Noel Plaugher - Standing Qigong for Health and Martial Arts - Zhan Zhuang

Standing Qigong for Health and Martial Arts

ZHAN ZHUANG

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STANDING QIGONG
for Health and Martial Arts

ZHAN ZHUANG

Noel Plaugher

LONDON AND PHILADELPHIA

First published in 2015

by Singing Dragon

an imprint of Jessica Kingsley Publishers

73 Collier Street

London N1 9BE, UK

and

400 Market Street, Suite 400

Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA

www.singingdragon.com

Copyright Noel Plaugher 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Applications for the copyright owners written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher.

Warning: The doing of an unauthorised act in relation to a copyright work may result in both a civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Plaugher, Noel.

Standing Qigong for health and martial arts, Zhan Zhuang / Noel Plaugher.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-84819-257-7 (alk. paper)

1. Qi gong--Health aspects. 2. Martial arts--Health aspects. I. Title. II. Title: Standing Qi gong for health

and martial arts, Zhan Zhuang.

RA781.8.P53 2015

613.71489--dc23

2014047509

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 84819 257 7

eISBN 978 0 85701 204 3

This book is dedicated both to my teachers and to my students. I have learned equally from them all.

CONTENTS

DISCLAIMER

E very effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this book is correct, but it should not in any way be substituted for medical advice. Readers should always consult a qualified medical practitioner before adopting any complementary or alternative therapies. Neither the author nor the publisher takes responsibility for any consequences of any decision made as a result of the information contained in this book.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I sincerely thank my wife Brenda and my son Christopher, who inspire me to strive for more, Sifu Johnny Jang for being a great teacher, Richard Trammell for being a great friend and mentor, and my friend Debbie Auerbach for the photography.

INTRODUCTION

I have been looking for a book that shows postures for standing Qigong for health and martial arts for some time. I have seen many books that talk about postures for health, but I have never seen one that included the many standing postures for martial arts as well. When I started studying internal martial arts, the first thing that attracted me was the standing postures and how they improved my health and increased martial power. I was amazed that so many styles of internal martial arts included standing as part of their power training. My aim with this book is to bring all of the health and martial postures together in one volume so that they can be easily referenced by all practitioners.

You have probably never heard of me, and you may not be familiar with standing Qigong. Let me tell you a little about both. First, about myself. I started studying martial arts in 1990 after being a victim of violent crime. That event was transformative for me and led me to martial arts and ultimately to internal martial arts and Qigong. I had no interest in martial arts prior to that time, and I was exposed to martial arts only through the martial arts films I grew up with. To me, martial arts was basically what I saw in those movies: guys flying around, making strange sounds, and doing physically dubious feats. All of the things associated with martial arts were to me unrealistic, antiquated, and weird, and they didnt really fit with the world as I knew it. It might as well have been voodoo, as it was potently alien to me, a kid from the suburbs in northern California. I figured martial arts was just some strange Asian stuff that people do out of tradition, but that there wasnt really anything to it, so I basically dismissed it all out of hand.

While recovering from my incident, I was persuaded by a friend to study martial arts to help work through my posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and also to gain confidence. I was dubious about how helpful it would be, and I had absolutely no aptitude for martial arts or most things physical. I didnt play sports, and frankly I wasnt interested in anything that involved sweating. My friend eventually won out, though, and drove me to class one night. I did indeed end up studying martial arts, and I struggled with it for a long time. It was not easy for me. In fact, it was the hardest thing I ever did. The concepts and techniques I became exposed to were very effective, though, especially the use of the mind. Often when my instructor would talk about thinking this or that for a desired effect, I would be surprised by the resultsfor example, the idea of thinking that my leg was like iron, and immovable, and could be used to kick out the opponents leg. And then to test it and find that it actually worked! I was just amazed at the power of the mind and body working together. This was my first introduction to using the mind effectively, and it was my first experience with the minds power over the body. I became very interested in how far this type of thinking could go and I wanted to learn more.

My teacher had told me that there was another branch of martial arts called internal martial arts . He told me that they focused more on the mind-body connection and intention, and that they were a great way to obtain internal power. This all sounded good to me and I filed away the names of these stylesXing Yi Quan, Ba Gua Quan, and Tai Chi Quanknowing that at some point I would seek them out.

In time, I achieved my goal of black belt and started thinking that this would be a good time to look into internal martial arts. Over the years of studying martial arts I definitely changed for the better. My body became healthy and I felt pretty good about myself. I am a very different person now from the person who started so long ago, and I attribute that growth to my teachers and the continued pursuit of knowledge. Martial arts, in all of its forms, has been an incredible learning experience, and I enjoy learning, teaching, and practicing all forms of martial arts styles to this day.