The Secret of How Chi Awareness Works!

One of the biggest mysteries come out of the eastern combative arts is chi or ki. Wudan arts, like Pa Kua Chang and Hsing i and Tai Chi Chuan claim they can make it. Supposedly it takes lifetimes to create this thing called chi, but when you get it you can defeat hordes of attackers with a sigh and a snort of the nostrils.

Well, the truth of the matter is that internal energy, called chi, or ki, is in many arts, and if it is not, it can be put into any art easily. The principles of internal energy, you see, are very basic, though they take a certain amount of patience. So if you study kenpo or tae kwon do, or even boxing, then get set to step through the door, this article is going to lay out those principles.

The most important thing is that you have to have phenomenal basics, not just good, but absolutely phenomenal. What this means is that you must sink your body weight when striking or blocking, and do so with such awareness that you actually create a beam of energy down your leg. You must align the parts of your body so that they form an unbroken pathway for the energy to flow along, very important that they are relaxed, because intention and energy will flow easier through a relaxed body.

Now, you must make sure that you move the parts of your body in a coordinated manner. Everything must swing into motion together, and everything must stop together, this is called Coordinated Body Motion. Inspect the motion of your body so that all of the pieces are moving in harmony when it swings into alignment.

Now, you’ve got basics, and it is time to start the flow of internal energy. Fill a pipe halfway with sand. Move that pipe in such a way that when you stop it all the sand collides on the side of the pipe at the same time.

What I have described, with the pipe analogy and drill is what internal energy is and does. It is energy swirled on the inside of your body in such a way that it collects and collides on the inside of the block, or strike, or foot, or whatever, at the same time. We used to develop this type of energy in kang duk won karate all the time, but we didn’t think of it as internal energy because it didn’t have any undue significance, it was just the way we moved.

One thing that helps is if you move slowly, creating an awareness of the motion of energy inside your body. And, to be truthful, the internal Wudan martial arts have arranged their forms so that this movement of chi is easier to detect and make grow. But you can feel it in Karate, or tae kwon do, or any combative method you happen to study, if you have patience and are willing to become aware.

The real key is that this method, and all methods, rely on the direction of awareness. It is an idea that moves awareness, and the course of this consciousness can be called Chi, or Ki, or Prana, or pneuma, or intention. Now, the real question here is whether you have the patience to invest your movements with chi, or intention, or whatever you want to call it.

Al Case has analyzed martial arts for 4O plus plus years. This includes TCC, PKC, Aikido, Shaolin, etc. He is a writer for the magazines, and the inventor of Matrixing Technology and Neutronics. You can find out more about Internal Energy, and get a free ebook at Monster Martial Arts