Going Deep, Flying High

練重使輕

Training heavy, using light

練低使高*

Training low, using high

輕則靈敏，重則穩健**

Light then agile and quick-witted, heavy then stable and steady

逍遙遊***

Enjoyment in untroubled ease

While fighting with sharp blades, speed seems to be a major issue, and the lighter the faster. Regardless of the needs of specialised professions, It would seem then natural to train high postures for faster mobility and lightness to be swifter. Still, training the body to become faster and moving fast are actually two different things, and especially when both speed and strength are coming from the connective tissues elasticity.
Furthermore, if one can move relatively fast with a heavy weight and a low posture, he/she will certainly be even faster when lighter and higher. Therefore, following the same old logic of doing opposite when training and when fighting, one would fight with relatively high postures and as light as possible, while training was all about heavy weight and low postures. It may also be interesting to take this opportunity to describe a few weight exercises of the old days. If combat and training principles would meet for breathing and mental practices, and through the locks for advanced whole body power, the non-force training was the absolute paradox, feeling light while heavy. To avoid too long a post, the present one will deal with the usual issues while the next will describe weight trainings and the non-force oxymoron.

Heavy and Low Training

The usual aims: endurance, strength and nimbleness through fascias elasticity and balance.

Endurance

The logic is very simple, low postures and added weight brings more pressure on one's body and its organs, improving then endurance. Weight and low postures were used to influence the growth of teenagers, the crucial time when one can really transform deeply his/her body.

Strength and Nimbleness

Extra weight and low postures, apart from reinforcing the connectives tissues by the added pressure, also allow to stretch even more the fascia lines, gaining extra elasticity. In the old days, especially when dealing with teenagers, low or extreme postures were a way to focus on parts of the fascia lines hard to stretch, like the Iliotibial Band or the connective tissues located inside the pelvic area. Indeed, when beginning, for teenagers of course, going low was more important than keeping the right angles, there were even some postures adopting normally strictly forbidden angles. But it was done temporary, until achieving the required flexibility, and by supervised teenagers, adults needing to go through the opposite process, which is to first take correct angles and then push certain parts only when enough flexibility is obtained, this in order to avoid any unnecessary risk. Different age, different methods of training.

Finally, if remaining agile while heavy and low, one would be even more high and light.

Balance

Weight puts a natural pressure on one's balance, and this is an indirect way to learn to keep it when pushed or pulled around. Low postures, when they are so low one cannot respect the proper alignment, have the same effect, and if one does not loose his/her balance while not aligned, he will ne even more stable when aligned. Hence, the swaying fist, more famously known as the drunken fist, used to be a training mainly focusing on keeping on staying grounded whatever the posture one would take****. 

Of course, such principles were reversed when fighting

Fighting, Light and High

Saving, speed and balance requirements imposes to fight as light as possible with higher postures.

Saving One's Energy

The lighter weight one has to carry and the higher he/she stands, the less energy one spends, the longer one can last while fighting. Therefore, fighting with lighter weapons and equipment than the ones used in training was a method used by some schools.

Speed

Less weight hence quicker, higher on a posture, lighter hence faster. That is why some special walks, like the "moving sparrow" or the "moving snake", trained very low, as close to the ground as possible, were supposed to give the keys for stepping faster in a higher posture.

Balance

A natural posture, not too high, not too low, was the best way to keep one's balance. So while stretching was more important while training, especially in the beginning, keeping one's structure in order to remain stable was the main aim while fighting.

Still, when it came to breathing and mental practices, fighting and training were following the same principles of lightness and advanced whole body power of being relatively high.

Where Training and Fighting Meet

Breathing, mental and advanced whole body power principles are areas where training directly aims at fighting.

Breathing

It is said breathing has to be long, deep and interrupted. In order to do so, one has to learn to breathe lightly, which is with no muscle or nervous contraction, feeling his/her breath as little as possible. Hence, internal schools had for strict rule to not ever force breathing, it had to flow naturally, at its own pace. In other words, breathing was not to be improved through breathing exercises by themselves, which actually served another purpose. Able to maintain a light breath under a long and heavy training, one would try to do the same while fighting. Of course, light should not be confused with shallow.

Mental

The quote from Zhuangzi reflects perfectly the type of mental state one was looking for. Indeed, heavy pondering and being too concentrated deplete one's vitality. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, 思 (to consider, to ponder, to think) is one of the seven affects that depletes vitality. Therefore, one has to avoid a concentration that would come through this process because it binds the mind and one often ends up with a headache. To do so, concentration has to be found through a leisurely state, an awareness that comes from not thinking at all, hence, 無心無想我的功, "My skills know neither heart nor thoughts" from the previous post. Therefore, old practices required the student to train in the same state of mind as if one was just having a nice and relaxed stroll. Once again, trained while in a stressful and heavy training, such state shall be replicated during a fight.

Whole Body Power And the Locks

To reach the whole body power through the fascia lines, one has to be totally connected. To do so, every angle taken by any part of the body is not only important, but one has to learn how to lock them totally upon contact in order to keep one's strength from being dispersed and to be able to absorb the chock. At this stage, all the articulations and the pelvic area are crucial parts and the requirement to be centred has to be strictly followed if one is to reach whole body power through the locks. Hence the higher postures when reaching this state, too low the pelvic area cannot be maintained straight and centred. While fighting, one aims to reproduce this state too.

Once again, acquiring body skills and learning how to correctly move during a fight do not necessarily follow the same principles, they are often opposite. As far as weight is concerned, it is not only interesting to describe the particular weight training methods of the internal arts, but also to understand the state without sensation one is trying to reach when applying the concept of non-force.

*Indeed, the exact opposite of the introductory sayings of the previous post, "練高使低, Training high, using low". The first method to solve paradoxes, a different matter/trend follows different principles (see further in this post).

**Boxing Method Six No Formula 拳法六不訣

***Zhuangzi 莊子

****Old trainings actually make a difference between balance, the capacity to avoid falling if maintaining a proper alignment, like for a chair, and grounding which allows to stay at the same place whatever the angles taken by the body, using the principle of the ballast, like the weighted dolls which always come back straight up.