Mike Sigman to 6H Yesterday at 4:53 AM ·

Another Example of how to Observe your Qi at work

In the below picture, my wife has intertwined her fingers and is pulling down on my shoulder. The trick
for first-timers is to let the down-pulling force go straight through the body to the foot. In other words,
as your partner pulls down on the shoulder (not too heavily at first), put your mind to monitoring the
pressure at the bottom of your foot. You to feel that the down-pull goes directly into your foot,
bypassing the body (imaginarily).

If you do it correctly, your partner will feel like they're pulling down on a very solid shoulder ... yet, even
while partner is pulling downward, you should be able to easily wiggle your hips.

Instead of the pull-down force resting in the shoulder and torso, your body-wide qi-tissues re-aligned
themselves in order to let the downward force rest in the foot. If you play with it a number of times, you
can feel the qi-tissues adjust themselves as you think from "body" to "foot". If you can do it a few times
and understand how your visualization causes the change in where the force goes, you will have
successfully grasped some amount of control on your "qi" ... or you could use the common phrase of
"mind-body" control.

Some of the exercises I use often are simply practicing changing the qi direction from front to back to up
to down, and so on. Always try to be realistic and check that if a partner tested your various directions,
they would feel the ground in the desired direction. Qi that is "forward" is still jin from the ground to
forward; qi that is "backward" is still jin from the ground to the back as if someone is pushing on your
back. Remember that any downward force of qi/jin is going to be the weight at your center pulling
down.

Alexander Tabunets Mike Sigman Mike, does the same theory apply when someone hits me or pushes
me? I usually do this exercise: I stand in a horse stance embracing the tree posture, relaxing and sinking
down. I wait for my back tissue relax and scapula naturally pull down to the extent that the skin on my
back can not be pinched. After this my teacher starts hitting me on the back and then pushing. I can feel
solid on the push but I noticed that every time I am pushed I relax my kua more and more and it gets me
more stable. I feel the connection between the push point and the kua but not so much between the
push point and the ground. I apply this practice both to the front of the body and the sides. Should I just
continue to practice visualizing the ground path or maybe slow down on push to feel the connection to
the ground. As I said I am pretty stable on push but don’t feel much of the ground.

Mike Sigman Alexander, I have no idea with just a verbal description. I'd have to feel it.

Zac Alstin And if you try this and feel muscle strain anywhere, that's an indicator of where you need to
relax local muscle!

Michael Davidson I learned this a few years ago as well as some variations. It was a real eye opener and
incredibly useful. I was surprised that none of the people I’d trained with in the past utilized it though.

Adarsh Vazhakandy What if I were to take the down-pulling force to my abdomen(dantian) instead of
the foot ? will it have a more bouncing force?

Mike Sigman The dantian is connected to the foot, inseparably, however.

Alexander Tabunets This is what happens to me. I can feel it there but not in the foot. Probably I need to
work on more relaxation.

Mike Sigman My suggestion would be to work more on developing the dantian and understanding
that the pressure from the dantian is transmitted through the leg *immediately* under pressure. The
dantian and the foot are the same thing, but it takes a while to develop that understanding. Actually, in
traditional Chinese they say that the kidney are the source of the qi-pressure to the body and foot, not
the dantian. "The kidneys are the source of the qi", but it took me a number of years to develop to the
point where I understood that.

Mike Sigman Weird how the camera lens turned my wife and me into dwarves. Haven't figured out
how that much distortion happened. Could it have been in the data transfer to Facebook? Doesn't
matter ... the picture is more than adequate for what I wanted to illustrate.

Jason Malik It’s called good structure. Any powerlifter who’s ever thrown 400+ lbs on the squat bar will
tell you the same thing you just posted.

Ingo Augsten We do it mindfully. Jokes aside, it's actually the core of quite a big differnce. Check
out Forrest Changs "stupid jin tricks", which show that jin also works without perfect structure.

Mike Sigman Jason, note in the original post that I wrote: "yet, even while partner is pulling
downward, you should be able to easily wiggle your hips." The reason you can wiggle your hips and yet
your partner feels a solid, constant solidity is that the qi-tissues and subconscious mediate your
structure. I.e., it feels solid, yet it's obviously not solid if you're wiggling your hips. Qi and jin.

Jason Malik Mike Sigman soooo, kinda like wiggling your hips with a 450 lbs bar on your shoulders?
Mike Sigman Sure. You can't do that without the qi-tissues and subconscious mediating to allow for
the movement of your structure under the load. Remember, part of the point of my O.P. was that
people use qi and jin all the time. Whether you have a partner pulling down on your should or you have
a weight on your shoulder or a tray of cocktails balanced on your palm ... if you wiggle your hips or do
the Samba under load, just be aware that it is the qi-tissues/subconscious that is allowing you to do it.
The qi mediates and buffers our normal moves, all the time.

