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Hello All
Ok, getting a bit confused. Was just reading a part of “The Power of Internal Martial Arts”. Was looking at a picture of one of the palms – the one with fists.
It is obvious that the spine is fully twisted and the four points are not aligned. I am still a complete beginner, but just to clear up my confusion, am I right in thinking that the instructions to keep the four points aligned and never to twist the spine are instructions for beginners only, and later on these things are acceptable?
Meanwhile, of course, I shall keep the four points aligned and never twist the spine. Right??
Yes, I assume the rule are different when you get to a high level and have someone highly trained to guide you. It comes up in the bagua mastery about turning to the center of the circle, that at some point you can’t keep the kwas and shoulders nests fully aligned and that dragon body twisting is operational. He states pretty carefully that twisting more than… 60°, I think, requires this type of twisting and that it should only be attempted under a teacher’s guidance.
I look forward the responses of our more senior colleagues.
best wishes,
mjn
I think Matthew is correct. In my experience once you turn more than 45 degrees to the center, you can’t maintain the strict “box”; however, you are always aligned internally. In fact, the connection between the 4 points should get stronger as you turn toward the center of the circle. Beginners might not recognize the feeling of cohesion that I’m talking about. Until you do, keep the 4 points strictly aligned from an outside physical appearance. I didn’t start to flex the box until I started opening the central channel and had threading of the joints together. That same feeling of threading goes through the four points. You can’t go wrong if you keep the four points together in the strict way that Bruce talks about in his books.
Great, thankyou, very clear.
Yes, I recall reading this in the text portion as well.
I forget the exact degree number that was given in the text, but it was a pretty healthy turn keeping the four physical points. Chances are beginners and most intermediates wouldn’t even stably and without producing tension get to that point without a lot of practice.
And yes, after that some Bagua specific dragon body twisting starts coming into play, so that while the physical points may not be lined up, you are still keeping the internal material where it needs to be.
But again, you’ve got to be turning (from what I recall) pretty darn far before you even need to worry about that.
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