The Learning and Training Process of YiquanWritten by: Timo Heikkilä

Here you can read a summary of the process of learning and mastering Yiquan. When Yiquan is refered to below, what is described is the Second Course of Yiquan; the First Course will occasionally be refered to for comparison.

Our daily actions and training shape our behaviour and subconscious actions. The term "dynamic pattern" refers to an action or a behaviour that becomes automated, i.e. happens subconsciously without thinking. Physical behaviour, ways of thinking, specific movement patterns, etc. can all form dynamic patterns. Repeating a certain fixed movement over and over again, for thousands or tens of thousands of times will make it automated, i.e. form a dynamic pattern. This is, however, not desirable in martial art, because combat is not fixed and predetermined, it is about responding to the everchanging circumstances, and that is what the training must also reflect to form such dynamic patterns. Wang Xiangzhai emphasized: "body without form, mind without thoughts, that is awakening to the truth", he also said: "a fighter cannot think", as well as, "when the skills reach the level of subconscious, one starts to see the wonders". There is no time to think in combat, after information has been gathered throught one's eyes, or other sensory organs, and then thought in one's mind, it is already gone, it is too late to react in many cases. He clearly expressed the goal, yet his method of teaching was totally contrary; it was that of fixed form and thoughts; he recognized this contradiction, yet was not able to solve it. He even named himself the "Old Man of Contradiction" for this. That made the First Course of Yiquan impossible to grasp for most people. Even if one could eventually break out of the fixed form and thoughts, the earlier training that the later training consequently built on, had left its mark in the subconsciousness that was difficult to change.

The internal martial arts of China, Xingyiquan, Taijiquan, Baguazhang, etc., represent to some some people so called internal strength, and to most people slow, laughable, powerless, noodle-like movements. This is because much of their essence has been lost over the last centuries and mostly only the scum remains, and only a few experts of these martial arts have retained parts of the essence. Being on the receiving end of this seemingly effortless power that shakes the whole body and feels like a strong electric shock going through the body, due to the total potential power of the whole body being expressed in a shockingly short period of time, is an experience one will not want to repeat ever again. Although often clouded with mystery and superstitious nonsense of qi-energies and energy-meridians, this strength is a result of mastery of integrated and highly coordinated total relaxation and maximal tension throughout the whole body, and their flashing fast interchange into each other, happening faster than a person can react. Yiquan realizes, that all of human movement is a result of these two states, relaxation and tension, as well as the state of changing from one to the other. Without the relaxation and tension (contraction) of the muscles, there is no power, and there is no movement either. Yiquan sets this mastery of movement as its starting point. This process means changing the way one subconsciously uses ones strength, or moves, into that of integrated whole-bodily movement, with the ability to express the so called internal strength at any time, not being limited by any form (position/movement pattern). Subconscious response was discussed in the previous paragraph, but without first having mastered the whole process of movement, a response with force will be based on one's partial (not integrating the whole body at the same exact moment for the time of a mere split second) and slow strength. Even the strenght of a sprinter or jumper is slow in comparison, expressed over much longer period of time and not at the exact same moment throughout the whole body, though naturally the effects are also very different. The strength developed throught the practice of Yiquan is compressed in so short period of time that it does not make one run fast or jump in the air, but it does allow one to issue a devastating shocking force into the opponent through one's strikes, etc.

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With the above introduction, one can understand the basis the five-stage training process of the Second Course of Yiquan is built on. That is, changing one's dynamic patterns of physical behaviour and thought. Changing one's way of thought means learning to see the whole picture, instead of looking at it from a narrow perspective and seeing only a part of it. This expands beyond martial arts, into one's whole world-view. This is part of the means of changing the dynamic patterns of physical actions, understanding the process of training martial art into one's body. Changing the dynamic patterns of physical behaviour is also a gradual process. Practicing a following thing before the earlier one has been mastered to the level of automation (ie. become a dynamic pattern) will lead to an erroneous dynamic pattern being formed, and limit one's future achievements. The five stages of training are: 1. relaxation, 2. tension, 3. relaxation <-> tension (interchange of relaxation and tension), 4. "mind tense, body relaxed", 5. verification in reality. Below they will be introduced one by one.

