Maybe I'm just having an unpleasant day, but I am having difficulty accepting the responses here where people seem to think that their martial practices, internal or not, have absolutely
no relation to the level of strength and fitness in their bodies...
A weak, unfit, pathetic specimen will, no matter how much thinking (yi) or extending of qi he does, not be able to apply a single technique of any nature.
The fallacy of the superiority of an IMAist based on qigong alone is epidemic. What do you think standing postures do?
Only exercise your qi? Hardly. As you stand there, regardless of what posture it may be, your body develops strength and endurance to maintain that position. There it is, boys and girls, the development of physical strength to support the IMA technique.
In reference to my "real training" comment, what I meant to imply is that if you can wear a skimpy, silk taiji pajama outfit to class and never have it run a very serious risk of being ripped right off your body, then your opponent is certainly not trying to give you anything approximating a realistic encounter. When we practice chin na, at first only the technique is worked so little resistance is used while the movement is developed. However, at some point, significant resistance
must be applied in order to discover whether the student in question can apply the technique against a determined opponent. Doing any less develops nothing more than a false sense of ability.
If you refer back to my comments upthread:
If four ounces of power are applied by a weakling, then the four ounces will be overcome by the 1000 pounds. If the four ounces have no strong stance, no strong root (both developed after strengthening the body through posture training, forms, standing, etc.) from which to originate, the 1000 pounds will roll right over the source of the four ounces...
and the comments made by Taijifan:
for instance my taijiquan teacher is a small lady she's about 5.2" and weighs less than 7 stone, but when she drops an arm on you, she puts you through the floor, she has no apparent muscles, doesn't exert any external strength, but she very strong in her root, and understanding of biomechanics
Strength in rooting will necessarily also relate to a person's ability to hold a static stance (at first) and later to maintain that root in motion. Neither is possible with weak legs. If legs are not weak, what are they? Strong. With what? The physical, muscular endurance necessary to hold said stance or motion stable. Taijifan's teacher may be old and small, but I bet her legs are like oak trees (not large, necessarily, just strong).
If you refer to Chufeng's comments upthread:
Brute strength is frowned upon...our strength comes from a relaxed body with a strong root (sound familiar?)...
Brute force is not what I am talking about. I am not referring to the grunting, laboring, heaving efforts of a weight lifter. However, I
am saying that someone who only ever holds a stance for a few seconds at a time, or is unable to hold their arms out for any period of time, etc., will be
completely unable to apply anything from any IMA, regardless of the amount of sitting qigong meditation they may have done...
All the qi in the world will not overcome crappy technique. The cause of most crappy technique? Physical inability to support it. What else could we call that physical inability? Weakness. The physical
ability to support it would then be what? The opposite of weakness, which is (as we learned earlier)
strength.
It is a myth that IMA do not use strength. We just seem to be confused about what kind of strength we are talking about. I also think that many IMA schools (as well as non-IMA schools) spend too much time allowing their training partners to get away with performing techniques. There are many schools wherein realistic attacks are used, but not many. When I was training in Japan, my senior student (a very large and strong former power lifter) would deliberately exert all the power he had in order to attack, to grab (in order to train chin na, etc.), etc., and while the soft movements of IMA training did overcome his attacks, without a certain degree of fitness in stance, limb strength, etc., the movement would have meant nothing. I did not out muscle him; couldn't have even if I tried. Technique beat him. However, some of our other students who were not physicall fit enough to be able to support the technique were completely unable to make the movements work. At all.
That is the strength I am talking about.
How does that relate to CLOTHING (which is what this thread was originally about)? Simple. Somebody big and strong grabs your t-shirt with a purpose, you try to escape, he will keep your shirt...
Hence, a distinct need for rugged clothing that will resist tearing and other damages.
Gambarimasu.
That's my wife's department. She's a steam train enthusiast
