It's a good video, reminding us of very basic and very important principles. But if you weren't so confused by all the mystical chinese terminology, you'd notice the advice is: when throwing a punch - be relaxed and "fluid", generate force from your toes, hips and waist, breath out sharply and contract your core muscles at the moment of impact. (I know the guy didn't talk about breathing in this video, but he was working his way up to it.) It's solid body mechanics - which I know you've heard about before. Edit: As for the sound effect when "throwing a ball" around 6:50 - I'm pretty sure his left hand is unintentionally brushing his clothes. You get the same "sound effect" later on.
@@SenseiSeth Try DnD, and you'll learn. And have fun ^^ Honestly, that would be a great mini-series. Get a bunch of martial artists in and play a DnD one-shot
I don't know if this helps, but let's start with your explanation near the 14:30 mark: Pushing into the ground with your legs results in an equal but opposite force going back up the leg, which I'll call the "reactive force", so you're basically correct on that part. This can be enhanced by "dropping your weight" into the floor before the push, since now you're adding most of your mass into that reactive force. However, this usually displays anticipatory movement, so it should either be disguised or disregarded against an opponent who knows what they're doing. That stomping action with the heel is also a way to very suddenly generate a reactive force. Remember that Kinetic Energy = (0.5 * mass) * (velocity^2), so very fast actions using relatively little body mass can still generate a lot of force into the ground for a reactive force. Most of those elements of rooting, mind/body unity, timing and precision are about utilizing a concept known as the "kinetic chain", to transfer as much of that reactive force into a strike as possible. This is something that has to be specifically practiced more than anything, because it's largely based on optimizing what muscles you are and aren't using, in specific sequence. There's not really a shortcut to this, you just have to know what you're trying to do and then keep practicing and improving it. Essentially, this is about using "timed stiffness" to transfer the energy. Kinetic force travels more quickly through stiffer matter. It also loses energy in a shorter distance in stiffer matter, but the distance of your foot to your arm is too short for that to be a major factor. But if your WHOLE body is stiff for the WHOLE transference, the energy will go through every direction of your body. So it's about being loose everywhere EXCEPT the "road" you want the energy to travel down. Spiraling, so far as I've studied it, is more of an additive property of energy than conserving/enhancing. If you sit still in a chair and throw a punch, you'll obviously find it's weaker than if you were standing. But if you pull in your other arm as you "push out" the punching arm, to create that spiraling effect, you can punch a decent bit harder. You can even do this to generate power floating in the pool. If it helps, whenever you hear "spiral", just think "push-and-pull", which will naturally cause rotation if it's done around an axis, like your torso, and that this is a way to either generate or add power to a strike. Lastly, regarding coordination of breath: as far as power goes, this is just about controlling the stiffness of your core, and relates to everything else above. But it's also important to practice coordinated breathing to stay oxygenated while fighting. Breathing patterns develop as specific adaptations to the action you're doing, so doing "cardio sparring" is a good way to "build your gas tank" for a fight. You learn (at least subconsciously) when to inhale, exhale and hold in response to different cues to get the most efficient intake and exhaust of breath (remember, breathing out is just as important as breathing in, if not more so). Lemme know if that's clear as diamond, mud, or anything in between, if you took the time to read it. This goes for anybody, not just Seth. I also entirely acknowledge I could be missing some pieces here, but I'm trying to translate some more mystical/esoteric concepts into material science speak.
Yeah, I think you did a good job of describing these esoteric concepts in a mechanistic way. I think the reason why so many traditional martial concepts are wrapped in esoterica is because the traditions were codified centuries before the physics concepts needed to describe them were conceptualized.
A boxing coach explained to me that telegraphing "sitting" on punches is a mistake, your hips and weight should naturally lower as your feet push more horizontally than upwards, especially with any advancing steps. People say "sitting" because it's a natural instinct to over compensate by pushing upward, so it can help if we mentally accept and even exaggerate how much we sink.
@@MynameisBrianZX I can agree that stepping is a good way to "disguise" the sitting. Or better yet; it's taking advantage of the natural sinking that comes with widening the base to get the same effect. My compliments to your coach.
Two things that helped me with this concept: 1) It's basically like what my old boxing coach would say. You punch relaxed. Your fist is a rock on a rope so you uncoil your body to send it (the rock) into the target. If you watch a good boxer in slow motion everything is relaxed until the moment of impact. 2) Chinese as a language is very different than English. All language is metaphor and conceptually Chinese tackles things holistically while English tries to dissect and break down into detail. Think about it in terms of how people talk about big compound lifts like squats, cleans and snatch. You need to use metaphors like "spreading the floor" or "jump down under the bar" rather than describe each individual muscle contraction. The "energy" is a number of things working together. Not some kind of magic electricity that channels the ley lines from the black blood of the earth into your finger tips.
I spent close to 30 years between worlds-- the language barrier, and how that makes sharing concepts when combined with egos is the largest reason Chinese martial arts haven't been part of the zeitgeist as well as they could have
Small clarification: it's not using "no muscle"; it's using "no extra muscle beyond what you would usually use to move". He's saying you only need a natural efficiency of motion, not more strength. Remember, mass x acceleration = power. All you have to do to hit harder is increase acceleration. Muscles are necessary for that, but body mechanics can supply a lot of acceleration too, and without such a narrow window to get the best effect that would be required by "energizing" your muscles to "push harder".
I have been training Xingyiquan and Taijiquan for over 10 years and have a years long training background in Taekwondo and Karate. I think you understood it pretty well for 1h of training. The thing is understanding and reproducing this stuff takes a long time and you have to develop a feeling for details in your movement no other styles really teach as far as I know. So your frustration and low progress is completely normal. This stuff is very hard to do! That is why these arts are not known for giving you fighting skills in a short time and most of the time people don't bother doing more than forms anyway. So hats off to you for figuring it out so fast! There are 4 core aspects you have to focus on while learning so called internal power/fajin: 1. Relaxation 2. Heaviness (additionally to relaxing, let your weight sink into the ground, be heavy like someone who has passed out, turned completely relaxed and feels now really heavy. Let your shoulders fall, let everything relax, feel heavy and grounded) 3. Structure (body alignment) 4. Focus/Attention (be very attentive and focused on your body when training because it takes a high amount of concentration to feel all that stuff and even more to make constant progress. It is a highly technical training and doesn't work by forcing it. If you are good at it you can back it up with force while sparring all you want but first you need to understand the technique to feel where and how much force you can integrate into the technique without losing speed and power.)
So many people think they can get Kung Fu Fa Jin from training Karate. This stuff takes years of CORRECT training methods that follow principles in all areas that you mention.
This reminds me of a scene in the first episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It's the scene where Zuko is practicing Firebending(which is based on Northern Shaolin Kung Fu)on his ship while his uncle gives instruction. His uncle criticizes his performance saying that "Power in Firebending comes from the breath. Not the muscles. The breath becomes energy in the body. The energy extends past your limbs and becomes fire."
@@christopherbrown6523 yeah but Northern Shaolin (which I've been training for over 15 years) is mostly an external art. Fajin/peng etc is absent from it.
"Muscles in your pants" had me laughing way harder than it should have. I'm not a perfect person, and I'm clearly an immature man-child, but that's probably going to keep me chuckling for the rest of the day, haha.
Seth, you are absolutely right that engaging your muscles slows down the punch. I was taught that in doing faat ging I should be as relaxed as possible, only tensing just before the moment of impact. I've heard it described as resembling a "whip-crack". Your energy does in fact come from the ground -- and the truth is, there's no right answer as to what that "energy" is. Some people think of it as the energy that naturally inhabits the earth (as in eastern geomancy) some think of it as chi, some think of it as purely mechanical kinetic energy. The point is that whatever you have to visualize to succeed, that is what the energy becomes to you. What a great video! I love when you cross the proverbial salt into other styles, particularly my first love, kung fu.
it is mostly momentum generated by rotation of your joints. When your fist (for example) is flying towards opponent, it already has a maximum momentum you could create with a throwing motion, strengthening muscles does not create extra kinetic energy midair, so you are completely right and it is pure physics
The concept of Qi (chi) is very flexible. Everything in existence is Qi at it's broadest definition, and it can be as narrow as the feeling you get when you hear a song you like.
As a muay thai practicioner i just checked he parried that a punch in less than half of a second. Still not so sure about kung fu but that impressed me.
because most of the kung fu guys have not achieved faqing, and a lot of the people that achieved faging have not learned how to fight (lack of fight IQ). Oly recently kicking has been popular. Most styles lacked kick defense and also ground grappler, so they are out of date. A few months sparring with other schools should solve that (I have been training kung fu for 30 years)
As a kung fu guy, I totally understand you being unsure about kung fu. Most of us don't spar. We spend all this time learning some really refined power generation, but never learn how to apply it.
@@brianwatson4119 I feel you, dudes. My teacher and I used to practice with pads, punching bags and wooden dummies but almost no sparring per se, the reason he gave being it could be needlessly dangerous since most of the techniques were hard stuff for self-defense, not the ring. One time i insisted and got a cut lip, so he actually had a point LOL. But, from what i've learned and observed, telegraphed moves in Kung-Fu aren't always a bad thing because many of the techniques we use take interception into account, and can morph into traps or hidden applications on the fly
This is the same principal that boxing coaches teach for punching power (or should teach). My coach always says that your arms should be like whips and your fist like hammers. And you put power into the arm from the ball of your foot, into your hips, your torso, your shoulder and then your fist. Almost no muscles needed, just one natural, relaxed and fast movement.
@@houseofaction The way you phrase that makes no sense. Your average boxer would be someone training at the gym for fitness purposes. I assume you mean average professional boxer, but in that case you're somehow ‘statistically’ comparing the ‘best martial artists’ (however you determine that demographic) to professional athletes that are training constantly, so they're hardly average.
@@houseofaction yes, because most of them don't have the complete training. But there are methods that works for almost anyone! Quit trying to prove that Karate has Kung Fu Fa Jin. If you want fa Jin train Kung Fu, not Karate! Katate much too tense for Chinese Fa Jin. You really think the Chinese gave the Japanese the secrets of Fa Jan?
Hi Sensei Seth, I am sure you get these comments a lot. I wanted to thank you, Because of your channel I just took my first karate lesson. I am looking forwards to starting this journey.
17:24 after you guys talk about chi, he changes the word to 'motion.' instead of energy, I believe it would feel comfortable if it was 'motion' instead. That's basically whats happening. lower body motion to accelerate a strike.
Or a mainspring, that accumulates energy when you wind it and then "explodes" when you let it go. The BASIC idea is, you are basically accumulating power in your lower belly and then let it explode in two directions: into the ground through your legs to make you move/kick and all the way through your arms to make you block/punch.
Lots people do that/make that analogy. Although in a lot of cases it's more about moving from your "center" using your entire body in one movement. (There's many many different concepts/applications when it comes to "internal power"
Yet most Karate punching looks and feels much different. You have to see and feel in person or you won't understand. Can you get Kung Fu Fa Jin from training Karate methods?
I dont know if this helps, but as a practitioner of chinese martial arts, "energy" is literally kinetic energy, or movement. You flex your muscles to rotate your fists, or kick off the ground to generate force through your body to send anywhere (like into a punch or a kick)
This video really opened my eyes to the concept of internal power in Kung Fu. It’s amazing how subtle techniques can create such a big impact. Thanks for sharing this hidden knowledge!
@senseiseth I see this all the time and I'm glad this video came out. Difficult to bridge the gap of gym rats and "energy healers". Hope this helps you understand 1. Energy is gravity. Your bodies flexibility is its potential to allow this energy through its kinetic chains. Thats what Qi Gong, Tai Chi, Wing Chun are supposed to teach - Structure 2. Yes, rooting acquired force from the ground with Newton third law of motion (Whenever one object exerts a force on a second object, the second object exerts an equal and opposite force on the first.) Once acquired it goes up through the pants muscles into the Dan Tian. 3. When you see a quadreped walk they move in opposite directions; left front paw and right rear paw are on floor while the right front paw and left rear paw are in air, then they switch. We walk on our rear paws exclusively so we think this doesn't apply to us so when we train we allow, incorrectly, the force we acquired from the ground to go through muscle. What he's saying is the muscles allow the force to go through the tendons and through the body when moving the structure correctly in a spiraling motion as is natural in quadrepeds. 4. I say this to my massage clients all the time. If you learn to breathe and move correctly to allow the gravitational "energy" through, you can express into the environment. But if you go against the spiraling nature of motion, you get impressed by the environment - fatigue/injury
I'm only a few minutes in so I'm not sure yet how this ends but I heard heard field agents who do clandestine work talk about "Kinetic fighting" which is essentially the expression of "internal power". Fairbairn Sykes was way ahead of his time on this. It's essentially the amalgam of all the components of kinetic movement, focused high and to the right of explosiveness, strength, agility, without compromising accuracy or becoming sloppy. Agents aren't so much trained on specific martial arts, styles, their foundation is how to effectively move their body in a way that maximises the effect of the movement. Myofibrillar hypertrophy is also a great way to build this muscle synapse or training the quickfire response time of the muscle. training movement with heavy resistance bands and then repeating the sets with the resistance band removed. If the western interpretation of Chi was defined scientifically I think it would be defined as the spontaneous coordinated synergy of kinetic force expressed through the body via every component. Respiratory, muscular, nervous system, cognition, If there's any failure in the expression of moment in a bull whip, then it doesn't crack.
"field agents who do clandestine work" - they use guns. Or poison, if they are that clandestine. No one "in the field" is relying on their punching speed. And the mystical art of starting your punch from your toes and waist, and breathing out at the same time is not unheard of in western boxing. It's good body mechanics I'm sure Seth has heard about before. I think the "style" of the message confused him more than anything. Don't get me wrong, it's good to be reminded of the basics and why it's important to be relaxed when throwing a punch. It's great stuff that works.
Do you train the Chinese internals? A good instructor will have you getting down the basics within a month. Adding in the mysticism is only for keeping you there longer. A lot of people drip feed you.
Fairbairn-Sykes wasn't a singular man, it's a style of fighting knife. Named after William Ewart Fairbairn and Eric Anthony Sykes, both British police officers in Shanghai prior to WWII.
A lot of TCMA talks about things in a mystic fashion, but a lot of that just comes from the fact that these old masters didn't really have scientific or technical terms to describe what body mechanics they figured out. It all comes down to body mechanics. I did Xingyi for a few years. A lot of what the internal styles are about is practicing efficient energy transfer and using your core to really generate speed and power. In Xingyi, a lot of the power comes from combining this sort of explosive whip energy, Fajing, that you generate from your core/hips with good structure so that when you incorporate the stepping you are essentially crashing into them with whatever limb you are making contact with. The idea is that you are essentially running them over with your fist, a little bit of a similar idea to a stiff arm in football and then using this whip like energy as both a force multiplier and a source of speed and power in the movement of your limbs. It's not super intuitive, which is where all the standing exercises and Fajing exercises come in. They are designed to help you develop structure and to feel the how your body moves naturally without flexing or forcing with your muscles. It's not that you don't use muscles at all. You had the right idea in that it's more about not letting muscle tension get in the way. Dimitri's ball throwing concept works. Try pitching with just your arm: not a lot of power, then include your waist and hips but keep your biceps and forearm flexed the whole time: the stiffness of your arm basically robs you of all that power you just generated by adding in your hips.
I don't think it's this simple as there are a lot of unique demonstrations out there that showcase skills beyond simple body mechanics, such as chopping chopsticks without anything holding them down, slicing river stones with a finger, and a lot of unique things in older documentaries. None of these feats can be performed by strongmen these days. I think the modern age is filled with arrogance since we assume we can perform greater feats than those of our ancestors merely because we have the advantage through steroids and modern sports science nowadays. Our ancestors were using their limbs 24/7 for crying out loud whereas nowadays we rely more on tools, atrophying our limbs.
Why do so many people think they can get Kung Fu Fa Jin by training Karate techniques? There is a method, and it probably wasn't passed down to your local Karate teacher. If you have Kung Fu Fa Jin from your Karate training, it's probably from the White Crane Kung Fu methods, the secret soul of Karate.