1. Relaxation (song)Relaxation forms the basis of martial art, health preservation, and any physical activity. It refers to minimal amount of muscular tension needed to optimally maintain one's position or perform one's activities. It also refers to a state of no thoughts distracting the mind. Any thinking will slow down one's ability to react due to using up the resources of the central nervous system. Conscious activity also has its side-effects on one's body, it is not uncommon to see martial artists showing up their attacks before the actual attack has been launched, by slightly pulling back their arm before striking, or by tensing up a moment before performing their action, or their breathing becoming distracted just before the launch of their attack, etc. These are all results of intention and thought of the action. For this reason Wang Xiangzhai said, that in Yiquan "one sets off [to attack] after, but arrives first". One must form the dynamic pattern of subconsciously reacting to the physical signs of the opponents intentions and conscious activity as soon as it presens itself in his body, this however, belongs to the fourth stage of training. Eventhough every fighter's actions, after years of combat experience become subconscious, the dynamic pattern already formed will remain, the signs of their former intentions and thoughts might not be as obvious as they were before, maybe even unnoticable to most, but they still remain there. And the moment one's central nervous system is occupied with them, one cannot react. This points out the importance of not thinking while training, because what we constantly do in training is exactly what will be carved deep into our subconscious mind to form dynamic patterns. Old dynamic patterns are much harder to change and impossible to fully eliminate, while forming new dynamic patterns is not difficult at all. That's why it is extremely important to train properly from the beginning. It is common that people with previous martial arts training, including in the First Course of Yiquan, need more time change all the bad habits formed by their earlier training. The modern life creates plenty of bad habits that need to be changed to move on in Yiquan training. At the same time, everything valuable from earlier training, such as the sense of distance and time, and other physical and mental attributes will naturally carry over.

Like the whole process of training, mastering relaxation is a step by step process. An example of only the very first steps is given here, they do not yet represent the final state of complete whole-body relaxation. What does it mean to perceive the skill in one's own body? What do "natural instincts" refer to? How are they brought into play? These are the questions that need to be answered to understand the methods of the Second Course of Yiquan, and to understand its necessity. If a teacher shows you a movement, or a posture, or gives you an explanation of it, you then analyze what you just saw and heard, draw a conclusion of it based your existing knowledge, and then try to replicate the same in your body. That is a man-made doctrine and this is the only way of passing it on (no matter whether the instruction happens in person, or through other media). That is also the way Wang Xiangzhai used to pass on Yiquan, and that's exactly where the limitation in his method lies at; what can be represented that way is only the phenomenon, that is, the external expression of the essence, not the essence itself. So what is this natural instinct, or the essence? Understanding the answer requires

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personal experience, but the first steps towards grasping the elementary levels of relaxation will be introduced to give you a better idea:

Stand upright, both arms totally relaxed. The result of totally relaxing both arms and shoulders is that they will hang straight down on your sides. Now have a friend grab your wrist and lift up your arm high to the shoulder level (so that both, lower and upper arms, are lifted), have him shake it a little, and suddenly without warning drop it down. Here the properness of the relaxation can be verified objectively from the external expression. You don't need to do anything, the form is a result of the state of relaxation your arms and shoulders are in when performing this. The same can never apply the other way, no form (posture/movement) can bring relaxation to the body. The signs of not being relaxed, that anyone with understanding of relaxation can read, include the arm feeling stiff and light (a relaxed arm feels heavy because it is not held up with tension); if the arm, when let go off, falls with a delay, falls slowly, or decelerates before slapping into your thigh, you know you were tensing up; if your friend notices you handing over the arm to him, this is a sign of having an intention, or thinking of the arm being lifted, that you without noticing it do subconsciously - this is also a sign of not being able to relax and let go. After you can remain relaxed every time your friend lifts, shakes, and drops your arm, you have got the feeling of relaxation - only on your arms and shoulders at this point though. Your arm should feel like a heavy loose rope to your friend. Next this experience must be expanded into the next tool of training. Again, stand parallel, bend over 45 degrees from the waist, let your arms hang relaxed, in the same state you perceived in the earlier exercise. Then move your weight from the left leg to the right one, and then back to the left one, and so on. The arms, shoulders, and upper back must remain in the same relaxed state as earlier. This can be judged from the external expression of the movement. If the arms swing with the movement like loose ropes, and if they act as such when occasionally suddenly pushed or pulled by your friend, then you can know that you have entered the proper state. Judging for a beginner can be difficult at first, thus the guidance of a qualified teacher is important. Trying to repeat the form (movement pattern of the arms) is plain foolish and of no value at all, the form is simply an outcome of the proper state. Next, stand upright, still maintaining the same state, start twisting around your central axis, relaxing your arms, shoulders, chest and back. Now the outcome should be your arms slapping onto your stomach or chest, and lower or middle back, depending on the speed and frequency of your twisting, still looking like loose ropes. After you can enter this state whenever you do these exercises, you have to continue for some more practice to imprint this state of relaxation into your subconsciousness, that is, form a new dynamic pattern. While performing the second exercise, one can try scratching one's head with one hand, and if it has not been mastered, the other arm will most likely tense up as one's attention moves elsewhere. If one has grasped the state, relaxation can be maintained without thinking or concentrating on it. At that point continuing doing this exercise is useless, and one must move on. Then, through other exercises master the same state in the rest of the body, the whole body, in everything one does, including daily life. Then, through other exercises, one masters, and transfers the relaxation into, wholeness of movement (the whole body moving together), suddenness of movement (movements becoming like "breaking an ice-stick", that is, when you break it with your hands, without any warning it suddenly breaks, not bending at all to warn you in advance of its breaking; your actions will have no intention and preparation). In these exercises, the form is only a result of the body's state, like it was in the one's for relaxation. These all belong to the stage of relaxation, because relaxation is the keyword in all of them.

Yiquan is known for its exercise of zhanzhuang. In fact many people incorrectly identify Yiquan as zhanzhuang. Zhanzhuang refers to perfecting the different states of movement (relaxation, tension, relaxation<->tension), at a point of movement. It is practicing and perfecting the movement potential of all kinds of points of movements (postures) to all directions. This is why it is called practice of movement in stillness. The movement here refers to the state of movement inside the body, and stillness to the external movement, or lack of it. This practice of movement in stillness, however, belongs to the second stage. After one has good grasp of relaxation through the exercises of perceiving

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the state of relaxation in one's body, some of which were introduced above, one enters this state at one point of movement, to deepen it there. This exercise is called Yangshengzhuang, or health preservation standing exercise. This meditative exercise calms one's mind and central nervous system, one's breathing and pulse slow down, circulation increases and metabolism gets faster, leading to a feeling of warmth, comfort, and deep relaxation throughout the body, making it an excellent means of health preservation when performed properly.

2. Tension (jin)Tension might first sound the opposite of what wants to achieve, but a closer look into the issue will prove that assumption wrong. For there to be any movement, or power, there must be muscular contraction. By contracting, the muscles pull the points of the bones that they are attached to towards each other (through the tendons), moving around the joint(s) that connect the bones. This is the only way a humanbeing can generate power and movement. From this everyone should already realize that the talk of striking people with qi-energies and empty forces, that some swindlers advocate, is pure nonsense used to deceive people for personal profit, fame and financial gain. The so called internal strength, as the traditional internal martial arts call it, is a result of mastery of integrated whole-body tension and relaxation. Everyone can tense up their muscles, that does not require training. In Yiquan tension has a somewhat different meaning, though naturally it is still about the muscles contracting. Proper coordination between all of them is the key.

