Have you found your North Star?

When I was a kid, I saw Shogun, a TV mini-series aired in 1980. It was about an English explorer who became part of Japanese society. After it was over, I was completely taken in by the katana and Japanese culture. I was in karate, and I was already enthralled with Kung fu from that TV show, which aired in the 70s. 

I was raised by hippie parents who were always making stuff from leather. They had artist friends, and I supposed they were artists themselves. I also grew up in Brooklyn during a violent time; there were cops chasing robbers; in fact, while playing on the sidewalk, an armed robber jumped over me, fleeing from a policeman. Both men had a gun drawn. There were many other instances, but I don’t want to come across in a bragging type of way. I am creating the context of my childhood. In other writings, I have discussed the level of bullying I lived through as well.  I have always had these seemingly dual paths, that of the artist and the man of violence.  These dual paths pushed me towards new ideas and stressed the need for self-defense. 

Seeing, Shogun inspired me to make a bokken out of hardwood and start practicing cuts. I wanted to pursue weapon study further, but my Sensei didn’t teach weapons until one was a black belt. Disappointed but not dissuaded, I explored other ways to learn about weapons and frequented China Town in NY and purchased some weapons like nunchucks and staffs, etc. I knew from then on weapons would always be in my life. 

I remember sitting in karate after class, and we were all talking; well, the senior students and sensei were talking. I was listening because that was what kids did back then. I was a young 15-year-old. In the days before karate kid, there were no kid classes. You worked out with adults and sparred with them. Anyway, the highest-ranking student said he was going to Japan to study karate and live there. I remember thinking that was about the coolest thing ever. 

And here is where we get to the point of the story, deep in my heart, I was ecstatic about the thought of living in Japan, but it never occurred to me that I could actually do it.  Whether we attribute that to low socioeconomic status or low self-esteem, it seemed beyond my reach, and further, no one in my life would tell me I could actually make that happen. 

After that moment in the dojo, I went on many journeys and adventures but never made it to Japan. I am writing this mostly to my kids who don’t seem to have a direction yet, and I want to let them know how to recognize that feeling when their heart leaps and that they can make it happen. They may not get to the highest levels, but they can certainly get where they want to go. 

I am not writing this out of regret; I still practice martial arts religiously 43 years later. Not many people can say that. In some respects, my journey might be the one I was supposed to be on all along. However, it is always good to remind people, especially young people; they can pursue what makes their hearts leap. 

The idea of Japan in my heart at 15 was more important to me than actually going there; perhaps that idea was a rough but concrete marker for the martial path, a path that is still to this day my North Star.  

Insulin and your health

Insulin helps blood sugar enter the cells, which your body needs for energy—turning it into glucose. It also signals whether to store excess energy as fat.

What does this mean for your health?

Metabolism helps your body decide what to do with the food you just ate. If you eat a bunch of food, specifically those high in carbs and sugar, and don't exercise, insulin will tell your body to store the calories as body fat. If this happens consistently over time, you can get Type 2 Diabetes or other related metabolic disorders. Too much sugar in your blood is toxic, and it can lead to atherosclerosis and heart disease. Regularly having high blood sugar levels for extended periods (over months or years) can permanently damage parts of the body, such as the eyes, nerves, kidneys, and blood vessels. Diabetes is the leading cause of heart attacks and early death.

The example that I like to use is comparing your pancreas to a small restaurant that comfortably serves a dozen people and is suddenly overwhelmed with 100 customers. That small restaurant can get through it a few times, but if it is constantly being overwhelmed with more people than it can handle, eventually, the staff will quit. One thing the restaurant can do is set up a maître d', which can help regulate the number of people being sat at tables and orders of food.  

If you have a normal functioning liver and pancreas and are steadily using energy by exercising and eating moderately, your body isn’t storing much fat. Said another way, if you are not overwhelming your body, you will allow your liver and pancreas to handle the inflow of food, and you will be in balance. But if you consistently are not exercising, not using the energy up, and adding more processed carbs and refined sugar, eventually, your pancreas will give out.

Why are our bodies susceptible?

Overwhelming your liver and pancreas is a problem because, for most of human history, there was not enough food, and especially, carbohydrates and sugar were difficult to come by. A good example I use is for hunter-gatherers to get honey; it was quite a labor-intensive activity. First, you had to find a beehive. Then you had to climb the tree; if you needed smoke to disorient the bees, you had to make a fire by hand. These are all high-calorie expenditures. Said simpler, IT WAS HARD WORK. Once you got the honey and woofed down a couple of pieces, you would share some. Also, the bees don't have that much honey available in their hive, so if you wanted more, you would have to find another hive and repeat the whole process, or you would have to forgo honey. Adding to this, you wouldn't want to decimate your food source, so you would ration it and save it for later. 

The same goes for dried fruit. The same issue occurs with drying fruit. First, fruit only lasts for a while, and you must store it. Second, you still have to process it, which is work. How much could you process? On the Pueblo, I often see homes with drying racks, but I usually see one or two. That isn’t a lot of fruit. 

