Qi Gong - health benefits

Qi gong, an activity practiced by millions of people, very popular in China and more and more popular on the west, often understood as a magic tool that will heal all illness and prolong life.  To promote Qi Gong, “teachers’ and “masters’ often use medical studies to support their claims and attract more customers. But what is the real truth behind these studies, what these researches really show?

Let’s fist see how Qi gong is defined in western medicine:” Qi gong is an umbrella term that subsumes a variety of energy-based healing practices based on Taoist philosophy and principles of Chinese medical theory.”

While Taoist philosophy may be valid for Taoist practitioners (believers) it has no scientific value, same goes with Chinese traditional medicine, it is a practice based on outdated, nonscientific theories rooted in Chinese folk religion and Taoism. In its essence Qi gong is an esoteric practice which ultimate goal is achieving immortality.

In this article several links to several published studies can be found. While the method of the study is valid, some basic facts about nature, practice, history and origin of Qi Gong are wrong. Also, studies were focused only of physical aspect of the practice not including a psychological aspect which is extremely important in Qi Gong.

In order to “work” Qi Gong practitioner must be convinced that the method will work. Most if not all Qi Gong exercises include some kind of visualization, concentration and imagination. All the physical manifestation of Qi Gong that include various sensory sensation in different parts of the body can be produced without any exercise or special breathing technique by simple concentration and deliberate inducing of these effect by conscious mind.

Results of medical studies of health benefits of Qi Gong:

While medical studies shows there are some health benefits from Qi Gong practice it needs to be explained what those benefits actually are.

First and most important fact is that Qi Gong is not main healing method for any medical problem. It is strictly an additional activity with sole purpose to support main medical treatment. In other words, Qi Gong cannot cure anything  and in all published studies there is a warning that Qi Gong practice should not delay real medical diagnostic and treatment methods. Qi Gong is not alternative for the medical treatment nor can replace it in any way.

For a great number of diseases Qi Gong does not show any improvements.

Most studies concentrate on Qi Gong influence on hypertension, chronical pain and improving of quality of life in general in certain population ( elder, cancer patients ). While studies show that there are improvement and positive influence of Qi Gong practice these benefits are no different from common physical exercises usually prescribed for these kind of problems ( aerobic, slow walk, running , swimming , specific exercises for pain ect). Studies do not show any significant difference between Qi Gong and other types of physical exercise. Benefit of Qi Gong does not go beyond its physical aspect. For example, people who suffer from hypertension will have same results whether they practice Qi Gong or simply have 30 minutes slow walk.

Qi Gong does not significantly influence life expectancy. China is the country with the greatest number of Qi Gong practitioners but life expectance in China is not what would anyone think it would be.

http://www.geoba.se/population.php?pc=world&type=015&year=2017&st=rank&asde=&page=1

We can clearly see that China is on the middle of the list, and if we examine the life expectancy in China through history we can see that China was, until recently, near the bottom of the list. Clear markers for life expectancy are in any given country is the quality of health care and general socio-economical level of development , in other word a quality of life. Richest countries with the best healthcare systems have the longest living citizens.

Population of Qi Gong practitioners does not show any difference in life span or rate of disease from general population in any given country. Even “masters” have same rate of disease and same mortality rate as general population and their life span is no different form general population as well.

Benefits of physical exercises of human health are known for centuries, Qi Gong as any other system of exercise will have positive influence on practitioner’s health and quality of life. On the other hand this influence will not be different from any other systems of exercise. Qi Gong is not magical tool for all health problems, just one of many similar choices available today

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3085832/#R3

http://www.naturalmedicinejournal.com/journal/2010-05/evidence-based-review-qi-gong-natural-standard-research-collaboration

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18543381

My view of Wing Chun training

Being involved in Wing Chun since 1989 my understanding of the art changed over time and at this point there are several things I do and understand differently from most of the other practitioners . I know many will disagree with what I am going to say, even my own teachers , but  we all have our own path to walk and develop our self and our skills in a way we find most beneficial. Anyway , here are some of my thought about Wing Chun.

Wing Chun is advertised as a simplest, easy to learn art, yet when the training starts nothing is simple , nothing is easy to learn and require a great amount of time to learn all the stuff . While Wing Chun principles are pointing toward directness and simplicity, training is developing in a totally different direction, seems that art violates its own principles. There are two main reason for this, first – financial reasons, “teachers” develop overcomplicated drills and make large curriculums to keep students occupied for a long time. Second, most of the teachers never fought in their lives and they make “techniques” that resembles on old kung fu movies, complicated, multiple steps techniques which look attractive but have no real combat value.  My understanding of the art is different. I developed my own training approach which is different from the mainstream WCK training approach.

