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Just training martial arts in Tempe is fine, but one of the cool parts about being involved with a martial art like I-Liq Chuan is the opportunity to meet people from all over the world, and to get a chance to travel a bit to meet my Sifu for workshops outside of Arizona.

I shot this clip at the recent workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

One of the reasons I like to follow the Dragon Door crew is that, besides the fact that they know their stuff where sports performance is concerned, they also often provide some tantalizing food for thought about martial arts, especially the so called "internal martial arts".

In a recent issue of the "Power by Pavel" newsletter an article by Franz Snideman RKC TL, CK-FMS on the pistol squat got me thinking about the potential relevance to I-Liq Chuan, and what we call "the mechanism of body movement", or Liq Hok in Hakka.

During the Spring workshop here in Arizona, my Sifu, Master Sam F.S. Chin spent time covering the concept of "completing the loop" in some detail. The following clip is probably the clearest example of the concept of the loop and the interrelated concept of "every circle having a cross" we have on video.

The idea is that you must pass the "energy" or vector of force past each of the cardinal points on the circle before your loop can be complete. Why is this important? Well in the words of my senior brother Alex (Chief Instructor of Russia), "it's like when a fish swallows the hook completely". It's the application of force not just at the point of contact with the opponent, but it's as if you're pulling from their feet directly.