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Originally Posted by Mike Brewer
Guys, forgive my stupidity but I really am this dumb.
I've been following closely, and I think I understand what you mean by sectional power. I also think I understand the mental part of more fluid power. I'm just having a hard time with the physicality of it.
The body is made up of fairly rigid bones, joined at the joints which move in a given range of motion. The bones don't "whip" to any practical degree, so in a purely physiological sense, muscle can only move us in "sections." I certainly understand the difference between so-called angular and "curved" shots, but in accurate language, the body does not move in any other manner except "sectionally." Muscles only contract or relax, and the bone structures move through their ranges of motion directly as a result. In other words, from a kinesthetic or physiological point of view, all movement is a matter of varying degrees of sectional coordination. More coordination means "smoother" motion, but as Tant mentioned earlier, that's very largely a matter of timing.
So my question is, are we talking about the same thing? The difference between rough and refined timing and coordination? Or is it more a matter of "mental direction?" In other words, is there some physiological way to move that ignorant mortals like me just don't understand, or are we really looking at the difference between rudimentary and highly polished timing and coordination?
Thanks
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It's tough to explain without contact. Internal strikes can best be described as a whip because thats the only analogy people can relate to. It's literally like cracking a whip, the force travels from one section to another and each section adds its own power until the strike reaches the end of the limb. Until you are hit with an internal strike its hard to tell the difference, it's the same when learning to throw them, people often think the strike is connected the same way until they finally get it right. Body feel is essential to proper training and the internal arts cultivate this through Chi kung, once the feeling is understood forms are added and the student attempts to maintain this feeling as they train. Internal strikes are never pushed out like boxers do for instance, if anything they are pulled out by the opposite heel. Boar has local MMA guys who cross train with us and they always have a hard time grasping the concept. Many times they say it's the same thing so he has them shake a rug out in the air, which is the arm movement of a vertical axis Tai Chi strike. Then he has them try to do it while walking as fast as they can while popping the rug with each step, they can't make this work using their power generation methods but after a few months of internal work they can begin to get this to work and they always go "ooooh NOW I'm starting to get it", but they still can't explain the difference either. I've seen Boar slap granite tiles and KOTF break coconuts and neither one of them penetrate the object to achieve their breaks, people who use external power try to hit through the objects to break them internal styles send a shock wave through the target. Hope that helps, probably not, it's like Boar always says "If there was an easy way to explain it I'd be rich".