David

Meridians are near-identical throughout mammals. Cats are perfect examples of the kind of poise, health, power, sensitivity and vitality that are the trademarks of a qigong practitioner. They are born taoist and grow up taoist. A 16lb cat might have a ? hanging over it but that's the exception. My point is that us humans are the only mammals that don't grow up knowing how to breathe, sit, stand, move, hold ourselves, warm up, cool down etc. We do qigong to catch-up with our nature, rather than to exceed it. And even then we are ridiculed by our peers for not buying a device of some sort to do it for us instead. It's hard to trip a cat up. Pull any leg away and lo, it's already shifted its balance. This is the kind of skill it takes us aeons to perfect in MA training.

I answered this question a couple of days ago - did u ask it on another forum?

Nobody commented on this for whatever reason, so I'm going to expand on it with a question. Would my cat, for example, have any need for qigong practice? My answer would be negative because the cat is operating at peak efficiency. We humans just don't have a clue, hence all this (re)training we have to go through. Rgds, David edit: fix quotation box

Lee is not the oldest; Chen is.

Those 5am t'ai chi practitioners are doing it to avoid the smog of rush hour. Still cool that they make the effort, though. Rgds, David

Qigong translates directly as "air power". In practical terms, it works on your circulatory systems and musculature fixing all the mistakes you made in becoming you. There's a lot more to it but do you need more? Rgds, David

Seeing master perfrom a dim mak knockout by hitting the forearm whilst already holding the wrist. Seeing master Taking full-on groin kicks after testicle retraction. Being thrown in a t'ai chi workshop and doing some throwing - where did the energy come from!?!? A penetrating hit with iron palm to my chest - looked soft but frightened me with the pain.

Interesting question. I'll be asking someone myself. But the organ is only one attribute of the meridian. In the cycle of destruction, the meridian points will surely remain applicable. Rgds, David

Hokori, all you have to do is squeeze your tricep. Most ppl are wired to automatically squeeze the bicep when they think of it though. So you have to imagine you're reahing forwards for something out of arm's reach.

Additional. This is suitable for the Internal Forum in that the extension-visualisation demonstrates how power can be generated in an apparently relaxed state. The only tension is in the tricep, the mind is calm. This shows that you don't need to be pumped or angry in order to defeat someone. Rdgs, David

This is a simple trick of misdirection, a standard of Aikido beginners classes. Google "unbendable arm" for a million articles. There are many such tricks that are one-off lessons in basic principles of mind or mechanics. In the first attempt, you are subtly encouraged to brace your arm with your bicep, the muscle that bends the arm... In the second, it is suggested, one way or another, to imagine extension or distance. This leads you to resist with the tricep - the correct muscle with which to resist. Bingo, your arm won't bend, unless the other guy is sufficiently strong. Rgds, David

I think "San Shou" is the Mandarin version of the Cantonese "san sao" I know. It means "bare-hands" so is an uncopyrightable name. "San Soo"... dunno but it seems like the same thing again. Rgds, David

Southern style mantis

Knees don't rate as a general issue in kung fu. Train and apply correctly - no hassles.

In the general field of MA, I think appraising the whole-body application is more useful than admiring the isolated striking-speed of one proponent in one example. Many here seem (to me) to be visualising gloved sparrers toe-to-toe exchanging 1-2-3's; a drastically reduced battlefied... Without gloves, many styles can strike repeatedly up,down, left, right, forwards and backwards ad infinitum from any hand position in proximity to the opponent. At that level, power becomes the question and it's up to the system and practitioner to utilise correct form and awareness of momentum. As said much earlier, there's no one way to measure the speed of a style that makes a huge amount of sense in comparison to another. The topic question is ultimately limited by this. On the way, interesting things come up. Rgds, David