Yiquan is both an excellent martial art and a nd a very effective system of health cultivation. Yiquan for self-defence:
develops whole-body power in a comparativ co mparatively ely short time simple and effective (no difficult difficult movements or complicated forms) anyone can learn it
Yiquan for health:
a completely natural system with no harmful side effects its system of Zhan Zhuang exercises Zhuang exercises is famous in China for its health benefits great for building and maintaining health
Yiquan for You:
it is fascinating builds strength through mind-body integration the journey of discovery through its practice is never ending
Yiquan (pronounced yee chuan), also known as Dachengquan, was created by Wang Xiangzhai after a lifetime of practice and research into martial arts. His goa l was to create a system where students would learn without being distracted by 'empty forms'. He therefore created Yiquan (Mind or Intent Boxing) to re-focus on internal energy training. Yiquan is very effective as a martial art. Its effectiveness effectiveness has been bee n tested in numerous competitions and informal challenges. Wang Xiangzhai and his students were among the top martial artists in China. Yiquan is designed in such a way wa y that students can progress in clearly defined steps from learning how to unify their body to acquire whole-body strength, through learning how to handle their opponents using this new way of o f moving through to fighting applications. applicat ions. The complete training consists of seven sections:-
o
Zhan Zhuan g Shi Li Mo Ca Bu Fa Li Tui Shou Shi Sheng Ji Ji Fa
<="" td="" height="180">
o
o
o
o
o
o
standing postures testing of strength friction step release of power pushing hands testing of voice/breat h combat practice
<="" td="" height="180">
©Karel Koskuba, 2003-2009
Yiquan - Power of the Mind by Karel Karel Koskuba Koskuba
In the June 2001 issue of this magazine I described the first step of Yiquan training - Zhan Zhuang (Pole Standing). The purpose of Zhan Zhuang exercises is to develop whole-body connection and eventually whole-body whole-bod y strength. In this article I would like to describe the next two steps, Shili (testing of strength) and Mocabu (friction step). The purpose of Shili exercises is to try out, to test, this whole-body strength during dur ing movement. Mocabu training is designed to help us to learn how ho w to keep this whole-body whole-bod y connection when we are stepping. Eventually Shili and Mocabu are combined co mbined into one exercise - Shili with steps. These two stages in Yiquan training are closely c losely related and so it makes sense to describe them together. What is Yiquan
Yiquan (pronounced yee-chuan) is both an excellent martial art and a very effective system of health cultivation. It is designed in such a way that you can progress in clearly defined steps. First you learn how to unify your body bod y to acquire whole-body whole-bod y strength. You combine this whole-body strength with skills for handling opponents, which develops Internal Power. This can then be applied to fighting applications. There are stages in Yiquan training that parallel Taijiquan and other Internal Martial Arts, but since Yiquan is simpler, simpler, these stages are perhaps more clearly defined. The first first requirement is to integrate the whole body bod y to achieve whole-body strength (this was the subject of the previous article mentioned above). Next the t he student has to learn how to move with this kind of strength in a fixed stance and with w ith steps (this is the subject of this article). After moving solo, the student learns how to use it in interaction with an opponent Pushing Hands. The next step is to learn how to issue power in a single instant - explosive
power training. As a supplementary training to the issuing of strength, breath control is learned. Lastly, for those interested in fighting, there are combat training drills and sparring. The complete training consists of seven steps: Zhan Zhuang
Shili
(Testing of Strength)
Mocabu
Fali
(Pole Standing)
(Friction Step)
(Release of Power)
Tui Shou (Pushing Hands)
Shi Sheng (Testing of Voice)
Ji Ji Fa (Combat Practice)
- standing exercises, designed to relax and integrate the whole body, used for building whole-body strength (this includes Moli - Sensing of Strength) - simple exercises for learning how to keep the whole-body connection and whole-body strength whilst moving (this stage is equivalent to practising forms in other Internal Martial Arts) - learning how to keep the whole-body connection and whole-body strength whilst stepping - learning how to 'release' power (fa jin training). How to release in any direction and with any part of the body - this stage is similar to Taijiquan's Pushing Hands. Also can be viewed as the previous three stages with a partner - learning to augment power and integrate the centre of the body in a more natural way using breathing - fixed and free sparring drills and sparring.
At all stages of training, students must try to follow the most important principle - Use mind, not strength ( yong yi bu yong li). Physical effort is used only during explosive power training. Using the Mind
The actual training is done with the help of mental images to coax the body to start working using the right principles. There are two kinds of mental images that are used. The first type is used to create a tranquil state in our mind that, in turn, will promote relaxation of our body. For example, imagine yourself standing in a beautiful garden with pretty flowers and trees all around you, with birds singing in the trees and white clouds drifting across a blue sky. Any other suitable image can be used. The second type is used to induce some kinaesthetic feeling to
promote the emergence of internal connections in the body and to guide our body in movement. For example, in Zhan Zhuang you try to create a feeling of having your whole body supported - your elbows are resting on soft pillows; your head is suspended by a thread; there are cotton pads between your fingers; etc. In training movement, you should try to induce a kinaesthetic feeling as if you were moving against some resistance. This type of feeling should first be experienced in Zhan Zhuang, especially in the Moli (sensing strength) type of exercises (described in the overview of Zhan Zhuang below). The Hun Yuan Zhuang described in the previous article was an example of this type. I should mention that when creating images or concentrating on the body, there should be no mental 'effort'. The feeling created should be mo re like observing something rather than striving for something. Too much mental effort is like too much physical effort - it would make us tense. A Brief overview of Zhan Zhuang
Zhan Zhuang exercises are divided into two categories:
health postures combat postures
The health postures represent the first training step. Their role is to relax the body and develop whole-body connection. This means that a movement in any part of the body can be felt to propagate through the whole body in a natural fashion. Most of these postures are held whilst standing in a shoulder-width stance with an upright spine (see Embracing Posture in 'Kai He Shili' section below). In addition to standing postures, there are also sitting and lying down postures. The combat postures are held with most (and sometimes all) of the weight on one leg. These are more advanced exercises used to develop whole-body power. At this stage, students learn and practise what is called Moli (Sensing of Strength) which are very small movements guided by the mind. The 'sensing' is done by very small and careful 'movements' of the whole body. I put quotation marks round the word 'movements' because in reality there may not be any movement! But yet the body is not completely still. What happens is that as we form an intention to move and as we get ready to move, there will be some muscular activity associated with stabilising our body in such a way so as to enable the movement to take place. Normally this muscular activity is not noticed as it gets subsumed in the sensations of the actual move that normally takes place. With some short training and whilst paying careful attention, we can sense it as a subtle sensation deeper in the body. When we detect this 'inner' activity and just before we would actually move, we stop short of any visible movements. We cannot say that we are still as there is some activity taking place but neither we can say that we are moving. I'll call this type of activity 'almost-moving'. When we 'extend' this almost-movement into visible movement, we have Shili. Shili
Having developed the whole body connection when standing, we need to be able to keep this connection when moving. This is not a trivial task. As I mentioned in the previous article, the whole-body connection is developed with the help of our stabiliser muscles. But as soon as we move, we use mobilisers and the whole-body unity is lost. The Shili exercises are simple exercises designed to teach us how to maintain the whole-body connection and whole-body strength whilst moving. Slow, relaxed and flowing movement is used, quite similar to the quality of movement used in practising a Taijiquan form. Initially, the movements are performed in six directions - forward and back, up and down, left and right. Later on these directions are combined to produce movements in any direction. As examples of Shili exercises, I will describe Kai He Shili - Open and Close Strength Testing, and Zheng Pi Shili - Vertical Cutting Strength Testing. Kai He Shili