@@kenf333 I think calling it simple is insulting to the masters who developed it. discovering how to move your body and transfer energy in a different and effective way is an amazing feat. Its just that because that knowledge is better understood now and the information is more widely available it seems less mysterious, but think about how amazing it must have seemed when it was first discovered. Sensei Seth is a practiced, lifelong martial artist and he didn't quite understand how Dimitri was doing what he was doing at first. Body mechanics are powerful, they don't need to be mystical. I don't really believe most of those stories about cutting rocks with your fingers; breaking rocks, sure, people can do that today. A lot of those stories were probably made up or exaggerated to increase the reputation of those individuals and their arts. If these things were possible someone would eventually be able to recreate them. I also don't think we are all that different from our ancestors other than the fact that the average person back then was probably more fit than the average person now, but the highest level athletes now are undoubtedly more fit, just look at the Olympics. Olympic records are continually being broken year after year. Also, we can look at less technologically developed societies that exist today to see that. There are tribes in Africa, South America and other places that have been living the same way for thousands of years. There are indeed amazing feats accomplished by these people, Like the Maasai warrior jumping during which they enter a "flow state" but even these amazing feats can be explained. I think chasing after made up powers devalues the true genius of what we can see is clearly effective. Although Xingyi is and internal style which uses the concept of Qi, it was used by the Chinese military in the early 1900s because it was an effective fighting system and could be taught to a large number of people in not a terribly long time. This, to me, implies that it is something real, tangible and teachable and not some magical force.
@@Ninja9JKD Nobody said anything about Karate techniques, but I think any good martial artist will tell you that at the highest level most martial arts come to the same conclusions they just go about it differently. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some Karate schools that did have those ideas passed down from white crane. I'm sure there are also a ton who didn't. I do Chinese martial arts almost exclusively, but I know its fighting, not magic. It can be learned.
The stomp drill is like the movement that traditional shot put throwers (not spinners) generate in the circle before they launch the shot. Also the shortened generation of power in the “one inch” punch.
Also if you're wandering about the sound ...at 7:12- 7:13 you can clearly see he is dropping the other hand over his thighs. It's a trick to learn how to activate the adductor brevis. You're throwing your weight from the gluteus group but also using the very same group for supporting your weight. If you were to transfer the weight and balance on the abductor group between the thighs and use the gluteus to generate the force you'll have a dramatic improvement. Both in mobility and force. That's what the Chinese Taiji guys keep saying “open the kua” 胯. The key are the upper hip muscles. Say the Yang Style form is very long and to be performed with consistent slow speed. The reason is exactly this having the muscles on the waist active along with the abductors for balance and change of movement.
I did Shorin-ryu for about 8 years and one of the first things I had to learn was the same thing you are talking about. It was so hard learning to move my feet, relax my arms, twist my hips and throw my punch at the same time. Once I got it down (about 2 to 3 months) I noticed that I was hitting harder and faster without exhausting myself. Then the fun part was included it in my katas. Honestly watching a bunch of guys learn to use their hips to generate power is one of the funniest thing you will see.
At 6:52 the sound is coming from Dmitri's other hand hitting his leg, so don't worry about getting a whip crack at the end. Whipping is kind of the idea. The big stomp is to generate a wave of reverberation through the skeletal structure. The strike is thrown on the wave of that reverberation. Internal body awareness is key to being able to make use of that vibration. I would expect tensed muscles to absorb that energy, which is why this style emphasizes relaxation. There's nothing deeply mystical about it. It's the kind of force or kinetic energy you would talk about in a physics classroom. It's just coordinated by your awareness from the privileged position of being inside of, and in control of the body.
Relaxed coordinated power using your nervous system is what makes it mystical. You can generate power and circulate it by tensing and releasing appropriately. The how is where it gets complicated.
@@CoachKyleZyou're right. I w been doing Xing Yi for around 15 years and Im still learning the "proper" way to do things. There are always little things to tweak.
@@WhoKilledPiggy Vibrating your skeleton doesn't generate power. The stomp forces you to drive with your rear leg to create the kinetic chain from the floor to your hand so that at the moment of impact, you have a strong structure to drive the punch through the target. Boxers learn the same thing when stepping in to throw a straight right. Lol, vibration energy waves.
@@CoachKyleZ I don’t understand completely, but I know internal body awareness is essential. Jin is the focused awareness or attention. You focus it inside to generate power by coordinating muscles along a wave, or into an opponent to feel their structure, tension, and balance. It’s why continuous contact is so important in some Chinese styles. The most mystical part of it is that with enough practice you can do it intuitively.
Simplified, just turn your waist without turning your hips. Turn the waist left while your head and hips are still and you drive your right leg into the ground with hydraulic force. Hydraulic power is strong, your car stops using hydraulics.
One of The reason people flee Kung fu is the vocabulary: internal power, hidraulic, center line, etc... And the reason muay thai is so popular and easy to learn is becausr their vocab is simple: punch, kick, sweep, elbow, chi, etc.... in fact Bruce Lee did try to simplify the glossary by inventing JKD... Bottom line is most of what you learn in Kung Fu is useless if used to fight
@@johannesstephanusroos4969 Waist, the shoulders/ribcage turns with it since they're attached by the spine. Your waist is the crankshaft of the engine, your hips are the differential that transmit that rotational torque. The sacroiliac joint in your hips transmitts power from the rotation of your waist.
Reminds me of proper boxing technique, where you use the kinetic chain in sequence (heel to hip to torso to shoulder to arm) and snap off a punch. You don't flex anything until impact. Like a flicker jab thrown from your elbow. Stay loose and dance and float. Then rooting is like sitting into your punches.
So much mysticism and B.S. associated with this stuff, it is really nice to people presenting this for what it is; balancing your breathing, movement and intentions. BTW, I'm thinking of the applications in your sumo training and competition.
Yeah so I just finished the video and yeah, you did such an awesome job! I've been practicing internal martial arts for about a year, so obviously I'm not an expert either, but I wouldn't say that anything you said was "wrong" as such. It's just as you said, you get it pretty well for someone that only did a one hour class! Continued practice would help a lot, and yeah, all I can say is that the man I'd recommend talking to is Master Yap Boh Heong. He's a Chinese/Malaysian Master that was taught in a Western environment, so he's very, very good at explaining these traditional Chinese concepts to people like us (American, English, European, whatever). I highly recommend speaking with him.
good video. This type of energy transfer is something I was trained in as a child. I can understand why its difficult to grasp as someone with extensive training in different styles. I was taught that every person has their own unique patterns of movement formed by things like muscle mass, nerves, bone density and reflex. And that whatever style you train in should be molded to fit your unique physiology and rely on your natural movements. A strike should come as a natural impulse. Smooth and fluid. With the muscle only being flexed at the moment of impact. Speed plus precision equals power.
This video is great. Dimitri is very good explaining fa jin. I ve been studying taichi for more than 20 years and even today I go with the westerner approach of trying to solve an equation where 1 + 1 = 2, while for my master 1 + 1 (if done correctly) should amount to infinite because it is not only the arrangement of the body parts (musles, tendons, bones) but also the chi that runs through your blood. The chi is what makes the difference. I thought intention was the key but my master pointed out that in order for intention to exist the mind should be present and intention becomes tension. The idea is to clear your mind in less than a second and yet keep the focus, gather the energy and instantly move that energy from point a (whether it is the tan tien, the knee or the hips) to point b in your opponent. But you should not think about this when you are doing it or the energy will flow slow and ineffective. It is a contained explosion. The crazy thing in the beginning is that after you manage to do it your mind returns and tries to seek for an explanation.. you did it, but do not know how. In tai chi and I presume in any wu shu you have to get used to not explaining much of what you do but FEEL what you are doing and let that be memorize internally. Consider many scenes in Last Samurai where Algren defeats a japanese and do imppresive feats with no mind... a second later his mind returns and everything he did passes as a movie in a second. Basically that is the point to achieve. No mind, only pure present and an alert consciousness guiding it all. I m in no way, shape or form in condition to do these feats but for a couple of punches alone until my mind tries to grab the experience and give it sense but my master is a 75 year old taiwanese woman that shouldn t be able to do the things she does (from a westerner s perspective) so I will keep practicing with her dexterity and youth as a goal because definitely that is what I want to achieve. Crazy thing is that 20 years later I still feel I know nothing and only see the difference when it is my time to teach somebody. When my master told me it was time for me to teach yang style I told her that I didn t know anything to teach and she said teaching was the best way to learning as well because your students will start to reflect your errors and it will be easier to correct them in yourself and reteach the form once you understand what is wrong. Best advice ever. My students were making the form wrong and they were all doing it the same way so definitely it was my mistake, so on every error I manage to see I went back to my master and corrected my mistakes... reteach the form and started to learn more. Maybe that s the path to learn these things. Because practicing these martial arts should go beyond fighting... it s a way of life... it translate to the way you speak, the way you move, the way you deal with situations. You do taichi everywhere. But it is great to learn a martial artist finds it as difficult to understand as any other practitioner. Thanks for sharing.
Its something you can spend years trying to understand on every level: neurokinetic therapy as advanced Qigong, Qi lines & Meridians. Breathwork, muscle integration, embodied practice (the "Pre-heaven" work). You could fool yourself into thinking a punch is just a punch. However 10,000 punches later, through the lens of the previous mode, and a punch is just a punch. When you practice in different ways, you relationship to your method evolves foundationally. Fajin is one potential component of that foundation. All of it is woven together by Qi
I tried Qigong, the 8 pieces of the brocade exercises and golden bell exercises for some time, started out sceptical, but I tell you, whether it was because of I became more sensible to my body, or because I became better at making energy flow, but I definitely felt something.
I really wish I was better at making videos because I have so much to say about this. First of all I love Sensei Seths breakdown of the elements of Fa Jin 发劲 (Rooting, spiraling, breath, mind body unity, timing) really good place to start. So I'm going to use this to answer a few questions with a western engineering language (I am a westerner, who has been practicing chinese ma for 20 years, and an engineer by trade) Rooting: power isn’t so much coming from the ground as it is being supported by the ground. Think like a car jack. Its light and strong, but unable to lift anything if not supported by solid ground. In chinese ma (and most other ma) you must link yourself so force (pressure) gets transmuted down to the ground. In internal chinese ma, we call this Song 松. In power lifting, this is referred to as either anterior power chain, posterior power chain, or stacking the body. This is why teacher Dmitri had you stomp your heel, to connect to the ground. If you stomped with the ball of the foot, there will be an extra "spring" (your ankle) to cushion the root to the ground. Spiraling: Activating the tendons confused me for a long time too. The point is you do not want to have excess tension in the body but you do want to build energy. In mechanics energy is defined as a differential between two mediums. Hot to cold, acid to base, tension to relaxed. That last one is how a bow and arrow work. Interestingly enough, that is a common analogy for how Chinese ma (CMA) generates power. Stretch the body expanding from your center (the dantien) to build the differential, then release it causing the explosion. This can be done in big movements like you see teacher Dmitri do, or the stretch can exist all inside the body and cause the actions you saw in Seths youtube clips. This stretch of tendons occurs through the spiral movements made, first big and clumsy, then small and refined. Seths diagram at 15:15 was a great representation of a benefit of spiral energy (spiral flexion). You use this spiral flex to shoot the cannon (your fist) like a trebuchet. Breath: Using your breath is a great way of guiding this spiral tension and facilitate song. You see Seth's speed and connection increase in the "hot hands" exercises with Dmitri at 13:00. When Seth coordinates his movements with his breath he gets alot smoother and thus faster. I think I've written enough.
Your channel is one of my all time greatest sub, man. Your videos just keep getting better and better! Thank you so much I definitely needed a laugh, today.
Something I found helpful for developing Fan Jin was to think of whipping rather than pushing. Punch your shower curtain, and it barely moves, 50% of the force goes into the curtain, 50% back into your shoulder. Now strike the curtain wirh a more whip like movement, up from your hips, and you'll notice the curtain moves a lot, closer to an 80/20 force distribution. If that's still too abstract, think of whipping someone with a towel vs just swinging a towel into them. Or if you've ever taken a wrist-flick hit to the nuts. Hurts way mkre than it should from the seeming force exerted. You use a corkscrew, spiraling motion that culminates in an explosive snap, with the kinetic force traveling along the muscle/skeletal chain rather that just pushing quickly, with the skeleton aligned. It's a flicking, twisting snap that corkscrews up through you and into your opponent, and explodes into them, either on the surface, or deeper inside of them, depending on the technique, and goal of the strike. I hope that helps explain.
Wing Chun guy here, 15 years a teacher. In our organization we have 4 types of using this kinetic energy, we dont call it necessarily energy because thats a hard concept to grasp, just consider it a physical force and not a spiritual or metaphorical force, it's pure physics. There is upwards force, twisting force, frontwards force and downwards force, we call this the spring (an actual metal spring that compresses and releases, not the season hehe) amd anything twisting are the whip types. You can learn to feel this by projecting force forwards without leaning forward or absorbing force with your legs by contracting into the ground and not falling backwards. When you are able to relax your muscles and maintain only tension using the entire body, you can compress and release, just like a spring, a compressed spring can release all of its stored energy. But to compress you have to get force applied to that spring, because by itself it will not compress or store any energy. That is when you are "pushing against the ground to release the fa jin" as in the video shown. the spring is upwards force, it's you, storing energy, releasing it by straightening yourself out, and that can expresse itself forwards while you stretch and twist or turn, boxers also do this after slipping and doging or absorbing a punch, its not complicated. The downwards force cant be the spring, because when going donw theres nothing to push against, like the floor. All that helps you is gravity, so you want to swing your body and let your extending arm and your arm and fists alignment and weight work like a whip, going down, then gravity will help you, or by twisting you create a sidewaws whip without depending on your muscle strength and will still hit very hard. What makes it complicated for us in chinese martial arts and wing chun most of all, is we want to make these types of energy trasmittal a natural part of how we strike and use our body. That requires a lot of fine movement and fine muscle memory. Once you condition yourself to "feel" how you trasmit and receive this kitetic force, you can use it with purpose. that takes a very long time. Most of wing chun drills aim for this, and you exclusively need a parter to train this, the ways you can learn and train this by yourself are very limited, even with a wooden dummy, because it does not fight back or apply any force for you to direct or store in your spring! Hope this helped at least a bit, there's nothing mystical or spiritual about it, just real world physics, mass times acceleration and release of stored kinetic potential energy and conditioning yourself to feel it at a level that is applyable. =) In almost all of the chinese considerations, internal power is this concept of leting go of accumulated energy without needing to use strength, but here in wing chun specifically, making your body used to being able to release this kind of force takes an especially long time. I think i could show you in a different way that would work better for you to feel it in a short period of time and really understand, its really not that complicated, i think the language barrier with your guest this time made it harder for you to absorb the information he passed onto you. I bet Kevin could also explain this very well too. Now, really being able to use this naturally takes a lifetime, but i can tell you, learning to strike and parry with a relaxed body, without expending energy and getting tired easily is a usefull thing to know for many aspects of life and health and is a skill that wil serve you even after becoming elderly.
Loved seeing this video! Felt like it grounded some of the confusing aspects of this concept and was cool seeing you trying to work out the reasoning throughout the video!
You don’t “figure this stuff out” you can, but the skill has to become habituated through practice. Seth is just figuring out that real, traditional martial arts are really deep.
i Highly recommend the book "fight like a physicist" if you want a more math-y explanation of what is happening here. much of these techniques is about body connection to increase effective mass in you actions thereby increasing power.
Seth, these Chinese terms have existed far longer than the terms that we tie to the physical world today. It's all about linked your body's kinetic chains in the most effective way possible. Force from using the ground to thrust your weight forward as the energy coils in your hips and release through your torso, shoulder and finally connects with a target. I always considered every strike like snapping someone with a wet towel. Nothing should be a battering ram, everything should be viewed through the lense of a coiling and capturing of energy that is released at the most effective momwnt to generate the most force. The diaphragm breathing plays a big part of this. All combat arts have a form of diaphragm engagement as they strike and impact targets.
Yeah some people have a coordinated body to do like a less effective Fa Jin version... but the fact is unless you've trained quite a lot in softer "intertnal" arts like Taijiquan or Systema, then you body is probably too tense to do good Fa Jin. I've met many people who think they are relaxed, but I can easily show them where their body holds tension that they are not aware of. I've never met anyone who had a body capable of real Fa Jin, but did not train specially for it. I'm sure there are exceptions, but it's much easier to learn the proper methods from Master Chen than trying on your own. You can whip your body and easily injury self!
