20 Minute Challenge

[Marsha Larts]

Can you do this?


Step-1

You will need to be seated at a table or desk or whatever.


Sitting comfortably, find a point, or thing, directly in front of you and just barely within your reach. With your fully focused intent on reaching for that thing, don't.

You send out the command to reach, but you arrest the movement before it starts, then you hold it in stasis between start/stop. No tension or muscle contraction - relax while using the full force of your intent.

Step-2

Stand in front of a closed door, hands at your sides with your arms loose and relaxed, and do the same thing with your fully focused intent to grasp the door knob and open the door.



Continue each exercise as long as you can remain focused and full of intent. Reset yourself every minute or less, allowing everything to relax, and repeat each exercise doing step-1 as many times as you can, and then the same in step-2.


Pay attention to what is going on internally (how your body reacts autonomously and involuntarily) as you work through each exercise and please report your findings if you feel like sharing.

 

[Appledog29 2]

Pay attention to what is going on internally (how your body reacts autonomously and involuntarily) as you work through each exercise and please report your findings if you feel like sharing.

This is called "yi leads the chi leads the li" in the literature. It means what happens when you do the above; you use the yi to lead the li, and the chi moves (you don't focus on the chi, because you can't control it directly). Of course this is referring to the use of chi in a martial context--Students usually begin to pick this up during fajin training but it can vary from student to student. Sometimes it can take years to work through chi blockages and build up the necessary muscle density in certain areas to really support this kind of movement. This is why it usually isn't spoken about until the sifu feels you're on the level.

If you sit down a lot at a coding job for instance your core might be a bit weaker and you might not be able to experience this fully yet. So from the perspective of traditional chinese medicine as much as it may help a student to do this first while sitting down I recommend you do it standing up. Sometimes we forget how advanced we are and forget what it was like to be a be a beginner. Some beginners truly must go through the motions before they will be ready to train something like this, and you must not allow yourself to become frustrated at people who are less skilled than you are.

 

[Marsha Larts]

Pay no attention to the do-nothing troll.

Everyone's experience of actually doing what's outlined in the op will be their own, and that's the point of this exercise.

 

[Prince_Alarming62 5]

Pay no attention to the do-nothing troll.

Dude, that seems like something of an over-reaction

 

[Marsha Larts]

Dude, that seems like something of an over-reaction

No, it fits

The kind of work outlined in the op has nothing to do with MA styles (CMA, JMA, FMA, MMA, BJJ et al), or even Martial Arts in general.

 

[Appledog29 2]

.

No, it fits

No it doesn't, what I said was correct. Your reaction to what I said does not make sense as it has nothing to do with what I said. Now, I am here to talk about martial arts. But why don't you explain to everyone here why you think I am a do-nothing troll (your words) so we can understand what you really want to talk about?

 

[jks919995 19]

Folks,
If you feel that someone's posting or conduct violates the rules, please use the Report link, and do not respond in kind within the thread. Give the Staff some time to respond; most of us have jobs, families, and other obligations.... even just finding time to train.

 

[Marsha Larts]

Folks,
If you feel that someone's posting or conduct violates the rules, please use the Report link, and do not respond in kind within the thread. Give the Staff some time to respond; most of us have jobs, families, and other obligations.... even just finding time to train.

Thanks. Appreciate the time you give to the forum.

 

[Haruhiko]

Pay attention to what is going on internally (how your body reacts autonomously and involuntarily) as you work through each exercise and please report your findings if you feel like sharing.

I'm curious as to what your hypothesis is.

My results were as follows on the first round:

a) I felt like I was watching a fruit fly in the air, waiting for the most opportune time to snatch it
b) Same as above. Also I need to polish my doorknobs

Second round:

a) "Okay this is getting silly. I'm expecting an action from the object for me to perform a reaction. This is counter to everything I've been taught. I can't allow myself to be complacent."
b) "Damn it really is bloody grimy."

 

[HighKick]

Can you do this?


Step-1

You will need to be seated at a table or desk or whatever.


Sitting comfortably, find a point, or thing, directly in front of you and just barely within your reach. With your fully focused intent on reaching for that thing, don't.

You send out the command to reach, but you arrest the movement before it starts, then you hold it in stasis between start/stop. No tension or muscle contraction - relax while using the full force of your intent.

Step-2

Stand in front of a closed door, hands at your sides with your arms loose and relaxed, and do the same thing with your fully focused intent to grasp the door knob and open the door.



Continue each exercise as long as you can remain focused and full of intent. Reset yourself every minute or less, allowing everything to relax, and repeat each exercise doing step-1 as many times as you can, and then the same in step-2.