Nature was our dietitian and our fitness coach at the same time!

Now that we've industrialized food, we can go to the store, buy 20 jars of honey, and consume them all in a day. Unfortunately, our liver and pancreas did not evolve to process/digest/metabolize all that sugar in that short of time. 

The same thing happens with dried fruit; I could purchase bags of dried blueberries, cranberries, and cherries and consume them all in a day. I have reduced the time and labor to almost zero.  

So this massive radical change in our food system forces our liver and pancreas to go from a small restaurant that handles a dozen or so people to corporate-level dining. This is really the food problem we are facing now.  I hate to simplify things, but it is literally a problem of scale. 

I've just outlined a scale issue, and our bodies are not up to scale! 

What can you do? 

So the problem is easy to identify. The hard part is instead of nature determining what you eat and how hard it is to get food, you have to step in and regulate your intake.  

There are many diets out there, but the first step needs to be eating less refined carbs and less sugar. I would completely cut out juice and soda. And alcohol. 

Soda is a direct sugar infusion into your liver, making it particularly bad for your body. There has to be some level of caloric restriction, and that means going without eating. You have to tell yourself, and I always do this for myself. I tell myself it's OK to be hungry. There's nothing wrong with it with going to bed hungry, especially in this day and age. Second, you do have to be active, and it doesn't require running marathons or being a bodybuilder. You just have to be active because that starts the reverse process of burning the energy that is stored as fat, and you can't reward yourself with a snack because you will never burn the stored fat. 

As I mentioned, one of the roles of insulin is signaling the body to store energy as fat. Understanding this vital function is an opportunity to get involved in your health and start reducing damage to your liver and pancreas. 

Nunchaku and Demons

When you get to your mid fifties, you start  spending a lot of time being nostalgic and realizing those moments when you strongly connected with something because they are rare. 

One of the first things I developed a strong connection with was the Japanese white oak, octagon-shaped nunchaku. They had such an aura for me, they almost became sacred. That moment in Game of Death, when Bruce Lee pulled out nunchaku in his fight against Dan Inosanto was electrifying. I made a pair as soon as I came home from the movie. 

 

Then, as I researched them and bought books, it was Fumio Demura and those Japanese white oak octagon ones with a cord attaching the two with a hidden knot that took me to a whole new level. I remember learning to tie that knot. Moreover, those 8 flat sides felt so powerful in my hand and I felt invincible as I practiced in my back yard.  

The nunchaku represented control and power. In a time when I was getting beat up and picked on as bullies used their power to put others down; so they could lift themselves up. I saw the nunchaku as a tool to turn the tables on my bullies to say, “Fuck no, you aren’t doin that to me!”   

And it worked. Even though, I never had to use them in a fight in high school, they meant more than simply fighting. They became the very idea of empowerment, of using a tool to equal the odds. In another movie, Bruce Lee used them to fight off a gang of armed attackers. This was powerful to me. It meant I could buy two pieces of wood and a simple cord and make a weapon that could defend against a gang attack, a nightmare for many. I knew at once my role in life, and even more importantly, who I was. It meant that by any means necessary someone was not simply going to walk into my life and control me. They weren’t going to take my life, or my loved ones easily. They would have to fight because I was going to fight. 

During my 20s and 30s, there were several times I needed a weapon to dissuade someone from trying to do me harm. And deeper still, there is the larger battle inside every man and it is with one’s fear of death by other men. It becomes the ritual of defeating one’s own imaginary demons. These demons can look like a home invasion or a gang of men or an evil serial killer and your mind conjurors these demons to set upon you. True martial arts uses these demons to challenge themselves via the mastery of weapons.  

Once you continually face your demons you can achieve peace and realize more of your true self and align your self with essence of the universe. This is the way.

Getting lost in infinity

Practicing martial arts forms on the deepest level manifests your cosmic kung fu training teachers. They train you. They are the cosmic ancient masters and their accumulated experiences are held in two different places, one in suspended animation in your DNA and second in the specific martial patterns. Once these are linked, the secrets can be unlocked through a deep visceral training of the ancient forms. 

After I was done with fighting highschool bullies, I realized fighting is not healthy. I ran to the Yin side to pursue the arts. I had grown up in an artistic household and thought this path would offer me the most out of life. It seemed an exciting choice and coincidentally not much different than martial arts with its physicality of moving the brush, charcoal, or chisel.

 Again, I heard those ancient voices but there were also voices of temptation like Lorelei whispering to travellers in the woods. I was soon coaxed into territories deeper than I could fathom, listening to the whisperings of lost souls whose threads were not connected to the ancient voices, my tether was cut and I was free floating in infinite space.

Floating in limitless space you brush up against those who are also untethered and there you can experience extreme connection but it is only temporary. Everything seems to fall apart and nothing lasts. Although this is true for much of the things found in life, there are however, some things that are rock solid and indestructible. Religions speak of such structures but, words can only be of little help. 

In martial forms, we walk with the ancient masters without form and our souls touch their footsteps. Those footsteps lead us to the energetic cathedral which forms the structure of the universe. This is indestructible and always changing.This is the place to reside. 

