Fa Li 发力

The stage where it shows whether the foundations hold

Fa Li literally means issuing force. It is the synthesis of Zhan Zhuang, Shili and Mocabu in a sudden, whole-body impulse — and the bridge from solo training to partner work (Tuishou).

Yao Chengguang describes how the stages relate in an image that corrects a common expectation:

“Zhan Zhuang, Shili and Mocabu all create the conditions for Fa Li. It is like a warehouse full of machine parts. You can build a machine with them, but you must understand the function and structure of that machine. Otherwise you will not be able to build it and not be able to use it.”

Alongside it Yao Zongxun's warning, pointing the same way: some practise the basic methods for years and still cannot issue force — “because they have no clear knowledge of Fa Li”. The parts do not assemble themselves into the machine.

Four factors

1. High nervous activation. Imagining wild animals all around, highest alertness — the energy of fear converted into readiness. 2. Ground reaction. The rear foot presses against the ground, the reaction force runs through the body as through a chain (Actio und Reactio). 3. A system of opposing forces. Up against down as the basis, and active everywhere in the body: no part without a counter-force (Zheng Li). 4. Rapid vibration. “Movement that always arises and never ceases” — no stalling, no breaking off.

Not only the fist

The canon carries directions of force for every bodily weapon: head, shoulder, elbow, hand, knee and Kua — each in a version on the spot and one with stepping (Zou Bu Fa Li, the foundation of combat training). Kicks come with it, and, as a test against a target, work on the sandbag and the focus mitts. The mental image there: the shorter the time you take to strike the bag, the better — as if the fist meant to penetrate and shatter it.

That is not decoration but the formula for explosive force put into images: the same impulse in less time yields more force.

For solo Fa Li, a recorded class at the Zhongyi Wuguan offers a mnemonic: 脚是钻，腰是轴，拳是弹 — the foot drills, the waist is the axle, the fist springs.

On a partner: three rules

Anyone practising Fa Li on a partner for the first time — pushing the other away out of Dingba Bu — should, according to a teaching-film section from the same school, watch three things:

1. Keep the centre line. This is the most common mistake. 2. Don't let the front knee give way — otherwise the force drains off before it arrives. 3. The force comes from the rear leg, not from a leg dragged along behind. The trick: raise the rear heel slightly, as in a run-up. The front foot steps onto the other's centre line.

And an order that is easily skipped: at first, don't shove. A shove looks powerful but does not train the body. Better to lay the hand on and feel your own whole-body push — only then release.