Whole body power

As you know i've been researching these chinese internal arts and i'm hearing more and more about whole body power and how that is the key to the power they are able to possess in terms of strikes.

Is this related to the rmax principle of intergration of breath movement and alignment?

I am thinking the dvd intergrating structure and the whole tensegrity structure thing is about this whole body power i'm hearing about.

I've kind of got over the stage of chi now lol, and i'm thinking from your point of view now and after watching Softwork™ again yesterday i'm really seeing the benefits of your system in a combat sense.

I've never really delved into combat beyond the surface until recently so i'm new to it all and I don't really understand all these different concepts so forgive me if my question is of the ignorant kind :oops:

Cheers!

[Glenn Sunshine]

A Chinese stylist will tell you power originates in the ground, it moves from your feet, up your legs to your hips, which transmits the power through your chest and shoulders into your arms and hands. That's not actually the sequence the body parts move, but that's how "silk reeling" and most other Chinese styles that I'm aware of describe what they do. What that means is effectively you're using a subtle full body wave, from the toes to the fist, to generate the power. That's why the high level martial arts insist on staying loose and relaxed, and only tensing (if at all) at the moment of impact when the body lockout transmits the energy. (Internal styles don't generally do this, but the more external the style, the more this type of tension is used.) In RMAX terms, I think you'd be better thinking in terms of waves as a means of power generation if you want to correlate what we're doing here with the kind of whole body power the Chinese arts use.

Yours,
Glenn

[Scott Sonnon]

Ed,

We've covered this question with you before. It's akin to asking if one can release clogged chi by addressing a chakra issue or if one can project into the quantum field by praying to the Holy Spirit. Each of these very human cultural interpretations remain contextual, and are different expressions of the same Truth.

I was visited by a black belt in JJJ and Aikido. He asked if we could 'play.' When I threw him, he remarked that my "ki" was very strong. Yet, to me, it was merely obvious when he scrunched his face and flexed his neck, held his breath and pressurized his abdomen, and created a tension chain from his locking arm to supporting leg... a place bound intextricably with a sense of frustration and effort for him, flooding his bloodstream with neuropeptides of frustration which sent him falling down the Vortex of the Performance Spiral.

6 of one, one 1/2 dozen of another.

[Chuck Kechter]

Ed wrote:

Is this related to the rmax principle of intergration of breath movement and alignment?

Yes.

And Glen gives some good advice on waves above. . .

Physical Break down:
Performance breathing for the breathing side of the triangle. . .

Sequential overlapping joint recruitment (and locomotion) for power generation for the movement side of the triangle. . .

And Proper posture and position (relative to the physical dynamic you find yourself in) for the third side of the triangle. . .

Then you have the psychodynamic triangle. . .

And the. . . :wink: :)

Glenn, thanks that makes a lot of sense and is what I kinda guessed, cheers!!

Chuck, that also makes sense and I was going to ask but forgot to about whether it is all related to something like on the zdorvye video's when Coach does a demonstaration of a combination movement involving if I remember correctly nearly every joint in his body.....it blew me away when I saw it and I knew it would be a great assett to possess.

Scott, sorry I just am not a contextual thinker I guess, if I see a relationship I allways forget about the context. I wasn't actually sure what whole body power was as I have no books on it, I just heard it mentioned in book reviews and thought it might be to do with the what you work with....intergration of movement, breathing and allignment.

That example you just gave has just given me a flash of insight and I understand rmax that much better and I see even more clearly the rlationship of ALL your material with each other.

I'm trying to pursuade my friend who is doing taiji with me to practice the softwork drills with me, I watched it again a couple of days ago and I understand what it is all about and i'm looking forward to exploring it.

Thanks everyone.....you guys are very helpfull!!..cheers!