What is "Internal" power

“Internal” martial arts today are more popular than ever, if it is not “internal” it is not worth practicing, at least that is what large number of people who follow and practice these arts say. But what internal martial arts really are? What “internal” really means? Is it really so much better than “external”? There is a myriad of definitions and seems not that every teacher but every single practitioner has its own explanation of the matter. To make things even worse, people include mysticism, religion, obscure theories about nature and human body and in some cases even magic. Sadly, many practitioners of “internal” arts believe in them but not actually understand or even seriously practice their arts.

So, let’s bust few myths and explain what internal arts really are

1.    Internal arts have nothing to do with Qigong ! Qi does not exist, period. How do we know it doesn’t exist? Simply, science is not able to prove its existence! Someone may say that science is not advanced enough and it is not able to detect Qi. While that may be true the main problem is that scientific research  requires a solid definition of what Qi is. From the people who insist on its existence and profess it, science need an in depth dissertation on its workings from these people. From these we can then search for testable statements and draw a scientific prediction . The hypothesis must also have alternative explanations that have to be tested for as well. So, basically, science is unable to test and research something that has no clear definition, that no one knows what it is, but know it exist !?!?!?! On the other hand, science did a researched Qi in domain that actually can be measured and validated. Although Qi cannot be detected the effects of Qi can be measured. All test conducted in an effort to measure the effects of Qi failed miserably just as it was the case with magic, “prana”, “bioenergy” ect. It is impossible to see any effect of Qi, not immediate one for which whenever scientifically examined, it turns out to be a parlor trick, nor long term supposed health benefits. Simply, Qi comes from a carefully controlled and disciplined mind and body under typical psychological and bio-physical conditions. It is a form of self deception or when we talk about students who got knocked out with “no touch” attack, their compliance comes from due to unconscious social pressure, simply they are brainwashed. Qi is a remnant of the ancient people believes who did not understand how physics, biology, and medicine really work, so they invented a poetic, shamanistic, religious story to give the some sense to their world view.

2.   Muscle power is not needed to create force in internal martial art, muscle are not used in training of application. Some people go even further and claim that too much muscle are actually bad for practicing nei gong but on the other hand developing a “pot belly” is beneficial. Again, this is a nonsense. First of all it is physically impossible to move without muscles, that is their purpose. Complete relaxation means no movement at all, in order to make any kind of movement muscles must be involved. “The more relax you are the more power you can generate” this is often repeated sentence by internal arts teachers but is it actually true? Different activities engage muscles (and complete body) in a different way. Repeated activity will condition muscles in certain way which will develop according to type of conditioning.  For example power lifters have different muscle development from bodybuilders who again have different muscle development form gymnasts who have different muscle development from boxers and so on. Same goes for internal martial arts, muscles are conditioned to for specific kind of movements for specific outcome. In internal arts muscles are trained to make fast and short contractions to release energy. More muscles you have, more power you have, of course if muscles are conditioned for that kind of activity. Human body does not escape laws of physics and biology and chemistry no matter what someone may believe, there is no esoteric practice nor religion that will change this fact. No muscles no movement. What people call “relaxation” is actually specific way of muscle conditioning which make contraction in order to generate energy.

3.    Next claim is actually a second part of the previous one it says that connecting tissue is actually the most important in internal arts, tendons and ligaments are actually where the power is generated and they are pathway for force flow throughout the body. People believe that somehow connecting tissue can be used as a form of spring and release the energy just like the real spring and that is why the muscles are not important and not used. Again, total nonsense. Ligaments serve as connectors, linking the ends of bones together at a joint. The joints allow for the performance of simple and complex motions throughout the body, and ligaments come in a variety of sizes and shapes to support, strengthen and stabilize the joints. A tendon is a fibrous connective tissue which attaches muscle to bone. Tendons may also attach muscles to structures such as the eyeball tendons aid in the movement of bones by transmitting force from the muscle to the bone. Tendons aid in a wide range of motion and act to resist pressures; hence, it is important that they vary in shape and size. Tendons also help absorb some of the impact muscles take as they spring into action. Ligaments and tendons are made of dense layered collagen fibers, called fibrous connective tissue. They also have some elastic fibers that allow them to move, but not so much that it moves beyond its capacity. As we can see , connective tissue has very specific purpose and while it is essential in body parts movement as much as bones and muscles their purpose is not to generate power nor to transmit it power from part of the body to another . While connecting tissue has some elasticity, that property is far beyond what internal practitioners believe and it is physiologically impossible for connecting tissue to generate power, that is a job of a muscle. While conditioning of connecting tissue helps the “force flow” it is not as important as it is believed simply because tissue tolerance for stretching is pretty limited.