The directions practised in this exercise are Left and Right. Start by standing in Embracing Posture, that is to say a shoulder-width stance with your arms in front of you in a position of embracing a large ball, hands at about shoulder-height and shoulder-width apart. Keep you fingers slightly bent and the palms slightly stretched. Imagine a number of elastic bands joining your arms together. Slowly open your arms, feeling the resistance of the imagined elastic bands against your movement. Imagine that your arms are connected through the body so that when you open the arms, the chest opens at the same time. Do not bring your shoulder blades together during the opening phase but keep the back wide. During the closing phase of this exercise, imagine that in place of the elastic bands you have now springs that keep your arms apart. Slowly bring your arms together, feeling the resistance of the imagined springs. Your chest and back should again be involved in the closing action. In fact rather than opening and closing your arms, feel that you are opening and closing your whole body of which arms are just the visible manifestation. When comfortable with this exercise, it should be done in the 'combat' stance. This is somewhat similar to a 'cat' stance found in other martial arts: the weight is mostly o n the back leg with the front foot about a foot and a half in front of the rear foot and the front heel raised off the floor. The weight is shifted forward during the closing phase until the weight distribution is 50:50 and shifted back during the opening phase. Even though the main directions practised are still Left and Right, in fact all six directions are now present. When closing the arms, they also go forward and slightly down. When opening, the arms go also back and slightly up. The forward and back direction is just a natural consequence of opening and closing movement. The up and down movement is a result of the way the weight is transferred forward and back. When transferring weight, the front knee is kept still. This results in the body rising when going forward and sinking when going backward. The arms, during the opening and closing movements, are kept at the same level in relation to the ground. Thus they move up and down relative to the body. Even though all the six directions are present, the feeling of moving against resistance is applied only to the movement in the left-right direction.
Zheng Pi Shili
The main directions practised in this exercise are Up and Down. Start by standing in 'combat stance' (see picture 1) with about 70% of your weight on the back foot and the front heel off the ground. Your arms should be in front of your body, hands vertical and quite close to each other, fingers pointing forward. Imagine a number of elastic bands joining your arms together. Slowly transfer your we ight forward and turn your body towards your front foot as you lower the front heel down and lift the rear heel up. At the same time lower your rear arm and lift the front arm, feeling the resistance of the imagined elastic bands against your movement (see picture 2). Imagine that your arms are connected through the body so that when you open the arms up and down, there is a feeling of vertical stretching across your body. Do not tilt your body forward, nor back. Slowly reverse the movements to get back to the starting position (picture 1) and smoothly carry on lifting the rear arm and lowering the front arm whilst turning the body away from the front foot (see picture 3). Again feel the resistance of the imagined elastic bands against your movement. Slowly return to the starting position and repeat the whole cycle several times. When we perform the Shili exercises, even though we feel that we use effort against the imagined resistance, no muscle tension should be used. The mental focus on overcoming the resistance will slowly start having an effect on the 'inner' muscles of the body that we could feel in Zhan Zhuang. It is best to practise slowly and carefully and the length of practice should be in accordance with your ability to concentrate on the kinaesthetic feeling. There is very little point in just slowly waving your arms whilst your mind is on other things. Mocabu
Having learned how to move with the upper body, the next step is to extend this skill to moving while stepping. Mocabu (friction step) exercises are designed to do just that. These again are very simple exercises with a strong mental component. The legs should move from the centre of the body. This is achieved by practising stepping whilst creating an image of pushing the legs and feet against some resistance, for example as if pushing legs through mud. Another useful image is that of carrying some fairly heavy object on top of the moving foot. Mocabu is really Shili for legs. It is, however, more difficult than Shili: we are less aware of our legs and feet than we are of our arms and hands. Because we are so used to moving our legs automatically, we have to pay extra attention that we do not slip into this habit during practice. All the movements should be done very slowly and deliberately - this adds another complication, that of keeping balance on one leg whilst the other is performing exercises. Circling
The first exercise is rolling an imaginary pencil forward and back along the floor. The moving foot should be close to the ground, without actually touching it. You may find that you keep loosing balance quite often at the beginning. It is not much of a problem - the
sense of balance will quickly improve with regular practice. To help yourself keep balance better, you can have your arms extended to the sides imagining that your hands are resting on some support (see pictures 4 and 5). After some practice, when the movement gets comfortable, try to feel the resistance of the (imagined) mud on your leg and the sensation of weight on your foot. The sensation of moving against resistance will probably take longer to achieve in your legs than it took in your arms. When you can feel the resistance, start moving the foot in a circle using the same quality of movement. Stepping
The next exercise is stepping, both forward and backward. As above for the circling, the stepping is done slowly and carefully. After some practice, the stepping is gradually speeded up and eventually can be done quite fast. Start by standing in 'combat stance' with about 70% of your weight on the back foot and the front heel off the ground. Your arms extended to the sides as in 'Circling' above. First, transfer your weight forward till the weight is evenly distributed on each leg. During this phase of stepping, the front knee should not move - that means that your body will go up. Lower your front heel and your body and keep transferring the weight forward till all the weight is on the front leg (the front knee now moves forward). Lift your rear foot off the ground and move it in an arc in, forward and out (see pictures 6, 7 and 8). The front toes are placed on the ground and about 30% of the weight is shifted onto the front leg. This constitutes one step. When stepping backwards, transfer all the weight onto the back leg and lift the front toes off the ground (the heel was already up). The foot moves in an arc: in, back and out (see pictures 8, 7 and 6). Place the rear foot on the ground, transfer to it half of your weight and lift your front heel. During this phase your rear leg should not really bend and thus your body will go up. Keeping your front knee still, transfer weight back till about 70% of the weight is on the back leg. During this phase your body will go down. This constitutes one step. Keeping Balance
The supporting foot should be kept flat throughout the exercises. It is quite likely that at the beginning, as you fight to keep your balance, the foot will wobble and thus sometime part of your foot will loose contact with the ground. With practice, your balance will get better and you will be able to keep the foot flat all the time. Also make sure that your toes lightly grip the ground. The ankles will get strengthened considerably during the practice and the resulting stability will be greatly appreciated when practising kicks later on. This kind of stepping practice is quite similar to the stepping practice in Baguazhang. Shili with steps
Eventually both Shili and Mocabu exercises are combined and practised together. This practice is functionally equivalent to form practice in Taijiquan. Of course, as far as the movements are concerned, the Yiquan practice is far simpler. Because of its simplicity, it is
easier to get the correct feeling. Whilst practising complex movements, it is quite easy to get distracted by the complexities of the moves and often the focus of practice becomes nice looking shape of the body and smoothly executed movements. That is why the movements in Yiquan, and especially at this stage are kept very simple. Later on, different Shili exercises can be combined to create more complex movements. When practising Shili with steps, at first the arm and leg movements are kept separate when stepping, the arms do not move, when moving arms, the stance is fixed. Later the movements of arms and legs are done simultaneously. Shili and Moli
During Shili (strength testing) practice, it is important to keep practising associated Zhan Zhuang exercises, especially the Moli (strength sensing) variety. The task of the Moli stances is to practice gradually extending the inner activity of 'almost-movement' across the whole body. Eventually it should feel as if there is a flow of movement inside the body. This 'flow' is then used to guide the actual physical movement in the Shili exercises. The increased neuro-muscular co-ordination gained during Shili practice will improve the quality of the Moli practice. In this way, these two practices mutually reinforce each other. Eventually the distinction between them will all but disappear. That is why Zhan Zhuang is considered a still variation of Shili and Shili is considered a moving variation o f Zhan Zhuang. Conclusion
Shili and Mocabu are quite similar in concept. In both cases, movement is created against an imagined resistance. The feeling of resistance that is cultivated in Moli and Shili exercises will, with continued practice, get stronger but with further practice it will eventually get lighter again until it disappears altogether leaving the body very light. The Shili and Mocabu exercises, especially at the beginning, are very simple and thus it is important to take care not to give to the temptation of going from one exercise to the next one too soon. At the beginning it is not easy to judge when to progress to the next exercise and when just keep practising. Later, it becomes quite obvious - when everything starts to fall apart, you'll know that you went too fast! Just go back, for a time, to the more basic exercises. This article first appeared in the US T'ai Chi magazine, Vol 26 No. 1.
