Chi Kung 5 years on.

 5 years now I have been doing Chi Kung.

It is worth doing and it should be taught in martial art clubs to keep people normal.

Health is seen as something that goes missing, when you get injured but it should be seen rather, as something to be maintained. Mental health and emotions need looking at. Chi Kung exercises do relate to body and mind / emotions.

This year for the 8 pieces of brocade I had to stop in March / April as I was sick with Covid. I could not breath properly and the abdominal breathing was not possible properly. I had to abort that and the 6 sounds of chi kung too.

In later Spring I carried on with the 8 pieces of brocade, as that is my rock. Then later in Summer I started up again with the 6 sounds. I even bought a coloured lightbulb to co-ordinate the sounds with colours and to aid the visualisations. Mmmmm ... I tried hard for months at this but let it go by the wayside. I could not honestly feel any benefits. I keep the big ideas however, of how colour and emotions are linked to organs and how heat transfer is needed to gain health in these organs.  I have seen people link the sounds to the 8 pieces of brocade and link in colours too, I know the theory behind these associations.

What I did go back to is standing like a tree in early September. I have completed 100 days now doing this. This was a good move. I will keep this going now to complement the 8 pieces, like I used to. I will be watchful this time of my knee and have shorter sessions. 

The big change for the 8 pieces of brocade now is I want to do it, early when I wake up vs putting it off. I use it now to unpack my achy muscles when I wake up. If I do not do this, then my body feels like an unmade bed, all creased up. The 8 pieces de-creases this with the stretches. Also I am more slow and less rushed in the progression of the moves. This is not a race. 

In Spring I was over zealous in touching my toes and holding the pose that my hamstrings did not like it. The effect stayed for months there. Again DO WHAT the advice is - never go beyond 80% of your capacity in Chi Kung.  Also I stopped trying to copy Dr. Yang Jwing- Mings 'wavy wiggle' when he does this, as it is distracting my stance, and my knees are unbending. Now I focus more on keeping that stance as other practitioners do not have that wave up the body he has. 

Also I have tried juggling the order of the moves. If I am distracted, I do the punches earlier in the sequence, if that helps to gain focus rather. 

Can VR Help With Martial Arts?! Creed Boxing: Oculus Quest 2

This man answers a question I have had for ages. He tries a VR game to see if it will help his skills.

He has more positives than negatives.

(I did not consider sweat would be an issue and of course motion sickness can be an issue).

Good stuff.

When to use your Massage Gun - The best time to do it - With the Voxpro ...

This man uses his massage gun very well in his suite of videos. He shows how to hold the gun and how to position yourself for each muscle group clearly.

He has good instruction.

I am glad I got a massage gun. They are many clones of the same gun, I do not think it really matters if you get a cheap one. I looked out for one that said it was quiet, but I bet the 2nd generation guns are all quiet now.

Self-massage tools

 I bought this massage tool. It is excellent. Really glad I got this, as it can be placed in 'that' spot that causes problems. I jab it into the lower trapezius muscles and it feels great. Also jab it into the pectoral muscles and feet too. I feel fizzy after using this, and it is so basic, it is really fascinating. 

Also bought a massage gun, too. Should have got one ages ago, too, with the above 'S' shaped stick as self massage is something that can on only benefit you after training / health generally. I bought a book on self-massage too. The are multiple benefits. This stuff should be taught in schools, far more use than learning how to do a cartwheel in P.E.!

'Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone' (Baz Luhrmann)

This practitioner's  YouTube Channel is very good. He shows strong Qi Gong advice that is tied to theory. He shows where pressure points are in some of his moves.

Here he offers knee advice.

Knees are always a source of pain at some time or other. Something to do with evolution and the modern life, I have been led to believe. The knee is not a well designed joint.

My point is we need to be taught self-healing. That should be in the school syllabus and I feel coaches should be taught this  to move beyond warm up and cool down exercise to push themselves and those they teach to the next level.

Baz Luhrmann's song / poem 'Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen)' is behind the title of this blog entry. I advise you listen to that periodically, as it is so wise!

Cool Wing Chun dummy

This looks good. I used to think the Wooden Dummy was derived from a stool or table turned on its side to face the practitioner. Here he uses a stool as the body. (Wonder what the 'jar' is in the body and how hardy that is)?

