The empty Force and the real force

The empty force and the real force

There seems to be much interest in what is now termed the "Empty Force". I recently attended a seminar, held by Richard Mooney, which purported to demonstrate these phenomena.
I went with a totally open mind, and was therefore not too upset when nothing out of the ordinary occurred, besides which my main reason for going was to see him perform the instant knockouts that I had heard so much about, here I was disappointed. In the Uechi-Ryu system of karate there are a host of nerve attacks, I had hoped to learn more and I did not. When I got home I researched any reference that I could find with regard to the empty force. The best and most informative source was the respected writer Jane Hallander. In a short essay she explained that the term had come about when another respected martial artist Doc Fai Wong had difficulty translating a Chinese term, the closest approximation he could find was the empty force. More interesting to me was the fact that the empty force was never intended as a martial technique and was used as part of a health promoting exercise, a form of chi-kung. I have practiced similar methods and though I can only give my subjective opinion, I feel that they are health promoting and a great antidote to the stress of modern life, and that they probably offer a lot more than that as well.
I must say though, that I did not think that Richard Mooney was a charlatan, I really believe that he believes he can do these things, and here My interest really deepens, and is the main point of this article. How can people accept these things as truth? , How did this mind frame develop?
In olden times it must have been of great assistance for martial artists to be thought of as super human, to have abilities that were mystical or magical. Imagine for a moment if you had never seen a karate man break an object with his hand. How awesome that would appear, also people will often interpret something that they see, to conform to their own understanding. A friend of mine, a tough street fighter, once witnessed somebody at a Uechi-Ryu club being tested in Sanchin, he wrongly assumed that they were taking full powered kicks to the groin, needless to say he did not want to try street fighting with them.
A couple of years ago I worked with a very disagreeable man. He was a bully and a loudmouth who would shout people down. We worked in an office and people were terrified of him. At lunchtime he would go to the local public house and drink large quantities of beer, then return in a bellicose state. Eventually he turned his attention to me. Here I must state that the reason he inspired such terror was his sheer physical size he had the build of an over weight sumo wrestler 6ft 4ins of huge quivering flesh
And at least 30stone.
Here trickery prevailed, he knew that I practiced martial arts and for a while goaded me about it, I did not rise to the bait. Then one Friday afternoon when we were in the office alone together and he could contain himself no longer he asked me how good my punch was .I said that my punch would probably kill him, but that if he held a telephone book to his left shoulder I would hit that lightly to show the tremendous power that I had, I then said that this to would be too dangerous and that I would punch from only a few inches away. He waited and then I punched and knocked him back about 4 feet. His face turned white, .I then took the telephone directory of him, for some time he had boasted of his great strength, and I ripped the directory in two and asked him if he could do that. He shook his head. I explained that I had mastered the power of chi. He looked dumbfounded, I held my arm out straight and asked him to bend it with both his arms, try as he might he could not. Finally I said that I could block any punch and to prove this I would teach him a simple Chinese exercise called silk reeling. While facing each other we both held out our arms so that our arms were touching. The object of the game was to try and touch each other’s body, and to prevent ourselves being touched we could circle our arms to deflect our opponent. After a few tries he could do it reasonably well, to make it easy for him, so I said, I would blindfold myself. Blindfolded I easily touched him many times but he could not touch me once. After this he never bothered me, and he never threw his weight around again, at least not when I was there.
All of the above things are tricks, easily learned and when presented correctly give the impression of tremendous power, The Real Force, and yet they are only tricks, here is
How you do them.
1.Short range punch.
This is not really a punch, practice firstly pushing at someone holding a telephone directory, or a punching pad .Get used to how a push feels, like when you push a car. Notice how straight you stand how the power is generated from your feet stepping forward, and how stiff and straight your arm is. Actively try and push your partner over from a still and standing position. The impact of the punch is the heel of your palm. Rest your fingertips against the directory and then snap your palm forward to strike the directory. What you have in effect is two strikes, a quick snappy palm heel and a slow powerful push. When the two are combined the effect is awesome speed and power from a very close position. Also in the scenario above I suckered our friend into believing that this strike wasn’t going to be anywhere as near as powerful as my punch.
2. Ripping a telephone directory in two is an awesome test of strength if done correctly, so I cheated. The trick is to hold the back spine with your two hands and then to break it against your knee while bending it back and forth, it will bend and tear quite easily, once it starts to rip it will tear in half really easily.
3.The unbend able arm. The old aikido favourite. Easy as pie, the elbow joint is on a hook system so that if you stretch your arm out i.e. reach out as though to touch something just out of reach, then your arm will lock, no magic here. It becomes unbend able ………I have seen small week women confound huge men with this one.
4. Silk reeling this was taught to me by a tai chi teacher. It is a form of pushing hands, and surprisingly it is easier to do with your eyes closed than open.
So there we are nothing mystical or strange in the least, but I guarantee that if you show these tricks to anybody who has not seen them they will be astounded. As the title indicates this to me is the Real Force. There are many other tricks in the martial
Arts that I do not know how to do, if anybody out there knows anymore I would be
Really interested to here them.