Chris Aloia, July 21, 2020

A Small Epiphany about Animal Consciousness

Recently my wife mused aloud questioning what could be occupying our pet's minds. I quickly brushed it off saying that all they think about is food. Since it was a rainy weekend and I had time, I decided watch a few TED talks on animal consciousness. One talk was given by Carl Safina, a noted writer on animal ecology, who wrote a book entitled Beyond Words; What Animals Think and Feel. Here is a link to the video  Not too far into the video, he made me feel foolish about giving short shrift to my wife's question. I also watched a few others but for the sake of brevity and clarity I will just stick to the one video. So not only did I immediately feel foolish, I also decided to open my mind and that simple but difficult action was like the sun bursting through the clouds on a rainy day. This inspired me to take my dog, Chewie (Short for Chewbacca, my kids are Star Wars fans) out in the back yard and let him wander around, while I did some T'ai Chi. During the practice I felt a deeper level of awareness of my whole body, as I moved through the T'ai Chi form. I felt these physical epiphanies before but, this time I felt increased neural connectivity.

In addition to greater connectivity, I became poignantly aware of the tightrope walk between flight or fight responses and more graceful responses. This fertile place of true realization in the moment that doesn’t stick around too long is what T'ai Chi cultivates. T'ai chi in combination with some other more direct combative training is a great match for walking that tightrope. Some might and some have questioned why practice T'ai Chi at all. 

I still practice it for three reasons: one, it makes my mind and body feel connected and that feels great; two, the research says T'ai Chi is good for injury prevention and pain management; and thirdly, I believe T'ai Chi develops a deeper understanding of form and biomechanics and forces me to think about movement efficiency.

When my practice was done, I got a bow saw and cut a freshly downed branch of tulip poplar into smaller throwing size sticks, and threw one about 70 feet, so my dog could fetch it. He was in heaven, prancing about with that stick in his mouth. We just played and enjoyed the freedom of the moment. I am usually very critical, almost cynical about TED talks, but I have to admit watching that TED talk about animal consciousness really helped me become more aware of his sentience as well as my own.

Reminiscing About How I Found Martial Arts

I was lucky that I grew up in the 70s and 80s when Asian culture, particularly martial arts, was becoming popular in the US. With the popularity of Bruce Lee movies, and the TV series Kung Fu it almost became a prerequisite to have a martial arts fight in many TV shows. I remember waiting for those fight scenes with great anticipation.

Additionally, my father was practicing Tai Chi from Robert Chuckrow and he took me to one of his classes. I remember watching him and his friend practice the Tai Chi form in our yard. My father even tried to get me to stand in a Tai Chi posture and it was really uncomfortable.  I was so rambunctious I was definitely not ready for the slow practice of Tai Chi. Then in the 80s, the TV mini-series, Shogun came on and I made myself a bokken and practiced cuts with it. I was so excited by Asian culture and swords that I really wanted to learn more.

All that media exposure sparked me to explore further and I remember going to the local book store and checking out the martial arts section. It was only a few books and there was an orange book, much like this one pictured, that had historical illustrations of old time Jujitsu techniques. I bought it and became enthralled with those mysterious techniques. I tried to understand them but I couldn’t figure out the movements from the illustrations alone. 


I looked in the yellow pages and I remember seeing an advertisement for an Aikido class in a neighboring town. It seemed like it was a thousand miles away. Then I saw that our town had a Karate school so I did not have much choice. I ended up in Okinawan Goju ryu class and got my yellow belt. I remember the sensei telling us stories of the Okinawan masters he learned from, while in the military in Japan. Unfortunately, the school soon closed but luckily I found people who were into boxing. So I was still in the martial arts. However, in the back of my mind I still wanted to learn those traditional techniques found in Jujitsu and Aikido. After a couple of years of boxing I quit fighting all together. 

I had met some famous old boxing champs and realized that fighting and getting hit repeatedly in the head was not a healthy lifestyle choice. I forgot about the self development aspects of martial arts and boxing didn't teach those. So I thought I was done with the martial arts path. 

As I continued to explore other aspects of myself and grew as an adult, I once again saw a need to get back to martial arts.

This time I was in Seattle and there I had my pick of almost every imaginable martial arts style. I lived close to the International District and visited all kinds of schools offering Kung Fu, Brazilian Jujitsu, Hapkido and Aikido. I finally had my opportunity to study Aikido and learn those amazing mysterious techniques I dreamed about as a kid. So after many years I began learning everything I could and practiced intensely. Plus, there was a great group of people and we quickly became friends. The camaraderie at the school was a amazing.

 
Martial arts always came to my life in times when I needed guidance. In martial arts there is this important work being done that touches you on every level from the social to a deeply intimate and most personal. There is something compelling working out with people in a friendly but challenging manner that I have only found in martial arts.  I am very thankful that I grew up in a time when it was accessible to me. I honestly don’t know what I would have become had I not found the martial path.