The first step in learning tension, is through exercises similar in nature to the one's initially used at the stage of relaxation, to understand unity of the body. This can again, be perceived from one's own body, like relaxation was perceived earlier in the previous stage. That is uniting the whole body into one piece without weak links that give up. Next comes learning what is called opposing forces. Traditionally this is expressed as the hands driving to the opposite direction from the torso, the neck driving to the opposite direction from the hips, etc. This makes the unity of the body dynamic and the work of each and every joint and muscle adds up, all working for the common goal. The opposing forces are not, however, just between certain points, but in every joint of the body, even every vertebra of the spine is working for the common goal. To avoid misunderstandings, it must be stated that the joints naturally cannot move by themselves, it is the muscles that do the work and create the movement. After the student has, through the use of several tools (exercises), perceived this state in his body, it has to be practiced and perfected in the zhanzhuang exercises introduced earlier. Zhanzhuang means standing exercise (literally "pile standing", where the piles represent the different points of movement). In zhanzhuang one takes an object, a building, a mountain, a tree, or whatever, in distance that one starts to "move" to all directions, one at a time, of course. The movement potential of this point of movement is practised in an externally static position, starting with objects as light as paper, where very little muscular work is required, working up to mountains of iron where one's muscles will naturally learn to contract to their maximum potential. There can only be doing, no thinking at all. The reasons were discussed at the beginning of this text. Anything based on thinking cannot be applied when there is no time to think. It is essential for the tension training in zhanzhuang to reactive, because this tension must appear subconsciously and suddenly every time there is resistance or impact with an external object. This kind of training in Yiquan is called "jiajie", meaning using something unreal to produce real results. The "unreal" gives an opportunity to achieve a state that real resistance and real movement could not, as they would limit the contraction speed of the muscles, force the muscles to contract unevenly throughtout the body and make parts of the body stiff and "internally" static, and make it impossible to change directions of force several times in a second. However, the jiajie cannot walk far from reality, when the gap widens, there will be no way to move the achievements back to reality. There must be a constant process of going back and forth between the reality and the "unreal", not to let them become two distinct states.

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In the First Course, the means of teaching this state was showing the student a set of fixed postures, and describing the state through specific set of "thoughts" for each posture. This included feeling of strings pulling different parts of the body, etc. This way the postures and thoughts had to be fixed, because if one's posture would change, the strings would pull to a wrong direction. This was Wang Xiangzhai's attempt to describe the feelings he experienced from various different perspectives. However, no experience or feeling can be fully accurately described in words, so these can only serve as a general impression of the state, that the student must first draw a conclusion of in his mind, and then try to duplicate in his body. What many students took, however, was the thoughts and mental images. Their practice became nothing more than imagined skill. What many others did, was keep the thoughts and postures, and trying to achieve this state within them, but never letting go of the form and thoughts. This can only lead to a situation where the state can only be achieved with a conscious effort, and as soon as one moves out of the posture this mental image was used for, the state disappears. What the postures and mental images, or thoughts were originally meant for, was to give a general idea of the state and then drop the fixed posture and all thoughts, only keeping the the feeling, the state experienced, and then strengthen this state, imprinting it into one's body. Most however, never understood this, and there was still the problem of expressing a natural physical state with words and mental images that were inevitable not fully adequate and accurate to express such state.

After the moving state of tension has been mastered in all kinds of different positions, it must be extended to, and verified in movement. This method is called shili, or trial of strength. One must first try this state of tension in all kinds of movements. Going backward and forward, left and right, up and down, straight and in circles, etc. If there are points in the movement where the proper state cannot be fully maintained, one must stop there to practice zhanzhuang to perfect the movement potential of this point. Developing fixed patterns of movement is, however, not desirable. Thus this kind of practice should not be stuck to for too long, but one should soon move on free movement, responding to the objects (buildings, trees, mountains, etc) around oneself, through various exercises that bridge the gap between limited and free movement. Even under maximal tension, one's movement must look smooth like that of an elite ballet dancer. In the first stage, relaxation, one has already learned to move and step naturally with one's whole body moving as a whole, so there is no need to separate footwork from the total movement.