Most martial arts, especially martial spots are based on athletics, their weight distribution is top heavy with their muscles pushing away from the ground, like an upside town triangle. Chinese fundamentals such as post standing change the body so the weight is lower, a right side up triangle weight distribution. This does not happen over night. The body reshapes as muscles relax when holding a properly aligned post. I politely disagree that it's all the same. The fact is that the Chinese developed brilliant methods to change the body structure, but even many who do Kung Fu just know forms and can't fight.. often they don't do post standing either so they will never be good. It's sad but true, and I'm not going to try to water down my words.
In public I show my kindness. Online I wear no mask. I don't even like polite society because everyone wears a mask. Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming was correct, everyone is wearing a mask, and this is why I spend most of my time alone or in a dojo.
You got it Seth. What you say about the punch is actually correct and this is the only martial arts video I have seen where somebody understood and explained it. Really well done and great video 🙏
Most Karateka have bodies that are way too tense to issue the type of force Chinese describe as Fa Jin. I studied Karate for 12 years, that was over a decade ago and I'm still working on making my body more heavy/ less tense so my body transmits the force with less resistance/muscle drag. If you want any tips please message me on Facebook @ Three Schools Gongfu Coming from a Karate background I know what it's like and have the tools to help those to help people better do and understand Chinese martial arts and their power generation methods.
Different technique with similar results if boxing is high level. The most technically skilled boxers in the world have heavy very relaxed muscles, a frame, and a root. Other thing that is often difference is that boxing often relies more on athletics which end up in a higher center of gravity, an upside down triangle... Chinese martial arts have a weight distribution more like a right side up triangle. High level Chinese martial arts the weight is settled into the ground with a lower then average center of gravity, athletic based martial arts are the opposite, with the muscles pushing the body up rather then the muscles relaxing the body into a solid body frame. To get this frame you need to do a lot of post standing... a few post standing tips: Close eyes, clear the mind, set your breathing to relaxed, but full, then relaxed the body like "Ice melting". The muscles should be so relaxed that skin feels like it is falling off your body. Now you're ready to learn Chinese Fa Jin.
thanks for doing this, i'm always happy to see dmitry do what he does. he mentions something in one of kevin's videos about the connecting of lower body parts to upper body parts and crossing with the lower abdomen as the center that would likely help a lot with understanding that methodology of drawing force from the ground. thanks again!
You get a LIKE for that stick figure drawing alone, my friend. If you want some advice in regards to fajing, I suggest looking into the difference between "Soft" Martial Arts ( Wing Chun, Baguazhang, Hapkido & Judo are all examples) & "Hard" Martial Arts (Muay Thai, Karate, Kickboxing & Boxing). Simply put, adding muscles into the mix means more steps, which disrupts the continuous motion that fajing requires. For all Naruto fans out there, fajing is more about Neji Hyuga than Rock Lee.
Sensei Seth!!! Your visual breakdown also works for all of Capoeira's spinning round kicks!!! I had a teacher years ago compare the rotation and structure to a medieval weapon, the morning star. Basically, the handle is your base leg, the chain is your kicking leg and the ball is the heel of the foot. When it's done right, you don't feel like you flexed any muscles, and at the apex of the kick, it does feel like that cannon firing.
You really should look into Chen style Taijiquan. One of (debately THE) first style of Tai Chi, the true "Martial" style of Tai Chi; sadly Yang style stole the spotlight in the west and really watered down and gave TaiChi a bad reputation in my opinion. Chen style is almost completely focused on Fa Jin or "explosive power" which is developed by the silk reeling excersies, where you first learn to create the "Spring" like spiral that generates the force you mentioned via control over your dantian. It was funny when you described it as a canon, since the most advanced form in Chen style is literally called "Canon Fist". Don't feel too bad about not understanding it at first in physcial application, growing up focusing on purely external martial arts it can be very diffiuclt for your body to undertsand the motion. Kindof like someone who lifted weights all their life trying to figure out how to do kettlebell swings for the first time lol it's a whole new way of moving your body in a way that takes a while to get used to. What people don't understand about Tai Chi, traditional kung fu and internal martial arts in general is that it's all basic physics, biomechanical forces and kinetic energy; which is one way to understand "Chi". Incredibly sophistacted, and is why it was so secretly taught, mainly to imperial bodyguards of ancient china. It's just alot of the understanding of those forces have been described as "mystical" in nature by the east and thus not taken very serious by the west, when in actuality, it's just biomehcanics and physics; pure science.
yang style isn't watered down. chen style's fajin is very visually seen while the actual yang style's fajin is more hidden but just as deadly but the yang style form seen and taught nowadays is the form modified and taught to the chinese royalties back then who was interested to learn but could not comprehend fajin and found it too tiring and hard to train thus the yang family modified and taught this form that suited and at the same time not offend the royalties
Hey seth, long time fan, I just won a boxing match this weekend and I've been having fun with learning from it this week. I love so much that you've done this video, I feel like I understood internal power but in a wishy way but this really helped bring it together, thank you so much
Great job, like a lot of guys who follow you I've trained a lot of martial arts and you always have a fun and inspiring mindset that we should all strive to maintain in our training. And traditional kung fu is my main squeeze so I truly appreciate the diligence and fairness you've shown each branch of that tree you've interacted with. You're a credit to your family, teachers, and self.
Great video Seth! I appreciate your open minded approach to exploring martial arts in general, but especially to topics like kung fu and internal power which has become stigmatized, often rightfully so. But there's baby in that bathwater, and I'm glad content creators like you are willing to consider saving the baby :) I think your breakdown in this video was great. I have a few points to add, which you might have already figured out - a large part of the speed is indeed to stay relaxed and not introduce tension in the kinetic chain originating from your feet/hips to your hands. Using muscular force along that chain often acts as brakes or dampeners that will slow down and reduce the force transmitted. Imagine if you attach shock absorbers or weights along a whip and then try to snap it. A whip will only transmit force properly if it's supple along the entire length - another large part of the apparent speed is the hiding of the power source. When you generate force from the shoulder or even upper body, that's often pretty telegraphic if you know what to look for. When you generate force from your lower body, it's harder to see until it's too late, so it seems faster - the term "energy" gets tossed around a lot in "internal power" circles. I wouldn't take it too literally. It's just a way to communicate ideas about sensations in your body in the practice. Practitioners are often told not to use muscular power in their practice, which is correct for the most part. But power is nonetheless generated and transmitted through the body. How? The term "energy" serves as a convenient catch-all explanation - integral body structure also plays a huge role in internal power. You briefly mentioned it when discussed your research, but you guys didn't really cover it in the video. Which is fine; you can't cover everything. But in terms of importance, none of the other stuff will matter without it, and often people new to the concept of fajin will focus too much on speed/relaxation without understanding the structure to make it all even possible. I probably don't have to tell a Sumo guy this though
What I think is the best way of explaining this concept is through snapping your fingers. If you try to male a sound with one hand using your muscles i.e. one hand clapping, it's very difficult to generate much noise. However, when you snap your fingers you are loading up tension on a finger over a slightly longer period of time, and as this force overcomes the friction being provided by your thumb the force releases and is 'powerful' enough to generate a noise. This is the mechanism that xingyi quan is attempting to extrapolate to the whole body and what typifies it as an 'internal' martial art. Just as your finger when you are snapping doesnt visibly move, xingyi practitioners can visibly not look like they are doing anything before the 'release' of a strike.
Your ending description is pretty good. Good enough to start, for sure. Its a different way of moving. It's nothing mystical. Qi isn't The Force. It is a lifetime of study. If you asked Dmitri, he'd probably say he has more to learn, too, and that his understanding has changed and deepened over time. Keep it up. You've opened a very interesting door.
@SenseiSeth it's about compound movements versus isolated movements. Kipping pull ups (where you use your legs and momentum) are usually easier and more explosive than strict pull ups where you use your arms only. There are other things at play here also, like coordinating movements with the breath and thinking about staying loose not rigid. But strip away the mythos and superstition around Chi and these are some of the main principles.
I have very little experience in martial arts, that little bit being in wing chun long time ago, but as a guitarist this makes perfect sense for me. For the physical side of the equation you create energy as you said by rotating your hips and your full body weight. When you take the step and plant your back foot in the ground you act like a lighting rod, but you need two contact points and the second one is achieved by extending your arm and punching it. Another good analogy is that you're using your full body like a whip with the fist being it's tip. Thing is, this only works if the whole body is fully relaxed up until the millisecond you are fully extended and making contact and this the mind and body part of the equation. It requires very good awareness of ones body. Muscles start contracting from the leg, up the thigh, through the abdomen and chest, through the arm ending at the fist like a wave and that is the moment the fist actually contracts. It's similar for playing guitar, piano, drums or any instrument where the fast songs (think metal) require you to have your hands and body fully relaxed, only contracting specific muscles at the right time and using minimal energy. Otherwise it's plain impossible. Hope this helps figuring it out. I'm genuinely curious what kind of power you could achieve from this style of punching compared to your regular punch.
Seth, I may have said it before, but it bears repeating. I *genuinely* appreciate your openness to exploring, discovering, and learning outside of your cultural frameworks. You'll find similar principles about rooting, connectedness of the whole body, fluidity of movement, and unity of mind and body in Tai Chi and in Ki Aikido. I am an old-school Shotokan karateka, but it was through the study of Ki Aikido that I had my first really eye-opening martial arts experiences. It was in that practice that I discovered that I could generate much more power than could be accounted for by my muscular strength, withstand/neutralize the force of someone much larger and stronger than I am, and more. The look on your face when you first *heard* his movement? That was me, nearly 40 years ago. Keep exploring. There is WAY more to discover.
9:52 something i notice, which is probably making the whole thing way harder on yourself, is your breathing. It sounds like you're holding your breath while moving. You can hear a breath in, then the whole movement, then a breath out. It's a lot easier to move your whole body at once if you use your breathing. Breathe out as you begin the movement, and suddenly your body relaxes more instead of tensing, which you understood was a problem, and your whole body gets more coordinated, since you time everything to your breath, instead of trying to time your arms to your legs. You can imagine there being a root movement, and then a delay before all the other things you try to time to the root movement, actually move. If your root movement is your legs moving to take a step, there will be a delay from your step to your arms moving, because you're trying to make your arms react to your legs. If your root movement is your breath instead, just by breathing you start to engage your core and dantian, and if you time your legs and arms to your breath, the delay between your breath and your legs will be the same as the delay between your breath and your arms, which means your arms and your legs will suddenly be timed properly.
Danjeon lies about 2” below the naval inside of the pelvis. The pelvis is the center of our body and an anchor point for many muscles of our body. The areas he was describing and their movement can be described using anatomical movement. Hapkido utilizes this concept as well. I would describe power as a combination of forces. When you can utilize your power (internal) and combine it with your opponent’s (external power) you create a much larger wave of force. Cool video!
Another key to explosive power is Object Permanence. Like in Basketball... When you line up a 3-point shot, you focus on the net - The Target. Forget the ball, forget your arms, the only thing that matters is the Target. It's the same with driving - the car goes where you're looking, whether you're intentionally steering or not. The Target is all that matters. Applying that to Martial Arts, once you have your muscle memory trained, you can forget everything. Forget your stance, forget your arms, forget your forms - just hit the Target. Fist ---> Target. BAM! Right there. In no time. Compare what you're doing at 7:07, where you're overthinking HOW you're throwing your hand, to what Dimitri does at 6:53, where he just DOES IT. No hesitation, just BAM! Nothing but net.
14:13 exactly. Don't "know". FEEL. You use too much mind. Feel. No mind. Relax and let go. Let go of mind. Let go of muscle. Feel ground, and let ground go up to your finger. Jesting aside, keys are: Relax your muscles. Practice slowly and go through the whole kinetic chain. Initiate movement with the lower body. Tense the muscles only as the energy passes through that part of the chain. Relax the muscles once the energy has passed through. Think like you are throwing your limb as a projectile- not just moving. The motion of a whip is the quintessential analogy for this "energy"
You've pretty much got it. The only way I might reframe it for better understanding is to think of it in terms of weight transfer. By activating your lower body, the longer kinetic chains let you apply more force. Jesse Enkamp has a good video about what I am pretty sure you guys are talking about (though there could be something I'm missing) where he studies at the Shaolin Temple. Its mostly about building a stable foundation and being able to be rigid at the moment when impact matters most, but fluid in any other state. I hope that makes sense, just something I thought might help others understand it, and go watch Jesse's videos in the Shaolin Temple, they're great!
This is similar to how my Sensei teaches karate for strike, kicks and blocks. Flexing slows you down far more. He puts it as treating the limb you’re moving almost like a whip. When I first started out I almost end messed up my shoulder doing a rising block because I fixed the muscles. I’m still working on being more loose but it’s going much better now. Great video!
I will explain what he did in 16:56 that you can also see , he wants you to know that if you fully uses the muscle on your arm, it's strong but it didn't use all of your strength in your body, it wasted your lower body's energy, but in the second punch he shows you that is to relax and wait till power comes to his arm, he punches but instead of using full strength, he relax and throw his fist in order to bring energy all the way to his fist, in the last moment, he uses the muscle when it hits, to lock the energy that he brings to his arm (with the momentum), and that is like an explosion (just like the sound that he generated in 6:52 ) on his arm, and "發勁" is like that motion he did .(Most specifically is using strength with technique and directions)
Yes you did explain it well, cause the word 發勁 is what I'd say is a word that explains when/where do you use your power/energy(氣) or how do you generate your energy/power, so if you punch (just like the master did) you see the master doesn't use one specific part of muscle and fully uses the muscle at all, in that way, he can feel and also connect the power/energy that his body generated in that moment (same as Bruce Lee's speech that he said he uses his hips to punch) (my personal explanation is how you use your strength/chi) and for the "丹田" that the master mentioned in the video, you can search it in the internet, I think there is more specific answers, it's because we(as Chinese) also think that "丹田" has so many explanations about it, there's 2 main explanations one is "氣功" other one is "內丹" (which is like a battery inside our body)
For further information of the danten you can search on "太上老君內丹經" (i'd recommend not to search it because it only doesn't really help with Kong Fu, it only trains your chi power or if you are interested to it , ask a friend who fully knows about both Chinese and English to translate it , because you can't translate it in Google) or "內功" (it's more essayer to explain cause it's more modernise)
I will explain what he did in 16:56 that you can also see , he wants you to know that if you fully uses the muscle on your arm, it's strong but it didn't use all of your strength in your body, it wasted your lower body's energy, but in the second punch he shows you that is to relax and wait till power comes to his arm, he punches but instead of using full strength, he relax and throw his fist in order to bring energy all the way to his fist, in the last moment, he uses the muscle when it hits, to lock the energy that he brings to his arm (with the momentum), and that is like an explosion on his arm, and "發勁" is like that motion he did .(Most specifically is using strength with technique and directions)
It reminds me when I first started learning these principles and skills 24 years ago. Some of the most powerful people I have witnessed have very little muscle strength but the torque they generate in very small movements is immense.
It takes a lot more than a session to get it right, so don't be hard on yourself. If you train hard for a year, you'll start to get the idea. Internal power isn't for people in a hurry. I've been at it for years, and there's always a new level of refinement. Youll start feeling good about it and have a breakthrough, and then you'll realize you have so much more to learn. Im heading into about thirty years and still have a long way to go.