Spiraling Patterns in Tai Chi (Notes from class on 9/17/19)

Yesterday in class, I discussed thigh rotation during Tai Chi movements. In the illustration from Chen Style Tai Chi, it depicts how your body should coil during most movements.

One exercise I use in my warm-ups is the reverse punch (Seen in the illustration below). Many people think the reverse punch is obsolete and a waste of time. However, they miss an important point, it is not directly for fighting but for training the body to coil, which is storing and releasing power. 

In fact, most of the reason why Tai Chi is performed slowly is to understand how this spiraling force is transmitted from one part of the body to the other without having gaps or hiccups, which can be exploited by an external force. This slow spiral movement also "ties" up the joints to protect them by keeping them aligned.
This is why Tai Chi is particularly good for balance, because it develops a counter spiral which "locks" the body into a stable structure. The lines in the Chen Style illustration show how force moves through the body, and of course, it is a spiraling motion, which follow patterns found in most organic structures because we live in a spiral universe and on a rotating planet.

When performing the reverse punch over time you will see every part of your body from your feet to your hands embodying a spiraling motion.  

Kayaking trip: father and son bonding in the computer age!

I have two sons, both of whom are ADDICTED to video games. My 14 year old has even cried when we have taken them away and said he hates everything else about life. Well, hearing that scared the crap out of me and my wife.

Additionally, my son has been doing typical teenage smart ass stuff, eye rolls and all. So it has been a little rough since he turned 13. It is not horrible but it is tough. Overall, he is a good kid and we love him to death. He does well in school, completes homework, and helps out with chores (but not without an argument about how stupid chores are).

So Easter 2018 weekend, I told my wife all I want for my upcoming birthday is to go Kayaking with her and the kids.

I was shocked when my 14 yo wanted to ride with me and surprisingly, we made great partners. I was so proud of him. He actually handled the turns and rapids really well for his first time. The whole trip he said, we have to come back and do this again. I felt so good and I felt like I got my son back. When he was younger we did everything together.  Needless to say this was the best birthday present ever!

When school got out in 2019, we found ourselves with the same battles and arguments. I saw an opportunity for just him and I to go kayaking again. And again it was really special. He really has a sense of adventure. It is so nice to share that with him. There are moments during any kayaking trip where there is a sense of danger, especially when seeing the on-coming rapids, rocks and debris. We work together to navigate it and shout out directives to each other. This is a great opportunity to bond but also to provide an example of how to deal with danger. I complimented him often and we teased each other some. There was a moment when he realized I am not such a bad guy. He joked back, saying that he has been doing the lion’s share of the rowing, with an obvious smile.

I could tell he needed to be in a real situation with me. So we can become accustomed to each other at a different stage in our lives. As adults, we take it for granted because we raised our kids from infants and we provide everything for them. Things that are obvious like meals but also things not so obvious like school applications, vaccinations and plane tickets etc, seem like magic to them; they just appear. What I am getting at here is that they don’t remember everything we have done for them and I think we have a tendency to demand respect and appreciation but they don’t remember all that little stuff. They need to rebuild the respect and connection, while we are placing more rigorous demands on them.

So being in semi-dangerous situations affords us the opportunity to build that connection and appreciate each other in a new context. I have found, just with these two trips, one was 3-4 hours and the other was over 6, that we came out of the river with much more love and respect for each other than before we went in. 

Another benefit of doing these trips is it is an opportunity to talk about other things and also share skills like survival skills that could potentially be needed. Whenever I go kayaking, I bring a couple of knives like, a Cold Steel Pro-lite folder or an Ontario Rat 1, which I keep on my person. I also bring other gear I keep in a dry bag as a backup. I also gave my son one of my knives to carry on him and gave him some simple instructions on how to use it and when he should use it. I discussed with him the potential of me getting hurt and what he would have to do. I made it fun to keep it from being another boring lecture. Kayaking also lends itself to a good life lesson, one of the things my son had trouble with was the importance of setting the right trajectory as you get to a bottle neck in the river. Since the water is moving fast and if you are on the wrong trajectory you could end up stuck on the rocks, flipped over, or eating a bunch of branches. 

I used this lesson to compare it to life and school work. While, schoolwork is boring and you want to wait until the last minute, sometimes that isn't enough and you could end up not getting into the college you want or missing an opportunity that you really wanted. I didn't drive in home hard but I did connect the dots.



Since kayaking is loved by everyone in the family, we  have decided that this is going to be one of our family activities and my wife and I discussed purchasing our own kayaks. We are also researching how to work out the transportation of them. 

Now, I feel like arguments and screaming matches are a cry for a new way of reconnecting and a new challenge rather than a downward spiral towards family disintegration.

Here’s to new hope!!!

6 reasons why the Mora Bushcraft Black is my number one favorite fixed blade.

