"Free yourself from your own force" seems to be one of the main points to face Chi Sao ("sticky hands", one of the typical exercises of the style), but not only this. Let' s go deep inside the topic.
First, we have to consider that the energy is not the force. Energy is an internal concept, that can be expressed externally without the use of the force. Often, it' s the absence of force to give us the energy we need to face a fighting. When we create a bridge (Kiu) between us and the opponent, we create also an energetic pressure. When we use the force instead of pressure, we give the opponent a signal, so he will have more opportunities to free himself from us and from our force. That's why we need do not use force during the contact, but instead we need to create the right tendon and muscle tension, in order to control and manage our won balance as well as the incoming forces.
Now, many people ask themselves if the point of contact-pressure has to be the one in which to focus the energy. The right answer would have be "yes, absolutely yes, in absence of force", but it would not be easy to understand. So, therefore, we have to analyze the problem without prearranged sentences, to allow the comprehension of this extraordinarily important principle. Free yourself from your own force means you haven't to stimulate the reaction of the opponent, you have to create the void. You have to concentrate the energy (energy here means a status of internal attention, not the force) in the point of contact. To put force against force is like excluding the possibility of action for both. So, how to react to a stimulation on a point of contact? We have to eliminate the force, to create an equilibrium of energy, to react with a Yang or Yin attack - you've read well, a Yin attack! - and then to come back to a position of equilibrium.
To free yourself from you own force doesn't mean to be weak or "to empty yourself" while receiving the opponent's attacks, as usually someone misunderstands, but, more correctly, do not allow your own muscle force to block the fluid flow of the energy, sending and focusing it on one point only. This is that I want more focus on, here. This means that you have to use the force in the right way, by using the right force lines on the right specific angles, always keeping a correct postural work, looking at your balance, at your rooting and at the elasticity of the movement, otherwise it would be useless to study our beautiful martial art.
I think that this principle we are speaking about since our very first days in the kwoon is important to stress the concept of "flowing", of "fluidity", of "harmony". We have to remember that our purpose is to become like "water", which flows softly or impetuously, with an incredible explosive and devastating charge, be it a little particle of water (which digs the rock), or the entire flow of water which destroys and sweeps away.
We haven't to allow our instinctive powerful reactions to block us. It remains true that we have to use the muscles, but in a appropriate way, using the right directions and the correct power lines, which make us able to change these same power lines, keeping a constant pressure, not creating holes in our defenses, holding the bridges which we have created and sinking the opponent's ones. Only in this way we can flow. That's why we use mainly the posterior muscles chain of dorsal, triceps and shoulder stabilizers, paying attention to use not to much the biceps, the chest muscles and the shoulders muscles. But now is also important to free ourselves from the too much "muscular" theory, because it can be counterproductive for the practitioner. Don't fix on one muscle or another one. Have always an holistic, entire overview of the body.
Let's deepen now the questions related to force, to pressure and to sensibility. We assume that, in my experience, only studying the Chi Sao makes possible actually and properly to understand, to refine and to feel. In Chi Sao we can have comprehension of the meaning of force, pressure, stability and sensibility, softness and flexibility.
By using the term force (Li) I mean the use of the muscles, which allow me to develop explosiveness against the opponent, just in the moment I have an opportunity, or, which is the same, the quantity of energy released by a shot. Obviously you can train the force with various methods not foreseen by the Art itself, for example by using weights, physical exercises aimed at building up your muscles. Many people assume to be wrong to use the term "force", because they think that the power of the shots comes only from tendons. I think instead, that muscles have to be used in the right measure: the force has to be the result of the dynamic tension of the muscles, a tension which is freed when the obstacle disappears, or when we take a good angle. The tension is created part from us by our pressure, part from the opponent, who charges, just by simply attacking, our “springs”. Only by the body movement you can create a complete attack, not only leaded by muscles.
