See that pic, above? That was featured in my book INFUSION and then again in my latest book AXE. It conveys a very deep point, perhaps the most essential point of all. However, I feel (entirely my own fault) that I still haven't managed to communicate it as a straightforward totally workable everyday training feature. An essential training feature, fully practical, which if you're serious needs to be worked explicitly and tangibly in every practice session.
Here's another graphical depiction of the same training concept (see how at this point I'm just totally giving my stuff away for free?)
(Apologies to those of you who actually bought the books!)
Anyway, I realized that part of the problem is that most of us, at this time, do not have an expert master teacher who's able and willing to convey the point quite so unambiguously, forcefully, as my teacher back then. Not gonna happen. I sure can't train anybody the way he did me! However, nonetheless there is an essential and useful training concept here, and I've been determined to find a way to make it fully accessible to the vast uncountable masses of Xingyiquan devotees and trainees out there - yes, to both of you LMAO!
And in fact, I finally did come up with the way to make this point fully usable, instantly understandable, accessible and tangible to basically anybody who can even stand up and walk. No teacher required, no voyages to the remote mountain villages of Asia. And what was the result? Nothing, I don't think anybody understood it or tried it or even had much interest in just watching it. Again my fault for not properly explaining the drill thoroughly enough.
I'm talking about my latest (second to latest actually) YouTube tutorial film. I presented two supremely powerful and productive drills there, but they didn't strike much interest. I understand though. They just don't look flashy enough to interest anybody. But let me try just once more, focusing on the first drill shown.
In that first drill, I'm shown repeatedly tossing a lacrosse ball up and then catching it with a kind of pseudo punch-like motion while waking forward and then backward. YAWN right? Who cares that's nothing to see here. I agree, nothing external or visible happening. As usual I tried to explain the basic components of it (Yi Quan, boxing and Tong Bei mechanics) but I guess I didn't communicate the heart of it cause it sure hasn't stirred the slightest degree of interest, beyond a couple of nice thank you mails. That's my fault so I'll try to explain in more depth now.
I've already explained about the weirdo Yiquan punch style, and also the idea of Tong Bei arm dynamics in other posts: here for example. So read those. The final thing you MUST understand is the idea that's also conveyed in the pics above this post: you must "lead with your MUX". I've explained the MUX concept exhaustively in several books. For purposes of this post think of your MUX as your dantian and the lower abdomen which surrounds it. Teachers always say "move from the dantian!" but most people don't have much idea how to actually practice that, beyond maybe "putting your hips into it" like a boxer or judoka, or. maybe doing some belly dance or yogic type of nauli training. But this drill makes it totally concrete what we mean by that.
All you need to do, and this takes about 5 minutes to get the feel of, is do that toss drill, as shown, but now:
(1) JUST BEFORE and DURING every new 'downward' Tongbei arm swing (of previous catching hand, now converting to throwing hand, holding ball) LEAD WITH A FEELING OF DOWNWARD ENGAGEMENT of you lower belly. That's all. It's not rigid and muscular, it's mainly mental, just a very light physical engagement to emphasize the point. Imagine that you 'about' to do a crunch type setup, or that you 'want' to do a crunch type situp to power the toss - but don't really actually tense your muscle that much. Very very light, but fully 'engaged'. That simulates the energetic effect of the staff hit on every rep from my teacher above (and a lot less scary too).
(2) JUST BEFORE and DURING every new 'upward' Tongbei arm swing (of previous catching hand, now converting to throwing hand, holding ball) LEAD WITH A FEELING OF UPWARD ENGAGEMENT of you lower belly. That's all. It's not rigid and muscular, it's mainly mental, just a very light physical engagement to emphasize the point. Imagine that you 'about' to do a crunch type setup, or that you 'want' to do a crunch type situp to power the toss - but don't really actually tense your muscle that much. Very very light, but fully 'engaged'. That simulates the energetic effect of the staff hit on every rep from my teacher above (and a lot less scary too).
KEY POINT
The more you attempt the above, pretty soon you'll feel the vibrations of the 'hard wave' happening in your lower abdomen at the start and initial part of every DOWNSWING (to prepare for next toss), and at the start and initial part of every UPSWING (the toss itself). Pay attention to engaging your lower abdomen with every down/upswing of the 'tongbei' arm!
This is a real and distinct thing. It's as real as working your pecs or glutes on a machine at Gold's Gym. Treat it as such. The effect I'm discussion above begins with feeling the hard wave in the MUX/abdomen with each tongbei/arm move. When you've done some lines of that (multi reps in a given direction is a 'line'), then do the quiet standing that I also show in the film above. Pretty soon you'll be amazed at the added full-body charge.
Next, you'll realize that your ARMS are hyper charged way beyond previous levels when standing in santishi.
Finally, you'll be able to incorporate that mini-abdominal engagement into your actual Xingyi technique practice for example when doing Crushing practice. I've tried to convey the essence of that in the 2nd picture at the top. It's so amazing, then you'll finally understand what was the point of Xingyi in the first place. It isn't at all what most of you have thought.