Xingyi Oppositional Force

Somebody sent me this question and I figured that it was such a good question that it deserved to be in the public domain. I hope that this information helps any Xingyi people out there and enriches their practice. Please feel free to send any other burning questions that you might have to me and I'll try my level best to answer them. Peace, Gwilym x

Xingyi Question:

"Trying to generate power in xingyi, keep reverting to 'waist power'

Having trouble generating and understanding the 'dragonbody' or wave..."

Hi, thanks for your question. Firstly, when standing in santi you need to build up ‘oppositional’ power (zheng li) where there is a tension between the leading hand and the rear hand. So, when you’re standing in santi you ‘prop’ the front hand, which means that you exert an internal pressure which runs from the spine and scapula, through the arm and into the hand. It is a sensation as if you were pushing against something but without the muscular exertion, it is an internal feeling of connecting all the joints up from the shoulder blade to the hand with a pushing forward feeling. Imagine that a fluid is flowing from your spine through your shoulder bones and into and along your arm to your hand and then out through the centre of your front palm. Perhaps, this image will help?

At the same time, in your rear arm you release (relax) the AC-joint at the shoulder and release that arm back creating a tension between the front hand which is pushing forward and the rear arm which is pulling back. The rear hand is still positioned at the navel where it should be but the rear arm itself has loosened at the shoulder and the shoulder blade itself is being pushed back.

But, be careful that you do NOT:

1)     Over-push back the shoulder blade of the rear arm, just relaxing the joint where the arm and the shoulder meet and letting it relax back a little should be enough to create that oppositional tension between the front and rear hand.

2)     Do not twist your kidney! When releasing the rear shoulder blade back and pushing forward with the front shoulder blade be sure to extend your spine upward, do not twist your kidneys or create pain in your back. Extend all the vertebrae up from the mingmen acu-point. This also has the added bonus of ensuring that all the force you develop is connected with the spine.

Once you train this oppositional force in the santi posture on a regular basis it will begin to become hard-wired into your body. It is then just a matter of integrating it into your five fists. So, starting slowly, you train each of the five fists in this oppositional power. At the point where you step and transit into the fist you become aware that you want to exert this tension between the leading hand and the rear hand. Over time, this will become instinctual, but to begin with you will need to deliberately make the tension happen. 

Do not rush. Do not use muscular tension or force - Relax! By all means possible do not be tempted to revert back to a more tai chi-style of fajin using the waist. Cultivate the front-forward/back-pull two-way force. Persevere and the oppositional force will become part of your five fists training. It is not easy to do and takes time to train, but the best things are like that, they’re worth waiting for…Good luck with your training. Gwilym