So what is actually going on and what actually internal power is? To understand that we have to understand a basic processes in human body, especially muscles.

There are three types of muscules:

1.    Cardiac muscle (myocardium), found only in the heart, is a striated muscle similar in structure to skeletal muscle but not subject to voluntary control.

2.    Smooth muscle, neither striated in structure nor under voluntary control, is found within the walls of organs and structures such as the esophagus, stomach, intestines, bronchi, uterus, urethra, bladder, blood vessels, and the arrector pili in the skin (in which it controls erection of body hair).

3.    Skeletal muscle, which is out area of interest in this article striated in structure and under voluntary control, is anchored by tendons (or by aponeuroses at a few places) to bone and is used to effect skeletal movement such as locomotion and to maintain posture. (Though postural control is generally maintained as an unconscious reflex the muscles responsible also react to conscious control like non-postural muscles.) An average adult male is made up of 42% of skeletal muscle and an average adult female is made up of 36% (as a percentage of body mass). It also has striations unlike smooth muscle. These muscle are formed of long multinucleate, cylindrical cells called muscle fibers. Skeletal muscle fibers are grossly divided into two type; slow twitch (type I) and fast twitch (type II). Type II fibers are further divided into type IIa and type IIb fibers. Type IIa fibers are intermediate fast twitch fibers and can utilize both aerobic and anaerobic metabolism for ATP production. Type IIb fibers are the classic fast twitch fibers. Slow twitch muscle fibers primarily utilize fatty acid oxidation and contain a high concentration of mitochondria and store appreciable amounts of oxygen as oxymyoglobin. These two facts are the reason that slow twitch fibers are red in color. Fast twitch fibers primarily utilize glucose oxidation to pyruvate for ATP production, contain less mitochondria and myoglobin than slow twitch fibers, and thus, are white muscle fibers. Because slow twitch fibers prefer to oxidize fatty acids they are also referred to as oxidative fibers, whereas fast twitch fibers that utilize glucose are referred to as glycolytic fibers. Slow twitch fibers are capable of continuous extended contractions and therefore, do not fatigue quickly. Fast twitch fibers are used for short rapid bursts of energy and as such fatigue more quickly than slow twitch fibers.

 Now let’s see how muscle actually works. Generating power is called muscle contraction and it is not just a muscle shortening as it generates force. There are many different ways that a muscle can generate force.

1.    Concentric Contractions—Muscle Actively Shortening. When a muscle is activated and required to lift a load which is less than the maximum tetanic tension it can generate, the muscle begins to shorten. Contractions that permit the muscle to shorten are referred to as concentric contractions. An example of a concentric contraction in the raising of a weight during a bicep curl.

2.    Eccentric Contractions—Muscle Actively Lengthening. During normal activity, muscles are often active while they are lengthening. Classic examples of this are walking, when the quadriceps (knee extensors) are active just after heel strike while the knee flexes, or setting an object down gently

3.    Isometric Contraction—Muscle Actively Held at a Fixed Length. A third type of muscle contraction, isometric contraction, is one in which the muscle is activated, but instead of being allowed to lengthen or shorten, it is held at a constant length. An example of an isometric contraction would be carrying an object in front of you. The weight of the object would be pulling downward, but your hands and arms would be opposing the motion with equal force going upwards. Since your arms are neither raising or lowering, your biceps will be isometrically contracting.

4.    Passive Stretch—Muscle Passively Lengthening. There is a fourth type of muscle "contraction" known as passive stretch. As the name implies, the muscle is being lengthened while in a passive state (i.e. not being stimulated to contract). An example of this would be the pull one feels in their hamstrings while touching their toes.

To fully understand the mechanics of the movement we also have to understand the purpose of the skeletal system which is the framework of the body, consisting of bones and other connective tissues, which protects and supports the body tissues and internal organs. The skeleton can be divided into two components, the axial skeleton and the appendicular skeleton. The axial skeleton is formed around the central axis of the body and thus includes the skull, spine, and ribcage. It protects the brain, spinal cord, heart, lungs, esophagus and major sense organs like the eyes, ears, nose and tongue. The appendicular skeleton is related to the limbs and consists of the bones of the arms and legs, as well as the shoulder and hip girdles. Bones serve a variety of functions, primary among them being movement. Two bones or cartilages are held together at a joint through tough connective tissues called ligaments. Muscles are securely attached to bones through flexible but inelastic connective tissue called tendons. Muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments are part of the intricate machinery that allows the movement of different bones.