Hi Sensei Seth: Great video as usual! You may want to spend some more time with Kevin Lee to discuss how Wing Chun develops the Fa Jin power through the hip rotation while completely relaxing the hands so that the fist accelerates through the target -- a theoretically good wing chun punch feels like a penetrative force versus a pushing force -- not sure if Sifu Francis Fong explained this one in a video, but there was a video in RUclips which explains this concept. The power really comes from the shoulder through the aligned elbow, and the fist simply accelerates through and continues even after the point of impact. In terms of mechanical physics, it's pretty much Newton's second law of motion F = mass x Acceleration. Depending on how you execute the punch, the mass can be the total of your upper body's mass (if you do the hip rotation correctly while punching) times the acceleration of your hip rotation and passing the force through the tip of your fist. By relaxing the muscles and only briefly tensing right at the impact (to allow the force to continue to the target mass and to prevent the blowback force back to your body -- see Newton's third law), you are transferring all the generated energy to a small surface area of your first into the opponent's body mass. When your body is tense, the body's ability to accelerate to its full maximum potential is diminished significantly -- this is very much true in any sports that involve hip rotation and swinging motion like Golf, Tennis, Baseball, and other sports that require some kind of windup and release. The difference is that in fa jin, the windup stage is absolutely compressed into small explosive motions instead of large windup motions. An extremely helpful style for you to watch and learn may be Ba Ji Quan -- the style emphasizes on 100 percent fa jin development, and in fact you may be amazed by their stomping mechanics because they use hard stomps to develop and create the explosiveness of the fa jin. Ba Ji Quan derives some of its techniques from classical chinese spear fighting arts, so the stomping mechanic is by necessity in order to deliver powerful thrusts and parries using the tip of the spear. My only advice in researching Fa Jin is to have a big giant sack of salt because almost everything you learn needs to be taken with a grain of salt -- there is a lot of pseudoscientific and mythical bullshit surrounding the concept of Qi and Fa Jin that get simultaneously taught with the mechanically sound concepts like weight distribution, timing, relaxation, and explosive force generation. In my view, if you see an analog equivalent to the concept in other style of martial arts and/or sports, then it is a mechanically sound concept. If it starts to smell like crouching moron hidden batshit, then it's probably nonsense until proven otherwise. TL;DR: Fa Jin is real -- but there is a lot of bullshit between the mechanically sound principles and the mythical bullshit that comes with the concept of Qi.
Westerners do understand it. It is used for a good tennis swing, a golf swing, or a baseball bat swing. The difference is that in Kung Fu you are accessing this power at all times. It is very physical (and mental). It is not magic. It requires proper body structure to transfer the power from your core (which most people do not use) down your legs and out your arms. In most sports you work on having the proper structure for specific things. For Kung Fu, you have the proper structure at all times. Every movement starts from the core. You must be relaxed - if you are tense, the power cannot travel out your arms or down your legs (blasting off like a rocket ship). You are substituting the power of your large arm and leg muscles with the power of your core, so it may be difficult at first. Using your large muscles in your arms and legs not only slows you down, it robs you of power. Your hips have to be rolled forward (like you are pulling your tail up between your legs) and your shoulders have to be down and slightly curved forward (like you are holding a large ball). The spiraling adds to the power. You should feel like you are a large wash cloth and you are wringing yourself out. This brings in even more of your core muscles. You are basically throwing your fist or foot like it is a ball on a chain. You need to keep your skeleton straight and up, but at the same time drop your muscles to lower your center of gravity.
It's using biomechanics, propulsion from feet, rotation for generating power, synchronizing breath, and a LOT of discipline to understand how that process feels internally(within oneself, not some esoteric thing) in order to refine it, and make that muscle memory. Simple, but not. And always awesome. Loved how this was explained AND how you understood it to define it.
this is fascinating man, you were doing it later in the video, yes. It seems you are on a journey to learn the 'internal' stuff now, it's awesome, because you are showing the world the validity to it after years of ridicule. Tai Chi really does have all this within it, I hope you continue to study some of that stuff. The slow movements are training the mechanics, they can all be executed with fajin once you know how to generate it. You're getting there and it's awesome. It will directly translate to your sumo as well. The whole 'chi' or 'energy' thing isn't important, no one really understands it, but you are doing it correctly. It's a kind of mindfulness, yes, when you say that you're touching on it. It's a mindfulness, an intention and an action as one, something like that. It's really not important or helpful to concentrate on it exactly, and you can never describe it really so there is no point in trying, 'The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name'... it's all that stuff. The point is the intuitive understanding not literal attempt to know it with words. Don't worry about the chi stuff basically or when they say not to use muscles or blah blah blah, fajin is that sudden explosive shake of the body where everything coordinates. You're well on your way to being able to incorporate it into what you know already, you already do it without realising when you operate instinctively at times. But yes, your striking will probably evolve with a new level of speed and different kind of power, as he was demonstrating at the end. That kind of punch he was teaching at the end doesn't break a persons bones or knock them over, its a kind of sudden snap that requires much less effort, doesn't really drain stamina and you can spare using it for hours without becoming tired. It does lack a knock back power, and you can really switch between the hard and soft at any point. I don't know about the so called mystical effects on internal organs and stuff, again I don't believe it is important. it's more that it allows incredible speed, you can really blast through an opponent suddenly and completely overwhelm them, flowing into any position required, but probably not so much 1 hit KO power. That being said, if you catch a vital spot such as the jaw and have the right alignment, for sure it has 1 hit ko power. When you look at KOs in fighting, this is what you see a lot of the time. Think Conor McGregor when he was good. That's where the timing and precision come in. Staying relaxed and mindful allows you to be precise and have good timing. All this being said, trying to use this internal soft stuff for self defence or fighting breaks down at the point where the opponents intensity and strength simply overwhelm you, because you will naturally tense up and revert to using force. Even if you stay relaxed, you might end up losing anyway. DDP just showed this against Adesanya, Adensanya has the flow and timing and DPP looks clumsy, but he is relentless. This is probably the main value of the 'hard' styles because they give you a fall back to rely upon and strengthen the body. I think it's absolutely possible to incorporate the 'internal' stuff though, and I think the very best fighters display it in their movement. You can DEFINITELY apply it to your sumo, both the grappling mechanics in Tai Chi, the fajin for your pushing or strikes, as well as the 'yielding' techniques in tai chi for things like henka or other throws and slips.
I have been watching your channel since covid waiting for a Xing Yi, Baguazhang or Traditional Taiji video on Internal Power pop up here! Xing Yi is very much direct force! You did awesome for your hour of training Sensei Seth! There were a ton of concepts all at once! Please find a Baguazhang master and do a video with them too! Baguazhang is so awesome and spiraling power with awesome throws.
I already watched some videos featuring this gentleman and I had some thoughts on it. Although I am not an educated fighter, here they are: 1.) His fighting style evolved from staff fighting. I play around with staffs occasionaly for fun. Again, not an expert. If you hold the staff in both hands, rotate the hands to create a fast and powerful spin, just concentrate on the motions your hands are doing. If you gave a beginner the task to make the move with staff in hand and without it, he automatically will perform it with more speed and power with the staff in hand, exactly because his focus is not on his body alone. He tensions up of course, so muscles are involved, yet in a different way. What he does is actually repositioning his body with structure, not conventional punching. Yet, if he makes a fist and you are in his way, he will land a punch. The idea is, that his repositioning is so determined, carried by so many joints and relaxed muscles expanding, away from the ground, away from his hip, wavelike, that the power outtake might not be maxed out, yet, when his power and fluidity tense up, where he wants to, it will have an explosive, stunning effect. The weak point in this technique would be an interception of his flow, yet if he is fast enough, he will make this happening unlikely. 2.) More as a side note: this is why accidentely running somebody over might have more effect on bringing someone off balance or on the ground than intentionally trying to knock him over. If you are bowed down to the dishwasher, you turn around fast and determined, because you need to do something (working in a gastronomy job; you are in stress) and somebody is standing close behind you without you being aware of it, watch him get shooked to the core by your impact. In this context it is a training of single-mindedness. I just do my thing... 3.) I guess, its also a mindset thing. Recently I was in the situation of transporting stones in a backpack. I had to walk one way of about 15 minutes with something in between 10-15 kilos on my back, then the same route back without. When the load is lifted from your shoulders, you feel like flying, at least for the first two or three minutes. Every step is light. Why though? If you did not have that backpack on beforehand, your body should be able to perceive the motion you do (for it is just the same) just as less taxing as it does with the experience. I think Chi training is also training in this kind of perception. It is a way of making us aware of the limitations we foolishly put upon ourselves. At least in that regard. In a more mondane way this effective pushing in mindset is more relatable for many: the famous quote of navy seals regarding endurance. "The first time you think, you can`t go on no more, you are actually at 60%." And if you test it out, it holds true. You can still push yourself and by doing so, you will have more remarkable gains, because after trying it out some times, the first time you think you can`t go on no more will make a jump. And you will still be able to go on. Chi in the context of this video is the same thing only focussed on mobility. Moving one body part to another location. And just like in the endurance context, it is about relaxing, convincing yourself you can do it, and by doing so, doing it. Maybe not effortlessly, maybe not concentrated on the motion "punch", but by relying more on other sources of getting your motion done.
Sensei Seth, you are correct in that muscles should not be focused on. Power is generated in the body and released through the arms so you want the arms to be relaxed and an extension of the body. Like a bridge to transmit force. But there are different ways of creating force, which Xingyi mother fist/ 5 elements teach you. The Canon fist shoots power forward driving up from the floor, hips, and through the arms. There is an expansive wave created that shoots forward.
My understanding has always been when they say chi or energy, they really mean your momentum or center of gravity. When I box I can feel my weight shift with my stance and I can use the energy of the shifting weight and transfer that energy into my punch. You want to funnel the momentum of your weight into your punch. Not just your weight, but the tension that you can build up from your feet to your shoulder. So that includes your shifting weight with strong rooted stance, the power added by pushing off your feet, the rotation of your hips, rotation of your abdomen, and the rotation of you shoulders. It should all transfer to the punch simultaneously and ideally the full energy transfer should happen right when your punch hits the target.
Grab a quarterstaff and learn to spin it. Once that thing gets going, if you move wrong it'll loose all of its kinetic energy, and some of that will literally shock you, like electricity can. That moment of shock is what teaches you where you were directing your own kinetic energy wrong. The insight to observe here is that you can generate potential kinetic energy with your whole body, and then pass it off from tendon to tendon and pool it together as you direct it. If you direct it out of your fist, that gives you a punch where follow through is not optional. If some tendons in your body aren't coordinated properly, then they'll sap the kinetic energy as you fight against them to move.
Become like water... fluidity... Try this... Get into a reverse punch/right straight position... with a target... with your fist touching the target... then, you put 1 inch distance from your fist to the target, while maintaining your reverse punch/right straight position... The feel the force coming from the ground connected to your right heel going up your leg until you it reaches your hips, then you join the rotation/spiral movement there then the force goes to your shoulders, traveling to your hand until it reaches you fist. Do it slowly at first... focus on the feeling of the force traveling throughout the kinetic link from the ground up... Do the movement without using your muscles, keep them relaxed.
This is similar to what I was taught in traditional jka shotokan karate, transferring energy from the ground, power coming from rotation and not tensing until point of contact when you are aiming to tense for a split second (kime). I think this is what makes Bruce Lees one inch punch work too.
Wow! A great topic for a video, surely very fascinating to watch! What i know from my own very limited practice and from the TCMA people i was lucky to meet: Jin (jir) is often called "soft power", opposed to just brute muscle power (the way you use your body when you are say lifting) Fa jin is a term for utilizing this power in some movements. There is more than one type of jir. For example, a one-inch punch needs a cun (short) jin. Intersingly, "short" is usually understood in terms of space, but actually it is more about the short amount of time it takes. Every kungfu style usually has its own set of jin's that are used for its technical arsenal. So there are multiple types of explosive movements that power up strikes, kicks, footwork, and body movement. To make your body able to properly perform these jirs, every kugfu style has its own ji ben gong, or basic training. What it usually does is basically disassemble your body, joint by joint, and then get it together in a different way. How good your basics are defies how well you can use the style. Usually, weapon training incorporated into style is also supposed to make your jir fa work as it is supposed to. So, lounching your hand by incorporating your legs and waist is one part of it, but there is a huge amount of stuff going on apart from that. And in some styles, like Xin Yi or Tai Ji, it gets really sophisticated. Like mindfulness is an important part. The relationship between mind, ci energy, willpower, jir etc is also viewed differently from style to style.
You got the linear translation and rotation right. I will try to explain the rest. There are two factors in play, tendons and kinetic linking. Tendons explained literally: Tendons are elastic and if you stretch them they act with a pulling force. So you need them stretched when the joint they move is opening or closing. To stretch the tendon you need to contract the muscle it attaches to. You can do that as you open the joint (ex. Pecs in overhand punch.) or prestretch by tensing both agonist and antagonist muscles which doesn't produce motion. Then you release antagonist and flex agonist. Kinetic chain explained partly literally. Impact is mass times velocity. So to throw a hard punch you either move/extend the whole body as a block which is slow (stiff jab) or the hand only (by the time of impact) very fast (flicker jab). To get to the hand from the foot (which is how you are rooted/ancored to the ground) you need to pass through knee, hip, spine, shoulder blade, shoulder, elbow, wrist (sometimes) joints. So you throw the knee forward very fast and carry that energy to the hip and add to that the tendon elastic energy that was loaded in muscles around the hip, and pass that to spine and add and pass and add and so on you can reach very high speed. Important too understand that you don't care how far each joint moves. They also move in sequence, not really overlapping much. In fact you even pull some joints backwards (knee, hip) after they transfer their energy to help accelerate the next joint in sequence (your body only closes and opens joints, it doesn't really move them unless one bone of said joint is braced against something, straightenig + feet on ground = going up). That is where the knee wiggle helps. TLDR Muscle tension streches tendon which counteracts by adding its shortening to that of the muscle contracting. Move joints fast from ground to hand in sequence with little overlap (like wave on rope), pull joint back after initial forward motion to add speed to next joint (like towel whipsnap, knee wiggle in video). Practice timing and amount of muscle tension so you don't get slack in any joint and or move too many at the same time.
i love that you're covering this. a ton of my training in kung fu was about that "inner power" and it's mired in so much mysticism and religious fervor that it when someone explains it, it sounds like mcdojo stuff.
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When will sensi seth try chen village style new frame cannon fist tai chi ?
It's a good video, reminding us of very basic and very important principles.
But if you weren't so confused by all the mystical chinese terminology, you'd notice the advice is: when throwing a punch - be relaxed and "fluid", generate force from your toes, hips and waist, breath out sharply and contract your core muscles at the moment of impact.
(I know the guy didn't talk about breathing in this video, but he was working his way up to it.)
It's solid body mechanics - which I know you've heard about before.
Edit: As for the sound effect when "throwing a ball" around 6:50 - I'm pretty sure his left hand is unintentionally brushing his clothes. You get the same "sound effect" later on.
DND DO NOT DISTURB
@@MartialArtUKhe wont
@@MartialArtUK I would rather see him do Chen Practical Method.
This entire video is like watching a DnD Fighter taking levels in Monk and realizing the difference between Strength and Dexterity scaling. It’s great
Idk what any of this means but works for me 👍
As a Judo Sensei and a DnD player who almost always plays as Monk, that's a sick reference bro LOL
@@SenseiSeth Try DnD, and you'll learn. And have fun ^^
Honestly, that would be a great mini-series. Get a bunch of martial artists in and play a DnD one-shot
@@KamiRecca i'd love to see that
Here to say seth sgould play dnd. The speres of might rules by drop dead studios is basicall y rules for how to build a mixed martial artist
I don't know if this helps, but let's start with your explanation near the 14:30 mark:
Pushing into the ground with your legs results in an equal but opposite force going back up the leg, which I'll call the "reactive force", so you're basically correct on that part. This can be enhanced by "dropping your weight" into the floor before the push, since now you're adding most of your mass into that reactive force. However, this usually displays anticipatory movement, so it should either be disguised or disregarded against an opponent who knows what they're doing.
That stomping action with the heel is also a way to very suddenly generate a reactive force. Remember that Kinetic Energy = (0.5 * mass) * (velocity^2), so very fast actions using relatively little body mass can still generate a lot of force into the ground for a reactive force.
Most of those elements of rooting, mind/body unity, timing and precision are about utilizing a concept known as the "kinetic chain", to transfer as much of that reactive force into a strike as possible. This is something that has to be specifically practiced more than anything, because it's largely based on optimizing what muscles you are and aren't using, in specific sequence. There's not really a shortcut to this, you just have to know what you're trying to do and then keep practicing and improving it.
Essentially, this is about using "timed stiffness" to transfer the energy. Kinetic force travels more quickly through stiffer matter. It also loses energy in a shorter distance in stiffer matter, but the distance of your foot to your arm is too short for that to be a major factor. But if your WHOLE body is stiff for the WHOLE transference, the energy will go through every direction of your body. So it's about being loose everywhere EXCEPT the "road" you want the energy to travel down.
