Fred

One more thing. "Chi" is a Chinese word. Not mystical mumbo jumbo.
When I perform Chinese martial arts we use Chinese terms. The same goes for Japanese and Korean styles. Is "Ap chagi" mystical ? It means front kick.
How about Migeri ? That is Japanese for front kick.
Exciting eh ?

Baloo

Ever wonder why tai chi masters don't win olympic weight-lifiting medals?

Fred

They don't compete ?
In my experience Tai Chi is not an effective means of self defence.


Tribalbeach. I ask forgiveness if I sounded condesending at all earlier when saying you didn't know what you were talking about. I guess I got offended by your first response to me.
I could probably ask my master to elaborate when he returns but that will be in about a years time. I don't expect to fully understand his teachings for at least 10 more years. My expertise is in punching kicking and wrestling. I would think that chi would relate to any physical exercise.

tribalbeeyatch

No hurt feelings here, Fred. I led with a strong attack, and you countered. They're but words on a screen. Shall we dust off, bow to one another, leave the dojo and quaff a pint?

Shinobi

There was an excellent point made earlier

“If that's all that chi is, then why bother calling it 'chi' when that word is already polluted by its longstanding association with mystical mumbo jumbo.”

If Chi is a metaphor for health, why not use a scientifically valid term for it?

“Chi is simply the term the Chinese use for life energy. They believe the centre of a persons energy is in the area two inches below the solar plexus.”

Now this actually is starting to look mystical. Does the term life energy mean anything in a modern scientific context? If we were to try and give a meaning to the vague term life energy, I would have to say that it would be many things. Is adenosine tri-phosphate life energy? Because that’s the energy we use for all movement.

Now perhaps I am not understanding you correctly but I think it’s a little funny that you say that chi is not mystical then go on to say it’s “life energy.”

I’m sure people here would like to know what type of energy this “life energy” is.

Fred

To be honest, I am not sure what the Chinese mean either by "life force". I really don't think I can elaborate on the vague meanings I have been told in all my years. Often when I have asked them I get the feeling that they hold something back from me. This is probably also due to the instructors lack of knowledge of English. Nevertheless as I have learned in martial arts or anything Asian, one must have patience. I think it will pay off for me in the areas of relaxation and basic good health.
Chi is one of the so called "internal arts" and as I mentioned its function is in the promotion of good health through proper breathing, meditation etc. The other forms are the external arts and these are the fighting arts where one needs body conditioning. This is why I mentioned the techniques involved in breaking, fighting and so on. I got the impression that somebody had been told chi is used in breaking. Anybody can break a board, it is as much of a gimmick as anything. There is no real secret outside of good technique.
So as you see, after my spending the years from 13 to 39 training, I still don't know exactly what it is !
I will speak to some other instructors over the next week and see what they have to say. I will then post what I learn from them. I will ask Koreans, Chinese and Japanese instructors. We should get an interesting answer from one of them at least !

Personally, when someone tells me these stories about chi, or anything else similar, I regard them with suspicion and believe anybody here should do the same. To me it is just another exercise.
I am sorry if my posts are vague or badly written, I really don't post on websites often and I am not a scientist or anything like that. I only come here to read as a rule. I'm just a fighting instructor, nothing special.

Fred

Sorry to keep making these double postings.

I have just had a look on the internet for a definition of chi. There is an awful lot of rubbish written about it. Some people are saying things like "Man is one of the forces of nature to have chi relayed from the universe......" This is idiotic nonsense. The only definition I trust is found at the following addy. This is how I understand it. I only know it as an exercise and believe that is all it is.

http://www.orlandokuntao.com/master_frameset_chi.html

Shinobi

I read the link you posted. Nice to see everyone isn’t buying into the metaphysical.
It may be that in pre-scientific days, when physics was not understood as well, they used chi as an explanation for the feats they did. I don’t see why there is still a use for the word chi when something physical could be used which would minimise confusion.