1. Mora carbon steel takes a fine edge that can easily be brought back to shaving and I have found this to be reliable on all their knives I have owned. The other day I saw some rubber hanging below my car. So I grabbed my Bush Craft Black and started cutting the rubber. I kept trying to cut it but it wasn't budging. I looked at my knife in horror, and I realized the entire edge looked like a boxer's teeth, craggily AF. I checked the rubber and it had a steel core. I immediately went inside using only my ceramic rods and after a moderate amount of work, the edge was back to shaving sharp. Mora's carbon steel is one of the few knife companies I trust, so I keep coming back for more.

2. The handle is so comfortable. I can carve feather sticks for a long time with less fatigue than other knives. Plus the design of the grip really allows the knife to rest in a perfect position in my hand. Sometimes I just want to hold the knife because it feels so good.

3. The 90° spine is the sharpest of all my knives. I have used it countless times and it bites deep into the ferro rod giving me the most sparks of all my knives. It does have to be maintained with a stone every so often but it is still the sharpest out there.

4. It is lightweight. In a package that tics all the important boxes, like steel quality, comfort, usability, a good price, it is also lighter than other knives. Another benefit of it being lightweight is that when you have it on your belt you don't feel like it is dragging you down.

5. Another feature I like that is unique to Mora, is there is no ricasso, or choil, so you can get right up to the guard when cutting. Just to clarify, the ricasso on a knife is the space between the handle or guard, if the knife has one, and the cutting edge. The choil is a little (usually little) notch that allows you to sharpen the edge without the stone rubbing on the ricasso (see picture below). Sometimes people confuse the two and sometimes knifemakers enlarge the choil to allow for a finger to be placed there. It is really amazing how few knife companies do this. I find it makes sharpening easier and it provides more leverage for carving too. Also, the notch doesn't catch on things you are trying to cut. For a good article on choils click here .

6. Another great thing about Mora is they relatively low cost, which means you can get a great knife within your budget. That also means you can use it and not feel like you are destroying a family heirloom. They are a tool to be used not kept locked up for future generations. 

All of these great things about Mora also add up to making easier to having the knife on you when you need it. This week, there was a story of a 69 year old woman, who got separated from her husband while camping and was lost for 3 days in the wilderness without anything. Having a small fixed blade and a few other supplies on your belt, like a ferro rod and some cordage could have really helped her. She survived but was severely dehydrated and in need of hospitalization. It is a good reminder that having a few tools and a little knowledge on how to use them could make the world of difference. I would definitely recommend a Mora Bushcraft black for any hiker to carry into the woods, even for a day hike.

Between Postures: Where the Gold in Tai Chi Is Mined!

 Every so often during practice I will have an epiphany about some aspect of the Tai Chi form or a particular movement within.  When it happens I feel like I have gotten closer to uncovering the mysteries of Tai Chi. As I continue to explore an epiphany I soon realize that it has already been thoroughly explained in Yang Cheng Fu’s 10 Important Points. This week was no different. In the past few classes, we had been working on the gap/transitions between Tai Chi postures, particularly from Single Whip to Wave Hands Like Clouds but it is in all transitions. Often someone learning Tai Chi will automatically go from one move to the other will little thought or activation put into the transition, thus creating a gap in their structure. Specifically, Yang Cheng Fu expounded upon my epiphany in number 8 and number 9 of his 10 Important Points. Number 8 discusses the importance of harmony between the internal and external parts and number 9 discusses the importance of continuity while going from one posture to the next.

Single Whip

What separates Tai Chi from other exercise routines is once the form has begun the training is the transition from one posture to the other seamlessly. I have found understanding the martial aspects helps focus your attention on those transitions because transitions or gaps are vulnerabilities. In analyzing transitions in the Tai Chi form there are two basic categories. Hand transitions (moving from one side to the other or raising one high and one low) and stepping transitions.

Hand Transitions

Two postures that make a great example are Single Whip to Wave Hands Like Clouds. When you strike with your left hand/forearm (at the 12:00 o’clock) position in Single Whip, your right hand is extended outwards perpendicular to your left, creating a right angle (at the 3:00 position). As soon as you have reached the apex of that left hand strike (12 o’clock position otherwise known as absolute yang), your energy should slowly dissipate from the left hand (and start moving toward yin), as you sense an attack coming at your 4:00 o’clock position. So you begin to rotate your body to face that attack. Your right hand becomes activated and dominant (now yang) while your left comes to support the right, which begins the Wave Hands Like Clouds sequence.

The beginning of Wave Hands Like Clouds

Stepping Transitions

When moving from one posture to another you are transferring weight from one leg to the other, as you propel forward. During most Tai Chi movements there is a point where you must place 100% of one’s weight on one leg as you step. In the form, we practice weight transfer extremely slow to develop strength and stability.

We analyzed our stability when changing hand positions, but how strong are we when taking a step? The answer to this requires a two-part response. First, you would ONLY enter when you see a gap in your opponent’s defenses, and secondly, when you do see that opening you must do it swiftly, like a hawk seizing a rabbit.

To discuss entering it is important to tie it in with my boxing days. Entering is a lesson learned the hard way and it was ingrained upon me in two ways. In that awkward period when you are first learning to fight and you try to get close enough to punch someone, you quickly realize that you are also able to get hit. A lot of fear is generated and leads to stopping you from moving. You want to end the encounter, but you have to enter to do it which exposes you to a counter attack and harm. Many boxers, myself included, were told to never cross legs when moving, because you may get hit when doing so and your base will collapse, resulting in a knock down at the very least.

