FLEETING STRENGTH, ENDURING RELAXATION
These series of post are mainly
my own LIMITED thoughts and experience from practicing Yiquan and should be
taken with a HUGE DOSE OF SALT.
The above phrase is a GROSS
approximation of what our aims are in Yiquan. Personally, I find one of the
most difficult area in practicing in Yiquan is learning to relax whilst
maintaining our structural integrity. Even when being perfectly still with the
skeletal structure, there is a tendency to want to add strength to this
structure by tightening or tensing up unnecessarily. We have this
tighten-loosen ‘intention’ even when standing perfectly still as we want to
ensure that at the right moment when ‘strength’ is needed, we are able to
summon it. Summoning ‘strength’ is usually the easy part. It’s the letting go
of strength, relaxing while maintaining back our skeletal integrity that’s
difficult.
An example would perhaps better
illustrate this. Imagine if you’re holding a basic zhan zhuang position. If
someone presses your arms inwards, you are supposed to relax whilst maintaining
your skeletal integrity. At the point of maximum pressure, you tighten up by
relying on your fascia and tendons to yield slightly and rebound and redirect
the force outwards. It’s hard to describe this but 99% of the time, you are
supposed to be relaxed. There is only a split second, a momentary flash of
lightning where you are supposed to be in a position of ‘strength’ or ‘tenseness’
to counteract and negate the opponents force. Once this force is dissipated by
sinking into the ground via the kua, you must release this tension or strength
back to the opponent.
The paradox is that this
feeling of ‘strength’ and ‘tenseness’ feels extremely reassuring. It makes one
feel strong, in control and a position of power. The reality is exactly the
opposite. You tense up, expend energy unnecessarily, become extremely stiff and
lose your flexibility and ability to react to the opponent. Therefore, it
becomes extremely common to find yourself becoming MORE STIFF over time as you
practice Zhan Zhuang rather than being more relaxed. In each cycle of ‘tighten-loosen’,
if there is even a miniscule lingering intent or desire to cling on to this
strength and tenseness, you are unable to loosen completely. To describe this
via analogy, each cycle you tend to collect a drop of mud in your bucket. Over
a single standing session, you may accumulate an entire bucket of mud by not
letting go 100% of all the tension. This results in a tense structure. It is
therefore of UTMOST IMPORTANCE to relax COMPLETELY at the end of each cycle of ‘tighten-loosen’.
DO NOT BE IN A RUSH TO MOVE INTO THE NEXT CYCLE BEFORE YOU RELAX COMPLETELY.
Try to be mindful and remind
yourself that TENSION or STRENGTH should always be fleeting. Being relaxed with
proper skeletal integrity should be the DEFAULT position, ALWAYS!