Fajin means "to issue power". There is much lost in translation because Fajin is equally a concept and a training method, so explanations can vary from very simple to utterly baffling.

In practical terms, Fajin is simply a method of generating power for striking or grappling, more specifically, short power, i.e. great power generating striking over very short distances. This was first brought to the world's attention by Bruce Lee and his famous one inch punch. Any scholar of Fajin for martial purposes will probably already understand that Fajin short power is the bread and butter power generation for martial Taijiquan

Fajin also has many health benefits within Taijiquan. One can practise "soft" Fajin, allowing the body to experience the soft impact that stimulates the bones and enhances bone density whilst allowing the body's Qi to flow more freely. The Taijiquan practitioner can also find areas of blockage within the body depending on how the Fajin feels when he or she performs it. Power will flow throughout the body until it reaches an area of tension at which point it will feel like it gets "stuck". Practise can be then directed to relieve these areas of blockage, and thus promote health, as areas of Qi blockage in traditional Chinese medical theory eventually result in disease and illness.

Biomechanically, a Fajin is nothing more than a vigorous shake of the hips, allowing the wave of power to move up through the body and then out through the hands, much like the force travels through the hanging ball bearings on a Newton's cradle. Whilst this principle is very easy to describe, the practise of it is slightly more tricky because the body has to be relaxed enough to allow the power to flow.

Initial Taijiquan practise is primarily aimed at relaxing the body, because this is a prerequisite for proper Fajin to take place. Typically, Fajin is really only learned properly by the student when he or she has reached a suitable baseline of relaxation to allow it to happen. A student may attempt to do Fajin, but his or her efforts will not be rewarded with the correct feeling of Fajin because relaxation is not sufficiently learned to make it a productive exercise. In this day and age, sadly many people's baseline level of tension requires months if not years of work before Fajin practise is possible.

If Taijiquan is all about balance, the soft, slow movement of the form has to be balanced by quicker, harder movement, which we believe is the role that the practise of Fajin in the cultivation of health fulfils.

Mark Tan tries to explain Taijiquan and all its awesome health benefits in the simplest way possible.
For more tips and free lessons on Taijiquan, please visit http://www.taijipedia.net

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 19th, 2009 at 9:25 pm and is filed under Meditation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.