The important aspect of Tai Chi that is often overlooked is timing, because many Tai Chi people have never had to fight. A good example to understand timing is jumping rope; to jump over the rope at the exact time the rope should be right in front of your toes. If you jump too soon, you will land before the rope passes and if you jump too late you will get hit by the rope. In a self defense situation, the movements are hyper dynamic and the attacker doesn’t follow the rhythms of the form. It is those rhythms of entering either to the outside or the inside and look for openings with a decreased chance of getting hit while doing so. It is that “beat” which needs to seamlessly change with weight transitions. A true self defense or combative training session will work more on the timing of entering than memorization of a choreographed routine.

Transitions are where the gold of Tai Chi is mined. With training, anyone can assume a posture or stance but to carry the mindful focus of the dan tian and using the kua to transfer energy from one part of your body to other takes real concentration and effort. This is why Yang Cheng Fu includes continuity in transitions in his ten important points. It is also why I included his 8th point, “harmony between the internal and external parts”. You can’t transition if you have no smooth energy flow from the right to the left side of your body, nor can it flow if internal and external parts are not in harmony. Working on that harmony is the gold of Tai Chi, it is the neija or internal work that needs to be worked on to grow.

In sum, the form is a great general training tool but it will not fully prepare you for a dynamic encounter either with an opponent or in life situations that could arise. If you include mindful transitions into your form it will help you understand the need to focus and place attention on weaknesses in your form. It will inspire you to incorporate transitions and timing drills into your practice.

Harmonizing Yin/Yang

Yesterday in my Tai Chi class we joked about aging and why Tai Chi is mainly for older people (I work mostly with older adults). I have a younger women in class, and she stated, "I am not old!" We all laughed. Then I talked about self-selection, explaining that Tai Chi is too slow for younger people, who are looking for quick results.

In that particular class, I decided to start with a little boxing drill.  As a change up to the typical Tai Chi posture drills, we practiced a jab and right cross for a bit and I showed how it is slightly similar to Brush Knee Push.

That boxing drill sparked some one to ask if it is better to punch someone with a closed fist than an open hand. I talked about the nuances of that for a bit, which led to palm strikes and I said that palm strikes, are in the following Tai Chi moves: Brush Knee, High Pat on Horse, Single Whip, Wave Hands Like Clouds, and Repulse the Monkey. Then I discussed how palm strikes can be strikes, grabs, or even blocks. Moreover, they can also include the forearm and even the elbow. When you find your inner structure, or in Tai Chi vernacular, "Steel Inside Cotton" the whole forearm, including the hand becomes a type of guard/shield or even a strike, as demonstrated by self defense expert Tony Blauer in the pictured above.

So when you are practicing Tai Chi and developing your inner structure you are also developing a guard that protects your vitals. The guard is present in almost every Tai Chi move from opening to close. Each arm smoothly transitions from attack (yang) to guard (yin) in a circular motion mirroring the yin/yang symbol or Tai Chi. When you are attacking you are also defending, part of you advances and part of you yields. At the highest levels, all movements in martial arts connect to this principle. Whenever you read online disses of a martial art they are only discussing the veneer of their perception. Aikido gets a tremendous amount of hate but there are no major difference between Jiu Jitsu and Aikido. Sure, many Aikidoka show certain moves like wrist grabs, but digging deep into the principles of both arts, you end up at the same place. Even Brazilian Jiu Jitsu uses the same principles but translated into ground fighting. I believe the biggest difference is in the training. Aikido and Tai Chi do not train for real combat, they instead work on self development.

Tai Chi literally means "the grand ultimate point" where yin/yang are perfectly balanced; and to accomplish that harmony between polar opposites takes time, and this is where we usually lose younger people. You have to become committed to unifying these opposites in your body and mind. Learning self defense is important. Many younger people are looking to learn a self defense skill but what they miss is working on that harmonization might have a greater impact on them and actually move them into a higher level of awareness that can be of more practical use to them than merely being able to stop an attack. 

Spyderco Tenacious Review

As I have written in the past, I have carried a pocket knife everyday for well over two decades. I love having a pocket knife handy for many of life's chores. Much of those two decades have seen a Spyderco in my pocket.

Last time, I wrote about the Spyderco Stretch, a knife I have I carried everyday for a 7 year period. Since that writing, I have found that the lock back has loosened creating too much vertical blade play. That discovery has set about a search for a new EDC. One great thing about being in many knife groups on Facebook is you get to see a ton of knives that are out there. In the past two years or so, I have carried an Ontario Rat 1, a Cold Steel Pro-lite, and a Spyderco Tenacious. If you sense a theme here it would be cheaper level knives.  A few years ago, My wife and I have bought a house and there are some repairs so I haven't had money to purchase more expensive knives.

