Formosa Nejia has a very good post attempting to dispel the "The myth of independent arm movement," which is that Chinese Internal Martial Arts (IMA) are superior because of the "rooting" that they emphasize as fundamentals. In other words, they derive force from the base of their stance and using the core and hips to deliver their transfer of power into the target.
The author correctly notes that, "No good boxer, MMA fighter, or karate guy is going to punch with his arm only. It’s just crazy. Where do people get these ideas?"
From what I have seen, bad internal martial artist use more arm strength or disjointed body mechanics, and thus are weak, but good ones use superior mechanics that come from driving up from the ground. This is actually true of ALL martial arts and martial sports (or any sport, for that matter) not using projectile weapons.
Of all techniques I know, only the eye jab doesn't require that coordination and "rooted" delivery to which the IMA stylists are referring. In other words, as my brother used to say (when he was a service writer), "parts is parts!" Fighting is fighting, good technique is good technique!
So there.
Ok, now you IMAs can tear me apart in the comments. :-)
Photo credit: Wikipedia
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