Q: Thanks for your AXE book. I've been able to feel or generate somewhat the leg power surge in Xingyi that you described, and then I realized yes there a weird flow or resonance in my forearms and hands. But so far at least I haven't been able to feel something like that through my torso, which you say is part of the upsurge. Any advice on that aspect?
A: You are doing very well to feel that much in your Xingyi. Definitely you're beyond the stage where most practitioners sink into the 'bad karate' quicksand and never climb out. So that's good. But as you're intuiting, or noticing from my description in the book, there's a missing piece. You're experiencing local activation, which is nice but that's only a pale reflection of the full-body, full-charge connected ARC, whether it's ARC manifesting as surge, stream, or state.
I was the same way. The torso part is the hardest and last to actually experience. I finally got it one day while practicing Splitting (劈拳). You should work Splitting just as I say in AXE - do all that stuff. The feet/legs generation, the attempt to stream it though MUX and torso, and the wrist flexion and the burst in your wrists when you sharply and crisply strike while projecting the wrists outward (undoing the sharp flexion when you poise just prior to the strike). I've cover all that in AXE and can't reprise it all here, so go back and read all that.
But then at some point you'll realize that you can 'project' the SIDE OF YOUR TORSO - literally - as a blast of pure internal power, streaming 'something' from there into your striking arm. I don't really know why Splitting lends itself most to the first feeling of this effect. But after you have (1) first felt it; and then (2) worked with it a while in Splitting alone, you'll get the hang of that enough that you manifest it in any of the 5 Elements or Animals. It will feel slightly different when you first try to re-ignite it in Crushing, because Crushing is aobu (cross strike/step). But once you understand how that works with Crushing, then as I always emphasize, Crushing will again be your go-to move.
Now, even though this laterality thing is amazing and should be explored thoroughly when you first realize it's a real thing, still eventually recall that this is just one element of the power train. Essential but ultimately no more or less than leg, MUX, back, arm, wrist or hand/fist. It's all one thing, one charge, in the end. Once you understand it and can control it at will, integrate it fully and seamlessly into the full power train.
I've tried to show this effect graphically in the photo of Grandmaster Wang Shujin above. He's actually doing the static standing pose of Xingyi (Santishi), but that pose is similar enough to the end moment of the Splitting strike that I'm using this for clear illustration. That oval energy zone is the side of your torso. Literally, the side. This is the torso side of what I've called the Flying Squirrel Zone in some of my books. You need to actually feel the energy slithering right up along/through there, like some kind of giant python climbing tightly almost along the 'outside' of your body.
Later you'll be able to continuously generate, with full control, the power surge from trigger point at dantian/MUX (Activate), downward through your legs to (Rebound) off your feet and rise up again through your legs, then gather more power as it re-enters the MUX from below, then blast up through your torso and back... THEN: concentrate that broader wash of power for just an instant in the narrow channel of the projecting/striking side of your torso, and then with no break mentally project it along the lateral edge of your torso into the extending arm, through to hand and fingers. From there it will instantly cycle back to your dantian / MUX (as I've written about many times) as both the end of the current rep and, at the same time, the power-on button for the next rep. Theoretically there's no end to that process.
Anyway, have fun with it. You'll then understand those Nio guardian figures, like the one shown above on the right. People think those layers of visible muscles represent a physically fit or regular physically fit guy. Not really though. Everything is symbolic. The waves and ripples of articulated 'muscle' you see on the figure actually represent the many layers, slabs, depths and densities, the planes and concentrations of this internal power. Of course, from a Buddhist point of view, though a real power, still it's only a lower-level, denser vibratory manifestation than their highest spiritual enlightenment source radiance. That's why this is just a guardian figure at the gate, never the central icon. That's a true conception as far as it goes, but hey we are in this human game for the fun of it! For the experience, like surfing. It's really interesting. And remember that many of the greatest masters were able to work on all these planes beyond the physical - all at once. Most of us can't do that, but still there's much to learn and experience at the gate there - don't despise it. Besides it's fun.