In theprevious article, we discussed on how ‘hard’ arts such as full contact karate, muay thai, and nanquan actually have a softer side to them. As you can guess, today we are going to be talking about how internal arts have a hard side to them. Now, the well known internal arts may be ones such as tai chi, bagua and xingyi, but to be fair, there are non chinese arts that fall into the soft category as well, such as aikido and russian systema.

Now internal arts, or neijia quan as they are popularly known aren’t exactly popular with the millennial generation because when you mention taichi the first thing that comes to mind is something like this:

Yes, people have this perception that it is an art for the older folks and will not be useful in a ring/self defence street. After all this is theUFC or ONE FC generation. Ironically here’s the thing – in the dying years of the Manchu Qing dynasty, most of the royal bodyguards were trained in the art of baguazhang.An Internal fighting style!

Cheng Tinghua, one of the pioneers of bagua, took out a few german soldiers during the boxer rebellion before he lost his life to modern firearms. If internal styles were ineffective, why have they survived till now?

Let’s cover a few of the internal styles (both chinese and non-chinese) briefly.

Baguazhang

Bagua may seem like a dizzy art to learn – the practitioner turns round and round in circles and confuses the heck out of his opponent! However, the truth is that evasive foot work is a useful tool to have. Circular movements also tend to have economy of motion when striking. A boxing coach explains it best:

Bagua also has what western boxing would call shoulder rolls, but instead of rolling to the side of the Strike, bagua rolls further up the arm, and attempts to off balance the opponent. Experienced neijia practitionerDan Djurdjevicexplains it here:

In the blind spot of an opponent, you can either off balance him/take him down as Master Djurdjevic does, or you can apply some strikes to soften your opponent before bringing him to the ground. Some chinese masters forcefully use their bodies or their elbows to knock their opponents forward ( the ‘hard’ part). Case in point:

It may seem like a complex art...but when you realize the principles of body movement and evasion when it comes to circular movement you will have a rough understanding of  Bagua mechanics.

Taichi Quan

For the purpose of this article we will be focusing on the oldest form of tai chi – the Chen style. I will spare you the details of the lineage – the focus is on the power generation and hard striking methods of this seemingly slow and smooth art.

Note in the video below how Chen style masterChen xiaowangdoes the cannon fist form. From a slow pace, he suddenly snaps his strike forward like a whip and generates an incredible amount of force. Study it carefully. There is nothing mystical but years of perfecting body mechanics and grounding to generate that kind of force.

When actions are done slowly and mindfully, the student learns how to generate power by feeling and practice. This young master is one such character:

In summary, in the video he talks about generating power not from the heels and waist rotation like western boxing, but by generating power fromgrounding the feet and pushing the energy all the way from the pelvic region into the strike. This is a method not learnt in a couple of months, but years. Also, we agree with the young master that there is nothing mystical about neijia quan, but rather, years of meticulously fine tuning minor body movements in order to generate sudden, non telegraphic forceful strikes.

Xingyi Quan

A teacher the editor once trained under commented that Xingyi would be the ‘hardest’ style amongst all the neijia styles. She was right, however to add to her statement it is also the style best for closing distance as well as explosive striking. Also, be not deceived by the fact that xingyi quan has no high kicks – a practitioner has to have extremely strong legs to practice the dragon step. Xingyi’s foot work is fast, explosive and aggressive – and it has to be in order to charge down an opponent. Note how swiftly MasterSun Zhijuncloses the gap:

Strong legs also contribute to powerful striking since in neijia, an underlying principle is using the whole body as one unit and focusing that force through the fist. The best example of that would be the cannon fist.

Note how the practitioner shifts her weight subtly into the front foot, with the rear dragging slightly behind. The point is not to strike with the shoulder, arm or waist.The whole body is pulled by the fist towards the target, and the fist lands first, followed in a split second by the entire mass of the body following through.

Russian Systema

Russian systema is a good example of a non-chinese ‘soft’ style that has elements of hardness as well. Although on the surface it may look weird, bendy and yielding, it is actually a good example of ‘the way of least resistance’.

One of the things taught is how to follow your opponent’s direction and suddenly off balance him or catch him in a joint manipulation. If you have trained in styles such as tai chi, bagua or aikido, you would notice elements of small joint manipulation, chin - na etc.

Systema is a flowing, fluid art that also uses a fair amount of fluid body movements and relaxed striking. You will note that striking is similar to neijia, wheretension is only applied at the last minute.Also power is generated from the whole body, and the fist is just a tool to deliver the strike into the target.

...in a nutshell...

There is nothing mystical about soft arts such as Systema, Neijia Quan, Aikido (which I did not cover due to my lack of knowledge in it’s parent art Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu). Ultimately, the ‘soft’ styles all have an element of tension, or ‘hardness’ when it comes to delivering a strike or executing off-balancing and takedown moves.

The difference in the soft and hard styles would be that softer styles are more meticulous about movement, technique and execution. It also takes a long period of time, maybe years to perfect a non telegraphic strike that can be dangerous. Where the soft can learn from the hard, is more sparring in a controlled environment and with safety equipment.

Ultimately, it all comes down to economy of motion, fluidity in execution and proper body mechanics.

OSU.