Time that could be better spent acquiring other skills that would be much more easily applied and learned say from an MMA teacher. The main realisation you get is that it’s going to require a serious amount of practice to get basic abilities in internal strength. ![]() Perhaps reflecting the authors experience of having to restrain people in real life, the book is quite down to earth and honest about the realities of looking for this internal strength ability and what it means in practical terms. It’s a subtle difference, compared to translating Jin as “intent”, and not one which affects the rest of the book, but one which bugs me all the same A path which may take it from a point of contact with the opponent, for example, straight down to your feet, where it is supported by the ground. The process of using intent in the internal martial arts is using the mind to create a path to the ground for jin to follow. Jin is strength produced by the application of Yi, rather than “intent” itself. ![]() To my thinking intent is more properly translated as “Yi” in this context, and is indeed a facet of Jin practice, but not a good direct translation of the word “Jin”, which means literally something like ‘refined strength’. In his descriptions of internal power, Ellis translates Jin to mean ‘intent’ (p.54, 56) quite a few times. Internal arts are full of Chinese words like Jin, Qi, Shen and so forth, none of which are simple concepts that can easily be summed up in one word. The book gets straight down to business, quickly identifying the different types of power that human beings are capable of producing, then how they apply that in martial arts using methods like whipping power or coiling power, then takes a closer look at exactly what ‘internal power’ is and why it’s different, or more refined, compared to other types of human-generated power.īut here I ran into my only real hiccup with the book. More importantly, he’s a good writer and thorough researcher. Ellis has many years of direct experience in Chinese and Japanese arts and also works (or worked) in a field that requires physical restraint skills to be utilised, so in short, he knows what he’s talking about. ![]() Hidden in Plain Sight by Ellis Amdur is a thorough examination of the subject of internal power exhibited by Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido, and the historical origins of this type of power in martial arts from China and Japan.
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