Yiquan - Power of the Mind by Karel Koskuba
Most styles of Taijiquan incorporate one or several forms of Zhan Zhuang (Pole Standing) in their training. These standing exercises are often presented as the one most important
aspect of the training (to begin with, anyway), yet not always enough information is available to students apart from the usual advice to ‘relaxÂ’, ‘keep everything openÂ’ and ‘keep standingÂ’. So why are they so important and how should they be practised? Sometimes they are presented as a form of standing meditation, sometimes as an isometric standing exercise, sometimes even as a character-building exercise! Is there a difference in training for those interested in martial arts and those interested in health only? In this article I will describe Zhan Zhuang training as it happens in Yiquan (more about Yiquan later). In Yiquan, Zhang Zhuang has been promoted to play a pivotal role from the most basic training all the way through to the most advanced training. Progress through the Zhan Zhuang training steps is methodical and detailed. I hope that by the time you have finished reading the article, all the above questions will be answered. Before I start describing Zhang Zhuang, I think we should establish some common ground in terms of what is the final result of such training. LetÂ’s say your teacher is a great master of internal martial arts. When you try to push him, he is like a rock  – you canÂ’t budge him. When he tries to push you, his body feels like steel - you canÂ’t stop him. At other times his body feels like cotton  – and you still canÂ’t stop him! LetÂ’s call these three feats a Rock Body, a Steel Body and a Cotton Body, respectively. In any of these feats it feels as if he is using great strength and yet when you try to imitate what he does, you are told not to use strength. If it is not strength, what does he use? The usual answer of ‘qiÂ’ or ‘jinÂ’ refers to concepts from a different culture. I shall make an attempt at explaining it using more familiar concepts. By the way, your teacher can do other things than the ones I have mentioned but I shall limit my description to those that can be trained using Zhang Zhuang. Whole-body Strength
The above three feats of Rock Body, Steel Body and Cotton Body are all expression of what is called whole-body strength . To understand what the whole- body strength is, let’s look at body musculature. There are two kinds of skeletal muscles: those that are involved in movement, so called motor muscles or mobilisers, and those that stabilise the body, so called postural muscles or stabilisers . The mobilisers are, on the whole, of the fast-twitch variety; they can contract and relax in a short interval but they get tired quickly. The stabilisers are of the slow-twitch variety; they do not get tired easily but, on the other hand, are quite slow. They are situated deeper in the body than the mobilisers. The above division into the two kinds of muscles is a somewhat simplified view for the sake of clearer explanation. In reality, there are stabilisers, mobilisers and muscles that act in both roles. We can pretend that any ‘composite’ muscle is split into a stabiliser and a mobiliser by extracting the appropriate type of muscle fibres (slow-twitch and fast-twitch respectively) into each of them. The functionality of the body would remain unchanged. We have very little, if any, conscious control of the stabilisers. But stabilisers have two properties that are very useful. First, given their position with respect to joints, they can make the body structure really strong. Second, most of them are designed to stabilise/balance our body against outside force (usually the force of gravity). We can use both of these properties to our advantage.
Strong Structure
LetÂ’s look at the first point. When discussing muscle strength, there is a distinction made between a static and a dynamic strength. Static strength, when the muscle is locked in position, is greater than dynamic strength, when the muscle is expanding or contracting. Locking the body in a very strong static position may be interesting but is not very useful. Especially if any push just topples the whole structure over! This is where the second point comes in. Dynamic Structure
LetÂ’s imagine you are standing on a steep hill, with one foot higher than the other and you are supporting a fairly heavy weight sliding at you from above. Suppose that you support it from underneath, with your arms above your head. You would naturally try to let the weight pass through your body into the rear foot, using the front leg to stabilise yourself against the hill. If the weight were to wobble, you would just adjust your arms and body underneath to keep the weight passing to the rear foot. It would not require any (significant) mental effort and, unless the wobble took the weight too far from your base, not any (significant) extra physical effort. Your stabilisers would perform any adjustments needed automatically, with the mobilisers acting in unison. Now letÂ’s tilt the hill so that the ground underneath becomes horizontal and the weight you were supporting is now represented by a push from someone in front of you. There will be two likely changes to your behaviour. First, you would have to adjust your posture because gravity now acts in a vertical direction. Second (and here I am asking you to pretend you are a beginner again, before you had all that extensive training), because your stabilisers now act in a different direction from the push, you will use your mobilisers to resist the push. In order to stop the push, you will start pushing back with the same force. If your adversary starts changing the direction of his push, there w ill be nothing automatic in your response! So if you could somehow get your body to act as if the push was a result of a force of gravity, you could relax and let your automatic responses neutralise the push for you. My first Taijiquan teacher told us once to "make gravity your friend". Unfortunately, I had no idea what he was talking about at that time! What is Zhan Zhuang
Zhan Zhuang is often translated as Pole Standing. It is a name that refers to a number of stance practices in which the body is kept essentially still and mostly upright, though there are some stances where the spine is not vertical. The purpose of these exercises is to become aware of the stabilisers and then gain some measure of control over them. The first task is to feel how the body acts against gravity. The best way to do that is to stand and feel (observe), in other words - Zhan Zhuang. There are a number of positions to produce different effects on the body but the most popular one is to stand with arms as if embracing a large ball in front of the chest. To isolate the stabilisers, you must relax the mobilisers. Unfortunately, the mobilisers will interfere, as most people, it seems, from a fairly early age will start (mis)using mobilisers to take on the task of stabilising the body. Because you canÂ’t really feel the stabilisers, you must try to relax all muscles. As far as your perception is concerned, mobilisers are all the muscles you are aware of. That is, by the way, why my teacher (and yours probably, too) used to say "do not use any muscles".
