In Yo Face!
I had this whole other rant ready to post, but lo and behold something happened this morning.
I discovered I can punch like a muthafucka!
Okay, it’s Tai Chi – I’m not exactly punching people. But when you do punch in Tai Chi, it’s supposed to come from your gut – your center.
I have been struggling with this a lot. I repeatedly try to punch from the shoulder, from the wrist…which is all kinds of wrong. But I just haven’t been able to generate any force from that warm, squishy center, the dantian.
Until today.
Today, that beautiful squishy center o’ mine generated a PA-PA-PA-POW! And totally surprised me.
I did it again. Just to see if it was a fluke. It wasn’t. I did it again and again and again. Oh. My. GOD!!!
I’m not sure what finally did it. Maybe it was just simply practicing. Maybe I was finally able to stop sucking in my gut (a habit most women are familiar with I’m sure…hmmm…maybe some men too…). Maybe it was a combination of these things.
Either way, I am happy as a clam to finally – FINALLY – understand what my teachers have been talking about.
And it only took 2 years! Woohoo!
And now for some video from one of my favorite martial artists… She makes it look so easy. But keep in mind as you watch this (if you watch this) how strong your legs have to be to do some of these stances. Pretty frickin’ strong!
Okay, so as much as I like that video, I realize it’s probably not very useful for this post about punching. So, here is a video of Chen Xiaowang demonstrating the appropriate way to punch (fajin y’all!). I’m not even close to being able to punch like this, but it is what I’m aiming for.
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January 28th, 2010 at 9:34 am
Congrats on the punching progress! Fajing is an important concept, and something I’ve tried to integrate into my karate training (believe it or not). I first read about it through Montaigue Sensei’s materials.
One thing I’d like to submit from a karate perspective – be careful not to only punch air all the time. Fajing looks explosive in the air, but unless you hit things for real and learn how to transfer that power into something while retracting your body away from the recoil, it can still be an ineffective way to strike.
January 28th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
Hi Matt! Excellent point, thank you! I’m hoping through more practice I’ll gain the awareness that’s needed to recoil properly. I don’t really do that well right now…poop.
January 28th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
Congratulations, both for achieving this moment and for having the patience to pursue it for two years. Brava!
January 28th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
Thanks Emma!
January 30th, 2010 at 10:19 am
That’s what I love about Tai Chi! When you see it at first, it looks like a bunch of people doing really weird slow motion trippy movements, (like a grateful dead show) but when you speed it up…. it’s really a form of self defense.
I also learned that back in the day… They practiced Tai Chi like that because Martial Arts were banned in public. So they just slowed it down and no-one knew WTF it was!
Cool blog by the way, I found it off of Trevor’s site…
-Shindo
January 31st, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Hi Shindo! Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I had a chance to check out part of your blog – very cool! I look forward to reading more!
Yes! And apparently the Tai Chi masters taught the slow movements to the elite (I believe because they were forced to) and concealed the faster, more dangerous movements. Which is why Tai Chi has developed this reputation for being slow and boring (and resembling a grateful dead concert). But really it’s power comes from being slow and then fast, fast and then slow. Not an easy thing to learn!
February 1st, 2010 at 11:17 am
No, it doesn’t look easy! I practiced Kung-Fu for a while which seems similar in many ways…. Btw… I added your blog to my page! Keep it up!
February 2nd, 2010 at 8:09 am
Wow, thanks! You do the same!
April 11th, 2010 at 2:09 am
[...] —In Yo Face! [...]