Practical Kung Fu : Utilizing the eyes to raise the foot in our daily activities

Good morning. A lot of times when I'm dealing with one of my friends or students, they'll talk to me or complain about some issue that they've dealt with in their life. And I always look at ways to utilize the knowledge and training of the internal arts to overcome these problems and what may be the cause. So one problem that arose with someone this past weekend was they were having trouble getting into a boat because of the step-over element of it.

They were having trouble lifting their leg as high as they used to be able. So in the interest of showing this, I'm bringing out this chair. I will suggest that this is the edge of the boat to try and bring your foot over the edge of the boat or step up onto the boat, either or. The big issue has to do with two elements. One is the eyes, and the other is the spirit. So we'll look at the eyes first.

Mechanically, the eyes are a joint. When you stare at something, you tie up the rest of the body, in particular the spine. So if I look down at this edge here, and I'm almost orally and I'm trying to lift my foot up, it's hard for me to lift my foot up that high, especially with my fabulous third trimester physique. But if I let the eyes guide and guard as Mr. Chan taught, I look at the height, but I let the eyes look out and extend and I let the spirit come up, then the power of my spine can power my leg.

And it looks like this. And now I easily brought my foot up onto the chair. Without any kind of sense of muscular exertion, I look at where it is with my eyes and then I look up and out and it lifts the foot up. But if I keep my eyes there, I crowd the body and it becomes difficult and you heard me grunt to try to lift the foot there. So whether you're going upstairs or not, you let the eyes go and let the spine lift the leg.

Or if you're going into Chin Chi Tu Li, you let the eyes lift the leg. You don't lift the leg. So I think in the course of your day you might find some opportunities to test this concept out and to utilize it in your training of your arms. Thank you and have a beautiful day.