Advanced Internal Strikes Checklist

The secret to advanced internal striking
is your ability to feel.

To effect something with a strike you have to feel it.

Externally this is easy. If I feel my fist impact their head then I know I hit them in the head.

Internally this is a little trickier.

Say I want to take advantage of their structural
errors or damage a specific organ.

How do I get the force of a hit to go there?

And how do I practice regularly without running out of training partners?

To start with you should be able to put your hands anywhere on someone’s body and feel exactly what you want to hit.

Here’s a quick checklist some things you should learn to feel.

– Alignment errors

– Tension

– Root

– Body Parts (elbows, shoulders, waist, knees, feet, etc.)

– Breath

– Digestion

– Heartbeat

– Thought

Your ability to feel these will also depend on your opponent’s skill at hiding them.

For example:

If I’m working with a beginner who’s a little on the stiff side or a little loud I can feel all of these things and they won’t be able to feel any of it from me.

Unless I help them.

If I’m working with other senior students it just depends. Some things I can feel from them and others I can’t.

If I’m working with Sigung Clear I feel like a beginner.

As hard as I try I can’t feel much
of anything and I have a tough time
hiding any of these.

We train this using the exercises on the Internal Power DVD:

https://store.cleartaichi.com/collections/tai-chi/products/root-of-internal-power-2-disc-set

You need a training partner to build this.

Fortunately, as long as you have someone to push around,
you don’t need a live teacher to learn this

(though we recommend you make the effort to get with us live whenever possible.)

Just find a partner and be willing to work hard.

Internal does take a lot of hard work.

Comments

  1. Hi Ben,

    I’m just started practicing Sigun Clear’s program, and so far all I have purchased is the first DVD and the book. So when you say you can feel these things in another person, can you actually see the images in your mind? How would I know what im actually feeling is what I’m supposed to be feeling? This is hard for me to wrap my brain around. Any insight youhave for me would be appreciated, thank you.

    • You feel it the same way you feel a screw bite into the wood when using a screwdriver.

      The same way you feel the road through the tires of your care.

      Or how a good mechanic can tell you what’s wrong with your car just by the sound.

      We use the internal push hands method to train it. This is critical so you can get the direct feedback you need to tell the difference between your imagination and what you really feel.

      The Internal Power video will guide you through it step by step.

      Or get with us live at any of our events.

  2. Also, is the information that is in the Internal Power DVD provided in the online basic skills curicullum?

    • The Internal Power DVD is not on the Members Site.

      However if you’re on there, head over to the level one page and work with the push hands stuff.

      Then work with the stuff here: http://members.clearstaichi.com/?p=1832

      There is a lot of other stuff spread throughout that curriculum that will build these skills as well. But start with the push hands stuff and the link above.

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