The Six Physical Points
 

Thought I'd list the 6 Physical Points to start a discussion.

1) Relaxation
2) Center of Gravity Force
3) Alignment
4) Upper Center Point and Center of Mass
5) Internal and External Circle
6) Spinning Force of Co-ordination

Steve

I usually think of the 4th point as the "upper and lower centers of mass." Anyhow, it's just semantics.

Just to keep the discussion going, anyone have thoughts on how to explain spinning force of coordination to someone w/o martial arts experience?

i usually start at the feet and work my way up the body. gives begginners a sort of physical memory cue for each.

feet = center of gravity force
the bones begin to stack on top of the feet = alignment
proper alignement leads to... relaxation
then you get to the abdomen = center of mass
then fullness
then spiral force.

i think a good analogy you could make to a begginer about the spiral force is "moving the point of contact the way a roller coaster moves"

I was thinking of something similar (starting from the feet). Something along the lines of:

1. Center of gravity force
2. Alignment (stacking of the spine, open mingmen, folded kua).
3. circular wrapping of the big toe to small toe.
4. combining absorb-project, open-close, and condense-expand to evolve the initial circular wrapping of the feet upward

I like the idea of giving a physical memory cue. I'll have to figure out how to work that in. I'm going to have to experiment a little bit with a good explanation. Hopefully I won't spew too many confusing statements before I figure out an effective explanation.

;)

I've recently been doing a lot of work on this and I've been teaching the 3 circles at various points of the body.

First I establish 4 points, eg, solar plexus, perineum and each hip. Then create an orbit joining these points and follow your attention around the orbit. I use an analogy of a bb or marble traveling around. The above example would give a feeling of the 'frontal' plane. If the body is held in a relaxed manner it starts to move a little in time with the bb.
If you add the dantien and mingmen to the above 4 points then you can use the same idea for all 3 planes.

It seems to help to bring awareness to the body and away from the hands.

Steve

interesting. is that something the Sifu has taught in OZ or is that something you came up with yourself?

I came up with the idea of using specific points and the "bb's" a little while ago, then I noticed that on the 'basic exercises' DVD Sikung mentions something similar, guess that means I'm thinking in the right direction !

where abouts? i'd like to watch it again and look into it more deeply.

Hey Ashe

try looking on disc 1 at 54.00 onwards.

(I just watched the whole of disc 2 as I thought it was on that one, but again i saw something new, so my time wasn't wasted:) )