Know Your Foot

力由足起

Strength rises from the feet.

足太陽之筋，起於足小趾，上結于踝

The fascias of the Foot Uttermost Masculin, starts from the little toe, linking up to the ankle...*

In internal practices, working on the feet means first posture then motion. Still, before even exploring those, it may be opportune to describe exactly what has to be trained as far as the feet are concerned. For such purpose, the foot is divided into five parts.

Mind Your Step

打拳容易走步難

Boxing is easy, stepping is hard

To compare with 我教你一手，不教你一走, teaching you a technique but not how to move.

Happy Foot

打拳容易走步難

Boxing is easy, stepping is hard

步不活則拳亂，步不快則拳慢

Boxing becomes messy when one does not step lively, slow when one does not step fast

One who has studied long enough old practices may have heard about a story or two describing the importance ageing masters paid to step. A typical one is probably the student being finally granted to see his master’s training only to end up walking hours with him. Beyond this type of story lies, for the least, two principles, “to each his/her training” and “feet go first”.

A Natural Breath

呼吸往來，不及法禁

Exhaling and inhaling going and coming, never reaching what the system prohibits

呼 to breathe out, exhale

吸 to breathe in, inhale, absorb.

往 to go, towards, past

來 to come, to arrive, next

不 not, no

及 to reach, up to

法(灋) method, system, to punish, to force

禁 (jìn) to prohibit, to forbid, (jīn) to contain, to restrain oneself

Breathing is one of the cornerstones of old practices. If the first part of the quote seems quite clear, the second part is quite obscure, what is prohibited by the system isn’t explained further in the text.

A Moving Mould

動則法，靜則型

With Method when moving, a mould when still.

Moving is about the waist.

Closing the Doors

肛門不提，丹田氣散，内中空虚，元氣*虧損

When the anus is not pulled up, the vapours around the cinnabar field disperse, the inside becomes empty and one's vitality depletes.

As it has been mentioned in the previous post, one could compare training teenagers and adults to fixing new or already used cars. Hence, when training adults, one has to consider the body deterioration, a thing teenagers have not yet undergone. As far as internal alchemy is concerned, it is mainly about the organs and their capacity to generate heat. Hence, their place, size and insulation are important matters to deal with when training adults. Right place and size are determined by the capacity to keep the stomach flat and insulation is working on the sphincters so that the sex and the anus are kept as closed as possible most of the time. Both issues are mainly solved by working on the pelvis and the perinea.

Brainless

讀書要講，種地要耪，練拳要想

Studying needs explaining, tilling land weeding, training boxing pondering.

Ninety per cent training for ten per cent thinking when starting, the opposite when very advanced.

Short Length

打拳要长，发劲要短

Long when practising boxing, short when sending out power

This issue has been extensively described in this blog in Training vs Fighting

Bending the Bow

未学功夫，先学跌打

Before studying skills one shall study acrobatics

百折連腰盡無骨*

A hundred twists linking the waist, a boneless utmost

These two quotes are a perfect example of what kind of suppleness was required in the old days for Martists. Basically, one had to push flexibility to its utmost limits. Therefore, a great part of the basic training was extreme flexibility. Still, it was not the only basic training for internal arts, the other one was posture, learning a correct alignment. In a sense, those two trainings were not only made to complement each other but also as antidotes. Indeed, for the least, correct alignment locks the body in certain angles, restraining its movements and therefore diminishing its flexibility while extreme flexibility puts the body in detrimental angles which may, in term, lead to injuries.