Human movement is achieved by a complex and highly coordinated mechanical interaction between bones, muscles, ligaments and joints within the musculoskeletal system under the control of the nervous system. Muscles generate tensile forces and apply moments at joints with short lever arms in order to provide static and dynamic stability of the body under gravitational and other loads while regularly performing precise limb control.

This is basic frame of every human movement.  How to define “internal” and “external” movement? Basic biomechanical processes for both, ”external “ and “internal” movements are the same so how to separate them? The difference is in level of biomechanical efficiency for same type of work. ‘External” can be defined as a usage of local group of muscles to generate , receive and transform force , it is a movement  without competence or in a segmented way, that will leave certain areas of the body uninvolved in the movement.

On the other hand  “internal” can be defined as an abilities to move every part of the body in harmony. Using a specific skeletal alignment with a proper sequence of muscle contraction , “internal” power have significantly higher level of movement efficiency whit significantly lower energy consumption.  There are many different ways in which the body is used in this regard but all these methods share certain common traits explained above.

As we can see, difference between “internal” and “external” is not in the nature of the movement and certainly it has nothing to do with esoteric or mythical powers and energies, but it is a difference in quality of utilized movement or more precise in the level of energy consumption vs. desired output,

Wing Chun historical significance

Many people will be disappointed by the true range of Wing Chun historical significance but facts do not care about anyone’s feelings. So what is really the truth about Wing Chun and its significance in common history of China? The answer is none what so ever.  Same goes for all other Kung Fu styles.

There is almost no evidence how martial arts looked like before Ming dynasty. There are not enough evidence for the Ming dynasty either but what we know is that martial arts at that period put accent on weapon fighting and “empty hand”  techniques , yet alone complete styles didn’t exist. Only military officers trained full time, main forces were retrained before every campaign. Soldiers were trained to fight and maneuver in organized groups , cavalry as well as foot soldiers, archers trained their skills  and of course 20%  of tropes used fire arms.

When Ching took over power in China they kept military organization intact and that stayed unchanged until the end of Ching rule. Kung Fu in a shape known to us today didn’t exist until the end of Taiping rebellion.  Most Kung Fu styles were literary invented in a period between 1850 to 1930. There are no styles older than 1850’s that put accent on empty hand fighting and period between 1850 and 1900 was transition period where most of the old weapon oriented styles transformed in empty hand styles. This change was influenced by social, economic, technological and political factors. Wing Chun is no exception , it was invented somewhere during 1850”s and slowly changed until got its final form somewhere between 1900 and 1940.

Let’s go back to historical significance of the style. Wing Chun became popular due to premature death of Bruce Lee. His untimely death brought him planetary popularity and caused a set of events known as “Kung Fu Craze” that made Chinese martial arts extremely popular during the second half of 1970’s and 1980’s.  Bruce’s death also brought planetary popularity to a style he had practiced in Hong Kong during his teens, particularly to Yip Man’s brunch of the style although at the time of his death Bruce Lee abandoned Wing Chun completely and had developed his own, unique fighting system.

Before this Wing Chun was just one of many kung fu styles practiced in Hong Kong and not particularly popular or even known. Unlike some other styles like Choy Lee Fut or Hung Gar which had thousands of followers , Wing Chun had only few hundred followers in a period between 1940’s to1970’s . Before that time Wing Chun was just obscure style practiced by few dozen people and virtually unknown outside its own circles. Before 1900. there were not more than 20 people who practiced the style, maybe not even that much. Between 1900 and 1940 the number of people involved in Wing Chun was maybe close to 50. Compared to Hung Gar, Choy Lee Fut, Tibetan Crane, Fujian cranes, Tai Chi, Ba Gua, and others Wing Chun was completely insignificant. The truth is Wing Chun was unknown to wide martial circles and there is no mention of the style in the sources of that period. Newspapers, books, personal correspondence, government notes, police records ( about famous fights)…nothing.  

