Chi not confined to martial artists?

[CFT]

I know I should be posting this to the Nei Jia forum or even the Kung Fu forum, but since I consider this my "home" forum I'll just "publish and be d-a-m-n-e-d" (just what is it with the censorship filters?)

For those of you in the States you may have missed the fuss about England winning the Rugby Football Union World Cup in Australia. By the way, USA did have a team but were knocked out in the early stages of the competition.

The hero of the moment was an English player called Jonny Wilkinson who scored a drop goal in the last 30 seconds of extra time.

Now we get to the interesting (for me!) bit ..... I was reading a Sunday newspaper when I came across a piece about his famed (ball) kicking technique. He has a unique posture before he takes the kick where he holds his hands together in front of his chest, almost like praying but with his hands horizontal and further away from his chest:

"The hands, he said, are like a barrier erected against the outside world, helping him to cut out the tens of thousands of opposing fans who are likely to set up a barrage of whistles and jeers in an attempt to disturb his intense concentration. "As I got more into kicking," he said, "I became more involved in looking at other aspects, and one area I looked at was focusing from the inside, slowing down the breathing, relaxation, 'centring', which is a way of channeling my power and energy from my core, just behind my navel, down my left leg and into my left foot to get that explosive power. When I was doing this, the position with the hands happened to be the one I adopted. Look at pictures from 1998, and you will see my hands are further apart. Each year they have gradually got closer. For whatever reason, it has become a very strong position for me."

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/rugbywor...089077,00.html

Does this sound like Chi to you or merely visualisation/focussing techniques? Maybe that's all we're trying to do in MA.

The description just really struck home with me ... dantien and chi, and all that. I'm only a beginner in Wing Chun so I haven't experienced it for myself. Does what he describe come close to your experiences?

[yuanfen]

Makes sense-there are some principles parallel to good wing chun in there.
Honest injun.

[yuanfen]

Makes sense-there are some principles parallel to good wing chun in there. IMO of course.
Honest injun.

[anerlich]

Does this sound like Chi to you or merely visualisation/focussing techniques?

The latter, indeed he said as much himself in the quote. He doesn't mention ch'i, though he does mention things that sound like what its proponents claim it to be. He was given an award for best Rugby player of the year, he knows what he is doing much better than any bunch of MA students on an internet forum.

Many elite sportspeople do this sort of thing.

MA hardly has an exclusive claim on maximising performance or the use of mental/"spiritual" tools to attain it.

[CFT]

If I had just quoted this passage:

"As I got more into kicking," he said, "I became more involved in looking at other aspects, and one area I looked at was focusing from the inside, slowing down the breathing, relaxation, 'centring', which is a way of channeling my power and energy from my core, just behind my navel, down my left leg and into my left foot to get that explosive power. "

.... would you have thought that it was said by a martial artist? Has all the keywords doesn't it?

anerlich is absolutely right. The focus of a professional athlete/sportsman is no less or different to that of a martial artist engaged in combat.

I was just a bit surprised at the language used by Jonny Wilkinson. There was just such a resonance with everything I've read about martial arts.

It doesn't exactly put to rest the argument whether chi exists or not. It does show however the parallels in posture, body alignment and use of force in other sports.

There was another parallel with another aspect of his kicking technique ..... his follow through. He kicks at an imaginary target beyond the goal posts. This helps him to maintain contact with the ball for longer so that he has more control and so that the ball takes the desired trajectory.

It seemed analogous to punching through your opponent rather than just the surface. Am I being rather obvious again? I'll just shut up now ......

[yuanfen]

The same facts can be examined from two different paradigms.
Paradigms can be used by frauds but also can be used as ways
of organizing knowledge by perfectly rational individuals.

[joedoe]

JW has good kung fu. He spends many hours a day practicing his kicking, and seems to have perfected the art.

[Repulsive Monkey]

Doesn't sound like Qi at all no!
Just sounds like someone making a bit of quiet before they make a load of muscular external action. Wilkinson still kicks in an external athletic fashion and not one which obviously denotes an internal method, but the the methodology sounds ok.
But it's not internal really!

[Phenix]

Originally posted by Repulsive Monkey
Doesn't sound like Qi at all no!
Just sounds like someone making a bit of quiet before they make a load of muscular external action. Wilkinson still kicks in an external athletic fashion and not one which obviously denotes an internal method, but the the methodology sounds ok.
But it's not internal really!

So, how is an internal kick like? how is the body, mind, breathing, join structure, meridiens, and qi link? please enlightent us.

[[Censored]]

Dude, are you STILL in the airport?