I first became acquainted with Son Goku in the dragon ball series when I was about 8. I’m not gonna lie, that day changed me. I kind of got obsessed with the series and I remember that’s when I started to practice push ups. One of goku’s most identifiable features is the special power attack he learned from Master Roshi: the Kamehameha energy wave. Throughout all of the Dragon ball series this move was used by Goku to defeat the various enemies that would attack the planet.
It. Was. Awesome.
He would generate all of this power and focussing it into his hands he would release it with a scream at his poor opponent. KAAAME-HAAAME-HAAAAAAAAAA!
Little did I know back then that my curiosity in energy and the manipulation of it would carry on into adulthood. But so it did! Into the practice of martial arts, while not in such a spectacular fashion as Goku did, I began to study and put into practice the concept of expressing jing.
For me, it was the practice of Tai Chi that provided me with the avenue to improving power in my martial arts, so here are some of the principles and methods I have used:
Breathing
As in all things in life, first comes the breath. I believe that the best thing I learned when I started learning kung fu was to breathe properly, and it is still something I work on daily. When I started learning martial arts my breathing was kind of erratic. I would swing between holding my breath and gasping for air. It wasn’t pretty and neither was my kung fu.
It took me a while to get a grip on my breathing because when I started my training I was a little impatient and more into practising the flashier and faster movements, so there didn’t seem to be time to breathe.
However, when I started practising Tai Chi more it gave me the time to practice breathing, literally; the slower movements of Tai Chi gave me time to breathe. With the typically slower pace in Tai Chi I was able to centre my movements around my breathing, not my breathing around my movements. Simply put, when I was coiling or drawing in for a punch I would inhale, and when I released a punch I would exhale. After some time with this I found that I had so much more control over the power I would exert, through properly timed respiration, relaxation and tension.
Practising good form
A punch that generates power through the cooperation of the whole body, from your foot to your fist, will be more powerful than a punch that only gets power from the shoulder to the fist. Try it yourself: hit a pillow or bag keeping your body (your torso) still and then try again allowing your body to move freely. Even without proper instruction you should be able to feel a difference in power, even if it might not feel so efficient at first.
This concept is simple to understand, putting more body into a strike will generate more power. The trouble is acquiring the coordination that the body needs in order to express power without being too inefficient, or worse, getting injured. How do we improve this coordination? That is with practising good form. Good form creates a more direct pathway for energy to move along and prevents vulnerable parts of your body from getting injured.
When learning any movement in martial arts it’s important to understand the correct form. A teacher will break down a movement, such as a straight punch, into parts. These parts often form a chain of movements that allow energy to be transferred from a turn in the hips to the end of a fist and pivot of the foot. So when training with your teacher always try to observe the holistic point of view of the technique, as powerful techniques often recruit mechanics using the whole body.
Knowing relaxation and tension
The good form is only a half of it, though. How do we gauge the amount of power that is too little or too much? My answer: Knowing yourself in states of relaxation and tension. Appropriate application of relaxation and tension will move energy along this pathway without obstruction.
In order to capitalise on good form you also need to incorporate timed relaxation and tension. Tension holds power and relaxation releases power. The more you can find this point of balance between tension and relaxation throughout your body the more control you can have over the power you exert, or don’t exert. But how do you get this microscopic level of control? Well, my best methods so far can be found in my next points.
Practising with and without resistance
The level of control that can be seen in great Tai Chi masters can be a testament to the years of practice that they have put into their craft. If you want to develop such a level of control as they do you need to put the hours in, which is fine because we love to practise, don’t we?!
This is because if you want to control your body on a micro scale you need to develop the neural wiring, you need to increase the brain to body connections. The simplest way to do this is through practising the movements you want to learn repetitively, with and without resistance. Typical tai chi curricula provide this with forms and pushing hands.
Forms, such as Yilu or Erlu, are without resistance, and I find they are handy when you are trying to learn how to relax. In non-resistant training such as this you don’t need to worry about someone or something pushing you, so you can familiarise yourself with your body in a relaxed state.
Once you have a better ability to relax yourself without too much conscious effort it is good to add some gentle pressure, such as a classmate pushing against you in some push hand drills (see below some of these drills with Su Huaxiang, my teacher from Guangzhou). These push hand drills can be gradually intensified with greater speed and pressure, until something that looks like all out sparring is produced. By adding in this pressure you will need to produce force, thus adding gradual moments of tension to your initially relaxed movements. By doing this, your sensitivity to the point between relaxation and tension will be higher and you’ll be able to transfer power more efficiently.
Figuring out how and when to relax can be difficult, heck, breathing can be difficult. When I first started out, my Tai Chi was stiff and I would feel tired quickly, over these five years of practice these are some of the things I have figured out that have helped me a lot. It hasn’t solely helped me in Tai Chi either, I feel that these ideas can also be applied to all kinds of movement. I’m in Thailand right now and feel my efficiency in sparring Muay Thai is much better than if I look back to when I used to train Taekwondo when I was 16. In understanding these basics you can benefit in many areas of your life.
So, it turns out you don’t need the long power up sequence that Goku would use in battle to generate power. It’s more in the small things that you chip away at every day that builds you into the kind of warrior you want to be. If you understand that you can learn to build yourself up from consistent training and dedication, you’ll realise, like me, that you can make yourself into your own childhood hero.
-Jaime-
Push hands clip: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzOqwkijJzo]
Artwork by Kalasketch [https://www.deviantart.com/kalasketch]
