gongfu

 Qigong, is usually concidered to be of immense importance to real martial arts. Part of gong fu is fighting. Another part is achieving longevity. Another part is possesing a body that recovers quickly from hard labor. The real aim of gong fu, while sometimes concidered “spiritual enlightenment”, is usually really concidered self preservation in a total sense. Part of what self preservation entails, is being healthy, which is something that gong fu develops naturally through whole body fitness.

 Many people who teach gong fu, place a great emphasis on medical qigong. The reason, is probably that if the body is strengthened internally, or the tendons, ligaments, lung capacity and blood flow are strengthened, our gong fu is enhanced. Some medical qigong sets, have other martial merits as well.

 One very famous set, called BaDuanJian, or the “eight brocade sections” or “eight strands of silk brocade”, is something that I have been practicing in depth as of late, and I would like to offer some of what I have noticed about the sets obvious martial origins. Now, this set is usually concidered medical qigong, and often taught in it’s softest variety to elderly and sickly people on account of it’s simple, easy to perform sets. The thing is, I was taught that this set was created by Marshal Yue Fei, and used to strengthen his troops for battle. I have learned it several ways, and when done for martial arts, it can be demanding to the begining and intermediate student.

 The first set, holding up heaven and earth, is an ancient asian folk exercise posture, common from India across the East even reaching Japan. This exercise has the martial merit of strengthening “lifting” Jin, but also improves the strength deep in the shoulder for punching out. Double dragon’s Play With Pearl, the reverse punch, and other techniques common to many systems, can be greatly enhanced by doing this exercise. It is also a good precursor to tumbling, and handstands.

 Seperate heaven and earth. One hand presses up, the other hand presses down. This exercise not only helps the upper body get used to directing the two arms independently in opposing directions, it also strengthens each arms full rotation, which increases the speed of our punching techniques.

 Look left, look right, also called Wise Owl Turns His Head. This one helps us to better coordinate the movement of our head with our intention, and obviously thus our eyes. This is important. If you ever spar lightly with a friend that never played sports as a kid, you might notice that their ability to watch your movements is usually pretty much non-existant. Several of the sections will help with this if done right. This is one of the better ones directly relating to it, I think.

 Toes lift the body. Again, this should be obvious. By lifting your body with only the ankles, you are developing/refining the gracefulness in which you step, since you are learning to control the whole body from the root in a very strong and balanced way.

 The rest of them should be pretty obvious.

 The point is, medical qigong is not simply an innocuous part of the cirriculum, it is really a quite valuable one. My report, of doing the eight strands in significant quantity as of late, is that they are of immense value to our craft. Don’t toss them out, make sure you really get the movements, then do large numbers of reps every day to see some results. Eight strands of precious silk. Haha. Like that really means anything to us today. The name should be changed to like, “The Eight Great Exercises”.

 Peace.

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