-          Complicated , fixed drills are not part of my training. Most WCK styles practice complicated drills with no combat value and without clear goal of the drill. In my opinion , drill must be simple and must develop some of the physical attributes necessary for fighting  like reflexes , speed , accuracy, timing , power… if drill has more than two steps ( even two is too much) it is the opposite of what drill suppose to do. Besides some of the very basic drills that can be found in almost all styles ( and those I also practice differently) I have no fixed drills ,I develop drills for each of my students individually to fit their needs and physical predispositions. I focus my training on mobility , strength , reflexes , timing , power.

-          Chi Sao, an omnipotent tool that replaces sparring and trains “contact” reflexes.  I have a question , has anyone , ever seen anyone using any techniques from chi sao in real fight? We all know answer to that –no. There is a good reason for that , chi sao is a tool to develop and train body structure , it is a tool to teach how body structure is used to deal with incoming force, nothing more and nothing less. Chi Sao is just a drill made to develop certain physical attributes but it is not replacement for sparring and it is not a fighting reflex drill. Originally, Chi Sao was not a part of Wing Chun system , it was added later , somewhere around the middle of 19^th century and it has its origin in long pole sensitivity drills adjusted to empty hands techniques.

-          Internal training –  is a bullshit , what people today call internal is simple concept of body structure which helps to generate force and absorb the force. There is nothing “internal” in that , nothing mystical. Problem is majority of wing chun styles have no concept or have limited concept of body structure. Structure is the basic foundation of the style , without it there is no wing chun . To develop body structure practitioner needs to spend a lot of painful hours of training , yes “external” training . “Internal” without “external” do not exist  internal is just a term which describes a level of efficiency , there is no mystery in that.  What I see in so called “internal” training today are two things, people are mixing stuff from other styles like white crane and tai chi and call it “internal” wing chun and no one doing anything beyond Siu Lim Tao level. I don’t see practical usage of “internal” training in sparring or fights , which would be second form level.  All I see are people doing chi sao, pushing each other around with very little footwork ( btw, completely wrong footwork). My training is different , I focus on using “internal” principles – body structure and power generation in a real fight.

-          While Wing Chun is advertised as easy to learn and fast to master art, for the reasons previously named above, in reality it is required around 20 years to complete the system. To learn all the things , drills ,”techniques” and “applications” require a great amount of time. Sad truth is , all those stuff have nothing to do with fighting , they are purpose to them self, to be learned, perfected to look cool and that is all. I do not teach fixed curriculum, I teach principles and give the students basic foundation which he will later develop in his own way. Everyone must personalize the art , that is the only way to fully master it , to fully understand it . I do not make copies , I try to give people what is necessary for their individual development and growth.

-          If it doesn’t hurt it is not martial arts training. Wing Chun training must be challenge , a way to push one’s limits little bit further every training session. If it is not like that , if it is practiced in relaxed and non challenging manner , it is not martial training , it is a sport or some kind of fitness .

-          Secrets – do not exist, people may hide some things but that is what crippled wing chun and made it a laughing stock for most of the full contact sports practitioners. Every now and then someone appears with “secret’ style or knowledge. Just ask check that person fighting record , if there isn’t any , that person is selling a crap. There are no shortcuts , not easy way to achieve skill , only hard and painful work.

-          Pure, original art – is also a bullshit. Many people sell a story about some kind of original styles. The truth is, no one lived in a vacuum, people met and exchanged knowledge over time, every generation added or discarded something , it is a natural process. There is no one who knows how Wing Chu n looked like at the beginning. That is the only truth.

-          Certification and ranks – they doesn’t mean a shit , either you can fight or not , either you have the skill or not , that is only measurement of the skill level. There are no ranks in boxing , or Thai boxing, or kick boxing or wrestling …they don’t need a piece of paper to tell them what they can do.

-          Politics – I don’t care what others are doing , and how they are doing it. Everyone has the right to choose what he will do. About all the infighting in WCK , the more they talk the less they train, that is it .

-          “Wing Chun cannot be used in a competition fighting because gloves are limiting the amount of techniques” , a usual excuse for not going to competition or even spar. Wing Chun , like any other style , if properly trained can be used in competition fighting .

-          “Wing Chun is deadly art”.  Have you ever heard that anyone in wing chun history killed someone with his bare hands? Ever? Fairytales are one of the things that are killing our art and instead of hard training fuel people with false selfconfidence .

To conclude this article, this is my personal opinion and it is not intended to offend anyone. People have right to choose their own path and enjoy in training. Different people have different goals and desires and their training will be adjusted to them. At the end , we do not have to agree on anything but we can still respect each other and promote our art the best we can.