At the very beginning, only few people on the boats practiced an art which will later became Wing Chun. These few people after Taiping rebellion sought refuge in various places and in return taught few other people. The only thing that even remotely resembles to a Wing Chun club was held by Leung Jan. It was more the elite club for local businessman than martial establishment . Anyway, Leung Jan had between 9 and 12 students ( exact number will never be known) and other from his generation had maybe one or two students, all in all around 20 people before 1900. Since most of these people taught openly it is obvious they didn’t participated in Taiping rebellion and they were not in hiding , free to spread their arts. We know very little about this period. We don’t even know how Leung Jan’s original art looked like or what was the name of his art. There is no record of Wing Chun from this period what so ever. Wing Chun people from this period weren’t involved in any historical event , they were all members of wealthy class and they stayed out of trouble. As we can see in a period from the end of Taiping rebellion till the end of the Ching dynasty  Wing Chun had no influence on anything beside their own lifes.

Republican period was golden age of kung fu which spread and development was widely supported by government. That is also a period when most of the kung fu legends (better known as histories) were invented to boost national pride and give the desirable view of the events from the period of Ching dynasty rule that supports nationalism, patriotism and heroism of Chinese people.   Kung fu flourished in this period, many new styles were created ( known as old rediscovered  secret styles) and kung fu became available to many people spread by the government via organizations like Goushu or Ching Wu. Of course there was also a lot of local schools who taught on massive scale, kung fu at that time was an excellent source od income and entire wars were led for the territory and students. There is a lot of official documents and press sources about fights between schools and organizations. Wing Chun on the other hand was completely out that story which is kind of normal, why would school with 100 people worry about the style with 20 active members at  any given time. Wing Chun people kept them self out of the eye of others, which was very smart at the time because serious injuries or even killings were not uncommon practice. Big organizations with thousands of students used them as the army to deal with competition. All kinds of political connections were used to leave much of these things out of the interest of the law enforcement. As we can see, Wing Chun had no influence on kung fu history and development in republican period, simply there were not enough active members to make any impact on the events in Kung Fu history and history in general.

After all the wars in 1948 as many people as could escaped China , mainly to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. Many Wing Chun practitioners, left without anything started to open schools and teach out of existential necessity. Even then, Wing Chun was pretty unknown and was in the shade of much better known and for a long time popular styles like CLF or Hung Gar. Yip Man had around 200 students in 20 something years long teaching career, other Wing Chun teachers all together didn’t have  that much  because they were more traditional and still kept their style low profile. Yip Man opened his school to everyone.  On the other hand , schools of other styles still had thousands of students and were very well known and popular. Of course there are stories about tremendous fighting skills and fame gained by some Wing Chun people , stories about secret “UNDERGORUND” fights which they never lost . Guess what, every single style have identical story , but no one ever showed even the smallest piece of evidence, no records of any kinds , no gambling tickets (people usually organize this kinds of things for the purpose of placing bets.) Yet we have no records , official or unofficial   about these things , nor we have police or medical records about those hundreds of fights, Such amount of fighting certainly wouldn’t pass unnoticed by police , and so many injured people would certainly left trace in medical records. So, again , we have only legends made decades after real events . To conclude this part, Wing Chun had no significant , if any, influence on Hong Kong kung fu scene from 1950’s till the middle of 1970’s. There was a large number of Kung Fu schools in Hong Kong at time, as it is the case today and only few Wing Chun school. Despite the Wing Chun propaganda the style was not popular, nor well known.

Let’s go back further back in the past and examine the claims about military and antidynastic role of Wing Chun. For a long period of time people believed in Yip Man’s version of history where Wing Chun was invented in Southern Shaolin monastery by the group of extraordinary fighters in order to rebel and over throne the invading Mongolian dynasty. Even a superficial examination of this claim shows that it has no connection to the true events of the time. Southern Shaolin never existed as well as people involved in Wing Chun supposed creation. All of them are fictional characters first appeared in popular literature at the beginning of the 20^th century. Also , it is more than obvious that Wing Chun is totally opposite from military based martial art. Wing Chun is perfect for confined spaces, have limited footwork it is short range style and no military grade weapons and it is concentrated on single person abilities to fight. Military art on the other hand has vast range of footwork for maneuvering on battlefield which includes different kind of marching , running ect., concentrated on fighting in organized group , have little if any “empty hand” techniques and have military grade weapons for fighting in long distance. From historical point of view, Mongolian invasion and domestic resistance are very well documented . All the participants , events , strategies , equipment and even the way of training and applying the skills on battlefield are well documented and there is no mention of wing chun what so ever, simply the art didn’t exist at the time, it was invented few hundred years later.

