Many of the old Okinawan/Chinese masters talk about moving from the Hara (as it’s known in Japanese) or the Dan Tian (as it’s known in Chinese). It’s just behind and slightly below the belly-button. Yet in many martial arts, especially Japanese and Korean styles, we are taught to focus on moving from the hips. Although the Hara is very close to hips, it is not quite in the same place and when we train to focus on moving the hips, we are not moving from the Hara as the old masters described!
How could this anomaly come about?
Well I’ve been saying for years that many martial arts have been dumbed down. It’s very easy for a master who wants to teach the public, yet not give away hard earned secrets; to make a small adjustment to the way they teach so that it looks the same but is not. The students see how fast and powerful the master is and hang on his every word, accepting without question. Why would you question somebody who is obviously so good! The student get good results. Not as good as the masters (even after many years of training), but it’s easy to dismiss that as the master is . . . . well . . . . the master! Then you get a new generation of masters who have only been taught the dumbed down version; and so it goes on. Continue reading “Generating Power From The Hara (Japanese) / Dan Tian (Chinese)” »