So the first task really is re-educating the body to use the stabilisers. The next one is to try to integrate bodyÂ’s movement to use stabilisers against any resistance that is encountered, as if acting against gravity. This will give you the basis of whole-body strength. As the Taiji classics say, "essential hardness comes from essential softness". Eventually, your arms and body will become very heavy to the touch. Further training will be needed to be able to use the body in a natural way and especially to integrate the mobilisers and fascia (connective fibrous tissue) in issuing of strength (fali or fajing) but that is not the role of Zhan Zhuang any more. Less is More
To set up a regime for Zhan Zhuang practice, I would recommend the following procedure. To start with, no more than five or ten seconds should be spent on the practice; but the practice should be performed every day without fail. There are three reasons for this seemingly ridiculous length of training. One is that it is very difficult, for an untrained person, to keep concentrating for any length of time on something as mundane as standing and you do not want to stand just for the sake of standing . The second one is that, to start with, the most important goal to achieve is to get into a habit of standing; to achieve the rhythm of daily practice. It is far easier to do that if the practice is short. Lastly, it is quite likely, as I said above, that you may be using the wrong kind of muscles at the beginning. The last thing you want is to train yourself to hold the posture with the mobilisers. You may have heard of people suffering agony in standing practices of this nature who eventually made the breakthrough into a relaxed stance. Well, it is one way to achieve the same goal but it is rather wasteful on resources and quite painful. As I said, mobilisers tire quite quickly, and then they hurt. Getting them out of the way can be done either by just standing until they give up and stabilisers take over or by trying to relax by carefully monitoring the state of the body and inducing relaxation by the use of mental images. The length of the standing should be governed by your attention span. When the concentration is weakening and other thoughts start to impinge on your mind, make a brief attempt to come back to the practice but if it fails, end the training for the day (or the time being). This way, your concentration will gradually improve with the standing in a natural way. The process is quite simple. As you keep standing, gradually areas of the body that you were not aware of will come within your awareness. As it happens, you will have more of the body to observe, and thus your standing can be longer, without you getting bored. So, if on your first day you exhaust your observation in five seconds, stop after five seconds. After six months you may be occupied with your body even after five or ten minutes. This is the easiest, and I believe the quickest, route to success. Standing in Zhan Zhuang and watching television is better than sitting and watching television  – but it shouldnÂ’t be thought of as replacing the standing where you concentrate on the body. Using the Mind
There are two kinds of mental images that you can employ. The first type is used to create a tranquil state in your mind, which, in turn, will promote relaxation of your bod y. For example, imagine yourself standing in a beautiful garden. You can see pretty flowers and trees all around you. You can smell the flowerÂ’s scent on a soft breeze. You can hear birds singing in the trees. There are few white clouds in the blue sky. Or you may prefer to
picture a scene by the sea, with the white surf breaking on the beach. Any image that will make you as peaceful and happy as possible. You owe it to your training! The second type is used to induce some kinaesthetic feeling to guide the body. Some people get it naturally, others will have to have it explained in some fashion (difficult to generalise in an article) or will have to experiment before they can understand/reproduce it. I will give an example below. When creating images or concentrating on the body, there should be no mental ‘effort’. The feeling created should be more like observing something rather than striving for something. Embracing Posture As an example a health stance, I
will describe Cheng Bao Zhan Zhuang . The purpose of the images used here is still only to promote relaxation  – thus any similar images will do. Stand in a comfortable stance with your feet about shoulder-width. Keep your body upright by imagining that you head is suspended from above. Relax your spine by slightly bending the knees and feel as if you are lowering yourself onto a high stool. Keep you whole body soft. Create an image of a garden or other peaceful image as described above. Try to express the tranquil feeling in your face and body. Eyes can be open, half-open or closed. Breathing is soft, quiet, and preferably through the nose. Slowly lift your arms in front of you in a position of embracing a ball, hands at about shoulder-height and shoulder-width apart. Keep you fingers slightly bent and the palms slightly stretched. Feel you whole body supported: you are sitting on a balloon; there is another balloon between your knees; your elbows are resting on soft pillows; your head is suspended by a thread; there are cotton pads between your fingers; etc. With practice, you will be able to achieve a very relaxed feeling. When that happens, you can move on to the next step, creating kinaesthetic images. Up to now, your elbows were resting on soft pillows, keeping your shoulders relaxed. Now imagine that your elbows are touching balloons floating on water. Your task is to keep the balloons under your elbows. If you lift your elbows, the balloons will be free to float away. If you press a little more, they will be pressed into the water and pop out to float away again. The big ball you are embracing is very fragile and filled with helium - if you press a little more, it will burst, if you press a little less, it will float away. The feeling created is that of sticking very lightly to a ball but making sure not to let it slip from your embrace. You must not get into an anxious state - you know these are just images. The purpose of this type of images is not to become skilful in creating them but in exploring how the body feeling changes and thus gradually becoming aware of the inside body structure (stabilisers) and bodyÂ’s unity. You can start slowly swaying forward and back. Keep your body balanced and experience the movement as a passive movement; for example as if standing in a slowly flowing river that keeps changing its direction.
‘Primordial Void’ Posture As an example of a combat stance , I will describe Hun Yuan Zhang Zhuang . The previous Zhang Zhuang training was designed to increase awareness of the stabilisers. The purpose of these are more advanced exercises is to get the stabilisers under control. This is done by very small and careful movements so that we do not ‘wake up’ our mobilisers. In Wang Xiangzhai’s (founder of Yiquan) words: "All sorts of strengths originate in the void and nothingness, which can only be felt gradually by the tiny edges and corners of the body". Again, mental images are used to help the body do "the right thing". Beginning of this training is done still in Zhan Zhuang, the rest in later training. Starting from the Embracing Posture described above, transfer the weight onto your right leg and shift the left foot forward, lifting the heel off the ground. Put about a quarter to a third of your weight onto the front foot. Move your left hand a bit up and forward. Create the ‘garden’ (or similar) image as in the previous posture. Keep a very soft and relaxed body structure and create a kinaesthetic image of exerting a great deal of strength. For example, imagine that you are embracing a tree and try to pull it up. After a little while, try pushing it down. Try to uproot it by pushing with the whole body forwards, then by pulling with the whole body backwards. Do not imagine that you are actually succeeding in any of these tasks. The tree is big and just won’t budge. During your practice, you stay relaxed and nearly still with perhaps just very small movement. Little by little you will get a feeling of control. Weight Training
So how about strengthening oneÂ’s body using weight training? As I said above, the only muscles that we are normally aware of are the mobilisers. When we decide to move, we immediately use the mobilisers. In fact, as was noted, we often use the mobilisers instead of stabilisers. So what muscles are we likely to strengthen and build up when we lift weights? Working on strengthening mobilisers when you try to use stabilisers is not going to help with your progress. It is usually the strongest looking person who starts to shake first when attempting Zhan Zhuang for the first time. Having big and strong muscles is not bad in itself, even in Internal Martial Arts. The problem is that normally weight training reinforces the habit of using mobilisers. This is contrary to what we try to achieve with the Zhan Zhuang training. So your first priority should be to establish control over stabilisers. After such control is established, you can start using weights, if you so desire. But you should be careful to use mobilisers for movement and stabilisers for handling the weights. Is Zhan Zhuang Training Necessary?