Pay attention to what is going on internally (how your body reacts autonomously and involuntarily) as you work through each exercise and please report your findings if you feel like sharing.

To what end? What is the purpose of this exercise? I suppose I can see some kind of OCD reduction drill.

 

[Marsha Larts]

I'm curious as to what your hypothesis is.

My results were as follows on the first round:

a) I felt like I was watching a fruit fly in the air, waiting for the most opportune time to snatch it
b) Same as above. Also I need to polish my doorknobs

Second round:

a) "Okay this is getting silly. I'm expecting an action from the object for me to perform a reaction. This is counter to everything I've been taught. I can't allow myself to be complacent."
b) "Damn it really is bloody grimy."

First off, thanks for taking the time to try the exercises and sharing your feedback. It's very much appreciated.

I don't want to give too much away in terms of contextualizing the work (framing any kind of hypothesis) so as to keep the exercises as open-ended as possible. But I will say that it's quite similar to a type of foundational training found in a few Taijiquan schools as well as a few different Japanese martial disciplines, which is again, quite uncommon as far as I'm aware. Thankfully, though, the attempts made earlier by that guy to contextualize the work is way off of the very fine line that the exercises address in taiji - it's addressing things they are not familiar with even if those things did include 'fajin'

Your description of the first round is a good start. You hint at a state of readiness, leastwise. It may be that in both rounds, your eyes were too fixed or otherwise focused rather than peripherally regarding the items within your reach.

If you want to try another exercise for five minutes, this one's pretty good:

Place your hands on your thighs while seated on a kitchen chair, or the like, and relax your entire body while sitting up straight. Let your elbows and shoulders 'drop' and hold your elbows slightly forward. Place the backs or insides of your heels against the front legs of the chair. Now try to stand up with the full force of your intent to do so. Take a break to relax and reset every minute or so.

Thanks again

 

[Marsha Larts]

To what end? What is the purpose of this exercise? I suppose I can see some kind of OCD reduction drill.

See my reply to Haruhiko

Did you try em?

 

[Same Trick69 20]

This is called "yi leads the chi leads the li" in the literature. It means what happens when you do the above; you use the yi to lead the li, and the chi moves (you don't focus on the chi, because you can't control it directly). Of course this is referring to the use of chi in a martial context--Students usually begin to pick this up during fajin training but it can vary from student to student. Sometimes it can take years to work through chi blockages and build up the necessary muscle density in certain areas to really support this kind of movement. This is why it usually isn't spoken about until the sifu feels you're on the level.

If you sit down a lot at a coding job for instance your core might be a bit weaker and you might not be able to experience this fully yet. So from the perspective of traditional chinese medicine as much as it may help a student to do this first while sitting down I recommend you do it standing up. Sometimes we forget how advanced we are and forget what it was like to be a be a beginner. Some beginners truly must go through the motions before they will be ready to train something like this, and you must not allow yourself to become frustrated at people who are less skilled than you are.

The practice method of self-suggestion isn’t that complicated, one doesn’t need to have arrived at any fajin method to experience good result.
Also an office job wouldn’t at all prove some sort of difficulty to pic up and gain from that method of practice.
If thaught right it’s quite an immediate good result method for even beginner students

 

[Marsha Larts]

The practice method of self-suggestion isn’t that complicated, one doesn’t need to have arrived at any fajin method to experience good result.
Also an office job wouldn’t at all prove some sort of difficulty to pic up and gain from that method of practice.
If thaught right it’s quite an immediate good result method for even beginner students

Yes. It was first day stuff in both taiji styles I learned.

 

[Badhabits]

Not sure I'm doing it right. Tried the second exercise, the door opened by itself but I didn't feel anything internally

 

[Marsha Larts]

Not sure I'm doing it right. Tried the second exercise, the door opened by itself but I didn't feel anything internally

Congrats. You've mastered it.

 

[opr1945121 8]

Dear Appledog, For Your Information: next to the avitar by your screen name for your above post are the letter "TW." If you hold your curser over them a message location pops up. In you case it say "Tiawan province of China."

 

[Appledog29 2]

Dear Appledog, For Your Information: next to the avitar by your screen name for your above post are the letter "TW." If you hold your curser over them a message location pops up. In you case it say "Tiawan province of China."
---
It is not about being better than somebody else, it's about being better than you were yesterday.

Thanks for the heads up! BTW, love the tagline! Inspiring!

 

[Prince_Alarming62 5]

No, it fits

What appledog said was not trolling. This is trolling:

"I'm sorry, am I trying to use the force here?"

See the difference? I'm being facetious, I'm not contributing anything pleasant or meaningful, and baiting you and style bashing.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf124 2]

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