The reason that makes I Liq Chuan such a unique martial art and so different to other options is the teachings around Philosophy and Concepts. It is very important that the practitioners learn to break away from the unconscious and be conscious at all times.
The art is very much about developing physical sensitivity and awareness. It does not develop predetermined moves or techniques to solve particular situations like allot of arts do, this is considered a habit and is very typical of other arts. To achieve this, our students get to understand the relationship between “Mental and Physical” and how this affect each other.
People that train in our martial arts classes learn to not only understand the muscular movement and body structure but to also train the mental process. This is really important to develop the skill to unify and coordinate them and to be fully aware of the present moment. As soon as the I Liq Chuan practitioner makes contact with their opponent, they can feel instantly that persons weight and center of gravity, they can feel what strike or attack they are going to use. At a higher level, the practitioner can sense without even making contact with the opponent through awareness. This is used against the opponent and depending on the threat level, the specialist may incorporate fa jiing energy released strikes or just redirect the force.
The Art of leading the mind.
A child or woman practicing this martial art can easily defeat a large powerful man by leading their mind. There is a saying in I Liq Chuan “Lead the Mind and the body will follow” if you try and move your opponent with brute force and the person is stronger and bigger than you then this will not work. The mind doesn’t have weight or physical strength which puts the smaller weaker person on an equal playing field. Once trained on how this works the student leads their opponents mind and they lead their own body. The opponent defeats themselves.
Form
I Liq Chuan is considered to formless due to being in the moment and not using fixed moves, but that does not mean we do not have forms.
The forms where introduced as the art evolved. At first spinning and sticky hands were practiced which cultivates sensitivity and combative skills. Later 2 forms were introduced, but the purpose of the forms was to become formless, which sounds like a contradiction, but the forms are not practiced as a set of moves, the forms are practiced so the person can recognize the conditions of a situation and move appropriately for those conditions. While performing the forms the student is practicing the physical components such as structure and alignment but the student is also recognizing their own energy which is important when they are merging with an opponent’s energy.
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