Internal versus External

[Johnlogic121]

I have read that at one time in history the adjective "internal" was used to describe a martial art that orignated inside of China and the adjective "external" was used to describe a martial art that orignated from outside of China, usually Northwestern India. Later, people used the words "internal" and "external" to describe two distinct forms of energy that can be used by the martial artist. Chi was considered internal, and took longer to develop, and sheer muscular power was external, and could be developed faster. Finally, in modern times, a lot of people use the word "internal" to describe the aspect of a martial art which builds up the willpower, the spirit, cultivates character development and courage, and so on and so on. The "external" aspect of a martial art is said in modern times to be the stances, the forms, the basics, the hand positions, the transitions, and all the actual physical movements. Clearly, terminologies change with the times. Has anybody heard of any different uses of the adjectives "internal" and "external" in the martial arts? Sometimes a distinct context can be the environment in which new meanings appear. Are these the only ways in which these words are typically used? Does anybody have any other interpretations of the internal versus external concepts? Thanks in advance for your time, -JL

[bushido_man96]

Those about sum it up, I think.

[Kieran-Lilith]

Also, you have to keep in mind that maybe the meanings didn't change, but the context and the translations did. If it was based off of the Chinese words originally, depending on who did the translating, they inserted their own perceptions of what "internal" and "external" referred to.

[Bushido-Ruach]

In my studies, it seems that "internal" styles dealt basically with attacking the opponents body from the inside....vital point strikes or nerve strikes, whichever you prefer. While "external" styles refered to physical combat techniques....simply just hitting the opponent with no consideration of organ damage due to specific points on the body being hit.

That's my understanding of the difference between the internal and external martial arts.

[MooYeaDoKID]

i use chi in my martial arts, does that count for the internal part of martial arts, sorry if this seems kinda random just wanted to throw that in there.

[Tiger1962]

Hi Johnlogic

There are three areas of development that I/we focus on in my/our training and two of them are internal energy and external energy. (the third is spiritual, but that's another topic).

Internal energy can be considered our breath during our technique, and external energy is our body’s action (use of hip).

[Ottman]

The definition that I was taught and use is that 'internal' concepts focus on controlling your own movement regardless of what is happening around you, i.e. when you decide to move, it is coming from your internal desire and will to make that movement (your will power is focused on yourself), whereas 'external' concepts focus on reacting to outside factors and attempting to take control over those factors as a result of your motion (you're attempting to exhort your will onto to something outside of yourself).

While you can focus your training onto one concept or the other, both can and should be used in conjunction with one another in order to execute the most effective strategy and technique, whether it is in the martial arts or for movement in general.

This isn't to say that I don't agree with other definitions of 'internal' and 'external' including many of the ones that have already been mentioned in this thread, but I do think it's important to differentiate between internal and external energy and internal and external martial arts concepts (or more particularly: internal and external concepts of motion.)