Not really. Some people can achieve all of the feats attributed to your imaginary teacher above without any standing practice. What they probably do is to train a lot of slow moving exercises (either forms or silk-reeling type drills). The key to their practice is again to relax all the mobilisers (which, as far as they are concerned, are all the muscles) and to imagine they are moving against some slight resistance (for example as if moving in water). Little by little the stabilisers will start being involved in a similar manner as I discussed above. Sometimes they can ‘cheat’ by practising the form as a series of static postures. The idea is the same as Zhan Zhuang but they are training the stabilisers in the postures used in the form.
Your Zhan Zhuang (or other standing exercises) may be different in some aspects. As I said at the beginning, what I have described is a Yiquan system of Zhan Zhuang exercises and I hope that it will give you some ideas that will help to improve your Zhan Zhuang practice. LetÂ’s have a brief look at Yiquan to see how the Zhan Zhuang training progresses further. What is Yiquan
Yiquan (pronounced ee-chwen), sometimes called Dachengquan (see later about that), is a fairly new martial art  – it was created in the 1920s by Wang Xiangzhai (1885-1963). Wang Xiangzhai sought out the best martial artists of his time on his quest to discover the ‘essence of boxingÂ’. He then created his new art by dropping, over a period of time, anything that he came to consider as non-essential or that could be replaced by something that gave better or quicker results. Gradually, the mental aspects came to dominate all parts of the training. To emphasise the importance of mind, both in training and its use, he decided to call his art Yiquan - ‘YiÂ’ means ‘mindÂ’ or ‘intentÂ’ and ‘quanÂ’ means ‘fistÂ’ or ‘boxingÂ’. The name was probably arrived at by dropping ‘XingÂ’ (form or shape) from ‘XingyiquanÂ’, probably the most influential of the arts that went into creating Yiquan (though Baguazhang, with its footwork and Taijiquan with its neutralising and pushing hands are not far behind). Eventually, he came to see Yiquan not as a martial art or a system of health exercises but as a "path to the truth" and a way to gain "absolute freedom". On the way, however, he had plenty of opportunities to test its value as a martial art. He considered all schools of martial arts to be defective and "taking the students further away from the goal". He made no attempt to keep his views to himself and when he moved to Beijing, in the late 1930s, Wang Xiangzhai issued a public challenge to his fellows martial artists to "exchange ideas and learn from each other". In view of his public comments, there was no shortage of challengers. Any challenger had to defeat one of Wang XiangzhaiÂ’s top four students first but none succeeded. The four students were Han Xingqiao, Hong Lianshun, Yao Zongxun (Wang XiangzhaiÂ’s eventual successor) and Zhou Ziyan . Yiquan quickly gained a reputation for its combat effectiveness (and later on for its health benefits). At this time, Wang Xiangzhai abandoned the name Yiquan as he felt that having a name bound the art to its image. His students and the public, in view of its successes, started to call the art Dachengquan (Great Achievement Boxing) and Wang Xiangzhai, after some initial resistance, accepted the name. However, he later reverted to using the name Yiquan again, as he felt that it fitted the art better. Yiquan Training
The complete training consists of seven steps: Zhan Zhuang (Pole Standing) - described above. Shi Li (Testing of Strength) - simple exercises for learning how to keep the whole-
body connection and whole-body strength whilst moving (this stage is equivalent to practising forms in other Internal Martial Arts) Â – in other words, learning how to integrate mobilisers and stabilisers in movement.
Mo Ca Bu (Friction Step) - learning how to keep the
whole-body connection and
whole-body strength whilst stepping. Fa Li (Release of Power) - learning how to
‘release’ power (fa-jin training). How to release in any direction and with any part of the body. Tui Shou (Pushing Hands) - this stage is similar to
TaijiquanÂ’s Pushing Hands. Also can be viewed as the previous three stages with a partner. Also called Dance of Death ( - just a joke!). (Testing of Voice) - learning to augment power and integrate the centre of the body in a more natural way using breathing musculature. Shi Sheng
Ji Ji Fa (Combat Practice) - fixed and free sparring drills and sparring.
At all stages of training, students must try to follow the most important principle  – Use mind, not strength ( yong yi bu yong li). This principle was clearly seen in the description of the various stages of Zhan Zhuang training above. Yiquan for health
Most posture and musculo-skeletal problems seem to be caused by the misuse of mobilisers that are usurping the role of stabilisers. Due to their low endurance characteristics, they cannot do the job adequately. Thus it is no use to tell people who slump to ‘straighten up’. They will naturally use their mobilisers to lift their posture with the inevitable result that the muscles will get tired and hurt and so they will slump again. To do any kind of conscious movement, it is only natural to use mobilisers. This is where Zhan Zhuang training of Yiquan can help. It is ideally suited for correcting all kinds of problems stemming from the imbalance between stabilisers and mobilisers. And I think the training gives quicker results when compared to other therapies, like the Alexander technique and the Feldenkreis method (and is probably less expensive, too). There are other benefits stemming from the emphasis on tranquillity and very slow and careful movements. It obviously helps with any stress-related problems, and problems with co-ordination and balance. It is an excellent method of regulating one’s metabolism and sleep pattern. The list could go on but the space is limited! After the Shi Li training, students are taught (if that is the right word in this context) Health Dance in which they link different exercises in a spontaneous manner. The Traditional View
IÂ’ll try to translate the vocabulary used in this article to a more traditional one often used in Taijiquan and other Internal Martial Arts so that you can cross-check the ideas presented here with your own training. What I have been describing is how to gain control over muscles that we are not even aware of. Clearly, any movement using stabilisers must seem powered by something else
than muscles. In Chinese culture, qi is a cause of movement so it is not surprising that the kind of movement I’ve been describing would be attributed to qi. We have seen how this ‘qi’ is trained by the mind (awareness) and activated by the mind. Sometimes ‘bone breathing’ or ‘bone squeezing’ methods are used to ‘congeal qi into bones’. This is just another way of gaining awareness of the deep muscular structures. Awareness of the stabilisers is felt like a tightness round the bones. Due to the structure of slow-twitch fibres, deliberate use of stabilisers produces more heat than is usual. This can be felt and it is different from a similar, but smaller, effect in the skin brought about by relaxation. Both of these effects, but especially the heat produced deeper in the body, are often taken as a sign of increased ‘qi’ flow. Conclusion
Zhan Zhuang is the first step in acquiring Internal Power. The emphasis should be on relaxing all muscles and feeling how the body balances against gravity. Slow, very subtle movements can be felt under the guide of kinaesthetic visualisation (movement in stillness ). Later on, when learning to move, the body’s structure should always be supported by stabilisers, producing the feeling of standing at any point in the movement (stillness in movement ). Whilst I have supported my ideas with quotes, I would like to say that as far as I know, the people I have quoted did not use any explanation referring to stabilisers and mobilisers. That part is my own explanation and should not be treated as the ‘official’ view. This is a slightly modified version of an article that first appeared in the US T'ai Chi magazine, Vol 25 No. 3.