Origin of martial arts

Martial arts are old as human kind its self. From the earliest times man was forced to fight to survive in a harsh environment which he shared with beasts and often he had to fight against other humans. On the other hand, determining the exact time when first fighting systems with defined techniques and system of training appeared is not as easy task.

Eastern martial arts trace their origin to gods and mythical heroes and their history and development is not easy to track. There is even less evidence about origin of western martial styles, especially because empty hand styles were never wildly spread in the west and cold weapons fighting styles were completely lost with introduction of fire arms.

Let’s take a look what history has to say about origin of martial arts .

Spear , as a first weapon human kind used was invented in palaeolithic  period , bow and arrow were invented at the end of this period. Although there are no evidence , it is logical to assume that there was at least some kind of systematization of techniques for these weapons. Unfortunately , we have no evidence so we can only speculate about the way these weapons were used.

 Probably the oldest evidence of martial arts, or martial sport to be accurate was found in France in the Lascaux cave. Paintings on the cave walls show wrestling match ( as well as a race ). It is estimated that paintings are 17 000 years old.

In Mongolia there is a cave painting from Neolithic period ,  dated 7000 B.C that shows two man wrestling , surrounded by spectators

In Libya were found paintings  from Neolithic period , dated 6000 B.C ,that show archery competition.In Japan were found drawings from Neolithic period that shows something that resembles today’s Sumo wrestling. We can conclude that wrestling is the oldest empty hand martial discipline.

 Discovery of metallurgy and agriculture led to formation of first states in old Mesopotamia, 4000 BC. Summer as the first civilization and Assyrian and Akkadian after were the first civilizations with complete organized government and of course professional army. With professional army first training and fighting systems were developed. Training was mostly infantry training and soldiers were practicing with dfferent kind of weapons , mostly spears , swords , axes and maces.

Traces of empty hand fighting we found around 3000 B.C. in ancient Summer. Stone carvings show people wrestling. Oldest bronze figurine that show people in wrestling position are dated 2600 B.C. in old Summer. The oldest written document about wrestling is the Myth of Gilgamesh (which is the oldest recorded myth in human history). We also find evidence of boxing matches in old Summer around 3000 B.C. Summerians organized boxing competitions that resembles modern boxing matches.

In ancient Egypt, on monuments dedicated to pharos in archaeological site Be Hassan were found evidence of sophisticated wrestling system. Specific techniques were presented and it is obvious that techniques were classified in two groups , fighting in the standing position and ground fighting. At the same place we find evidence of boxing matcher similar to those from Summer.

History of ancient Greece started with Minoan civilization 2600.BC. Greece is not only a cradle of European civilization but also an origin point of boxing and wrestling as fully developed and defined disciplines. One of the most popular sports in ancient Greece was Pankration, an art that resembles on modern MMA. The legend says Ulysses was also a master of this martial art. 

In ancient China first trace of fighting in organized groups was found in period of first Chinese dynasty , Xia , around 4000 B.C. First organized system of empty hand fighting , actually wrestling was invented , as the legend goes, by Huang Di , “Yellow Emperor” , who supposedly lived around 2800 B.C. First archeaological evidence of complete weapon figthing systems in China were found in 5^th century B.C.

Weapon fighting systems and fighting in organized groups were far older than any empty hand fighting system. Unfortunately these systems were almost completely lost. New technologies that brought new way of warfare , disappearance of people and states that used these systems and finally invention of fire arms which made cold weapon absolute caused the disappearance of these fighting systems. Today we know very little about techniques and training methods of fighting systems before invention of fire arms.

Announcement

Snake Crane Wing Chun in UK for the first time 

GM  Wayne Yung, founder of Snake Crane Athletic Association will conduct a seminar on August 24th 2017 in Stoke on Trent in UK. It is a unique opportunity to learn from the first hand about the oldest and rarest Wing Chun style today which stayed unchanged from the time of Ching dynasty.

Seminar starts at 19:30 PM 

Program:

History of Snake Crane Wing Chun

    1. Advantages of close distance combat

    2. Snake Crane Kuen Kuit ( only original and complete kuen kuit from Ching dynasty period)

Four foundation principles (four keys) of Snake Crane Wing Chun

    1. Softness

    2. No Oppsition 

    3. Power Generation

    4. Empty Mind 

Close distance combat 

     1. Introduction to Qi Gong part of Snake Crane Wing Chun Sil Lim Tao

     2. Introduction to Snake Crane Wing Chun basic hands techniques and principles ( Snake Reel, Crane Withstand)

contact :

email: 

shaolin.staffordshire@btinternet.com