The Way of Energy and the Future of Performance Enhancement
Jayne Storey provides an overview of Chi Kung and T'ai Chi and the benefits of these forms of exercise.
In this month's column, I would like to give you a little bit of background on the Eastern energy arts and their use in sports training and coaching. Then, over the next several issues, we will look at how the Eastern energy arts such as Chi Kung and T'ai Chi can positively impact the four main areas of Sports Science – namely biomechanics, strength and conditioning, endurance, and the mental game.
Many athletes and coaches may find exciting development within the sports world itself, with many top-level sports psychologists and mental game coaches hailing the Eastern energy arts as "the missing link" in sports coaching. From Michael Murphy's classic book "Golf in the Kingdom" to Dan Millman's "Warrior Athlete" and the "Inner Game" concept of Timothy Gallwey, the interest in the Eastern energy arts amongst athletes looking to generate effortless power and mental mastery is now unprecedented.
As a committed sportswoman myself – I train in Triathlon and Golf and the Eastern energy arts of Chi Kung and T'ai Chi – and from working with athletes in sports as varied as snowboarding to rugby and formula one. I know that combining any sporting activity with training in traditional Eastern practices such as Chi Kung or T'ai Chi, will enhance the athletic potential in various ways.
For instance, training in the Eastern energy arts can increase an athlete's ability to release effortless power, improve their efficiency and economy of motion, develop their mental intent (winner's mindset), create a more stable core region, and enhance the relaxation of their “body-mind”. They will also learn how to generate ground-strength (peng) to use gravitational force in the golf swing, tennis serves, 100m sprint, dive, half-pipe routine, and so on, and learn to move from their body's natural fulcrum or centre of gravity (t'an tien), thus developing a unity of motion and increasing their natural force.
So, what exactly are the Eastern energy arts?
Let's take a quick look at two of the most well-known and widely practiced arts: Chi Kung and T'ai Chi.
Chi Kung
Today millions of people in China and worldwide regularly practice Chi Kung as a health maintenance exercise. Chi Kung and related disciplines are still associated with martial arts and meditation routines practiced by Taoist and Buddhist monks, professional martial artists, and their students. Once more closely guarded, such practices have become widely available to the general public in the modern era, both in China and worldwide. Chi Kung can help practitioners learn lower abdominal breathing, an essential component of the relaxation response, which is vital in combatting stress and developing athletic potential.
“Breathing correctly is the key to better fitness,
muscle strength, stamina, and athletic endurance”.
- Dr. Michael Yessis, President – The Sports Training Institute
Chi Kung is an aspect of Traditional Chinese medicine involving the coordination of different breathing patterns with various physical postures and motions of the body. It is mostly taught for health maintenance purposes, but some teach it as a therapeutic intervention for patients recovering from illness and/or surgery. Various forms of Chi Kung are also widely taught in conjunction with Chinese martial arts and are especially prevalent in the advanced training of what is known as the Neijia, or internal arts (of which T'ai Chi is the most well-known) where the intention is the full mobilization, proper coordination and direction of the energies of the body as they are applied to some target. Chi Kung relies on the traditional Chinese notion that the body has something that might be described as an "energy field", known as Chi or qi (this is analogous to Prana in Indian Yoga and Ki in Japanese Aikido).
Chi (qi) means breath and, by extension, the energy produced by breathing that keeps us alive; Kung (gong) means hard work and the resultant level of expertise or mastery of an art or craft.
Chi Kung translates then as "energy or breath training" or the art of managing one's breathing to achieve and maintain good health and enhance the body's energy mobilization and stamina.
In terms of developing athletic potential, the following is a list of various ways sportsmen and women can benefit from Chi Kung exercises:
- Energy cultivation
- Athlete rehabilitation – from injury, stress, poor performance, overtraining
- Athlete wellbeing – balancing work, life, and sport
- Resistance to illness
- Quicker recovery rates after strenuous training
- Developing the ‘Relaxation Response'
- Strength and physical conditioning
- Endurance
T'ai Chi
T'ai Chi - a martial art based on Chi Kung's principles, translates as "supreme ultimate boxing" or "boundless fist". The concept of the "supreme ultimate" is based on the principles of Taoist philosophy's Yin and Yang duality. Thus, T'ai Chi theory and practice evolved in agreement with many of the principles of Chinese philosophy and Taoism.
Tai chi training involves learning solo routines, known as forms, two-person routines known as pushing hands, and the martial applications of the postures of the form. It was created many hundreds of years ago as the lynch-pin of the Chinese martial arts Neijia (soft or internal) branch, where the body's intrinsic energy (chi) is directed with the mind (yi); as opposed to the hard, external forms of fighting like Shaolin kung-fu, where more reliance is put on muscular force.
The physical techniques of T'ai Chi as a martial art are characterized by the use of leverage through the joints based on coordination in relaxation, rather than muscular tension, to neutralize or initiate attacks. The slow, repetitive work involved in learning how that leverage is generated gently and measurably increases and opens the internal circulation: (breath, blood, lymph, etc.).
Bruce Lee (whose Father was a T'ai Chi practitioner) gave a great analogy for the difference in power between a Karate punch and a T'ai Chi punch. Lee said that to be hit by a karate punch was like being hit with an iron bar, whereas being hit by a T'ai Chi punch was like being hit with an iron ball attached to the end of a chain. Ouch.
T'ai Chi has since developed a worldwide following among many thousands of people with little or no interest in martial training, who practice T'ai Chi for its many benefits to health and health maintenance. Some call it a form of moving meditation, as focusing the mind solely on the movements of the form helps to bring about a state of mental calm and clarity.
For athletes intent on developing their fullest potential, both mentally and physically, T'ai Chi training as an addition to training technique and improving fitness, can have the following benefits:
- Injury prevention, thus extending the sporting life of the athlete
- Developing mental intent (training the mind to lead the body)
- Attention control
- Core stability
- Unity of motion/whole body power
- Athletic alignment
- Immersion, a key component of the ‘Inner Game'
- Increased range of motion
- Improved joint flexibility
Article Reference
This article first appeared in:
- STOREY, J. (2007) The Way of Energy and the Future of Performance Enhancement. Brian Mackenzie's Successful Coaching, (ISSN 1745-7513/ 43/ June), p. 1-2
Page Reference
If you quote information from this page in your work, then the reference for this page is:
- STOREY, J. (2007) The Way of Energy and the Future of Performance Enhancement [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/scni43a1.htm [Accessed
About the Author
Jayne Storey is a specialist in T'ai Chi and uses this to help athletes and teams with balance, posture, body mechanics, attention control, coordination, stress management, and mindfulness and create the right internal conditions for accessing the sporting zone/flow state.