Theory Learning Yiquan is not just learning new patterns of movements but a completely different mode of movement. That is why a much greater emphasis is placed on the mental component of training. This is particularly important in the beginning, when we are trying to learn the new way of using our body. Practising without paying a close attention to the way we move could easily result in just reinforcing the old mode of movement. In contrast to other Chinese martial arts, the concept of Qi is not used. In his early days, Wang Xiangzhai adhered to the traditional concepts and explanations but in his later years, he abandoned them as he considered them outdated and more confusing. Traditionally, Yi (mind) directs Qi (energy) which in turns directs body. In Yiquan, there is no intermediate link. Thus the body is directed only by the mind. What follows is a brief outline of the process of learning Yiquan. The Practice page links the steps described below with specific exercises.
Acquiring whole-body strength . explanation: This is the first requirement. At this stage we
must learn two skills:
learning how to generate power using the whole body learning how to connect the body together so that the power can propagate through the body to the point of contact with an opponent
These two goals are closely related but, at the beginning, more emphasis is placed on connecting the body together. Maintaining the whole-body connection and strength whilst moving . explanation: Keeping our body connected when we are still is not the same as keeping it
connected when we move. Maintaining the whole-body connection and strength whilst stepping . explanation: We have to maintain our connection to the ground whilst stepping. Here we
also practise maintaining the connection of the upper and lower body while stepping. Learning to propagate power around the whole body at will . explanation: This is where we learn how to move power around the body. The feeling
created is that a pressure anywhere on our body is met by a spring-like force. Releasing strength - basics . explanation: So far, we have been 'playing' around with the power 'inside' our body. Here
we learn how to use or 'release' the whole-body power in a practical manner. Releasing strength in any direction with any part of the body . explanation:Once we learn how to 'release' power, we practice different ways and means. Manipulating an opponent . explanation: Having learnt how to move in a solo manner, we have to learn how to use this
new way of movement whilst dealing with someone else. We have to keep the whole-body connection whether we manipulate someone or are being manipulated. In addition we learn how to sense opponent's intention and learn useful techniques for later combat practice. Augmenting strength using breath control . explanation: Breathing musculature can be used to
integrate the centre of the body in a
more natural way. Learning to fight . explanation: This step is only applicable to those students who wish to learn fighting either
for self-defence or in order to enter competitions.
Zhan Zhuang - foundation of Internal Martial Arts by Karel Koskuba
Most Internal Martial Arts use some form of standing practice as foundation training (and Taijiquan is no exception in this regard). These standing exercises are usually called Zhan Zhuang (pole standing); sometimes they are called 'standing Qigong'. I think it's fair to say that most students are baffled by them. They are supposed to be good for you but most students find them difficult to understand, boring and painful. Yet they are supposed to relax you and help you to 'accumulate Qi'. In this article I shall try to outline my theory that should explain, from western perspective, why these exercises are so important both for Internal Martial Arts and Qigong, how this western view correlates with the traditional Qi view and give training advice on how to practice them. In writing this article I have drawn upon my experience from Taijiquan, Yiquan and information from medical postural rehabilitation research and sports science. Before I start, I would like to establish some facts about how we use our body that I will use in my explanation.
Posture, Movement and Balance We generally think of posture and movement as being separate - we are either still or we move. Movement and posture place different demands on our muscles and so it is not surprising that our muscles reflect this. For example, those muscles used mainly for posture have a high content of slow-twitch fibres whereas the muscles used mainly for movement have a high content of fast twitch fibres. But not only are muscles different from each other, one muscle can be quite different in different functions. For example a muscle when used in a postural (stabilising or tonic) function will act differently from the same muscle when used for movement (mobilising or phasic function). So for ease of explanation, let me pretend that each muscle is really two muscles - a postural one and a phasic one (sometimes called stabilisers and mobilisers). As a further simplification, when I say a muscle, what I will mean is the muscle with all the various sensors associated w ith it plus its controlling mechanism within the Central Nervous System. So please keep it in mind when I talk about muscles 'feeling this' or 'doing that'. What is important about postural muscles from our perspective is the fact that they react against the force of gravity and that they act outside of our volition - we cannot normally control postural muscles directly, only indirectly - through intent. For example when we ride a bicycle, we keep our balance by the use of postural muscles. Our intent is not to fall down but we do not consciously control their operation in the way we can control voluntary movement. Conscious control would be too slow - before we could react, we would fall down. This is in fact what happens when we start learning to ride a bicycle - we start by
using phasic muscles and through trial and error the postural muscles take over and we 'find our balance'. Our postural muscles are not only used in holding a posture or in balancing as was mentioned above, but during movement, too. If we think of movement as a transition between postures, we can see that postural muscles are active all the time. But what is the relevance of postural muscles to Taijiquan? Effortless and Natural
If someone pushes against you and you do not want to be pushed off balance, the chances are that you will resist using strength. If this happens, you are using phasic muscles. But it will be different if someone pushes down on your shoulders. In this situation you do not push back up - you just absorb the push effortlessly into your posture. So in the first example if, instead of phasic muscles, you were to use postural muscles to absorb the push into your posture, you would use far less effort. You could then also use the 'balancing' ability of postural muscles to effortlessly counteract any sudden change of direction. In other words, as the Taiji Classics say: "when he doesn't move, you don't move; when he moves, you've already moved ". So using postural muscles in this way would make Pushing Hands a far more enjoyable experience! Where the Mind Goes, the Qi Follows
The parallels between Qi and the use of postural muscles should be becoming a bit clearer now. When I use intent ( Yi) to guide my postural muscles to lift my arms, I do not feel any effort - it is as if my arms are being lifted by invisible threads. When I use postural muscles to absorb or neutralise a push, I don't feel any effort and my body reacts automatically to produce a balanced outcome for me. And when you start using postural muscles, you develop a feedback through subtle sensations such as heat, ache, flow and others. All these are properties of Qi. If we describe (human) Qi as 'those processes of the body/mind that are outside conscious control' than we would cover most aspects. Qi originates in the Dantian
When you make any movement, before the movement begins there is a short delay during which the body prepares by stabilising your lumbar spine using deep abdominal postural muscles. Normally you will not feel this 'preparation', but it is there and as your awareness increases you can feel it. As we said in the above paragraph, usage of postural muscles equates to usage of Qi. Thus any movement is preceded by activation of your Qi in your Dantian (think of it loosely as the lower abdomen). Your body will not move till it is properly stabilised. This is important for fast moves, especially explosive fa-jin. The delay produced by stabilisation of your lumbar spine makes you slower. This does not matter very much for slow movements. But when you want to move fast, you do want to move fast! There is a way to eliminate or at least minimise this delay by holding your body in a posture where your postural muscles are already engaged.
