Art Reviews

I am going to tell you the straight goods about this thing called Chi. It is easy to understand, but you are going to have to give up any thoughts of mysticism. No matter if you study wudan or Shaolin, you are going to have to accept a more logical way of thinking.

In the first place, this mysterious thing we refer to as chi is a catch basket.Chi is real, chi exists and can be used, but everybody confuses it by calling whatever they don’t understand chi. If somebody snuffs candle at ten feet with a punch, it is the chi, but if somebody makes all the green lights, it is also the chi, so the subject of chi has been thrown around and totally confused.

To make chi one must discipline their body so it acts as a coordinated unit, I call this Coordinated Body Motion. In olden days instructors would tell their students to use the body as one unit, but that doesn’t describe what one is actually doing. One must break the body down, piece by piece, and understand all those pieces, if he is going to use it as a whole unit.

All motion of the body must start at the same instant in time. The fist and the foot move forward together, as one. There must be no push backward to give movement forward, the movement is only forward, and it must be done at the same moment.

All motion of the body must stop at the same instant. The fist and the foot end movement at the same moment. There is no staggering or swaying, the weight simply drives into the ground at the point of impact.

The parts of the body must move according to their weight and length. The hips, being heavier than the foot, must still achieve a smooth arc of motion that begins and ends at the same time as the foot. The fist having a longer arc than an elbow, or a shoulder, must still start and stop at the same time as the elbow or shoulder.

When the body starts and stops at the same time, and all the body parts are properly calibrated for the length of distance they must move and the amount of weight that must be moved, then you will achieve CBM. Coordinated Body Motion is the secret of this thing called Chi. CBM will release Chi.

When you move with CBM your attention will be off the body and on the target, and then intention will flow. It is Intention that is Chi. Intention will fill up the body with energy, and enable you to have those amazing abilities that true martial arts possess. Of course, this is just the first step, a simple little step, and to make your way to the end of the Martial Arts, and to find the True Martial Art, no matter whether you study Aikido or Karate or whatever, you must find the remaining steps of the Martial Arts.

How soon things change. It seems like yesterday we were talking about how fast the fan base for Nascar was growing. Some people even foolishly talked about it possible taking over the NFL in popularity someday. Nascar’s growth and fan base has since taken a hit, most likely due to the recent economy problems over the last couple of years. That said, Mixed Martial Arts, MMA is the new reigning “worlds fastest growing sport” as we enter 2010, and looks to be for the foreseeable future.

Don’t get me wrong, the NFL is still the 800 pound gorilla when it comes to total fan base and world popularity, but MMA has shown substantial growth over the last decade, and even faster over the last 5 years. No growth like this ever lasts forever, but it’s hard to say how long it could last for MMA, given the momentum the sport has, and more specifically, the UFC or Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The UFC is currently MMA’s biggest promotion, and therefore has the world’s best stable of fighter’s. The UFC has also become the new darling of Las Vegas much to the chagrin of the powers that be in the boxing world. But instead of being bitter, the sport of boxing needs to take a look at why that is. For one, you can’t get any big fights for free anymore when it comes to boxing. The UFC on the other hand, air’s free broadcast’s labled “UFC Fight Night” on Spike ever couple of months at least, and usually more than that. And these are normally big main events that the hardcore fans want to see, not fighters that nobody knows.

And more recent, news of StrikeForce’s signing of the worlds best fighter Fedor Emelianenko shook the MMA world, and now Fedor will hope to become a household name by way of free network broadcasting of the sport’s most popular fighter in a contract with CBS.

The key to enjoying the excitement of the sport though, is to understand all the different aspects of the sport, and to recognize the transitions that you see throughout a typical fight. The least understood of these being the “ground game”. To the casual observer, this might seem boring compared to striking (the term used in MMA referring to the stand up phase of a fight). And sometimes it is with average talent. But when you have two world class grappler’s going at it, its the most exciting part of a fight in my opinion.

What a new fan should watch for on the ground is the use of “the guard”, and the escape from this position for the other fighter, also known as “passing the guard.” The guard position consists of the fighter on bottom to control his/her opponent by wrapping his/her legs around the waist of the fighter on top while controlling the head, keeping him/her off balance, making it easier to sweep or submit the other. Normally the fighter on top or “in the guard” will try to get his/her legs around the leg’s of the opponent, or to “ground and pound” the other fighter with strikes from the top position. There are usually no submissions from inside the guard.

It’s impossible to cover all the nuances of the sport in this article, but once the more common ideas of the grappling part of MMA is understood by new and non fans, the more enjoyment will come out of watching great fights and understanding how technical these fighters are, not to mention the level of conditioning that it takes to compete in this sport. Most think it rivals that of their counterparts in the NFL, or any other sport for that matter. So the next time you are around a new fan, take a minute to explain the fastest growing sport in the world. See you at the fights!