Spiraling, so far as I've studied it, is more of an additive property of energy than conserving/enhancing. If you sit still in a chair and throw a punch, you'll obviously find it's weaker than if you were standing. But if you pull in your other arm as you "push out" the punching arm, to create that spiraling effect, you can punch a decent bit harder. You can even do this to generate power floating in the pool. If it helps, whenever you hear "spiral", just think "push-and-pull", which will naturally cause rotation if it's done around an axis, like your torso, and that this is a way to either generate or add power to a strike.
Lastly, regarding coordination of breath: as far as power goes, this is just about controlling the stiffness of your core, and relates to everything else above. But it's also important to practice coordinated breathing to stay oxygenated while fighting. Breathing patterns develop as specific adaptations to the action you're doing, so doing "cardio sparring" is a good way to "build your gas tank" for a fight. You learn (at least subconsciously) when to inhale, exhale and hold in response to different cues to get the most efficient intake and exhaust of breath (remember, breathing out is just as important as breathing in, if not more so).
Lemme know if that's clear as diamond, mud, or anything in between, if you took the time to read it. This goes for anybody, not just Seth. I also entirely acknowledge I could be missing some pieces here, but I'm trying to translate some more mystical/esoteric concepts into material science speak.
Yeah, I think you did a good job of describing these esoteric concepts in a mechanistic way. I think the reason why so many traditional martial concepts are wrapped in esoterica is because the traditions were codified centuries before the physics concepts needed to describe them were conceptualized.
I love this
Wow. Great explanation!
A boxing coach explained to me that telegraphing "sitting" on punches is a mistake, your hips and weight should naturally lower as your feet push more horizontally than upwards, especially with any advancing steps. People say "sitting" because it's a natural instinct to over compensate by pushing upward, so it can help if we mentally accept and even exaggerate how much we sink.
@@MynameisBrianZX I can agree that stepping is a good way to "disguise" the sitting. Or better yet; it's taking advantage of the natural sinking that comes with widening the base to get the same effect.
My compliments to your coach.
Two things that helped me with this concept:
1) It's basically like what my old boxing coach would say. You punch relaxed. Your fist is a rock on a rope so you uncoil your body to send it (the rock) into the target. If you watch a good boxer in slow motion everything is relaxed until the moment of impact.
2) Chinese as a language is very different than English. All language is metaphor and conceptually Chinese tackles things holistically while English tries to dissect and break down into detail. Think about it in terms of how people talk about big compound lifts like squats, cleans and snatch. You need to use metaphors like "spreading the floor" or "jump down under the bar" rather than describe each individual muscle contraction. The "energy" is a number of things working together. Not some kind of magic electricity that channels the ley lines from the black blood of the earth into your finger tips.
I spent close to 30 years between worlds-- the language barrier, and how that makes sharing concepts when combined with egos is the largest reason Chinese martial arts haven't been part of the zeitgeist as well as they could have
The energy is chi mixed with refined tendon power. You cannot understand this from western boxing mentality
@@equilibriomartialmind777 Maybe a force gauge ?
@@HuxleysShaggyDog in ancient times the force gauge was killing a horse with 1 strike, or breaking through thick granite blocks, or a pack of bricks
@@equilibriomartialmind777 one of these things is not like the other
Small clarification: it's not using "no muscle"; it's using "no extra muscle beyond what you would usually use to move". He's saying you only need a natural efficiency of motion, not more strength. Remember, mass x acceleration = power. All you have to do to hit harder is increase acceleration. Muscles are necessary for that, but body mechanics can supply a lot of acceleration too, and without such a narrow window to get the best effect that would be required by "energizing" your muscles to "push harder".
This is it right here
Relax Harder.
Look up " A dangerous Tai Chi experiment"
I have been training Xingyiquan and Taijiquan for over 10 years and have a years long training background in Taekwondo and Karate. I think you understood it pretty well for 1h of training. The thing is understanding and reproducing this stuff takes a long time and you have to develop a feeling for details in your movement no other styles really teach as far as I know. So your frustration and low progress is completely normal. This stuff is very hard to do! That is why these arts are not known for giving you fighting skills in a short time and most of the time people don't bother doing more than forms anyway. So hats off to you for figuring it out so fast!
There are 4 core aspects you have to focus on while learning so called internal power/fajin:
1. Relaxation
2. Heaviness (additionally to relaxing, let your weight sink into the ground, be heavy like someone who has passed out, turned completely relaxed and feels now really heavy. Let your shoulders fall, let everything relax, feel heavy and grounded)
3. Structure (body alignment)
4. Focus/Attention (be very attentive and focused on your body when training because it takes a high amount of concentration to feel all that stuff and even more to make constant progress. It is a highly technical training and doesn't work by forcing it. If you are good at it you can back it up with force while sparring all you want but first you need to understand the technique to feel where and how much force you can integrate into the technique without losing speed and power.)
So many people think they can get Kung Fu Fa Jin from training Karate. This stuff takes years of CORRECT training methods that follow principles in all areas that you mention.
don't think. feeeeeel. -bruce lee
This reminds me of a scene in the first episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It's the scene where Zuko is practicing Firebending(which is based on Northern Shaolin Kung Fu)on his ship while his uncle gives instruction. His uncle criticizes his performance saying that "Power in Firebending comes from the breath. Not the muscles. The breath becomes energy in the body. The energy extends past your limbs and becomes fire."
@@christopherbrown6523 yeah but Northern Shaolin (which I've been training for over 15 years) is mostly an external art. Fajin/peng etc is absent from it.
@@arbogast4950 I just said it reminded me of that scene.
@@christopherbrown6523 it absolutely does. I didn't mean to sound like a dick lol sorry.
@@arbogast4950 It's cool.
I’m impressed y’all didn’t argue.
"Muscles in your pants" had me laughing way harder than it should have. I'm not a perfect person, and I'm clearly an immature man-child, but that's probably going to keep me chuckling for the rest of the day, haha.
Your muscle in pants is small
@@skilledharmish Sssssshhhhh! Don't tell my wife! I've convinced her otherwise 🤫
But yes, Seth actually said it correctly. You are using muscles in your pants, but mostly to direct that energy.
My instructor :" balls, you understand ? Okay, heavy. Feel like your balls are made of steel"
😂😂😂
Between waking up to a Sensei Seth video, and UFC 305 later today, this is going to be a beautiful Saturday.
Couldn’t have said it better myself
CJI and ADCC too!!
Real
Seth, you are absolutely right that engaging your muscles slows down the punch. I was taught that in doing faat ging I should be as relaxed as possible, only tensing just before the moment of impact. I've heard it described as resembling a "whip-crack".
Your energy does in fact come from the ground -- and the truth is, there's no right answer as to what that "energy" is. Some people think of it as the energy that naturally inhabits the earth (as in eastern geomancy) some think of it as chi, some think of it as purely mechanical kinetic energy. The point is that whatever you have to visualize to succeed, that is what the energy becomes to you.
What a great video! I love when you cross the proverbial salt into other styles, particularly my first love, kung fu.
the funny thing is that boxers"engage"muscles yet a boxer is actually statistically faster than a traditional martial artist
Look at Conor McGregor, he's loose, but extremely fast and powerful
it is mostly momentum generated by rotation of your joints. When your fist (for example) is flying towards opponent, it already has a maximum momentum you could create with a throwing motion, strengthening muscles does not create extra kinetic energy midair, so you are completely right and it is pure physics
The concept of Qi (chi) is very flexible. Everything in existence is Qi at it's broadest definition, and it can be as narrow as the feeling you get when you hear a song you like.
@@catocall7323 the concept of chi, is a Chinese concept of breath that is it it's simply proper breathing
As a muay thai practicioner i just checked he parried that a punch in less than half of a second. Still not so sure about kung fu but that impressed me.
because most of the kung fu guys have not achieved faqing, and a lot of the people that achieved faging have not learned how to fight (lack of fight IQ). Oly recently kicking has been popular. Most styles lacked kick defense and also ground grappler, so they are out of date. A few months sparring with other schools should solve that
(I have been training kung fu for 30 years)
i do classes and most people telegraph strikes thats why it seems so incredible
As a kung fu guy, I totally understand you being unsure about kung fu. Most of us don't spar. We spend all this time learning some really refined power generation, but never learn how to apply it.
@@brianwatson4119 true AF, but its great for health.
@@brianwatson4119 I feel you, dudes. My teacher and I used to practice with pads, punching bags and wooden dummies but almost no sparring per se, the reason he gave being it could be needlessly dangerous since most of the techniques were hard stuff for self-defense, not the ring. One time i insisted and got a cut lip, so he actually had a point LOL. But, from what i've learned and observed, telegraphed moves in Kung-Fu aren't always a bad thing because many of the techniques we use take interception into account, and can morph into traps or hidden applications on the fly
This is the same principal that boxing coaches teach for punching power (or should teach). My coach always says that your arms should be like whips and your fist like hammers. And you put power into the arm from the ball of your foot, into your hips, your torso, your shoulder and then your fist. Almost no muscles needed, just one natural, relaxed and fast movement.
Whipping power is just one type of Fa Jin. Xingyiquan alone has 5 types.
@@Ninja9JKD yet statistics show that even the best martial artists are not only slower but have weaker punches than your average boxer
@@Ninja9JKD Thats why I specified you should be using your whole body, smartass.
@@houseofaction The way you phrase that makes no sense. Your average boxer would be someone training at the gym for fitness purposes. I assume you mean average professional boxer, but in that case you're somehow ‘statistically’ comparing the ‘best martial artists’ (however you determine that demographic) to professional athletes that are training constantly, so they're hardly average.
@@houseofaction yes, because most of them don't have the complete training. But there are methods that works for almost anyone! Quit trying to prove that Karate has Kung Fu Fa Jin. If you want fa Jin train Kung Fu, not Karate! Katate much too tense for Chinese Fa Jin. You really think the Chinese gave the Japanese the secrets of Fa Jan?
Hi Sensei Seth, I am sure you get these comments a lot. I wanted to thank you, Because of your channel I just took my first karate lesson. I am looking forwards to starting this journey.
17:24 after you guys talk about chi, he changes the word to 'motion.' instead of energy, I believe it would feel comfortable if it was 'motion' instead. That's basically whats happening. lower body motion to accelerate a strike.
He's telling you to use your body to whip. Be flexible, fast, and powerful. Like a whip.
Or a mainspring, that accumulates energy when you wind it and then "explodes" when you let it go. The BASIC idea is, you are basically accumulating power in your lower belly and then let it explode in two directions: into the ground through your legs to make you move/kick and all the way through your arms to make you block/punch.
Or as those rednecks say, "put some ass in it" lol
Lots people do that/make that analogy. Although in a lot of cases it's more about moving from your "center" using your entire body in one movement. (There's many many different concepts/applications when it comes to "internal power"
Yet most Karate punching looks and feels much different. You have to see and feel in person or you won't understand. Can you get Kung Fu Fa Jin from training Karate methods?
Yeah, don't try to strike like a whip. It results in tendon damage to the shoulder which never heals.
I dont know if this helps, but as a practitioner of chinese martial arts, "energy" is literally kinetic energy, or movement. You flex your muscles to rotate your fists, or kick off the ground to generate force through your body to send anywhere (like into a punch or a kick)
Spiritual energy
This video really opened my eyes to the concept of internal power in Kung Fu. It’s amazing how subtle techniques can create such a big impact. Thanks for sharing this hidden knowledge!
@senseiseth
I see this all the time and I'm glad this video came out. Difficult to bridge the gap of gym rats and "energy healers". Hope this helps you understand
1. Energy is gravity. Your bodies flexibility is its potential to allow this energy through its kinetic chains. Thats what Qi Gong, Tai Chi, Wing Chun are supposed to teach - Structure
2. Yes, rooting acquired force from the ground with Newton third law of motion (Whenever one object exerts a force on a second object, the second object exerts an equal and opposite force on the first.) Once acquired it goes up through the pants muscles into the Dan Tian.
3. When you see a quadreped walk they move in opposite directions; left front paw and right rear paw are on floor while the right front paw and left rear paw are in air, then they switch. We walk on our rear paws exclusively so we think this doesn't apply to us so when we train we allow, incorrectly, the force we acquired from the ground to go through muscle. What he's saying is the muscles allow the force to go through the tendons and through the body when moving the structure correctly in a spiraling motion as is natural in quadrepeds.
4. I say this to my massage clients all the time. If you learn to breathe and move correctly to allow the gravitational "energy" through, you can express into the environment. But if you go against the spiraling nature of motion, you get impressed by the environment - fatigue/injury
I'm only a few minutes in so I'm not sure yet how this ends but I heard heard field agents who do clandestine work talk about "Kinetic fighting" which is essentially the expression of "internal power". Fairbairn Sykes was way ahead of his time on this.
It's essentially the amalgam of all the components of kinetic movement, focused high and to the right of explosiveness, strength, agility, without compromising accuracy or becoming sloppy. Agents aren't so much trained on specific martial arts, styles, their foundation is how to effectively move their body in a way that maximises the effect of the movement.
Myofibrillar hypertrophy is also a great way to build this muscle synapse or training the quickfire response time of the muscle. training movement with heavy resistance bands and then repeating the sets with the resistance band removed.
If the western interpretation of Chi was defined scientifically I think it would be defined as the spontaneous coordinated synergy of kinetic force expressed through the body via every component. Respiratory, muscular, nervous system, cognition, If there's any failure in the expression of moment in a bull whip, then it doesn't crack.
"field agents who do clandestine work" - they use guns. Or poison, if they are that clandestine. No one "in the field" is relying on their punching speed.
And the mystical art of starting your punch from your toes and waist, and breathing out at the same time is not unheard of in western boxing.
It's good body mechanics I'm sure Seth has heard about before.
I think the "style" of the message confused him more than anything.
Don't get me wrong, it's good to be reminded of the basics and why it's important to be relaxed when throwing a punch.
It's great stuff that works.
Do you train the Chinese internals? A good instructor will have you getting down the basics within a month. Adding in the mysticism is only for keeping you there longer. A lot of people drip feed you.
Chi is energy. All energy is chi.
Fairbairn-Sykes wasn't a singular man, it's a style of fighting knife. Named after William Ewart Fairbairn and Eric Anthony Sykes, both British police officers in Shanghai prior to WWII.
This is a solid interpretation
A lot of TCMA talks about things in a mystic fashion, but a lot of that just comes from the fact that these old masters didn't really have scientific or technical terms to describe what body mechanics they figured out.
It all comes down to body mechanics. I did Xingyi for a few years. A lot of what the internal styles are about is practicing efficient energy transfer and using your core to really generate speed and power. In Xingyi, a lot of the power comes from combining this sort of explosive whip energy, Fajing, that you generate from your core/hips with good structure so that when you incorporate the stepping you are essentially crashing into them with whatever limb you are making contact with. The idea is that you are essentially running them over with your fist, a little bit of a similar idea to a stiff arm in football and then using this whip like energy as both a force multiplier and a source of speed and power in the movement of your limbs.
It's not super intuitive, which is where all the standing exercises and Fajing exercises come in. They are designed to help you develop structure and to feel the how your body moves naturally without flexing or forcing with your muscles. It's not that you don't use muscles at all. You had the right idea in that it's more about not letting muscle tension get in the way. Dimitri's ball throwing concept works. Try pitching with just your arm: not a lot of power, then include your waist and hips but keep your biceps and forearm flexed the whole time: the stiffness of your arm basically robs you of all that power you just generated by adding in your hips.
I don't think it's this simple as there are a lot of unique demonstrations out there that showcase skills beyond simple body mechanics, such as chopping chopsticks without anything holding them down, slicing river stones with a finger, and a lot of unique things in older documentaries. None of these feats can be performed by strongmen these days. I think the modern age is filled with arrogance since we assume we can perform greater feats than those of our ancestors merely because we have the advantage through steroids and modern sports science nowadays. Our ancestors were using their limbs 24/7 for crying out loud whereas nowadays we rely more on tools, atrophying our limbs.
Why do so many people think they can get Kung Fu Fa Jin by training Karate techniques? There is a method, and it probably wasn't passed down to your local Karate teacher. If you have Kung Fu Fa Jin from your Karate training, it's probably from the White Crane Kung Fu methods, the secret soul of Karate.
