Though martial arts started off as an inward pursuit, over time it split into different systems. Each system has its own take on stance—grappling stances, kickboxing stances, Tai Chi stances, and so on. And, naturally, each group has its own ideas about what’s right and what’s wrong. It’s a bit like, each group has its own piece of the overall puzzle, and they try to make a complete picture out of the small amount of pieces they have. It’s not going to work like that. You have to work with more than fragments to get a an idea of the overall picture.
The point of internal martial arts has always been about pursuing an internal experience in order to get to the bigger picture. External form is really about physical requirements (as well other factors we will look at), which vary from person to person. Each person has their own idea about the truth, but they cannot get a whole picture from that because the whole picture contains other factors, such as movements which come out best when they are not forced.
“By focusing on a small slice, we can do wonderful things, but we can never capture richness of experience. And if we focus on too many small things we simply spread our attention thin. The idea is to develop an overall awareness of the whole, and place our attention there.”
How you hold yourself in a martial arts stance depends on your physical capabilities—and on the level of perception you’ve developed. We’ll explore some ways to develop both. Your capabilities, your perception—they’re always selective, not all-encompassing. In other words, there’s this all-encompassing energy inside you, and your mind and body are like tools that can only focus on a small slice of it at a time. By focusing on a small slice, we can do wonderful things, but we can never capture richness of experience. And if we focus on too many small things we simply spread our attention thin. The idea is to develop an overall awareness of the whole, and place our attention there.
So what is this all encompassing energy? One way to look at this is to consider that the nervous system does not interpret physicality as what it looks to us from the outside. Put simply, It experiences motion, pressure, and release. This is why the internal experience is different from the external one. Internal martial arts even works without much physical practice, because the environment for its expression is already there. You do not need kicks and punches, but these inevitably happen in the right context once you develop certain perceptive capabilities. From this simple example, we can see that you will never get the proper experience by relying on how things look alone.
Think of your mind and body like a cinema—full of plays of thought and emotion that make you feel like you’re right in the middle of the show. However the cinema doesn’t tell the whole story. When you step back, when you’re less caught up, you create a kind of functional space—a place for a different kind of energy, or just to be. This gives you a presence, a presence which can actually give weight, and effective movement to your martial arts skills.
So, the internal form isn’t really about perceiving the external environment, or even about the skill set you happen to have. It’s about the cause behind it all—behind what your mind and body choose to focus on, selectively. That focus is what generates all the skills and perceptive abilities. This is often Bourne out of a combination of thought, energy and emotion, rather than just pure energy. As an aside, the idea behind meditation practices is to generate this kind of undifferentiated potential energy, or a pure energy, which can be used to do nothing or to take action.
Your attention selects what to focus on. And if you want to let this energy flourish, it’s a good idea to understand some principles so it can function freely, unhindered. Then this energy will develop your capabilities to their maximum potential by supporting them from behind, in any way you choose. That’s why certain martial arts skills can feel dead under a rigid energy system. Instead of deciding the potential beforehand according to a few selected requirements, trying to make this whole picture from fragmented pieces, it’s important that you develop over time in a balanced, dynamic way. In part 1, we will look at the first principle.
Left and Right Sides
In a typical stance, the left foot and hand are forward, taking on a seeking role. The left hand probes, looking for openings, gathering information—fluid, subtle, yin qualities. This sets up the right side, slightly back, which is more direct and assertive—yang qualities. This yin-yang division balances seeking with decisive action. There are various reasons for this. For example, variety of form spreads attention so that the enemy becomes confused.
“This is the power of the quality of yin. It breathes instead of ticks, so that when you strike out with the right side it comes out in a way that has the element of surprise.”
The yin dimension, the left side, allows you to get the opponent to focus their attention there, below the surface. In other words, the opponent focus on something that is moving but is not insisting that they look there. This is the power of the quality of yin. It breathes instead of ticks, so that when you strike out with the right side it comes out in a way that has the element of surprise. Otherwise, The Yang side would be too predictable. This requires careful thought.
While this is the standard configuration, variations exist, such as the southpaw stance, which reverses the sides.
In the next part, coming very soon, we will look further at body alignment and posture, fluidity of movement, and biomechanics, amongst other aspects.