Supposed connection of the art to secret societies and anti Ching activities is just another try to give the style prestige and significance. There two things important to notice in this claims. First , secret societies is just another name for organized crime groups. Although they claimed they are freedom fighters they didn’t participate in any significant historical event against Ching dynasty. They are today as they were in the past crime syndicates, some more notorious than others, but essentially they never had any role in liberation of China from Mongolians. Second thing is also connected to wrong perception of these groups. People usually have pretty simplistic view , and see them as group of people who do not do anything else but practicing martial arts and plotting against Mongolians, and at some point they invented Wing Chun as the most superior fighting style. Well that is simply not true. They mostly worked in “protection” business extorting money from wealthy Han Chinese or robbing caravans and killing people. They didn’t have any uniform system of training, they just accepted people with the skills they already had. People were bringing vast array of martial styles into these groups. Is it possible that some of the secret society members practiced Wing Chun? It is possible and some of them probably did, but compared to the number of other arts in these groups Wing Chun is pretty insignificant.  The other misconception about secret societies is the fact that some Wing Chun people had to go into deep hiding after Taiping rebellion as the members of the movement. It is automatically assumed that these people were members of some underground anti dynastic movement. This is simply wrong, these people just went into deep hiding after the rebellion was crushed , they were not members of anything. Number of people who trained Wing Chun and were members of Taiping rebellion is extremely small, not more than a few. Wing Chun was developed among one particular group of opera performers and for most of them we know they didn’t participate in Taiping rebellion. Wong Wah Bo, Leung Yee Tai, Yik Kam, Dai Fa Min Kam were not in hiding during opera ban period. The only member we know that was hiding during that time was a Law Man Gung , member of Law family who was founder of Law family style today known as Snake Crane Wing Chun. And that is all about Wing Chun engagement in Taiping rebellion or any other anti dynastic movement.

As we can see, Wing Chun, despite grandiose claims of various “grandmasters” have no historical impact what so ever. It became popular by pure luck and people involved in selling the art used  aggressive marketing to promote their product having no regard for real historical facts.

Are you a martial artist or a cult member?

Are you a martial artist or a cult member? Many people get caught , mainly because their ignorance , in the web of martial cults. What is a martial cult? How can someone know that he is in the martial cult? Concerted efforts at influence and control lie is at the core of cultic groups, programs, and relationships. Many members, former members, and supporters of cults are not fully aware of the extent to which members may have been manipulated, exploited, even abused. The following list of social-structural, social-psychological, and interpersonal behavioral patterns commonly found in cultic environments may be helpful in assessing a particular group.

1.    The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader or a founder (whether he is alive or dead) regards his system, theories  and practices as the absolute and only truth, as law.

2.    Pyramidal structure

3.    Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.

4.    Avoidance of critical thinking and/or maintaining logically impossible beliefs and/or beliefs that are inconsistent with other beliefs held by the group.

5.    Avoidance of and/or denial of any facts that might contradict the group's belief system..

6.    Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting ect ) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its teachings.

7.    The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the founder had hundreds of fights and never lost or performed a feats of superhuman strength and skill such as breaking the revolver with two fingers, it is the only original system superior to others, system contain some secret teachings and techniques unknown to others ).

8.     The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider martial society.

9.    The coaches are preoccupied with making money. They require regular seminars or other gatherings in which they sell “secret”, “advanced” knowledge and they have special programs for “one on one” teaching where members can learn faster and learn most secret and advanced things

10. The most loyal members feel there can be no other martial style worth practicing and there is nothing they can learn from any other source.

11. Control of members' actions and thinking through repeated indoctrination and/or threats. The teachings of the group are repeatedly drilled into the members, but the indoctrination usually occurs around Special Knowledge. Legends and completely non rational stories are repeated until members start to believe in them as real. Threats goes in a direction where members are told that they will lose time and opportunity to learn the only style worth practicing.

12. Minimizing contact of members with those outside the group by discouraging or forbidding them to participate in seminars of other arts or visit and practice other styles

13.  Those who do not keep in step with group policies are shunned and/or expelled.

14. There are records, books, news articles, or television programs that document the mischiefs of group/leader.

15. Followers feel they can never be "good enough".

16. Grandmaster is always right.

17. Grandmaster is the exclusive means of knowing "truth" or receiving validation, no other process of discovery is really acceptable or credible

18. Whenever the group/leader, founder or the style  is criticized or questioned it is characterized as "persecution".

19. Anything the group/leader or founder does can be justified no matter how harsh or harmful. For example Yip Man’s followers do not care about his gambling and drug addiction nor the fact that he abandoned his family and escaped by himself from communists.He also showed more to people who had more money. 