After about almost two years of having those three in my carry rotation, the Tenacious found its way in my pocket more than the others. Just a quick note, both of the others knives are excellent for the money and they still have a place for me in specific activities, such as the Rat is great for yard work and hiking; but a little too large for daily carry and typical knife chores; the Pro-lite is my designated kayaking and travel knife because it is cheap but very strong. It is a great choice for that and that Tri-ad lock is one of the toughest locks on the market.

Left to right: Ontario Rat 1, Spyderco Tenacious, Spyderco Endura, Spyderco Stretch, Cold Steel Pro-Lite, Kabar Kharon

One of the main reasons why I like the Tenacious is the ease of opening. Especially compared to the Pro-lite, which is a bear to open. It made the Tenacious feel like a slippy-slide. I was also surprised by 8cr13mov steel. At first I was really disappointed in this cheaper steel, mostly because of haters in knife groups, but after months and months of hard use, doing tasks like carving feathersticks in all types of wood, cutting boxes, opening packages, I have not had to do any kind of extensive sharpening to it; just a few swipes on a ceramic rod or a honing steel and it was back to hair popping sharp. Now, I prefer it to AUS8 for sure and I think it is comparable to Ontario's D2.

Another thing that added to my liking of the Tenacious was when I just started carrying it, we had a plumbing incident and when our plumber got out from under the house to fix our pipes, I noticed he had a knife in his pocket. We started chatting about knives and he took his out and it was a Tenacious. So we compared stories and he said he has been EDC-ing his on his job for over a year (See Pic below) and it has held up really well for him.

At $50 dollars, the Tenacious is hard to beat. Usually in knife groups, the Ontario Rat 1 is one of the highest rated knifes for under $50. I agree, the Rat is tough and cheap. If I can only have one folding knife, under $50, it would be the Rat 1. That said, for an everyday carry knife I often recommend the Tenacious. Both are great knives.

Any knife review would be remiss if I didn't give some of my criticisms. So here goes!

My biggest issue with the Tenacious is blade play. Mine doesn't have the vertical blade play my Delica, Stretch, and Endura have, but it does have side-to-side play. The blade is wobbly, so wobbly that I had to put Loctite to prevent the pivot from coming loose and the blade is still wobbly. 
This is where this review has to go into Spyderco's Customer Service Policy.

NOTE: Loctite on the pivot pin has stopped the lateral blade play on the Tenacious. 

I am really disappointed in the amount of blade play my Tenacious has and I considered sending to Spyderco, but their customer service policy is extremely limited, which is still true! It is so limited that I have decided to move my loyalty to Benchmade because they have a life-time warranty policy. Even though, I prefer Spyderco's opening mechanism and some of their designs more than many of Benchmade's, their policy sucks. Benchmade's policy makes it a much better deal. I will still carry my Tenacious but it is not going to be my main carry anymore. I recently bought a Benchmade Bugout and it is now my main carry. For the record it has ZERO blade play. 

Another issue to discuss is the type of locking mechanisms. The Tenacious has a liner lock, which are great for closing with one hand and the liner protects against vertical blade play, which is the worst kind in my opinion. Vertical blade play means that when you are cutting an apple and pressing down there will be a slight give to pivot. Lateral blade play isn't as bad but it makes the knife feel cheap and means that the machining tolerances are low. Many of my knives have no play at all, like the Ontario Rat 1, or the Cold Steel Pro-lite, it can be done affordably. Unfortunately, all my Spydercos have unacceptable levels of blade play. Since the posting of this article, I have purchased a Manix, with a ball bearing lock and I have to say that is a very good lock with less blade play than Benchmade's axis lock. I have to admitt that Spyderco makes knives that I am really excited about and I will continue to carry them more than any other brand. With that said, I will not purchase any knife of theirs with a lockback.  

In sum, I still carry my Tenacious and it is a great knife for the money. I still recommend it for a cheaper level knife that can be used hard for tasks you might not do with more expensive knives. My plumber would agree too! 

This article has been updated on 9/2/2020 to reflect my continued experience with the Tenacious and other knives I have owned since May of last year. I carry my Tenacious more than any other folder. The Bugout is a great knife but it is too small for my hand to be carried regularly. It does make a great back up knife in a mini-survival kit (MSK).

What does it mean that T'ai Chi is an Internal Practice?

Recently,  a systematic review was published attempting to ascertain the different types of emphasis by T'ai Chi modalities. A lot of research on T'ai Chi is published, but usually the research doesn’t distinguish the approach a teacher chooses. In my experience, I have observed some T'ai Chi instructors focus on performing the form in competitions, some train to win medals in push hands, some focus strictly on health, and some focus on neijia, or internal martial arts.  