How To Use TONFA (Okinawa Kobudo)

This is a good video. Here Sensi Enkamp shows us how to use Tonfa.

I like the way he uses his bent elbow as a break when he back-swings the Tonfa to catch it. i have not seen that taught before.



At the end of the video he shows Tonfa being used against Thai pads. This is original and interesting as it is against resistance and quite dynamic.



Tonfa are underrated.

Sounds in martial arts.

 I found this version of this practitioner doing this kata. This version has no crowd clapping and cheering. This is CHATAN YARA KUSANKU by RIKA USAMI (World Champion).

Listen to the snapping noise the strikes make. These are impressive. Sound is important in martial arts I bet and is underestimated.

We listen for sound when we hit pads in class to check for how clean the strike is. Dull sound vs sharp chopping noise.  (The elbow strike is a good exemplar of this. If you do not hit with the tip of the elbow you get a mashing sound - like a wrestling smash, which is a generalised strike not a sharp incision).



The Wing Chun dummy makes a clacking sound when the arms are struck and I have seen Randy Crawford note that he listens out for a 3-beat sound to ensure if the practitioner doing a certain move is stepping to the side (1 beat) then pressing up (another beat), and then another beat sounds to show they are on the outside gate pressing inwards, now. A 3D sound effect.



Shouts are used in Karate - you hear it here, the Kai, to generate fear in the opponent, (I thought it was to generate energy ?!). Breath out is another cue. Can the coach hear you breath or not? I have seen this, as no breath out for striking means you run out of juice and the body has not enough oxygen.

Coach has encouraged us to make a 'shhh' sound to accompany our strikes and breath. That must be a power thing, too. Athletes do this - see Javelin throwers shout when they release.



Other sounds are 'ouch'/ You need to listen out for your partner say stop / or 'ouch', for obvious reasons. You may not be looking at them but need to hear them.

Jesse Encamp deconstructing his Kata back to Chinese mainland origins

The Oldest KATA in KARATE History (セーサン)



This man loves to teach. This man loves to learn too. He does what I have seen in other martial artists: they like to trace the lineage of their moves. The research is exhilarating. Here Jessie shows the Chinese routes of Japanese arts and shows applications of moves.

The way the video is presented is very good as he contrasts different styles of Karate head-to-head to show similarity. That is a good touch.

Belt + bag = dummy ideas. Not seen a belt used like this before.

This is very cleaver. This sensi uses his belt to modify the bag and allow pulling and twisting type energies to be made. This adds something massively to the bag indeed, and if you are practising solo this would be a good idea to incorporate.



I always like the work of this YouTuber. He really does a lot of thinking behind his videos. He has a suite of videos where he went to China to discover the roots of his Karate system. This was very good.

This is why I love the Internet

This is a great application of the Internet. Jesse Enkamp offers his advice on people's Kata moves via YouTube. 20 years ago this idea would have been unimaginable. Then it was still VHS heavy the basis of learning let alone DVDs coming on the scene. We had 56K modems still in the UK.

Now I see this and hope there is great interactive scope for learning via benevolent people like Jesse.



The advice he gives is good to watch. I like the way he forms his thinking. It is like my teacher. He watches and you can see 'thoughts' going on and then language forming nearly and then a judgement.



The thing with Kata is you cannot do it perfectly ever I bet. (Am I right here?). I sense that the effort needed to self-monitor and remember the shapes / perform the shapes with the 101 things-to-do is the attraction and forces you to return to this for life. The perpetual high maintenance to get you in the zone and keep you humble is the point I bet.

One Karate Misconception I Discovered In China

This video is very good as this man does what many other martial artists do they search for truth / origins and meanings of what they do now in other places, and in the past.

This karate man goes to China and in this video he has a friend who speaks Chinese who went with him. He ends up seeing the role of language affects thinking and hence translation. Japanese interpretation of the moves are more atomistic as they use alphabet to construct sentences. Chinese use characters which express an idea. That means moves are not modular but can be seen as whole entities with a purpose attached to them.

This means the way he interprets moves are affected by this insight.

Wing Chun 1-Inch and 3-Inch Punch Technique | Core JKD Wing Chun

This is a good video. He goes through the steps that lead to inch-power punching. This teacher is very detailed in his account - as in all his videos.

Along with the dummy, this move has to be the most iconic thing about this art / legacy of how people see Bruce Lee and his use of this move at demos.