20. Infantilization  of members , simplified thinking

I

Zong He quan , basics

Fujian White Crane is one of the best known and most influential martial styles in China. Impact that White Crane had on southern Chinese Kung Fu styles is obvious at first glance. Vast majority of the styles adopted some variation of San Jin ( Three Battles) form. Hakka arts, most Fujian styles , Karate from Okinawa, many Guangdong  styles ect. Influence does not stop there, many styles adopted White Crane body structure, power generation methods, weapons and philosophy of training. White Crane also influenced many styles from northern China, today known as “ internal” styles  like I Chuan, Xing I and Tai Chi. White Crane was probably first complete modern Kung Fu style in a shape we know kung fu today and it shaped the path of development of Kung Fu during 19^th and early 20^th century.

The true origin of this style is not known or documented though it is attributed to Fang Qiniang (方七娘), a female martial artist. Some theories suggest that White Crane was created as early as 1521-1566 during Ming dynasty, while others put time of the art’s creation in the 18^th century or later. Lack of evidence make determination of the true history of the art extremely difficult.

There are numerous substyles spread across Southern China, Taiwan, Vietnam and Malaysia. Many of these styles are very old and still unknown, practiced behind closed doors, especially in Taiwan and somewhat in Malaysia.

Although all these “Cranes” have same origin and share many of the techniques and principles each style is unique and has its specific way of training , combat theories, range of techniques, weapons, philosophy, ect.

One of the rarest styles is Zong He or Vibrating Crane. Virtually unknown outside of Taiwan this peculiar style is a true treasure of Chinese martial inheritance.  The story of the style starts in 1840 (or 1860, depends of the source) with Fang Shi Pei who began to practice White Crane  at Tianzhu Temple on Chasan mountain. Living in the nature Fang observed his surroundings and soon became aware of natural movements of all things. He was aware of the animals and plants and their movements in different situations as well as the other natural occurrences. While practicing one time, he saw a Partridge on the tree and the bird and the tree branches shake when the bird cried. At that moment he had an epiphany, he not understood but felt with all his being the importance of the vibration.

How right he was proves modern physics, vibration is everything. Not only light, sound, microwaves, gamma waves, radio waves but the space its self vibrates  in a form of   gravitational waves. But importance of vibration doesn’t stop there, it is in the very core  of the foundation of our universe. Vibration is actually the force behind the existence of everything. String theory, an attempt to provide a complete, unified, and consistent description of the fundamental structure of our universe, proposes that all of the different 'fundamental ' particles of the Standard Model are really just different manifestations of one basic object: a string that can vibrate in different ways. If it oscillates a certain way, we see an electron. But if it oscillates some other way, well, then we call it a photon, or a quark, or another basic particle. So, if string theory is correct, the entire world is made of vibrating strings!

Of course Fang Shi Pei didn’t know anything about modern physics but on some deep level he sensed an enormous importance of vibration and then continued to develop completely new style of White Crane. Zong He turn out to probably the most internal, the softest art that exist today. The style emphasize specific breathing techniques, posture, internal structural ( skeletal ) alignment, relaxation, mind intent and focus, chi development and energetic expressions through vibration.

Zong He training prepare a practitioner so he can receive a hit and transmit the force of the strike into the ground. On higher level vibration is used to either absorb and annihilate the incoming force or to turn the direction of the force vector and immediately go back to the attacker. Vibration is also used to amplify the force of the entire body and concentrate it in one point.  Same principles are used in weapon training.

Zong he quan training has several layers of skill developing at the same time. Not only that art develops martial abilities but at the same time is beneficial for health and it is a Qigong practice. For example proper alignment also cultivates and stimulates Qi energy flow within a person.  With correct body posture, the spine is aligned and the tension and pain caused by previous bad posture will be released. Controlled movements improve, joint mobility, muscle and ligament strength, bone density, coordination and balance, stamina, cardiovascular health and more. Whether you are practicing martial arts for self-defense or to improve your health, your body and mind will be relaxed, calm, and centered.  When you are relaxed you can respond to problems faster and more appropriately than if you were tense.  Relaxation and physical activity release endorphins and fights depression naturally.

China over time developed a great number of martial styles, each precious and beautiful in its own way. Vibrating Crane in all its beauty and uniqueness is a rare treasure of Chinese ingenuity and culture. This, for outsider obscure style offers many paths of personal, martial and health development and even more than that it teaches philosophy and spiritualty throughout the simple yet deeply profound set of movements and exercises. 

I hope this beautiful martial art will find its way out of Taiwan and reach every part of the world because it has much to offer .