PUBLIC MARKS with tag posture

Things don’t get more Japanese than sitting in seiza do they? Seiza (correct sitting) is the ‘sitting on knees’ position adopted in many Ways of life in traditional Japan, including chado (tea ceremony), shodo (calligraphy), ikebana (flower arranging) and many martial arts. Never has man risked showing disrespect to his seniors more than being unable to correctly get into, maintain, move and get out of the seiza position!

by Karel Koskuba Most Internal Martial Arts use some form of standing practice as foundation training (and Taijiquan is no exception in this regard). These standing exercises are usually called Zhan Zhuang (pole standing); sometimes they are called 'standing Qigong'. I think it's fair to say that most students are baffled by them. They are supposed to be good for you but most students find them difficult to understand, boring and painful. Yet they are supposed to relax you and help you to 'accumulate Qi'. In this article I shall try to outline my theory that should explain, from western perspective, why these exercises are so important both for Internal Martial Arts and Qigong, how this western view correlates with the traditional Qi view and give training advice on how to practice them. In writing this article I have drawn upon my experience from Taijiquan, Yiquan and information from medical postural rehabilitation research and sports science.