Internal Arts

There are 3 major internal Chinese arts, Tai Chi Chuan, Pa Kua Zhang, Hsing-Yi chuan, and Liu Ho Ba Fa. There are also other internal arts, or arts that use the internal concepts. This is very basic to the martial arts. Aikido is also an internal art. Tai chi learned by doing a form. For health benefits, it is a relaxing set of movements, it also pumps the blood and lymph nodes (which any movement will do), and the lymph nodes are essential to your immune system. Tai chi also is exercise, greatly benefiting your legs (more than that of my previous martial arts or exercises). One of the major benefits of Tai chi is that it not only stimulates acupuncture points by moving, but it also directs your energy flow. Tai chi actually stimulates the muscle meridians, which correlate very closely to the 12 primary channels. Stimulating these help to balance your body, from a state that is either to yang or yin. Tai chi builds up a reservoir of energy so to speak, which can help to ward off many illnesses. All of the internal arts do these things.

As far as martial aspects, Tai chi builds an astoundingly strong root to your body. This has to do a lot with your leg strength, but also your "yi", or mind. Your yi focuses you, and directs your chi. Your chi follows your yi. A strong root helps you to be very stable, and lets your body become relaxed. (Your body moves much quicker when relaxed, as well as lets energy flow easier.) IN Tai chi, you want to become like a willow tree, firm at the bottom, and loose up top. Being "loose" helps you to dissolve, or not come in contact directly with force, just letting it or someone move to the extension of there force, and then giving them that little extra bit, to help them along their way. Tai chi is very circular; everything changes from yang to yin, and vice versa. Your legs gain power and support from the earth. (Watch Tyson when he throws an uppercut, he uses a lot of leg strength) This power is generated and sent up the body, out the shoulders, into the elbows, the hands, etc. Every part of your body is rooted somewhere else. Your hands are rooted in your wrists, and they must all be in their proper alignment. Proper body alignment will give you tremendous strength, and you can still be relaxed, it is just due to your structure. The dan tien is the center of your body, (2 inches below your navel) and the center must control all the other moving parts.

When doing push hands, an exercise developed to help root, use techniques, and FEEL your opponent; you are trying to off balance your opponent, in any direction. This will help you become very sensitive to what another person is doing. It is like sticky hands from Wing Chun, except your whole body is involved. You try and locate any tenseness in someone else, because this works to your advantage. You can actually feel your opponent�s center, or where they have any tenseness in their stomach lets say, just by moving their arms. You develop a, connection with that body, and feel everything you can about it. In Pau Kua there is a move that you have someone�s arm locked, and you need to feel that all the way down to his or her feet, if that makes any sense. Push hands is stand up grappling, except you have pushes. your feet do not move, they stay rooted in the same place( there are some moving push hand sets), while your waist turns in circles, but your body always stays upright, like a cylinder. It is very easy to move an extremely large man, just on your structure and state of relaxation.

The moves in Tai chi are very hard to look at and understand. They are positions that your body is the strongest at. These moves are also very hidden, meaning (that you can't learn it by a videotape) they are internal, such as the opening of your shoulder blades, etc. Also, these moves are directed against the weakest points of your attacker. ( one move that will get you going is "carry the tiger up the mountain" where your left hand is on his shoulder guiding him, but your right finger is lifting up on his coccyx bone, believe me, it will get you moving!!). Tai Chi moves also have more than one application to them.

Pau Kua is similar to Tai Chi, many of the moves correlate with it, except the moves are performed in a different way. In Pau Kua (pronounced ba gua) you have momentum behind you, always drilling. Pau Kua is a set of forms that are completed in a circle. You start off by just walking the circle, walking low, but not bobbing up and down. You stay at the same height,(unlike Tai Chi, which the moves are more like floating, using your feet as though they were just walking, heel to toe, or toe to heel) body erect of course. It can take along time just to learn how to walk!! (it can be very frustrating at times) In fact, you begin Pau Kua by just walking, while your hands and arms are in a certain position, not moving. This is finding stillness in motion (for all you Taoist fans). After you learn these "palms" you begin to integrate them together into a form. These forms are called the palm changes, and there are 8 of them. Then you move onto other things. Pau Kua has a reason for moving in a circle. In its advanced stages, you circle behind your opponent. Pau Kua has some of the harshest moves, very practical, and very dangerous. It is very beautiful to watch.

In Tai Chi, you "play" with your opponent, Pau Kua you "control" them, and in Hsing-Yi, you explode, usually ending the fight with one strike, and usually taking a strike to get there. Liu Ho Ba FA is somewhat of a combination of these, but I really do not know too much about it, neither do I know too much about Aikido, but I am sure it goes by many of the same basic concepts.

All of these arts are meant to build and control your chi, or internal energy. This energy is looked at in the west as bioelectric energy, and it is probably pretty close to that. They try to keep you healthy, whether that be from an attacker, or an attacking illness or other condition. Also in all of these arts, remain as soft as possible, but still firm. That�s not only a hard concept to explain, but also one to learn. All of these arts are very deep, and it takes along time and a lot of practice to understand, much longer than other arts(this is coming from my experience in other arts, which of course have a lot to learning involved in them, and a lot of refining and nuances { I don't know if that�s the exact word I�m looking for there}, but they do not go as deep as the internal arts.) Usually even in external arts, at the upper levels you begin to dive in to the internal.

Michael