By using the term pressure, instead, I mean the constant energy flow against the opponent, which allow us to maintain our own balance and to put our partner out of balance. The pressure doesn’t make use of powerful muscles, but by the simple energy flow coming from a correct posture and from the right use of the spine – nevertheless the tendons lengthening -, and using the correct angles of engagement, the pressure allows us to maintain a constant energy, which creates like an energy field around us, as being in the center of a sphere. The pressure comes from the right use of the elbow and from the shoulder joint in collaboration with the shoulder blade, but not only. I don’t want to create ore complications about this point, because it is mined area.First, we have to consider that the energy is not the force. Energy is an internal concept, that can be expressed externally without the use of the force. Often, it' s the absence of force to give us the energy we need to face a fighting. When we create a bridge (Kiu) between us and the opponent, we create also an energetic pressure. When we use the force instead of pressure, we give the opponent a signal, so he will have more opportunities to free himself from us and from our force. That's why we need do not use force during the contact, but instead we need to create the right tendon and muscle tension, in order to control and manage our won balance as well as the incoming forces.
Now, many people ask themselves if the point of contact-pressure has to be the one in which to focus the energy. The right answer would have be "yes, absolutely yes, in absence of force", but it would not be easy to understand. So, therefore, we have to analyze the problem without prearranged sentences, to allow the comprehension of this extraordinarily important principle. Free yourself from your own force means you haven't to stimulate the reaction of the opponent, you have to create the void. You have to concentrate the energy (energy here means a status of internal attention, not the force) in the point of contact. To put force against force is like excluding the possibility of action for both. So, how to react to a stimulation on a point of contact? We have to eliminate the force, to create an equilibrium of energy, to react with a Yang or Yin attack - you've read well, a Yin attack! - and then to come back to a position of equilibrium.
To free yourself from you own force doesn't mean to be weak or "to empty yourself" while receiving the opponent's attacks, as usually someone misunderstands, but, more correctly, do not allow your own muscle force to block the fluid flow of the energy, sending and focusing it on one point only. This is that I want more focus on, here. This means that you have to use the force in the right way, by using the right force lines on the right specific angles, always keeping a correct postural work, looking at your balance, at your rooting and at the elasticity of the movement, otherwise it would be useless to study our beautiful martial art.
I think that this principle we are speaking about since our very first days in the kwoon is important to stress the concept of "flowing", of "fluidity", of "harmony". We have to remember that our purpose is to become like "water", which flows softly or impetuously, with an incredible explosive and devastating charge, be it a little particle of water (which digs the rock), or the entire flow of water which destroys and sweeps away.
We haven't to allow our instinctive powerful reactions to block us. It remains true that we have to use the muscles, but in a appropriate way, using the right directions and the correct power lines, which make us able to change these same power lines, keeping a constant pressure, not creating holes in our defenses, holding the bridges which we have created and sinking the opponent's ones. Only in this way we can flow. That's why we use mainly the posterior muscles chain of dorsal, triceps and shoulder stabilizers, paying attention to use not to much the biceps, the chest muscles and the shoulders muscles. But now is also important to free ourselves from the too much "muscular" theory, because it can be counterproductive for the practitioner. Don't fix on one muscle or another one. Have always an holistic, entire overview of the body.
Let's deepen now the questions related to force, to pressure and to sensibility. We assume that, in my experience, only studying the Chi Sao makes possible actually and properly to understand, to refine and to feel. In Chi Sao we can have comprehension of the meaning of force, pressure, stability and sensibility, softness and flexibility.
By using the term force (Li) I mean the use of the muscles, which allow me to develop explosiveness against the opponent, just in the moment I have an opportunity, or, which is the same, the quantity of energy released by a shot. Obviously you can train the force with various methods not foreseen by the Art itself, for example by using weights, physical exercises aimed at building up your muscles. Many people assume to be wrong to use the term "force", because they think that the power of the shots comes only from tendons. I think instead, that muscles have to be used in the right measure: the force has to be the result of the dynamic tension of the muscles, a tension which is freed when the obstacle disappears, or when we take a good angle. The tension is created part from us by our pressure, part from the opponent, who charges, just by simply attacking, our “springs”. Only by the body movement you can create a complete attack, not only leaded by muscles.
When I say sensibility, finally, I mean the skill to develop a fluid and flexible answer to the impulses coming from the opponent, without forgetting the 2 other concepts of force and pressure. Probably the concept of sensibility is the most misunderstood (or discussed, it depends from the points of view) in all Wing Chun lineages. In my opinion it must not exist a conscious sensibility. Our actions are not supposed to be the result of a logical process (input-processing-output), but the natural result of spontaneous reactions of our structure (muscle, tendons, skeleton) which naturally works following well precise principles. You have to understand what is going on 'listening' yourself, your increase or decrease of your muscle tension and, according to the changes, the ability to work on angles, changing the joints properly. From the hard - not stiff - often comes the soft - not weak -. From here, a principle that does not feature here, now. To not make heavy the discussion, let’s say that the sensibility must not be a "program" (logical process) which works in our computer (brain), but rather as a "operative system" (structure). Anyway I think that the idea of skin-sensibility is a conclusion created to indicate the concept to the new Wing Chun followers, but this conclusion has been the source for a great misunderstanding. Briefly, I think that this "skin sensibility" is a nonsense.