Song
The posture just described is what is called Song (loose, relaxed) in Taiji Classics. What is important in this posture is that everything that can be supported by postural muscles, is indeed so supported. Your body feels light (you can't feel postural muscles) and poised for action, perfectly balanced. You could even say that (quoting Taiji Classics again) "a feather cannot be added to the body nor a fly alight without setting you in motion". Whole Body Movement
If you stand on one leg and observe for a time what you do to keep upright, you may notice that the adjustment to your posture can happen anywhere from your ankles all the way to your head. That's because postural muscles co-ordinate across the whole body. When you use postural muscles, rather than phasic muscles, you will naturally produce whole body movement. Postural Dysfunctions
From what you've read so far, you can see that training postural muscles is quite important. But there are still other reasons to be concerned about them. Due to our fairly recent transition (in evolutionary timescale) into upright posture, the postural function related to this upright posture is not yet securely embedded into our neuro-muscular system and can be easily disrupted. It seems the 'new' postural muscles need the input that they get from functioning as postural muscles (i.e. balancing against gravity) to remind them that they are postural muscles. For example if they are held in a fixed position for a long time, they may start to forget their proper role. Our lifestyle unfortunately encourages this (school, office, computers,...). And there are still other ways for things to go wrong. Sometimes phasic muscles can take over the postural role because we did not 'let go' of them at the end of a move and so they may start holding part of our posture. As the posture muscles weaken through inactivity, the phasic muscles' postural role will be strengthened. Or we may strengthen a phasic muscle too much during training and it may start taking over the postural function within its domain. All this has implications for our strength. When pushing something whilst standing on a slippery surface, we cannot generate much strength. In order to use force effectively, we need a stable base. This applies within our body, too. If our postural muscles are weak or not working properly, our phasic muscles will not develop their maximum strength. This means that often we can use only a fraction of our potential strength. It affects our speed, too. If we can't produce enough strength due to weak postural muscles, our speed will suffer. If we use phasic muscles to act as postural muscles, they will not be very effective when we try to use them for movement. As a result of all this, the majority of us do not use our core postural muscles properly. More than 95% of all musculo-skeletal problems can be attributed to the imbalance between postural and phasic muscles. And it's not only musculo-skeletal problems. As the
research in this area is still fairly new, I'm sure the importance of postural re -education will grow steadily. Having, I hope, established the case for postural training, let's have a look at it in detail. I will present Yiquan's approach to Zhan Zhuang training. Yiquan (pronounced yee-chuan) is an internal martial art with main principles and stages of training quite similar to those of Taijiquan and, with the exception of Zhan Zhuang, quite a lot simpler. Zhan Zhuang in Yiquan, on the other hand, is more detailed and it is the main training tool all the way from beginner to the most advanced level. I will describe several health postures and one combat posture but there are sitting postures, lying down postures (very popular with students!), one-legged postures, slanted postures, etc. However, the ones I describe here are sufficient for the purpose of illustrating the method of practice. Standing - Zhan Zhuang General Points
Any worry or anxiety impedes our learning progress. So the first task is to create a calm and happy mental state and it is important to keep it throughout all training. This is a skill, like any other and will improve with training. So create some image that will make your mind tranquil and happy. In doing so, engage as many senses as possible. For example, imagine yourself in a beautiful garden. You can see pretty flowers and trees all around you. You can smell the flowers' scent on a soft breeze. You can feel the soft breeze on your skin. You can hear birds singing in the trees. There are few white clouds in the blue sky. Or you may prefer to picture a scene by the sea, with the white surf breaking on the beach. Any image that will make you as peaceful and happy as possible. Try to express the tranquil feeling in your face and body. The next step is to relax the whole body. We shall use mental images again, this time directed towards relaxing specific areas of the body. Try to create kinaesthetic images (sensations in the body) rather than visual images. Health Postures
Stand with your feet about the width of your shoulders apart, feet parallel or toes pointing slightly out, whichever is more comfortable. Bend your knees slightly so t hat you can relax the lower back. Feel the whole body soft and balanced. Feel that your head is held as if suspended from above by a string attached to the crown of the head. The neck will then be relaxed and free from any tension. The spine, and especially the coccyx, should hang down - an image of reaching down with your bottom, as if about to sit on a high stool, can help with this. Eyes can be either open or closed, mouth nearly open (but not quite), breathing softly and quietly, preferably through the nose. Feeling calm and happy. After a period of settling down, start observing how your body keeps the balance. Gradually you will become aware of small movements of your body. At the beginning, you are likely to feel the whole body sway a little and get automatically corrected into a
balanced position. Try not to control these movements but imagine standing in (warm) water and feel your body swaying as if moved by slow waves. Feel the whole body swaying as one unit - do not move your arms independently of the body. Some people, because they think their body should be still in standing postures, try to keep the body motionless. That is a mistake - the body should be as soft and relaxed as possible. The emphasis should be on relaxing all (phasic) muscles and feeling how the body balances against gravity. Slow, very subtle movements can be felt and these are used and controlled, first in a passive manner, later actively, using kinaesthetic visualisation. The role of the Health Postures is to relax the body and develop whole-body connection. This means that a movement in any part of the body can be felt to propagate through the whole body in a natural fashion. The process is characterised by gradually becoming aware of the internal structure of the body and then gaining some measure of control over it. Empty Posture (Wu Ji Zhuang)
Observe the General Points and then the description in Health Postures above. Let your arms hang by the sides.
Master Chen Xiaowang correcting Wuji posture of Kathy Webb Embracing Posture (Ping Bu Cheng Bao Zhuang)
Start in the Empty Posture as described above. When you have sttled down and feel calm, lift your arms slowly in front of you in a shape of embracing a big balloon in front of your chest. The hands should be in front of your shoulders, with the palms facing you and the fingers of both hands pointing at each other. Keep your fingers open and imagine small cotton pads placed between fingers, supporting them in their open position. Your hands are soft and slightly curved. Feel your elbows resting on soft pillows. With practice, you will be able to achieve a very relaxed feeling. When that happens, you can move on to the next step, creating kinaesthetic images.