@@kenf333 I think calling it simple is insulting to the masters who developed it. discovering how to move your body and transfer energy in a different and effective way is an amazing feat. Its just that because that knowledge is better understood now and the information is more widely available it seems less mysterious, but think about how amazing it must have seemed when it was first discovered. Sensei Seth is a practiced, lifelong martial artist and he didn't quite understand how Dimitri was doing what he was doing at first. Body mechanics are powerful, they don't need to be mystical.
I don't really believe most of those stories about cutting rocks with your fingers; breaking rocks, sure, people can do that today. A lot of those stories were probably made up or exaggerated to increase the reputation of those individuals and their arts. If these things were possible someone would eventually be able to recreate them.
I also don't think we are all that different from our ancestors other than the fact that the average person back then was probably more fit than the average person now, but the highest level athletes now are undoubtedly more fit, just look at the Olympics. Olympic records are continually being broken year after year. Also, we can look at less technologically developed societies that exist today to see that. There are tribes in Africa, South America and other places that have been living the same way for thousands of years. There are indeed amazing feats accomplished by these people, Like the Maasai warrior jumping during which they enter a "flow state" but even these amazing feats can be explained.
I think chasing after made up powers devalues the true genius of what we can see is clearly effective. Although Xingyi is and internal style which uses the concept of Qi, it was used by the Chinese military in the early 1900s because it was an effective fighting system and could be taught to a large number of people in not a terribly long time. This, to me, implies that it is something real, tangible and teachable and not some magical force.
@@Ninja9JKD Nobody said anything about Karate techniques, but I think any good martial artist will tell you that at the highest level most martial arts come to the same conclusions they just go about it differently. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some Karate schools that did have those ideas passed down from white crane. I'm sure there are also a ton who didn't. I do Chinese martial arts almost exclusively, but I know its fighting, not magic. It can be learned.
@@mikee5909 I think what you're describing is more insulting. There are youtube videos of the rock cutting.
The stomp drill is like the movement that traditional shot put throwers (not spinners) generate in the circle before they launch the shot. Also the shortened generation of power in the “one inch” punch.
Also if you're wandering about the sound ...at 7:12- 7:13 you can clearly see he is dropping the other hand over his thighs. It's a trick to learn how to activate the adductor brevis. You're throwing your weight from the gluteus group but also using the very same group for supporting your weight. If you were to transfer the weight and balance on the abductor group between the thighs and use the gluteus to generate the force you'll have a dramatic improvement. Both in mobility and force.
That's what the Chinese Taiji guys keep saying “open the kua” 胯.
The key are the upper hip muscles. Say the Yang Style form is very long and to be performed with consistent slow speed. The reason is exactly this having the muscles on the waist active along with the abductors for balance and change of movement.
I did Shorin-ryu for about 8 years and one of the first things I had to learn was the same thing you are talking about. It was so hard learning to move my feet, relax my arms, twist my hips and throw my punch at the same time. Once I got it down (about 2 to 3 months) I noticed that I was hitting harder and faster without exhausting myself. Then the fun part was included it in my katas. Honestly watching a bunch of guys learn to use their hips to generate power is one of the funniest thing you will see.
At 6:52 the sound is coming from Dmitri's other hand hitting his leg, so don't worry about getting a whip crack at the end. Whipping is kind of the idea. The big stomp is to generate a wave of reverberation through the skeletal structure. The strike is thrown on the wave of that reverberation. Internal body awareness is key to being able to make use of that vibration. I would expect tensed muscles to absorb that energy, which is why this style emphasizes relaxation.
There's nothing deeply mystical about it. It's the kind of force or kinetic energy you would talk about in a physics classroom. It's just coordinated by your awareness from the privileged position of being inside of, and in control of the body.
Relaxed coordinated power using your nervous system is what makes it mystical. You can generate power and circulate it by tensing and releasing appropriately. The how is where it gets complicated.
@@CoachKyleZyou're right. I w been doing Xing Yi for around 15 years and Im still learning the "proper" way to do things. There are always little things to tweak.
@@arbogast4950 exactly.
@@WhoKilledPiggy Vibrating your skeleton doesn't generate power. The stomp forces you to drive with your rear leg to create the kinetic chain from the floor to your hand so that at the moment of impact, you have a strong structure to drive the punch through the target.
Boxers learn the same thing when stepping in to throw a straight right. Lol, vibration energy waves.
@@CoachKyleZ I don’t understand completely, but I know internal body awareness is essential. Jin is the focused awareness or attention. You focus it inside to generate power by coordinating muscles along a wave, or into an opponent to feel their structure, tension, and balance. It’s why continuous contact is so important in some Chinese styles. The most mystical part of it is that with enough practice you can do it intuitively.
I watch all your videos Seth. This was the most useful video to me and my boys personally for strike development. Thanks Sensei!
Simplified, just turn your waist without turning your hips. Turn the waist left while your head and hips are still and you drive your right leg into the ground with hydraulic force. Hydraulic power is strong, your car stops using hydraulics.
Dude, write a commentary on The Tai Chi Classics and send me the Buy it Now link.
Kungfu master over here
Wait, so turn the ribcage/shoulders?
One of The reason people flee Kung fu is the vocabulary: internal power, hidraulic, center line, etc...
And the reason muay thai is so popular and easy to learn is becausr their vocab is simple: punch, kick, sweep, elbow, chi, etc.... in fact Bruce Lee did try to simplify the glossary by inventing JKD...
Bottom line is most of what you learn in Kung Fu is useless if used to fight
@@johannesstephanusroos4969 Waist, the shoulders/ribcage turns with it since they're attached by the spine. Your waist is the crankshaft of the engine, your hips are the differential that transmit that rotational torque. The sacroiliac joint in your hips transmitts power from the rotation of your waist.
Some arts train to make your arm an iron bar. Others train your arm to be like a whip. Great job at showing the differences between the two methods.
Reminds me of proper boxing technique, where you use the kinetic chain in sequence (heel to hip to torso to shoulder to arm) and snap off a punch. You don't flex anything until impact. Like a flicker jab thrown from your elbow. Stay loose and dance and float. Then rooting is like sitting into your punches.
Yep you got it
So much mysticism and B.S. associated with this stuff, it is really nice to people presenting this for what it is; balancing your breathing, movement and intentions. BTW, I'm thinking of the applications in your sumo training and competition.
If you think so then your not smart because I have these skills n I can literally blow your mind with my skills
Yeah so I just finished the video and yeah, you did such an awesome job! I've been practicing internal martial arts for about a year, so obviously I'm not an expert either, but I wouldn't say that anything you said was "wrong" as such. It's just as you said, you get it pretty well for someone that only did a one hour class! Continued practice would help a lot, and yeah, all I can say is that the man I'd recommend talking to is Master Yap Boh Heong. He's a Chinese/Malaysian Master that was taught in a Western environment, so he's very, very good at explaining these traditional Chinese concepts to people like us (American, English, European, whatever). I highly recommend speaking with him.
good video. This type of energy transfer is something I was trained in as a child. I can understand why its difficult to grasp as someone with extensive training in different styles. I was taught that every person has their own unique patterns of movement formed by things like muscle mass, nerves, bone density and reflex. And that whatever style you train in should be molded to fit your unique physiology and rely on your natural movements. A strike should come as a natural impulse. Smooth and fluid. With the muscle only being flexed at the moment of impact. Speed plus precision equals power.
Kinetic Linking
This video is great. Dimitri is very good explaining fa jin. I ve been studying taichi for more than 20 years and even today I go with the westerner approach of trying to solve an equation where 1 + 1 = 2, while for my master 1 + 1 (if done correctly) should amount to infinite because it is not only the arrangement of the body parts (musles, tendons, bones) but also the chi that runs through your blood. The chi is what makes the difference. I thought intention was the key but my master pointed out that in order for intention to exist the mind should be present and intention becomes tension. The idea is to clear your mind in less than a second and yet keep the focus, gather the energy and instantly move that energy from point a (whether it is the tan tien, the knee or the hips) to point b in your opponent. But you should not think about this when you are doing it or the energy will flow slow and ineffective. It is a contained explosion. The crazy thing in the beginning is that after you manage to do it your mind returns and tries to seek for an explanation.. you did it, but do not know how. In tai chi and I presume in any wu shu you have to get used to not explaining much of what you do but FEEL what you are doing and let that be memorize internally.
Consider many scenes in Last Samurai where Algren defeats a japanese and do imppresive feats with no mind... a second later his mind returns and everything he did passes as a movie in a second. Basically that is the point to achieve. No mind, only pure present and an alert consciousness guiding it all.
I m in no way, shape or form in condition to do these feats but for a couple of punches alone until my mind tries to grab the experience and give it sense but my master is a 75 year old taiwanese woman that shouldn t be able to do the things she does (from a westerner s perspective) so I will keep practicing with her dexterity and youth as a goal because definitely that is what I want to achieve. Crazy thing is that 20 years later I still feel I know nothing and only see the difference when it is my time to teach somebody. When my master told me it was time for me to teach yang style I told her that I didn t know anything to teach and she said teaching was the best way to learning as well because your students will start to reflect your errors and it will be easier to correct them in yourself and reteach the form once you understand what is wrong. Best advice ever. My students were making the form wrong and they were all doing it the same way so definitely it was my mistake, so on every error I manage to see I went back to my master and corrected my mistakes... reteach the form and started to learn more. Maybe that s the path to learn these things. Because practicing these martial arts should go beyond fighting... it s a way of life... it translate to the way you speak, the way you move, the way you deal with situations. You do taichi everywhere.
But it is great to learn a martial artist finds it as difficult to understand as any other practitioner. Thanks for sharing.
Its something you can spend years trying to understand on every level: neurokinetic therapy as advanced Qigong, Qi lines & Meridians. Breathwork, muscle integration, embodied practice (the "Pre-heaven" work). You could fool yourself into thinking a punch is just a punch. However 10,000 punches later, through the lens of the previous mode, and a punch is just a punch. When you practice in different ways, you relationship to your method evolves foundationally. Fajin is one potential component of that foundation. All of it is woven together by Qi
I tried Qigong, the 8 pieces of the brocade exercises and golden bell exercises for some time, started out sceptical, but I tell you, whether it was because of I became more sensible to my body, or because I became better at making energy flow, but I definitely felt something.
I really wish I was better at making videos because I have so much to say about this. First of all I love Sensei Seths breakdown of the elements of Fa Jin 发劲 (Rooting, spiraling, breath, mind body unity, timing) really good place to start. So I'm going to use this to answer a few questions with a western engineering language (I am a westerner, who has been practicing chinese ma for 20 years, and an engineer by trade)
Rooting: power isn’t so much coming from the ground as it is being supported by the ground. Think like a car jack. Its light and strong, but unable to lift anything if not supported by solid ground. In chinese ma (and most other ma) you must link yourself so force (pressure) gets transmuted down to the ground. In internal chinese ma, we call this Song 松. In power lifting, this is referred to as either anterior power chain, posterior power chain, or stacking the body. This is why teacher Dmitri had you stomp your heel, to connect to the ground. If you stomped with the ball of the foot, there will be an extra "spring" (your ankle) to cushion the root to the ground.
Spiraling: Activating the tendons confused me for a long time too. The point is you do not want to have excess tension in the body but you do want to build energy. In mechanics energy is defined as a differential between two mediums. Hot to cold, acid to base, tension to relaxed. That last one is how a bow and arrow work. Interestingly enough, that is a common analogy for how Chinese ma (CMA) generates power. Stretch the body expanding from your center (the dantien) to build the differential, then release it causing the explosion. This can be done in big movements like you see teacher Dmitri do, or the stretch can exist all inside the body and cause the actions you saw in Seths youtube clips. This stretch of tendons occurs through the spiral movements made, first big and clumsy, then small and refined. Seths diagram at 15:15 was a great representation of a benefit of spiral energy (spiral flexion). You use this spiral flex to shoot the cannon (your fist) like a trebuchet.
Breath: Using your breath is a great way of guiding this spiral tension and facilitate song. You see Seth's speed and connection increase in the "hot hands" exercises with Dmitri at 13:00. When Seth coordinates his movements with his breath he gets alot smoother and thus faster.
I think I've written enough.
Seth is just collecting martial arts knowledge like Pokemon cards💀
Your channel is one of my all time greatest sub, man. Your videos just keep getting better and better! Thank you so much I definitely needed a laugh, today.
Brother, I am dying for you to check out Yan Shou Gong someday. So curious to see what you'd think about it, now you're looking into TCMA.
Something I found helpful for developing Fan Jin was to think of whipping rather than pushing. Punch your shower curtain, and it barely moves, 50% of the force goes into the curtain, 50% back into your shoulder.
Now strike the curtain wirh a more whip like movement, up from your hips, and you'll notice the curtain moves a lot, closer to an 80/20 force distribution.
If that's still too abstract, think of whipping someone with a towel vs just swinging a towel into them. Or if you've ever taken a wrist-flick hit to the nuts. Hurts way mkre than it should from the seeming force exerted.
You use a corkscrew, spiraling motion that culminates in an explosive snap, with the kinetic force traveling along the muscle/skeletal chain rather that just pushing quickly, with the skeleton aligned.
It's a flicking, twisting snap that corkscrews up through you and into your opponent, and explodes into them, either on the surface, or deeper inside of them, depending on the technique, and goal of the strike.
I hope that helps explain.
Wing Chun guy here, 15 years a teacher. In our organization we have 4 types of using this kinetic energy, we dont call it necessarily energy because thats a hard concept to grasp, just consider it a physical force and not a spiritual or metaphorical force, it's pure physics. There is upwards force, twisting force, frontwards force and downwards force, we call this the spring (an actual metal spring that compresses and releases, not the season hehe) amd anything twisting are the whip types. You can learn to feel this by projecting force forwards without leaning forward or absorbing force with your legs by contracting into the ground and not falling backwards.
When you are able to relax your muscles and maintain only tension using the entire body, you can compress and release, just like a spring, a compressed spring can release all of its stored energy. But to compress you have to get force applied to that spring, because by itself it will not compress or store any energy. That is when you are "pushing against the ground to release the fa jin" as in the video shown. the spring is upwards force, it's you, storing energy, releasing it by straightening yourself out, and that can expresse itself forwards while you stretch and twist or turn, boxers also do this after slipping and doging or absorbing a punch, its not complicated. The downwards force cant be the spring, because when going donw theres nothing to push against, like the floor. All that helps you is gravity, so you want to swing your body and let your extending arm and your arm and fists alignment and weight work like a whip, going down, then gravity will help you, or by twisting you create a sidewaws whip without depending on your muscle strength and will still hit very hard. What makes it complicated for us in chinese martial arts and wing chun most of all, is we want to make these types of energy trasmittal a natural part of how we strike and use our body. That requires a lot of fine movement and fine muscle memory. Once you condition yourself to "feel" how you trasmit and receive this kitetic force, you can use it with purpose. that takes a very long time. Most of wing chun drills aim for this, and you exclusively need a parter to train this, the ways you can learn and train this by yourself are very limited, even with a wooden dummy, because it does not fight back or apply any force for you to direct or store in your spring!
Hope this helped at least a bit, there's nothing mystical or spiritual about it, just real world physics, mass times acceleration and release of stored kinetic potential energy and conditioning yourself to feel it at a level that is applyable. =)
In almost all of the chinese considerations, internal power is this concept of leting go of accumulated energy without needing to use strength, but here in wing chun specifically, making your body used to being able to release this kind of force takes an especially long time. I think i could show you in a different way that would work better for you to feel it in a short period of time and really understand, its really not that complicated, i think the language barrier with your guest this time made it harder for you to absorb the information he passed onto you. I bet Kevin could also explain this very well too. Now, really being able to use this naturally takes a lifetime, but i can tell you, learning to strike and parry with a relaxed body, without expending energy and getting tired easily is a usefull thing to know for many aspects of life and health and is a skill that wil serve you even after becoming elderly.
Loved seeing this video! Felt like it grounded some of the confusing aspects of this concept and was cool seeing you trying to work out the reasoning throughout the video!
You don’t “figure this stuff out” you can, but the skill has to become habituated through practice. Seth is just figuring out that real, traditional martial arts are really deep.
Exactly
You need meditation
@@oasisflame that is funny, what does meditation have to do with Hsing I skill?
i Highly recommend the book "fight like a physicist" if you want a more math-y explanation of what is happening here. much of these techniques is about body connection to increase effective mass in you actions thereby increasing power.