While all methods of teaching T'ai Chi share considerable overlap and most would be recognizable to the lay person as T'ai Chi, it is only when you delve deeper into T'ai Chi that you will be able to see the subtle differences between these general approaches. I have encountered T'ai Chi schools that focus on the performance of forms, and I have found them to be less substantive although more athletic, less internal and sometimes even rigid. For them, T'ai Chi is a more of an athletic dance than a martial art. There are many examples of this on youtube (click here). You can usually spot them when you see the practitioner raise their leg straight over their head. There is a ballet like aura to the movements, with a hushed silence as they slowly demonstrate their athletic prowess, albeit it in slow motion. I have also been to classes where it is purely a therapeutic movement with little or no demands on the body. Even though I enjoy T'ai Chi and love to see it performed in many ways, it is when I feel that internal body subtly moving do I completely become engrossed in the class. 

So what is Neijia?

Wikipedia’s definition is “Neijia is a term in Chinese martial arts, grouping those styles that practice neijing, usually translated as internal martial arts, occupied with spiritual, mental or qi-related aspects, as opposed to an ‘external’ approach focused on physiological aspects.” 

I disagree with parts of Wikipedia’s definition. While I would agree that neijia is classified as internal martial arts, I would not equate the external with physiological. It makes neijia seem elusive and mysterious. Neijia is, in fact, physiological but in a deeper way than just using large muscle groups. I would characterize external martial arts as using force and tension rather than relaxation or song (attentive relaxation).

I have trained with a few teachers that have emphasized the internal over the athletic dance style. In a blog post I wrote last year called “The Importance of Naturalness in T'ai Chi,” I discussed my experience with Gao Fu at a workshop, where she illuminated the path of neijia for me through zhan zhuang (standing meditation) and chan ssu jin (Silk Reeling Energy/Spiral Exercises). After that 5-day workshop, I became totally enthralled with neijia and rigorously searched for a teacher until I found Fong Ha, in Berkeley CA. The main part of Fong Ha’s teaching is zhan zhuang, and what blew my mind was that I am decades younger and many inches taller than he is, but I could not even budge him. He would stand on one leg and allow me to push him as hard as I could, and I failed to move him even an inch. Then when he was finished playing with me, he would shift a little and I would stumble off balance like an infant. Fong Ha and his teachings were elaborated on in the three-book series Warriors of Stillness by Jan Diepersloot. Those books introduced me to Fong Ha’s teachers, who have developed amazing internal abilities, like Master Cai and a few Yi Quan Masters, who were taught by Wang Xiang Zhai. Wang Xiang Zhai is an important figure in the resurgence of neijia because he developed an internal system of boxing that relied on standing meditation (zhan zhuang), which allowed him to push over an opponent with little external movement. While no videos exist of Wang Xiang Zhai, I have found one of a Tai Chi master doing push hands using neijia. (To see the video clip click here) Here is another more recent video clip of someone I have studied with here.

Neijia, the phenomenon

Something happens in T'ai Chi when you perform it ever so slowly and also while you are thoroughly engaged in standing meditation, which I believe is unique to T'ai Chi. For sure, there are many types of bodily awarenesses like being “in the zone” or feeling things happen in slow motion, but I have not experienced in other types of exercises what happens in T'ai Chi. In T'ai Chi, there seems to be a special focus on balance, specifically proprioception, that I believe is unique. Proprioception is defined as “is the sense of the relative position of one's own parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement. It is sometimes described as the "sixth sense." So, for the T'ai Chi practitioner, proprioception is not an afterthought like it might be in some other exercises, where your focus could be on jumping over a hurdle or swinging a racket at a ball. Of course, those exercises would facilitate proprioception, but what sets T'ai Chi apart is that the main focus is on proprioception. You turn your focus inward and work on using the mind to direct your center and its relationship to the ground and to other people, as in the case of push hands. Then something interesting happens: you start to see your body in a different way, not simply like outstretched arms reaching for something while keeping yourself upright but like a network of cables and fibers that are stretching and calibrating from your toes to your fingertips and everything in between. You feel whole. You feel connected but separate simultaneously.

What I have found is that the dance-like approach is closer to an external form and doesn’t feel like my whole body is fully engaged. I have to add that there are no studies I know of that research the benefits of one modality over another. It would be an interesting study but difficult to gather that many participants. So I can’t say which one is better with any credibility; however, what I can say is that being fully engaged is deeply fulfilling to me on a quality of life scale. I do think the athletic dance approach is more aesthetically pleasing, and I believe that makes people feel like it is the better approach. What I think gets lost following that path is the resistance you get from an outside force like push hands, which allows you to sense another’s intent. Then your body develops an ability to calibrate to external forces because you are directing and dispersing the force throughout your body using your intention via the network of fibers called the fascia. Having that force applied to your structure allows you to listen to it  and is what I believe makes it an “internal” approach. Simply stretching your body and assuming an athletic, albeit slow or static position, doesn’t necessarily mean you are directing it with your intention. When you use your intention, it deepens the quality of the movement and thus improves your mind-body connection.

I haven’t done much yoga, but I know many people draw a distinction between true yoga and gym yoga, criticizing gym yoga as being merely external and athletic, while true yoga is more internal and contemplative. I think the same distinction is drawn between internal T'ai Chi and the more external athletic dance approach. I would like to see a study using functional balance as a means of evaluating which of the different approaches is more efficacious. I know which one I would wager on.