In the First Course, the practice of shili was taught with fixed movements and thoughts, divided into mocabu, or friction steps, that practiced the state emphasizing the legs, and various kind of fixed shili exercises with fixed thoughts like in zhanzhuang of the First Course, that emphasized the upper body, standing in fixed position. Of course, using the whole body as one unit was the goal in all of them, but it was very easy to become partial. The same problems as in zhanzhuang are present in this approach. Ultimately one was to move into free movement, but very few could grasp it to the level that they could maintain the state in free movement.

Shili is also practiced between two people, this exercise is called tuishou, or pushing hands, where the training partners connect their forearms to test the state with real resistance, and to learn to feel the incoming pressure (traditionally called "listening" to strength) and react to it, as well as to discover various mechanical principles.

All that was described above is done to form certain dynamic patterns, that is, subconscious ways of how the body reacts to objects and force from outside (i.e. opponent(s)). Although essential to the process, in the end these kind of reactions are not proper in reality. There is a gap between the reality and the "jiajie", and in the later stages the training must change to form new dynamic patterns that make the subconscious reactions (based on the states of relaxation, tension, and their interchange) practical in the reality of combat. This will be explained in the fourth stage.

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3. Relaxation <--> Tension (song<->jin)The interchange of relaxation and tension, that has already been experienced in zhanzhuang and shili, must now be put in action in explosive movement, through the exercise of fali, or issuing strength, also called explosive power. One must learn to bring the power practiced in the previous stage out of one's body into an external object (the opponent). First it has to be practiced in all kinds of directins, forward, backward, left, right, downward, upward, opening, etc. to build the ability to explode with power in any situation to any direction from any part of the body. The gap between, and the totalness of relaxation and tension, and the shortness of the time it takes to change from one into the other, determine the effect of fali on the target, along with the mechanics learned in the earlier stages. After some time of practice, one will be able to issue out the whole potential force at the highest level of what was described at the beginning of this article. At this point performing fali at full power will make one sweat heavily in a matter of seconds, the feeling is like a bomb exploding evenly everywhere inside the body, there is a strong shake in one's whole body, and the heat generated by the extreme musclular work in a fraction of a second feels like fire going through the body. At this level, full power fali may not be practiced too frequently, as it is very taxing on the body and the central nervous system. One's dynamic patterns of thought must also have changed to reach here, one will look at martial art quite differently, seeing beyond all the styles and their dogmatic teachings. After all, a style by definition is a partial expression of martial art. At this point, one can observe any martial art style and see what is of value for one's goals, and what is scum. One has the ability to put this explosive power into any movement. One can take what works, and through various drills and sparring with partners, as well as using mitts, heavy and light bags, wrestling dummies, etc. work it into practical lively skills. The role of techniques here is only to test and feel different mechanics of force in one's body, abandon the techniques, yet still understand and keep the mechanics. The natural lively strength inside is put into practical external form, the kind of form that serves one's purposes best. Tuishou becomes practice of finding an opportunity to explode, fali, at any point.

4. Mind tense, body relaxed (yijin, xingsong)What "mind tense" means, is an extreme level of concentration, something that one can observe in nature when a wild animal sneaks towards its prey. This is practice of being on the verge of fali, becoming extremely sensitive to the slightest manifestation of the opponents intention or mental activity expressed through his body, training the body to subconsciously react when the opponents central nervous system is occupied and his reaction will be delayed. When one starts to achieve this, there is no more Tuishou, one will react already to the opponents intention of making contact, exploding as the arms come in contact. After reaching this point there is no more tuishou, pushing around there would simply enforce an improper dynamic pattern. The externally static state of zhanzhuang, being like a frozen fish, cannot be further enforced either. Maximal tension and maximal speed of changing from relaxation into tension and back in zhanzhuang needs to be practiced to improve it, but such training goes on at such high level of intensity, that doing it in small amounts is enough. But now one must become like a live fish when someone tries to grab it. Anything else will be counter productive, as such dynamic patterns do not comply with reality. In combat, one will react subconsciously to every intention the opponent shows through his body, and to every opportunity, so suddenly that the opponent is not given any time to react. As one's attack, successful or not, generates new reactions and thoughts in the opponent, for a moment overloading his central nervous system from other information received from outside, one already reacts before the opponents attack is launched. Achieving this requires lots of practice and experience of actual fighting. This, like with all what was described above, cannot really be understood unless looked at from the level where one has already experienced the dynamic patterns developed in the earlier stages in one's own body. Even talking of tension here is only to give you a general theoretical idea, because without the previous experience of mastering the basics, and lots of practice of itself, there is no way to truly grasp it. Even merely talking of relaxation is useless. Understanding comes only from experience and practice, there is no other way.

