Mystical forgeries in the Martial Arts

"Just as yellow leaves may be gold coins to stop the crying children, thus, the so-called secret moves and contorted postures appease the unknowledgeable martial artists."

Bruce Lee - Tao of Jeet Kune Do

Martial Arts is filled with legends of people who were able to achieve superhuman feats: Being able to move objects with their minds and cause injury and death to opponents without touching them. Being able to leap and levitate in the air. There are plenty of demonstrations of hard Qigong where practitioners will have scalding water poured on them without being burned. Laying on beds of nails and having concrete slabs smashed over their bodies. Taking sword cuts to the body without any visible marks remaining.

While there may be people with such mastery it is extremely rare. You are more likely to encounter the charlatans and fakes who display magician like parlor tricks. There are plenty of snake-oil salespeople in the martial arts with promises of god-like powers. Techniques so rare and so deadly that they would give the person who knew them an aura of invincibility. The ability to knock people out without touching them. They even have students who are so brainwashed and believe in the forgery that they go along with it. Falling to the ground when their master waves his hand over them to simulate a knockout. Here is a video of one such "master" who boasted a 200-0 fight record and specialized in no touch knockouts. There was a challenge with a prize of whoever could beat him.



As expected, he got his ass kicked! Imagine his students with years of practice confident in their teachers and their own abilities watch their teacher get the stuff knocked out of him. They spent all those years learning how to move chi balls when they should have learned how to block. You can see after the first punch connects, he wipes at his nose and cannot believe that he is really bleeding. He really believed his own bullshit.

What do I believe? I believe that the human body and mind has almost unlimited potential when subjected to lengthy rigorous training. Kung-Fu has metaphysical concepts such as Qi (Chi) which is essentially the unseen life force that is part of every living thing. I guess the easiest way for me to conceptualize Qi has been as an invisible bio-energy field. It would take many posts before I could accurately describe Qi and there are numerous definitions of what it is exactly. Internal (Nei Chia) arts focus on developing a practitioners internal Qi and allowing him to harness and manipulate it. This is also the basis of pressure point striking and acupuncture - striking or manipulating vital points or meridians for combat or healing. Skillful manipulation of Qi takes years, decades of study. You can't master the meta-physical without first mastering the physical: Punches, kicks, joint-locks, blocks, parries, evasion, offense, defense, rooting, strength, flexibility, speed, coordination, power and timing. Strengthening and mastering the body must come before you are able to manipulate and channel the energy within it. Simply put, learn to block.