Seth, these Chinese terms have existed far longer than the terms that we tie to the physical world today. It's all about linked your body's kinetic chains in the most effective way possible. Force from using the ground to thrust your weight forward as the energy coils in your hips and release through your torso, shoulder and finally connects with a target. I always considered every strike like snapping someone with a wet towel. Nothing should be a battering ram, everything should be viewed through the lense of a coiling and capturing of energy that is released at the most effective momwnt to generate the most force. The diaphragm breathing plays a big part of this. All combat arts have a form of diaphragm engagement as they strike and impact targets.
Yeah some people have a coordinated body to do like a less effective Fa Jin version... but the fact is unless you've trained quite a lot in softer "intertnal" arts like Taijiquan or Systema, then you body is probably too tense to do good Fa Jin. I've met many people who think they are relaxed, but I can easily show them where their body holds tension that they are not aware of. I've never met anyone who had a body capable of real Fa Jin, but did not train specially for it. I'm sure there are exceptions, but it's much easier to learn the proper methods from Master Chen than trying on your own. You can whip your body and easily injury self!
Most martial arts, especially martial spots are based on athletics, their weight distribution is top heavy with their muscles pushing away from the ground, like an upside town triangle. Chinese fundamentals such as post standing change the body so the weight is lower, a right side up triangle weight distribution. This does not happen over night. The body reshapes as muscles relax when holding a properly aligned post. I politely disagree that it's all the same. The fact is that the Chinese developed brilliant methods to change the body structure, but even many who do Kung Fu just know forms and can't fight.. often they don't do post standing either so they will never be good. It's sad but true, and I'm not going to try to water down my words.
In public I show my kindness. Online I wear no mask. I don't even like polite society because everyone wears a mask. Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming was correct, everyone is wearing a mask, and this is why I spend most of my time alone or in a dojo.
You got it Seth. What you say about the punch is actually correct and this is the only martial arts video I have seen where somebody understood and explained it. Really well done and great video 🙏
Karate has Fajin too! That's the bunkai for that super-exaggerated hip-twerk used when you punch in certain katas!
Karate is kung fu.
And Boxing the Suzy Q Punch
Most Karateka have bodies that are way too tense to issue the type of force Chinese describe as Fa Jin. I studied Karate for 12 years, that was over a decade ago and I'm still working on making my body more heavy/ less tense so my body transmits the force with less resistance/muscle drag. If you want any tips please message me on Facebook @ Three Schools Gongfu
Coming from a Karate background I know what it's like and have the tools to help those to help people better do and understand Chinese martial arts and their power generation methods.
@@DayneMichael No, it is not. Go to a Chen Bing seminar or similar level Kung Fu/Tai Chi people if you want to see real Fa Jin.
Different technique with similar results if boxing is high level. The most technically skilled boxers in the world have heavy very relaxed muscles, a frame, and a root. Other thing that is often difference is that boxing often relies more on athletics which end up in a higher center of gravity, an upside down triangle... Chinese martial arts have a weight distribution more like a right side up triangle. High level Chinese martial arts the weight is settled into the ground with a lower then average center of gravity, athletic based martial arts are the opposite, with the muscles pushing the body up rather then the muscles relaxing the body into a solid body frame. To get this frame you need to do a lot of post standing...
a few post standing tips: Close eyes, clear the mind, set your breathing to relaxed, but full, then relaxed the body like "Ice melting". The muscles should be so relaxed that skin feels like it is falling off your body. Now you're ready to learn Chinese Fa Jin.
thanks for doing this, i'm always happy to see dmitry do what he does. he mentions something in one of kevin's videos about the connecting of lower body parts to upper body parts and crossing with the lower abdomen as the center that would likely help a lot with understanding that methodology of drawing force from the ground. thanks again!
From what I've always underestood, there's two ways of striking : striking hard, tense, or striking like a whip, just tensing at the impact.
You get a LIKE for that stick figure drawing alone, my friend.
If you want some advice in regards to fajing, I suggest looking into the difference between "Soft" Martial Arts ( Wing Chun, Baguazhang, Hapkido & Judo are all examples) & "Hard" Martial Arts (Muay Thai, Karate, Kickboxing & Boxing). Simply put, adding muscles into the mix means more steps, which disrupts the continuous motion that fajing requires. For all Naruto fans out there, fajing is more about Neji Hyuga than Rock Lee.
Deku already mastered this
Sensei Seth!!! Your visual breakdown also works for all of Capoeira's spinning round kicks!!! I had a teacher years ago compare the rotation and structure to a medieval weapon, the morning star. Basically, the handle is your base leg, the chain is your kicking leg and the ball is the heel of the foot. When it's done right, you don't feel like you flexed any muscles, and at the apex of the kick, it does feel like that cannon firing.
You really should look into Chen style Taijiquan. One of (debately THE) first style of Tai Chi, the true "Martial" style of Tai Chi; sadly Yang style stole the spotlight in the west and really watered down and gave TaiChi a bad reputation in my opinion. Chen style is almost completely focused on Fa Jin or "explosive power" which is developed by the silk reeling excersies, where you first learn to create the "Spring" like spiral that generates the force you mentioned via control over your dantian. It was funny when you described it as a canon, since the most advanced form in Chen style is literally called "Canon Fist". Don't feel too bad about not understanding it at first in physcial application, growing up focusing on purely external martial arts it can be very diffiuclt for your body to undertsand the motion. Kindof like someone who lifted weights all their life trying to figure out how to do kettlebell swings for the first time lol it's a whole new way of moving your body in a way that takes a while to get used to.
What people don't understand about Tai Chi, traditional kung fu and internal martial arts in general is that it's all basic physics, biomechanical forces and kinetic energy; which is one way to understand "Chi". Incredibly sophistacted, and is why it was so secretly taught, mainly to imperial bodyguards of ancient china. It's just alot of the understanding of those forces have been described as "mystical" in nature by the east and thus not taken very serious by the west, when in actuality, it's just biomehcanics and physics; pure science.
yang style isn't watered down. chen style's fajin is very visually seen while the actual yang style's fajin is more hidden but just as deadly but the yang style form seen and taught nowadays is the form modified and taught to the chinese royalties back then who was interested to learn but could not comprehend fajin and found it too tiring and hard to train thus the yang family modified and taught this form that suited and at the same time not offend the royalties
Hey seth, long time fan, I just won a boxing match this weekend and I've been having fun with learning from it this week.
I love so much that you've done this video, I feel like I understood internal power but in a wishy way but this really helped bring it together, thank you so much
the sound from the baseball thing at 7:12 is 100% not the throwing hand at all but her other hand hitting his side
Great attempt and honest approach to understand a very obscure but very real skill. Thank you Seth.
Great job, like a lot of guys who follow you I've trained a lot of martial arts and you always have a fun and inspiring mindset that we should all strive to maintain in our training.
And traditional kung fu is my main squeeze so I truly appreciate the diligence and fairness you've shown each branch of that tree you've interacted with.
You're a credit to your family, teachers, and self.
first lol
gay
Nobody gives a shiiii
Your willingness to embrace that which you don't know is beyond commendable. I admire that very much and hope it inspires others.
Kungfu is the art of moving in a way that looks cool. The end
We have different definitions of cool.
Great video Seth! I appreciate your open minded approach to exploring martial arts in general, but especially to topics like kung fu and internal power which has become stigmatized, often rightfully so. But there's baby in that bathwater, and I'm glad content creators like you are willing to consider saving the baby :)
I think your breakdown in this video was great. I have a few points to add, which you might have already figured out
- a large part of the speed is indeed to stay relaxed and not introduce tension in the kinetic chain originating from your feet/hips to your hands. Using muscular force along that chain often acts as brakes or dampeners that will slow down and reduce the force transmitted. Imagine if you attach shock absorbers or weights along a whip and then try to snap it. A whip will only transmit force properly if it's supple along the entire length
- another large part of the apparent speed is the hiding of the power source. When you generate force from the shoulder or even upper body, that's often pretty telegraphic if you know what to look for. When you generate force from your lower body, it's harder to see until it's too late, so it seems faster
- the term "energy" gets tossed around a lot in "internal power" circles. I wouldn't take it too literally. It's just a way to communicate ideas about sensations in your body in the practice. Practitioners are often told not to use muscular power in their practice, which is correct for the most part. But power is nonetheless generated and transmitted through the body. How? The term "energy" serves as a convenient catch-all explanation
- integral body structure also plays a huge role in internal power. You briefly mentioned it when discussed your research, but you guys didn't really cover it in the video. Which is fine; you can't cover everything. But in terms of importance, none of the other stuff will matter without it, and often people new to the concept of fajin will focus too much on speed/relaxation without understanding the structure to make it all even possible. I probably don't have to tell a Sumo guy this though
I just read "ITF" on his board and as a ITF TkD practitioner i cannot wait for that video!
Seth, I really enjoy these deep dives into styles and philosophies in martial arts. Keep doing you dude!
It's like watching Ippo learning how to jab.
I think you did a great job learning and explaining this difficult subject.
Great breakdown of energy usage! I love Dmitriy
What I think is the best way of explaining this concept is through snapping your fingers. If you try to male a sound with one hand using your muscles i.e. one hand clapping, it's very difficult to generate much noise. However, when you snap your fingers you are loading up tension on a finger over a slightly longer period of time, and as this force overcomes the friction being provided by your thumb the force releases and is 'powerful' enough to generate a noise. This is the mechanism that xingyi quan is attempting to extrapolate to the whole body and what typifies it as an 'internal' martial art. Just as your finger when you are snapping doesnt visibly move, xingyi practitioners can visibly not look like they are doing anything before the 'release' of a strike.
Your ending description is pretty good. Good enough to start, for sure. Its a different way of moving. It's nothing mystical. Qi isn't The Force. It is a lifetime of study. If you asked Dmitri, he'd probably say he has more to learn, too, and that his understanding has changed and deepened over time. Keep it up. You've opened a very interesting door.
@SenseiSeth it's about compound movements versus isolated movements. Kipping pull ups (where you use your legs and momentum) are usually easier and more explosive than strict pull ups where you use your arms only. There are other things at play here also, like coordinating movements with the breath and thinking about staying loose not rigid. But strip away the mythos and superstition around Chi and these are some of the main principles.
I have very little experience in martial arts, that little bit being in wing chun long time ago, but as a guitarist this makes perfect sense for me. For the physical side of the equation you create energy as you said by rotating your hips and your full body weight. When you take the step and plant your back foot in the ground you act like a lighting rod, but you need two contact points and the second one is achieved by extending your arm and punching it. Another good analogy is that you're using your full body like a whip with the fist being it's tip. Thing is, this only works if the whole body is fully relaxed up until the millisecond you are fully extended and making contact and this the mind and body part of the equation. It requires very good awareness of ones body.
Muscles start contracting from the leg, up the thigh, through the abdomen and chest, through the arm ending at the fist like a wave and that is the moment the fist actually contracts. It's similar for playing guitar, piano, drums or any instrument where the fast songs (think metal) require you to have your hands and body fully relaxed, only contracting specific muscles at the right time and using minimal energy. Otherwise it's plain impossible. Hope this helps figuring it out. I'm genuinely curious what kind of power you could achieve from this style of punching compared to your regular punch.
More videos with this guy please.
Seth, I may have said it before, but it bears repeating. I *genuinely* appreciate your openness to exploring, discovering, and learning outside of your cultural frameworks. You'll find similar principles about rooting, connectedness of the whole body, fluidity of movement, and unity of mind and body in Tai Chi and in Ki Aikido. I am an old-school Shotokan karateka, but it was through the study of Ki Aikido that I had my first really eye-opening martial arts experiences. It was in that practice that I discovered that I could generate much more power than could be accounted for by my muscular strength, withstand/neutralize the force of someone much larger and stronger than I am, and more. The look on your face when you first *heard* his movement? That was me, nearly 40 years ago. Keep exploring. There is WAY more to discover.
Bless you both for such a clear teaching.
Thanks for your work Seth !
9:52 something i notice, which is probably making the whole thing way harder on yourself, is your breathing. It sounds like you're holding your breath while moving. You can hear a breath in, then the whole movement, then a breath out. It's a lot easier to move your whole body at once if you use your breathing. Breathe out as you begin the movement, and suddenly your body relaxes more instead of tensing, which you understood was a problem, and your whole body gets more coordinated, since you time everything to your breath, instead of trying to time your arms to your legs.
You can imagine there being a root movement, and then a delay before all the other things you try to time to the root movement, actually move. If your root movement is your legs moving to take a step, there will be a delay from your step to your arms moving, because you're trying to make your arms react to your legs. If your root movement is your breath instead, just by breathing you start to engage your core and dantian, and if you time your legs and arms to your breath, the delay between your breath and your legs will be the same as the delay between your breath and your arms, which means your arms and your legs will suddenly be timed properly.
Danjeon lies about 2” below the naval inside of the pelvis. The pelvis is the center of our body and an anchor point for many muscles of our body. The areas he was describing and their movement can be described using anatomical movement. Hapkido utilizes this concept as well. I would describe power as a combination of forces. When you can utilize your power (internal) and combine it with your opponent’s (external power) you create a much larger wave of force. Cool video!
Another key to explosive power is Object Permanence. Like in Basketball...
When you line up a 3-point shot, you focus on the net - The Target. Forget the ball, forget your arms, the only thing that matters is the Target. It's the same with driving - the car goes where you're looking, whether you're intentionally steering or not. The Target is all that matters.
Applying that to Martial Arts, once you have your muscle memory trained, you can forget everything. Forget your stance, forget your arms, forget your forms - just hit the Target. Fist ---> Target. BAM! Right there. In no time.
Compare what you're doing at 7:07, where you're overthinking HOW you're throwing your hand, to what Dimitri does at 6:53, where he just DOES IT. No hesitation, just BAM! Nothing but net.
14:13 exactly. Don't "know". FEEL. You use too much mind. Feel. No mind. Relax and let go. Let go of mind. Let go of muscle. Feel ground, and let ground go up to your finger.
Jesting aside, keys are:
Relax your muscles.
Practice slowly and go through the whole kinetic chain.
Initiate movement with the lower body.
Tense the muscles only as the energy passes through that part of the chain.
Relax the muscles once the energy has passed through.
Think like you are throwing your limb as a projectile- not just moving.
The motion of a whip is the quintessential analogy for this "energy"
You've pretty much got it. The only way I might reframe it for better understanding is to think of it in terms of weight transfer. By activating your lower body, the longer kinetic chains let you apply more force. Jesse Enkamp has a good video about what I am pretty sure you guys are talking about (though there could be something I'm missing) where he studies at the Shaolin Temple. Its mostly about building a stable foundation and being able to be rigid at the moment when impact matters most, but fluid in any other state. I hope that makes sense, just something I thought might help others understand it, and go watch Jesse's videos in the Shaolin Temple, they're great!
This is similar to how my Sensei teaches karate for strike, kicks and blocks. Flexing slows you down far more. He puts it as treating the limb you’re moving almost like a whip. When I first started out I almost end messed up my shoulder doing a rising block because I fixed the muscles. I’m still working on being more loose but it’s going much better now. Great video!
I will explain what he did in 16:56 that you can also see , he wants you to know that if you fully uses the muscle on your arm, it's strong but it didn't use all of your strength in your body, it wasted your lower body's energy, but in the second punch he shows you that is to relax and wait till power comes to his arm, he punches but instead of using full strength, he relax and throw his fist in order to bring energy all the way to his fist, in the last moment, he uses the muscle when it hits, to lock the energy that he brings to his arm (with the momentum), and that is like an explosion (just like the sound that he generated in 6:52 ) on his arm, and "發勁" is like that motion he did .(Most specifically is using strength with technique and directions)
Using strength in the last moment how you lock and transfer the energy to your fist (hope that helps)
And "發勁" is just so simple, it's just when or where /with what technique, what directions you use your power
Yes you did explain it well, cause the word 發勁 is what I'd say is a word that explains when/where do you use your power/energy(氣) or how do you generate your energy/power, so if you punch (just like the master did) you see the master doesn't use one specific part of muscle and fully uses the muscle at all, in that way, he can feel and also connect the power/energy that his body generated in that moment (same as Bruce Lee's speech that he said he uses his hips to punch) (my personal explanation is how you use your strength/chi) and for the "丹田" that the master mentioned in the video, you can search it in the internet, I think there is more specific answers, it's because we(as Chinese) also think that "丹田" has so many explanations about it, there's 2 main explanations one is "氣功" other one is "內丹" (which is like a battery inside our body)
For further information of the danten you can search on "太上老君內丹經" (i'd recommend not to search it because it only doesn't really help with Kong Fu, it only trains your chi power or if you are interested to it , ask a friend who fully knows about both Chinese and English to translate it , because you can't translate it in Google) or "內功" (it's more essayer to explain cause it's more modernise)
I will explain what he did in 16:56 that you can also see , he wants you to know that if you fully uses the muscle on your arm, it's strong but it didn't use all of your strength in your body, it wasted your lower body's energy, but in the second punch he shows you that is to relax and wait till power comes to his arm, he punches but instead of using full strength, he relax and throw his fist in order to bring energy all the way to his fist, in the last moment, he uses the muscle when it hits, to lock the energy that he brings to his arm (with the momentum), and that is like an explosion on his arm, and "發勁" is like that motion he did .(Most specifically is using strength with technique and directions)
It reminds me when I first started learning these principles and skills 24 years ago. Some of the most powerful people I have witnessed have very little muscle strength but the torque they generate in very small movements is immense.