For sure the use of the term “free yourself” presupposes the existence of a constraint, of an impediment. Perhaps this constraint is represented by the force – in his "rough", "rigid" and "static" side - that prevents the flow of energy, allowing the opponent to "cling" to it, finding a strong support in the fight. Perhaps the fact of living in this model of society also implies a whole series of negative acquisitions, such as, for example, the use of force for resolving contradictions. Get rid of your force is also a philosophical shift that involves forgetting oneself or ,to better say, estrangement from the self. Surely you noticed how the best teachers use less power than students, because they have come to this realization: only the presence of energy causes a fluid and flexible reaction, while the force, in contrast, generates staticity and discontinuity.
To control the opponent's attack, we must not resist and oppose with our muscles power, but be soft and sinuous, like a snake. We must learn to move case by case, depending on the sensitivity that we acquire through training, on the one hand, and with the knowledge that our strength is only an impediment.
The metaphor of the water is fundamental to understand the concept expressed. Once you become like the water, every little creek will be filled by our energy, will not remain empty space and, if you will find a well-structured opponent, you will have a stable equilibrium, you will inundate unconsciously his faults or you’ll be well glued to his stability, trying to remove the opponent’s one. It’s not just a coincidence the motto "if the way is not free, be glued to your opponent, related to the strategy in combat.
Get rid of its strength means to eliminate the muscle contraction due to nervousness, anger, stress of everyday life. Here it happens that a principle of force can have a philosophical and existential reading, which helps us to abandon the mental state of unbalance to project us into a state of perception, reception and absorption of external forces, which we will be able to answer to. A relaxed body follows a relaxed mind. A free body follows a free mind.
The energy that you create in the stability is not rigid, because the body is never motionless. The movement is the key to stability, although it is an internal movement. But remember also that you cannot be stable unless the movement is not known to be stable in the static phase. If we do not test our ability staying motionless, we cannot go to analyze it in motion. Without this step, we risk to create movements without stability, seeking and looking only at the speed of movement - external - not giving any space to search for postural stability - Internal -.
Doing Chi Sao, for example, we have to keep all the time the balance, which depends from the weight distribution, the angle, the arms and legs position, the pressures, etc. You have to keep your balance for all the duration of your movements. But, pay attention, the student uses the Chi Sao when he becomes conscious of his own stability, because without this, it is not possible to stand more than one second in front of another person. This is why we pay so much attention to this aspect in the first years of learning!
Let’s analyze the unload of the incoming force to the ground.
We assume that a body unloads the force naturally to the ground, whether the body moves or the body stands motionless, as the structure of the body brings the forces to unload. The moment we turn our force and strength against the opponent (such as "absorbing" with one arm and hitting with the other) , in the same time we unload force to the ground, because the rotational movement can take place only if there is good stability. The unloading to the ground has the sense of rooting, which we have already spoken about. The root is the feeling of being in equilibrium that you perceive and feel when you absorb the opposing force or when you create stability in absence of (visible) forces.
At a time when we learn to unload to the ground the incoming energy, using the correct angles, the change of weight on the legs, the skeletal/joint/tendon-muscle system, here is that we have access to the exercises in movement dedicated to fighting. I am not here to explain how you get rid of your own strength through the use of the components described above, but I would just call to mind the fact that each exercise posture does just that, teach you to get rid of muscle tension and your own strength in general, giving the ground that it is not necessary. We will see later how to give the sky what we take from the ground.
This principle is really fundamental, because only by developing this you can apply the 3 following principles. To free from oneself force means that our force is not representing an obstacle between us and our opponent. Therefore we have to make our muscle flexible and relaxed, in order to develop the energy in a way similar to a water wave. All this you can develop by studying and practicing the 1st form of Wing Chun, the Siu Nim Tao, just to begin.
(adapted from Riccardo Di Vito's Blog)
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