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5. Verification in reality (shizheng)Now that the proper dynamic patterns have been formed into one's subconscious mind, they must be put under the test of reality. Obviously one cannot go to fight people on the streets. Safety is also an issue. So what one must do, is find other like-minded martial artists, use protective equipment, and enter into combat with only minimal rules, yet high morals. Entering combat sports competitions is another means. Every sport has their own set of rules and skills. Naturally one must first learn and master these rules and skills, and put the natural instincts, that was brought into full play in the earlier stages of training, into practice through those skills, under those rules. One must gradually face more and more skilled opponents to progress to the highest level. If one is like the thug everyone has seen during their school-times, who seeks for the weakest and smallest kids to bully to make himself look stronger, one will never progress to the highest levels. Victory and defeat are just learning experiences on the process of climbing to the highest peak of skill and mean nothing in the end.

Going through the whole process of the five stages, generally takes between one year to two years. Typically another year of frequent fighting and competition is needed to increase one's experience and practical skills, achieving a very high level of skill. Reaching the elite level, however, is a process of several years. What is meant by elite, is the Mozarts and Beethowens of music, Picassos and Dalis of art, Olympiads of sport, the classics of Zen and Tao, the works of Kant and Hegel of philosophy, etc. Not everyone can reach there, it requires years of tireless work and great talent, but anyone can benefit greatly from Yiquan.

Yiquan is much more than fighting. Wang Xiangzhai often said, that there are three reasons to practice Yiquan, in the following order of importance: 1. achieving and maintaining a good health, 2. understanding the underlying laws and principles (this extends way beyond martial arts), and 3. self-defence (i.e. combat). Although practice of combat is the means, it must serve to improve and maintain one's health. If good health is lots, one will not be able to fight or defend oneself well. The underlying laws of martial art extend to all aspects of life, and the discovery can bring joy and zest to one's life. It is these laws and principles that also form the basis of gaining mastery of the highest levels of martial skill. Thus in the end, all the three aspects are closely related.

Other contents of this stage includes Quanwu, meaning meartial art dance, also called Jianwu, health dance. The people of the world all have racial and ethnic values of ethics, aesthetics, etc, but there is also something in these values that transcends the whole human race. The natural instinct brought into play by Yiquan training being among them. Quanwu is an expression of all one's learning of Yiquan, looking somewhat similar to shili, and sometimes to fali, one's movement can be slow or explosive, relaxed or tense, big or small, etc., it all comes from inside and is an expression of one's state of mind. The standard of properness of Quanwu is what every human being shares in common deep inside. Like the nature, and its trees, plants, and animals, all look natural and express certain beauty and naturalness to every human being, the movement of Quanwu must carry these same values in its look and feel. It is not continuous and smooth repetition of fixed movements one after another or playing around with the arms in circles, or mindlessly jumping around. The feeling of Quanwu is like being a bird in the sky, free to fly without any limitations and boundaries, breaking free from the stresses of life. The joy of freedom is displayed in the external expression of one's movement.

In the end, through the means of a martial art and learning how to fight, a lot more was achieved. The process of mastering Yiquan can truly be a life changing experience, in many ways. Behind there lies the essence of philosophy and art, and a path to self realization.

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