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Become aware of your body and presence. You need a stillness of mind.

Close your eyes and lift up your right hand. Ask you self, "without moving or looking, how do I know my hand is there?"
...

Many years ago, my original tai chi instructor performed a basic chi disruption on me. He did not touch me, he just passed his hands over me and I was physically weaker. I witness him and my karate...

By George, I think he's getting it!

"My partners usually ask me to ease up after awhile which is funny since to me I feel like I'm hardly doing anything!"

That is just a tell-tale sign for me. ...

"When you do chi gong, cannot you just medidate -- sit still -- and circulate the energy around?"

Yes.

"I've never performed those chi gong movements, but I already have some basic skills with...

"My question is, how do you people, practising an internal art, train to defend yourselves against a blade?"

My old taiji class (Yang Lu Chan via student of Erle) trained with rubber knives and...

Jon,

I'm afraid it is you who are making the snappy assumptions. From the post I made and the ones I've read, I haven't seen any assumption that you're "only exposed to poor Tai Chi". Every is...

It is boring to watch the forms done poorly.

I had a Chen style teacher who had it. It being internal strength, peng jing, neijia, etc. I could see it. I could sit and watch a long time as he...

That covers combativeness. Determining if a school teaches the necessary internal combative skills is another thing entirely. Basically it comes down to internal strength - is the school actually...

Ask the teacher what the application is for a move you see...a few of them. This will lend weight to determining if the teacher knows the applications.

Ask the teacher if applications are taught...

A simple demo/illustration I have used many times is look around and find a cup, can of pop, or something and ask them to pick it up.

Every time I've done this so far, they pick it up externally. ...

"Would you think internal arts will take longer to learn and become street effective than external arts?"

Yes.

External arts go straight to technique.

Internal arts first start with learning...

The system is buggy.

I said ****her away - f - a - r - t - h - e - r.

It put ****her.


Apparently you can't say **** here.

The power curve and intent.

An internally powered push has the intent (thing being pushed) ****her away (the back wall for example when pushing a person) and the power curve is longer so it...

Not to mention it is not a good idea if when you say you were all over that you were messing with the point on both sides of the body, on the top and bottom, and/or on the front and back of the body....

"little if any observable Dantien involvement"

Not saying anything regarding Erle, just this statement.

Large dantien movements are only the beginning...eventually (mastery) the movements are...

What I do at home...

Form, silk reeling and moving with internal strength, and standing mediation/chi gung. I might try to do some of the movements with fajing - trying to steady increase the...

I've work on refining your balance. In just standing or a basic chi gung posture like standing on stake or 3 circles, you want to use the minimum of muscle - gravity should be holding you up in a...

A really good internalists - any style (including Taiji) - could do a zero inch punch. How much force you can generate with you hand on the target will show your degree of proficiency.

As you...

Just close your mouth and don't clench/bite down as the dentist says (keep relaxed).

The tongue on the palette is for the subtle currents of the body - yes. Your connect the two center-line...

Good answers, but I find a defining characteristic is how they move and generate power.

Taiji is an internal martial art, but I have seen many people practice it externally - basically they don't...

I may go back to it at some point, but Ki Aikido (as taught by my sensei) was pretty internal. The internal principles were not consciously understood by the class and not directly taught, but that...

I go with #4:

I am taking one art (Yang Style Taijiquan) and that is my preferred art, however I study other internal arts because I find they are all point at the same thing. For example in...

Tai chi drills in the heel-toe stepping routine into you, but to tell the truth I have never noticed a gap or void.

It seems contact starts at the heel and the weight rolls onto the foot (to the...

From what I could tell, he was using his center and powering movements internally...at times. Although there was also a lot of local muscle - arms, etc.

His power was not continuous, it broke...

I'm curious to know which one(s).