Your first instance seemed to indicate an unmoving "good structure", which is not the example I was
offering.

Jason Malik Ok, I see where you’re coming from. And no, I guess I should’ve been more clear. I often
“wiggle my hips” and move my feet when adjusting myself after unracking the squat bar.

I always argue with the other Chunners about that... I don’t know why they feel “good structure” is a
stationary thing.

Mike Sigman If you put your two hands out in front of you and a partner pushes mildly into your
hands, you should be able to mentally adjust yourself so that the push goes straight to your feet. Think
of a straight line from the push on the hands going straight to the feet. Just absorb the push into the
feet.

By accepting the push at your feet, you "sank your qi" (remember some of your WC "internal" guys
making such a big deal out of "sink your qi"? They didn't really understand that it's a simple process). So
you could say that accepting a push like that is a "sign of good structure", yes, but you can double-check
to whether it is just good physical structure or structure with qi by wiggling your hips.

Jason Malik Mike Sigman yes, this is similar to one of the demo “tricks” I use to illustrate structure. I’ll
put one arm out, and have someone large push on it as hard as they can with both hands, and I root and
they can not move me. Then I do the same thing on one foot and they still can’t move me. And to quiet
the naysayers, I’ll have him randomly disconnect and slip loose without warning, and I maintain my
position without falling forward, with the exception of my Fist springing forward (Lat Sao Jik Cheung) to
prove that I wasn’t leaning into him to brace myself.

Mike Sigman So, yes, it's a good example of the qi-tissues and subconscious at work. I've done the
same demo on one foot, but had the pusher move sideways, back and forth a few times. I just keep a
mental path from my hand to foot, the whole time.

Mike Sigman Jason, if you have time and you're willing, could you make a very brief video of you
standing on one leg with your fist securely against the shoulder of a partner ... and then, without pulling
your fist back, could you hit your partner? If you do it on a fresh/new thread, we can take the discussion
one step further. So far, all we're talking about is basic jin (which is in all the CMA's, internal and
external): there are a few more stages of progress. ;)

Jason Malik Mike Sigman ok, I’ll have my son be my crash test dummy. So against his shoulder... with
him facing me, or sideways? Is he applying pressure or am I just bridging?
Mike Sigman He's sideways so that your fist meets his shoulder. He should crowd you just enough so
that you're grounding his pressure into your foot. We used to do things like this on the forum, but we
gradually got out of the habit; time to go back, occasionally. Thanks.

Mike Sigman Before you do the punch, Jason, do me a favor and wiggle your hips so that newer
people on the forum can see what we're talking about. Thanks.

Marco Rossi hi mike could explain this part of your post a little more for me, maybe with an example or
two thank you (Qi that is "forward" is still jin from the ground to forward; qi that is "backward" is still jin
from the ground to the back as if someone is pushing on your back. Remember that any downward
force of qi/jin is going to be the weight at your center pulling down.)

Mike Sigman Marco, it's very important that you allow your jin force to originate from the ground.
The old saying is that your jin starts at the feet, is controlled by the waist, and expressed at the
fingertips. The opposite is true, also ... any incoming force should be allowed immediately through your
body/structure so that it rests on the ground. Whenever someone touches you, they should feel the
ground at your feet; that is the same thing as "sink your qi".

So, if I use jin to push forward, it is like every molecule in my body pushes forward at the same time, but
the molecules still must be based upon the ground. If someone pushes me lightly from behind, I let their
push immediately rest in my feet and if I move a jin force back into them, that force *must* be based
upon the ground, not just my muscular body/torso. The reason I always mention either the solidity of
the ground or the pull-down of weight by gravity is that people have to remember where the force
actually comes from. To say "your jin comes from your dantian" is misleading, so I am always careful to
mention the ground.

Here is a picture to think of about the molecules going forward. Keeping the ground at your hands, BTW,
is done by your "intent"/yi/will and it should be a very soft structure (not tense/muscular). Many people
make the mistake of bringing the ground to their hands, but through the musculo-skeletal system, not
the qi.
Mike Sigman Here's a picture that you can use to help learn to root/ground a push from behind.
When partner pushes you, allow your structure to become part of him (like a 4-legged animal) and keep
all forces sunk to the feet.
Tye Botting This demo/exercise/feel/drill is the first thing I still use from you when trying to get folks to
start to feel/understand some of what's going on, and I'm glad you still use it and shared it here. I
appreciate the accompanying explanation details, too, and the responses just above - lots of little
reminders in there. (y)