The Internal Arts: Where Martial Arts, Healing and Bodywork Meet
When people hear the words Kung Fu, they often think about fighting.
Punches, kicks, forms, weapons and self-defence.
But traditional Kung Fu has always been about much more than fighting.
Behind the physical techniques is a deeper study of the human body — how it moves, how it generates power, how it maintains balance and how it responds when something is out of alignment.
For me, this has led to an increasingly strong interest in what are often described as the internal arts, together with the traditional healing and bodywork practices that sit alongside them.
My martial arts journey has never been about separating these things.
Instead, I have increasingly seen them as different parts of the same journey.
Beyond External Strength
When I began martial arts as a young boy, my focus was naturally on the physical side.
I wanted to learn how to move, how to fight and how to become more capable.
But after decades of training, my understanding of martial arts has changed.
Strength is useful, but it is not everything.
The more experienced you become, the more important things such as structure, relaxation, balance, breathing, timing, sensitivity and awareness become.
This is one of the reasons I have been drawn towards the internal arts.
My training in Tai Chi, Hsing-I and Ba Gua has given me different ways of exploring these principles.
Rather than simply asking, "How hard can I hit?", the questions become more subtle:
How efficiently can I move?
Can I generate power without unnecessary tension?
Can I remain balanced while moving?
Can I feel what is happening through contact with another person?
Can I use the whole body rather than isolated muscles?
These are questions that can take a lifetime to explore.
Tai Chi and the Internal Approach
Tai Chi has become an increasingly important part of my own practice.
My training with teachers including Chris Ellerker and, later,
Deyin, has continued to develop my understanding of movement, structure, balance and internal connection.
One of the things I value about Tai Chi is that it encourages you to slow down.
When movements are performed slowly, there is nowhere to hide.
You become much more aware of your posture.
You notice unnecessary tension.
You feel where your weight is.
You become aware of how one part of the body connects to another.
You begin to understand that movement doesn't necessarily need to be forced.
These lessons have found their way back into my Kung Fu practice.
The two disciplines continually inform one another.
The Healing Arts
My interest in the human body eventually took me beyond martial arts training and into the healing arts.
In the late 1990s, I qualified as a Shiatsu practitioner, having studied at the British School of Shiatsu.
This opened up another way of understanding the body.
Shiatsu is based around working with the body through pressure, movement and touch, and studying it gave me a much deeper appreciation of how people hold tension, how posture affects movement and how the body responds to physical contact.
I also trained in acupuncture, adding another dimension to my understanding of traditional approaches to health and the human body.
At first glance, martial arts and healing arts may seem like completely different disciplines.
To me, they aren't.
They are different expressions of an interest in the same thing:
the human body.
From Breaking Balance to Restoring Balance
There is an interesting relationship between martial arts and bodywork.
In martial arts, we study balance.
We study structure.
We study pressure.
We study joints, movement, posture and the way the body responds to force.
We learn how to disrupt another person's balance and structure.
In bodywork, the intention is different, but many of the observations are remarkably similar.
We are still looking at posture.
We are still considering tension and relaxation.
We are still working with movement and structure.
We are still developing sensitivity through touch.
The difference is in the purpose.
One is concerned with martial application.
The other is concerned with supporting the body.
For me, learning both has created a much broader understanding of the human body than either discipline could have provided on its own.
The Old Martial Arts Masters
There is something that particularly interests me about the way traditional Kung Fu masters are often described.
Historically, the role of a skilled martial artist could extend well beyond simply fighting.
A knowledgeable practitioner might understand martial techniques, internal training, breathing, traditional exercises, body conditioning, massage, herbal practices or other traditional approaches to health.
The martial artist was often also a student of the human body.
I find this idea fascinating.
Not because I am trying to recreate some romanticised version of the past, but because it reflects an approach to learning that I value:
understand the body from as many perspectives as possible.
My own journey into Shiatsu, acupuncture and internal arts has developed from that same curiosity.
Bringing the Two Together
Over the years, I have continued to use bodywork and my understanding of the healing arts alongside my martial arts training.
This isn't about claiming that one discipline can replace another.
Nor is it about turning martial arts into a form of therapy.
It is about developing a deeper understanding of the body and using that understanding to inform the way I train and teach.
When teaching martial arts, I am constantly thinking about posture, alignment, movement, tension and relaxation.
When practising Tai Chi, I am thinking about structure, connection, breathing and awareness.
When working with bodywork, I am thinking about how the body feels, where tension is held and how movement and touch affect the person.
The disciplines overlap.
They speak to one another.
The Importance of Sensitivity
One of the biggest lessons I have taken from this journey is the importance of sensitivity.
In martial arts, sensitivity isn't weakness.
It is awareness.
Being able to feel a change in pressure.
Recognising when someone is becoming tense.
Feeling a shift in balance.
Understanding where force is travelling.
Knowing when to move and when not to move.
Bodywork develops a related sensitivity, but with a different purpose.
You become more aware of subtle changes in muscle tension, posture, movement and physical response.
For me, these experiences have reinforced the idea that good martial arts isn't simply about becoming stronger.
It is about becoming more aware.
A Lifelong Study
After more than four decades of martial arts training, I don't think of myself as having mastered these subjects.
Quite the opposite.
The more I learn, the more I realise how much I don't know.
Kung Fu led me towards Tai Chi.
Tai Chi led me deeper into internal practice.
My interest in the body led me towards Shiatsu and acupuncture.
Those studies then came back into my martial arts practice and changed the way I looked at movement, structure and the human body.
It has become a continual cycle of learning.
Train.
Experience.
Reflect.
Apply.
Teach.
Then go back and learn some more.
The Journey Continues
I believe this is one of the great privileges of a lifelong martial arts journey.
You don't have to choose between being a martial artist and being interested in the wider study of the human body.
You can explore both.
You can train the external.
You can develop the internal.
You can study movement.
You can study stillness.
You can learn how the body generates force.
And you can learn how the body responds to touch.
For me, these aren't separate journeys.
They are all part of the same fascination with the human body and what it is capable of.
Perhaps that is one of the things that connects modern martial artists with the old traditions.
Not simply the techniques we practise, but the desire to understand more deeply.
I am still learning.
Still training.
Still teaching.
Still exploring.
And, after all these years, still discovering that there is another layer beneath the one I have just uncovered.
The journey continues.
Comments