Collecting Energy

Collecting Energy

3/15/25

In equestrian arts the term collecting refers to a horse’s ability to initiate a kinetic chain from their back feet to their muzzle.  The reins attached to the muzzle are in effect pulling the rider through this kinetic chain.  The kinetic chain’s precise route is from the hind legs to the hind hips up the spine to the mouth.  The kinetic chain would be ineffective if it missed any spaces along the route from back feet to mouth and it would be greatly inferior if it was from the front legs to the mouth.

Letting go and allowing gravity to compress the density of the body into the ground is the first step.  If a person or animal is top heavy the substance of their body will not go down and a pure kinetic chain can not start to be formed.  Squatting down to some degree can facilitate the feeling of collecting and then standing up to drive energy up.  However the ideal is to collect all of your internal substance down to the earth with little or no physical movement.

The same is the concept of ‘Jing’ in Chinese martial arts.  There are kinetic chains through the body which are transferring energy from the feet to the body area being used in a strike; be it the fist, elbow, shoulder, forehead, chest, other foot, etc.  The kinetic chain must move as levity from the ground through the soles of the feet along the skeleton filling the body with a feeling that is has been referred to as ‘toothpaste’ or ‘goo’.

Every inch of the kinetic chain must be deliberately and gradually filled in a conscious steady manner in the beginning.  If any inch of the chain turns into a blind spot then the chain stops their.  Once this has been familiarized speed of the chain from the ground to the hands can become instantaneous.

These kinetic chains are exponentially more powerful than sectional muscles and can be readily used in any martial art or sport.  Just hitting with the arms for example is an a sectional strength that is multiplied tremendously when hitting someone in the same movement with an intact kinetic chain coming from the ground.

In qi gong health exercises such as the Eight Piece Brocade collecting is the beginning of every movement.  In every movement, energy is then pushed through specific pathways through specific parts of the body for various wellness benefits.  Large amounts of concentrated energy flow through meridians clarifying and expanding them and their related organs giving the practitioner health benefits that are hard to find in any other exercise.