It takes a lot more than a session to get it right, so don't be hard on yourself. If you train hard for a year, you'll start to get the idea. Internal power isn't for people in a hurry. I've been at it for years, and there's always a new level of refinement. Youll start feeling good about it and have a breakthrough, and then you'll realize you have so much more to learn. Im heading into about thirty years and still have a long way to go.
Hi Sensei Seth:
Great video as usual! You may want to spend some more time with Kevin Lee to discuss how Wing Chun develops the Fa Jin power through the hip rotation while completely relaxing the hands so that the fist accelerates through the target -- a theoretically good wing chun punch feels like a penetrative force versus a pushing force -- not sure if Sifu Francis Fong explained this one in a video, but there was a video in RUclips which explains this concept. The power really comes from the shoulder through the aligned elbow, and the fist simply accelerates through and continues even after the point of impact.
In terms of mechanical physics, it's pretty much Newton's second law of motion F = mass x Acceleration. Depending on how you execute the punch, the mass can be the total of your upper body's mass (if you do the hip rotation correctly while punching) times the acceleration of your hip rotation and passing the force through the tip of your fist. By relaxing the muscles and only briefly tensing right at the impact (to allow the force to continue to the target mass and to prevent the blowback force back to your body -- see Newton's third law), you are transferring all the generated energy to a small surface area of your first into the opponent's body mass. When your body is tense, the body's ability to accelerate to its full maximum potential is diminished significantly -- this is very much true in any sports that involve hip rotation and swinging motion like Golf, Tennis, Baseball, and other sports that require some kind of windup and release. The difference is that in fa jin, the windup stage is absolutely compressed into small explosive motions instead of large windup motions.
An extremely helpful style for you to watch and learn may be Ba Ji Quan -- the style emphasizes on 100 percent fa jin development, and in fact you may be amazed by their stomping mechanics because they use hard stomps to develop and create the explosiveness of the fa jin. Ba Ji Quan derives some of its techniques from classical chinese spear fighting arts, so the stomping mechanic is by necessity in order to deliver powerful thrusts and parries using the tip of the spear.
My only advice in researching Fa Jin is to have a big giant sack of salt because almost everything you learn needs to be taken with a grain of salt -- there is a lot of pseudoscientific and mythical bullshit surrounding the concept of Qi and Fa Jin that get simultaneously taught with the mechanically sound concepts like weight distribution, timing, relaxation, and explosive force generation. In my view, if you see an analog equivalent to the concept in other style of martial arts and/or sports, then it is a mechanically sound concept. If it starts to smell like crouching moron hidden batshit, then it's probably nonsense until proven otherwise.
TL;DR: Fa Jin is real -- but there is a lot of bullshit between the mechanically sound principles and the mythical bullshit that comes with the concept of Qi.
Westerners do understand it. It is used for a good tennis swing, a golf swing, or a baseball bat swing. The difference is that in Kung Fu you are accessing this power at all times. It is very physical (and mental). It is not magic. It requires proper body structure to transfer the power from your core (which most people do not use) down your legs and out your arms. In most sports you work on having the proper structure for specific things. For Kung Fu, you have the proper structure at all times. Every movement starts from the core. You must be relaxed - if you are tense, the power cannot travel out your arms or down your legs (blasting off like a rocket ship). You are substituting the power of your large arm and leg muscles with the power of your core, so it may be difficult at first. Using your large muscles in your arms and legs not only slows you down, it robs you of power. Your hips have to be rolled forward (like you are pulling your tail up between your legs) and your shoulders have to be down and slightly curved forward (like you are holding a large ball). The spiraling adds to the power. You should feel like you are a large wash cloth and you are wringing yourself out. This brings in even more of your core muscles. You are basically throwing your fist or foot like it is a ball on a chain. You need to keep your skeleton straight and up, but at the same time drop your muscles to lower your center of gravity.
From your description if sounds like efficient use of kinetic energy.
It makes sense to me. Good video Seth!
It's using biomechanics, propulsion from feet, rotation for generating power, synchronizing breath, and a LOT of discipline to understand how that process feels internally(within oneself, not some esoteric thing) in order to refine it, and make that muscle memory. Simple, but not. And always awesome. Loved how this was explained AND how you understood it to define it.
this is fascinating man, you were doing it later in the video, yes. It seems you are on a journey to learn the 'internal' stuff now, it's awesome, because you are showing the world the validity to it after years of ridicule. Tai Chi really does have all this within it, I hope you continue to study some of that stuff. The slow movements are training the mechanics, they can all be executed with fajin once you know how to generate it. You're getting there and it's awesome. It will directly translate to your sumo as well. The whole 'chi' or 'energy' thing isn't important, no one really understands it, but you are doing it correctly. It's a kind of mindfulness, yes, when you say that you're touching on it. It's a mindfulness, an intention and an action as one, something like that. It's really not important or helpful to concentrate on it exactly, and you can never describe it really so there is no point in trying, 'The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name'... it's all that stuff. The point is the intuitive understanding not literal attempt to know it with words. Don't worry about the chi stuff basically or when they say not to use muscles or blah blah blah, fajin is that sudden explosive shake of the body where everything coordinates. You're well on your way to being able to incorporate it into what you know already, you already do it without realising when you operate instinctively at times. But yes, your striking will probably evolve with a new level of speed and different kind of power, as he was demonstrating at the end.
That kind of punch he was teaching at the end doesn't break a persons bones or knock them over, its a kind of sudden snap that requires much less effort, doesn't really drain stamina and you can spare using it for hours without becoming tired. It does lack a knock back power, and you can really switch between the hard and soft at any point. I don't know about the so called mystical effects on internal organs and stuff, again I don't believe it is important. it's more that it allows incredible speed, you can really blast through an opponent suddenly and completely overwhelm them, flowing into any position required, but probably not so much 1 hit KO power. That being said, if you catch a vital spot such as the jaw and have the right alignment, for sure it has 1 hit ko power. When you look at KOs in fighting, this is what you see a lot of the time. Think Conor McGregor when he was good. That's where the timing and precision come in. Staying relaxed and mindful allows you to be precise and have good timing.
All this being said, trying to use this internal soft stuff for self defence or fighting breaks down at the point where the opponents intensity and strength simply overwhelm you, because you will naturally tense up and revert to using force. Even if you stay relaxed, you might end up losing anyway. DDP just showed this against Adesanya, Adensanya has the flow and timing and DPP looks clumsy, but he is relentless. This is probably the main value of the 'hard' styles because they give you a fall back to rely upon and strengthen the body. I think it's absolutely possible to incorporate the 'internal' stuff though, and I think the very best fighters display it in their movement. You can DEFINITELY apply it to your sumo, both the grappling mechanics in Tai Chi, the fajin for your pushing or strikes, as well as the 'yielding' techniques in tai chi for things like henka or other throws and slips.
I have been watching your channel since covid waiting for a Xing Yi, Baguazhang or Traditional Taiji video on Internal Power pop up here! Xing Yi is very much direct force! You did awesome for your hour of training Sensei Seth! There were a ton of concepts all at once! Please find a Baguazhang master and do a video with them too! Baguazhang is so awesome and spiraling power with awesome throws.
I already watched some videos featuring this gentleman and I had some thoughts on it. Although I am not an educated fighter, here they are:
1.) His fighting style evolved from staff fighting. I play around with staffs occasionaly for fun. Again, not an expert. If you hold the staff in both hands, rotate the hands to create a fast and powerful spin, just concentrate on the motions your hands are doing. If you gave a beginner the task to make the move with staff in hand and without it, he automatically will perform it with more speed and power with the staff in hand, exactly because his focus is not on his body alone. He tensions up of course, so muscles are involved, yet in a different way. What he does is actually repositioning his body with structure, not conventional punching. Yet, if he makes a fist and you are in his way, he will land a punch. The idea is, that his repositioning is so determined, carried by so many joints and relaxed muscles expanding, away from the ground, away from his hip, wavelike, that the power outtake might not be maxed out, yet, when his power and fluidity tense up, where he wants to, it will have an explosive, stunning effect. The weak point in this technique would be an interception of his flow, yet if he is fast enough, he will make this happening unlikely.
2.) More as a side note: this is why accidentely running somebody over might have more effect on bringing someone off balance or on the ground than intentionally trying to knock him over. If you are bowed down to the dishwasher, you turn around fast and determined, because you need to do something (working in a gastronomy job; you are in stress) and somebody is standing close behind you without you being aware of it, watch him get shooked to the core by your impact. In this context it is a training of single-mindedness. I just do my thing...
3.) I guess, its also a mindset thing. Recently I was in the situation of transporting stones in a backpack. I had to walk one way of about 15 minutes with something in between 10-15 kilos on my back, then the same route back without. When the load is lifted from your shoulders, you feel like flying, at least for the first two or three minutes. Every step is light. Why though? If you did not have that backpack on beforehand, your body should be able to perceive the motion you do (for it is just the same) just as less taxing as it does with the experience.
I think Chi training is also training in this kind of perception. It is a way of making us aware of the limitations we foolishly put upon ourselves. At least in that regard. In a more mondane way this effective pushing in mindset is more relatable for many: the famous quote of navy seals regarding endurance. "The first time you think, you can`t go on no more, you are actually at 60%." And if you test it out, it holds true. You can still push yourself and by doing so, you will have more remarkable gains, because after trying it out some times, the first time you think you can`t go on no more will make a jump. And you will still be able to go on. Chi in the context of this video is the same thing only focussed on mobility. Moving one body part to another location. And just like in the endurance context, it is about relaxing, convincing yourself you can do it, and by doing so, doing it. Maybe not effortlessly, maybe not concentrated on the motion "punch", but by relying more on other sources of getting your motion done.
Sensei Seth, you are correct in that muscles should not be focused on. Power is generated in the body and released through the arms so you want the arms to be relaxed and an extension of the body. Like a bridge to transmit force. But there are different ways of creating force, which Xingyi mother fist/ 5 elements teach you. The Canon fist shoots power forward driving up from the floor, hips, and through the arms. There is an expansive wave created that shoots forward.
Great video. I've done this sort of training and went through all the same emotions and logical pitfalls you did.
My understanding has always been when they say chi or energy, they really mean your momentum or center of gravity. When I box I can feel my weight shift with my stance and I can use the energy of the shifting weight and transfer that energy into my punch. You want to funnel the momentum of your weight into your punch. Not just your weight, but the tension that you can build up from your feet to your shoulder. So that includes your shifting weight with strong rooted stance, the power added by pushing off your feet, the rotation of your hips, rotation of your abdomen, and the rotation of you shoulders. It should all transfer to the punch simultaneously and ideally the full energy transfer should happen right when your punch hits the target.
Grab a quarterstaff and learn to spin it. Once that thing gets going, if you move wrong it'll loose all of its kinetic energy, and some of that will literally shock you, like electricity can. That moment of shock is what teaches you where you were directing your own kinetic energy wrong. The insight to observe here is that you can generate potential kinetic energy with your whole body, and then pass it off from tendon to tendon and pool it together as you direct it. If you direct it out of your fist, that gives you a punch where follow through is not optional. If some tendons in your body aren't coordinated properly, then they'll sap the kinetic energy as you fight against them to move.
Become like water... fluidity...
Try this... Get into a reverse punch/right straight position... with a target... with your fist touching the target... then, you put 1 inch distance from your fist to the target, while maintaining your reverse punch/right straight position... The feel the force coming from the ground connected to your right heel going up your leg until you it reaches your hips, then you join the rotation/spiral movement there then the force goes to your shoulders, traveling to your hand until it reaches you fist. Do it slowly at first... focus on the feeling of the force traveling throughout the kinetic link from the ground up... Do the movement without using your muscles, keep them relaxed.
This is similar to what I was taught in traditional jka shotokan karate, transferring energy from the ground, power coming from rotation and not tensing until point of contact when you are aiming to tense for a split second (kime). I think this is what makes Bruce Lees one inch punch work too.
Wow! A great topic for a video, surely very fascinating to watch!
What i know from my own very limited practice and from the TCMA people i was lucky to meet:
Jin (jir) is often called "soft power", opposed to just brute muscle power (the way you use your body when you are say lifting)
Fa jin is a term for utilizing this power in some movements.
There is more than one type of jir. For example, a one-inch punch needs a cun (short) jin. Intersingly, "short" is usually understood in terms of space, but actually it is more about the short amount of time it takes.
Every kungfu style usually has its own set of jin's that are used for its technical arsenal. So there are multiple types of explosive movements that power up strikes, kicks, footwork, and body movement.
To make your body able to properly perform these jirs, every kugfu style has its own ji ben gong, or basic training. What it usually does is basically disassemble your body, joint by joint, and then get it together in a different way. How good your basics are defies how well you can use the style.
Usually, weapon training incorporated into style is also supposed to make your jir fa work as it is supposed to.
So, lounching your hand by incorporating your legs and waist is one part of it, but there is a huge amount of stuff going on apart from that. And in some styles, like Xin Yi or Tai Ji, it gets really sophisticated. Like mindfulness is an important part.
The relationship between mind, ci energy, willpower, jir etc is also viewed differently from style to style.
The Best video i have seen about the issue!
You got the linear translation and rotation right. I will try to explain the rest.
There are two factors in play, tendons and kinetic linking.
Tendons explained literally:
Tendons are elastic and if you stretch them they act with a pulling force. So you need them stretched when the joint they move is opening or closing. To stretch the tendon you need to contract the muscle it attaches to. You can do that as you open the joint (ex. Pecs in overhand punch.) or prestretch by tensing both agonist and antagonist muscles which doesn't produce motion. Then you release antagonist and flex agonist.
Kinetic chain explained partly literally. Impact is mass times velocity. So to throw a hard punch you either move/extend the whole body as a block which is slow (stiff jab) or the hand only (by the time of impact) very fast (flicker jab). To get to the hand from the foot (which is how you are rooted/ancored to the ground) you need to pass through knee, hip, spine, shoulder blade, shoulder, elbow, wrist (sometimes) joints. So you throw the knee forward very fast and carry that energy to the hip and add to that the tendon elastic energy that was loaded in muscles around the hip, and pass that to spine and add and pass and add and so on you can reach very high speed. Important too understand that you don't care how far each joint moves. They also move in sequence, not really overlapping much. In fact you even pull some joints backwards (knee, hip) after they transfer their energy to help accelerate the next joint in sequence (your body only closes and opens joints, it doesn't really move them unless one bone of said joint is braced against something, straightenig + feet on ground = going up). That is where the knee wiggle helps.
TLDR
Muscle tension streches tendon which counteracts by adding its shortening to that of the muscle contracting.
Move joints fast from ground to hand in sequence with little overlap (like wave on rope), pull joint back after initial forward motion to add speed to next joint (like towel whipsnap, knee wiggle in video). Practice timing and amount of muscle tension so you don't get slack in any joint and or move too many at the same time.
i love that you're covering this. a ton of my training in kung fu was about that "inner power" and it's mired in so much mysticism and religious fervor that it when someone explains it, it sounds like mcdojo stuff.
But it's not lol
@@oasisflame yeah it's not the mumbo jumbo that folks make it out to be. It's just really hard to understand the concepts with a western mindset.