal martial arts without full-contact fighting to test it out. Otherwise, how do we ensure that we aren’t just “role-playing”?
Replies welcome: peterhimmelreich@hotmail.com
5 Pete // Feb 23, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Also, isn’t the testing of “ability” in full-contact fighting (leitai rules) necessary if we are to be logically consistent w/David’s (above) thesis that authentic Taiji teaches us to deal with “reality as it is” and not just our thoughts/imaginings of it?
6 Kenneth Fish // Feb 25, 2008 at 10:13 am
Sensitivity (in terms of sense of touch and whole body sensitivity to ones own and ones opponents movement) is what separates Chinese striking arts from Karate. My first exposure to this was with Henry Leung, my Wing Chun teacher - he did not require touch to be extremely attuned to your movement, and when there was contact (any contact, whether with arms or a block or side of the body) he was immediately in control of your movement. The control was not by overwhelming force, but by redirection of your movement and even shifting of your weight. All of it was feather light - with the exception of the bone rattling strikes. Later I learned Taiji and other arts from Mrs. Zhu Suyi - he push hands were incredible - light, yet with this subtle coiling that was constantly unbalancing and redirecting you. She would use her entire side of her body to contact and sometimes act as a third hand for chin na - at a little under five feet tall she was frighteningly sensitive and powerful.
7 Kenneth Fish // Feb 25, 2008 at 11:49 am
Pete: “Internal” fighters have fared ok in some tournaments - Luo Dexiu for one, and before him Yu Wentong did well not only in the Taiwan tournament scene but in the South East Asia tournaments as well. I think he came in first in his weight class, the same year as Chen Kuantai (the student of Chen Hsiouchung of Taisheng Pikua) took the S.E. Asia crown. It depends on what you train for - I think very few Taiji players train for full contact tournaments. Chneg Tianhsiung (Taiji) in H.K. participated in several tournaments and did well, and he trained some students to do likewise.
8 Pete // Feb 26, 2008 at 7:59 am
Thanks, Kenneth Fish!
I am interested in training in internal martial arts both to learn qigong/internal ability, and to learn to fight in a real fight and full-contact tournaments–Anyone who has info on teachers of internal martial arts who train their students for full-contact tournaments would be greatly appreciated: peterhimmelreich@hotmail.com
9 Joseph T. Oliva Arriola // Feb 26, 2008 at 9:14 am
Blend, grasp, manipulate…to internal striking
Each of the above demands the honing of one’s sensitivity. Unfortunately, we all start in the middle of the sensitivity/insensitivity spectrum. In other words, how do you know true happiness when you have led an average life.
The greater my vision the more I can see, the better my hearing the more I here. The more I can feel the direction of my dance partner, the better I can lead her in the direction she wants to go.
Yet, you can’t really know these things without the confirmation of others who have already known them. As such, the great tai chi masters had a simple parameter…”can I beat him with little effort.”
Sincerely
Joseph T. Oliva Arriola
10 taijiquestion // Feb 26, 2008 at 10:26 am
There are constant reminders to folks learning push-hands, to “invest in loss”, “learn yielding”, “let yourself be pushed out (or even pushed over) for as long as it takes until you can neutralize without resisting”; don’t insist on winning, you’ll never learn taiji”… etc. etc.
And seemingly these constant reminders are needed, since there are many reasons we react — through conditioning, through instinct, for ego — to “protect ourselves” rather than yield.
But many people come up through MA schools where the contact training is decidedly less “gentle” than garden-variety Push Hands. It’s all about the rough stuff, even if your teacher and mates don’t go out of their way to let beginners “taste the force”, there’s still the built-in atmosphere of: here’s how to hurt, here’s how to avoid being hurt. Sensitivity and internal acuity just don’t seem germaine… if anything, it’s about DE-sensitizing oneself in various ways, the same way a soldier needs to do to prepare for real combat.
I don’t know if I’m making my point clearly but… if it’s difficult to train sensitive responses (as opposed to “power-based” methods) in the comparatively gentle scenario of average push-hands training, how likely is the MA/IMA student to get serious, effective sensitivity training, esp. if the class or school IS trying to “teach combat skills”?
11 Dave Chesser // Feb 26, 2008 at 11:08 am
“how likely is the MA/IMA student to get serious, effective sensitivity training, esp. if the class or school IS trying to ‘teach combat skills’?”
Good question. the answer points to another clear difference between an internal and an external art.
External arts seek to de-sensitize you. Internal ones sensitize the student.
12 wayne hansen // Feb 26, 2008 at 2:49 pm
hung i hsiang told r w smith that a student should be stung often and hurt occasionally.
however this comes intertwined with training in sensetivity in a balanced regime of study.
with regard to training an army they dont shoot the members to make them ready for combat,it is all about men with combat expierence passing on knowledge to others in as real an atmosphere as possible.
as for full contact fighting being real that would only apply if one contestant did not leave the ring and if cotact fighters had never lost outside the ring.
i had the pleasure of knowing the great freddy iles in his latter years.he had over 300 fights on the street undefeated and beat 8 australian boxing champions.he was nevber over 11 stone and beat heavyweights.
look to people like antonio illustrisimo and his student tony diego who proved it in real life situations without a great deal of tournament training.
13 Joseph T. Oliva Arriola // Feb 26, 2008 at 11:20 pm
compliance, compliance, compliance
Well, of course. Those who can’t see, those who are intrigued with the herd of MMA, always scream, “this is fake, this would never work in a real fight.”
“The student is being compliant!” they continue.
Well of course, the teacher through a refined sentivitity is 3 steps of ahead of his student, by anticipating his movements (e.g. connectivity to ascertain direction and extension of self to calculate space). Added to the reinforcement of pain…the student is taught to be compliant.
The issue is whether the teacher can use his refined sensitivity in actual combat against “others”. The answer is yes.
Leave a Comment