Karel Koskuba in Cheng Bao Zhuang
Up to now, your elbows were as if resting on soft pillows, keeping your shoulders relaxed. Now imagine that your elbows are touching balloons floating on water. Your task is to keep the balloons under your elbows. If you lift your elbows, the balloons will be free to float away. If you press a little more, they will be pressed into the water and pop out to float away again. Imagine that the big balloon you are embracing is very fragile and filled with helium - if you press a little more, it will burst, if you press a little less, it will float away. The feeling created is that of sticking very lightly to the balloon but making sure not to let it slip from your embrace. The purpose of these types of images is not to become skilful in creating them but in exploring how the body feeling changes and gradually becoming aware of the inside body structure and body's unity. You can start slowly swaying forward and back. Keep your body balanced and experience the movement as a passive
movement; for example as if standing in a slowly flowing river that keeps changing its direction. As you get better in experiencing the 'inner flow' within your body, you can discard the images. Covering Posture (Ping Bu Fu An Zhuang) From the Embracing Posture, keeping your elbows still, slowly lower your
forearms and turn your hands palms down. The arms should be horizontal, with fingers of each hand pointing inwards at around 45 degrees angle. Feel as if your arms and hands are resting on a plank of wood that is floating on water. Feel the plank floating on water away from you and follow that motion with your body. There should not be any change of your arms in relation to your body. Then feel the plank floating towards you and again follow the motion. All other points remain the same. Combat Postures
Practice of Combat Postures is the first step in acquiring Internal Power. Their role is to make the Combat Stance (see immediately below) seem as natural as possible, strengthen legs and create a connection between them, and start using the whole-body connection to 'sense strength' in the body (see 'Almost-Movement' below). Combat Stance
Stand with your heels about fist-width apart, toes pointing slightly out. Transfer your weight onto your right leg and shift the left foot forward, in the direction the foot is pointing and lift the front heel off the ground. Put about a quarter to a third of your weight onto the front foot. Keep a slight push from the front foot into the back one and vice versa. Each of your knees should point in the same direction as the respective foot. Feel as if there is an elastic band between the front toes and your forehead and between the front knee and the opposite hip. At all times feel that you are holding these elastic bands slightly stretched. The body should be held as described for the Health Postures. Eyes should be open, looking into distance. Almost-Movement
Observe closely what happens in your body just before you move. Say you get ready to move but you 'abort' the move just before it actually happens. If you try it few times, you are quite likely to notice a certain type of feeling in the part of the body that you were going to move. At the beginning, it is probably easier to feel it in your hands or arms, so if you have difficulty with it, choose a hand movement. Eventually you will be able to feel a sort of 'inner' activity in your body. What happens is that as you form an intention to move and as you get ready to move, there will be some muscular activity associated with stabilising your body in such a way so as to enable the movement to take place. Normally this muscular activity is not noticed as it gets subsumed in the sensations of the actual move that normally takes place. We can't call it a movement, as there is nothing actually moving
yet it is more than 'not moving' - that's why I call it almost-movement. This is the basis of 'sensing strength'. In the following Zhan Zhuang exercise we practise moving or sensing ( Moli - sensing strength) in forward-back direction. 'Primordial Void' Posture (Hun Yuan Zhuang)
Stand in a Combat Stance and as in the Health Postures above, create some image in your mind that will make you calm and happy; keep it in your mind and your body throughout the training. Slowly lift your arms in front of you as in the Embracing Posture described above but this time the left hand (assuming the left foot is in front) is slightly more forward and up than the right hand. Apart from the position of your arms and legs, the rest should be the same as in the Embracing Posture (including creation of a calm and peaceful feeling). Master Yao Chengguang in Hun Yuan Zhuang Sensing Strength in a Forward-Back Direction (Qian-Hou Moli)
Keep a very soft and relaxed body structure and create a kinaesthetic image of exerting a great deal of strength. For example, imagine that you are embracing a tree and try to uproot it by pushing with your body forwards. At the same time, imagine that you are inside another, hollow, tree with your arms and the back in contact with the tree and you try to uproot that one by pushing with the back of your arms. Alternate this effort with 'moving' in the opposite direction - pulling the inside tree with your arms and pushing the outside tree with the back of your body. Always use the whole body. Do not imagine that you are actually succeeding in any of these tasks - the trees are too big and just won't budge. During your practice, you stay relaxed and nearly still with perhaps just very small movement. Little by little you will get a feeling of almost-movement. After a period of practice (say several weeks), slowly work the following six points into your posture:
lift your foot arches and feel as if your feet are grasping the ground feel your pelvis horizontal and from there a slight lifting of your perineum
feel your diaphragm horizontal by relaxing down the front bottom edge of your ribcage which should fill-out your lower back ("relax your chest and raise the back") feel the top of the chest/bottom of your neck horizontal feel the bottom of your mouth relaxed and horizontal feel the top of your head horizontal
These are all important points for re-inforcing the work of your main postural muscles throughout your body.
Tips for Zhan Zhuang practice Establish a regular routine
The best way to achieve that is to start with very little but every day. What is 'very little'? Say 10 seconds - and I do not mean it as a joke! If you start with 10 seconds, you'll eventually be able to go to hours with no problem (if you wish). In Zhan Zhuang you are training your Mind
The best way to train your mind is to practice only when you concentrate. That's why 10 seconds is probably a good starting point. As you keep practising, you naturally start to concentrate for longer and so you practise longer. Even when you can stand for a long time, if one day you can't concentrate, stop practising. If you force yourself to stand for a set period, you learn not to concentrate, the practice becomes boring and soon you would give up. When you concentrate, it's enjoyable and you progress faster. Pain is not necessary
Pain is distracting. Remember, you are training your mind - if the pain in your legs or arms distracts you, you can't concentrate, so stop practising or change to another posture. If you have pain in any of your joints, stop practising - you should never feel pain in your joints. Muscle pain could be OK, but best to check with someone who would know (for example your teacher). Get someone to correct your posture
It's a good idea not to worry about your posture at the very beginning. First you need to relax and settle into the practice. But fairly soon you should get someone to check your posture, preferably several times and then from time to time till you can feel yourself whether it's correct or not. It can save you a lot of time!
Further Training
Zhan Zhuang is the first step in Yiquan training. For completeness, I show the whole syllabus with both 'modern' and 'traditional' explanations. Yiquan Training - modern (and traditional) explanation Zhan Zhuang (Pole
Standing)
Shi Li (Testing of
Strength) Mo Ca Bu (Friction
Step) Fa Li (Release of Power) -
- the Health Stances are primarily for relaxing and retraining the body to use postural muscles (accumulating Qi). The Combat Stances are for learning how to control the postural muscles using intent (how to use Yi to lead Qi). - learning how to move upper body using postural muscles (how to use Qi to lead body or strength) and patterning the body for subsequent Fa Li training. same as Shi Li but for legs.
learning how to 'release' power by using phasic muscles supported by postural muscles (learning how to produce Jin by combining Qi with physical strength) along the lines practised at the Shi Li stage and later based on advanced Zhan Zhuang training. this stage is similar to Taijiquan's Pushing Hands. Tui Shou (Pushing Hands) Sometimes called Shi Li with a partner though later fa jin is also used. Shi Sheng (Testing of learning to augment power and integrate the centre of Voice) the body in a more natural way using breathing musculature. Ji Ji Fa (Combat fixed and free sparring drills and sparring. Practice) If you miss out the Combat Stances, instead of the 'Shi Li' and 'Mo Ca Bu ' stages substitute practice of the Taijiquan Forms(s) and add weapons training after the 'Tui Shou' stage, you get a Taijiquan syllabus. Yiquan for health
Zhan Zhuang training of Yiquan is ideally suited for correcting all kinds of problems stemming from the imbalance between phasic muscles and postural muscles, some of which were mentioned under the 'Postural Dysfunctions' heading above but there are other benefits that result from Yiquan training. The emphasis on tranquillity is very beneficial in any stress-related problems; the training method of slow and careful movements improves dramatically co-ordination and balance. It is an excellent method of regulating one's metabolism and sleep pattern. The list could go on but the space is limited! Conclusion and Summary
Zhan Zhuang is the first step in acquiring Internal Power. The emphasis should be on relaxing all muscles and feeling how the body balances against gravity. Gradually the use of phasic muscles is eliminated from the postural function of the body. S low, very subtle movements can be felt under the guide of kinaesthetic visualisation (movement in stillness). Later on, when learning to move using 'intent', the body's structure should always be supported by postural muscles only, producing the feeling of standing at any point in the movement (stillness in movement ). This article first appeared in the German Tai Chi and Qigong magazine, autumn 2003.
