Literal Translations:

Tai: Body

Ki: Spirit / Spiritual Energy

Implications of translation:

The Japanese, for thousands of years have been aware of an ability to sense the proximity of other people (and other living creatures) nearby. In the absence of any knowledge of electricity or its function in the living body they had no way of understanding its effect on their own body or why that sense changed in proximity to other living creatures, but they were aware of how to feel for it and in some cases, develop an extreme sensitivity.

In addition to that sensitivity, they also developed methods to control the energy they could sense, to channel and direct it, and reinforce areas of their bodies to become practically impervious to impact from others, and to direct it within an attack to reinforce the physical technique and conditioning. The way this was evaluated was by the use of breaking solid objects over the body and with attacks from the unprotected body to solid objects.

Further to developing the capability to manipulate their own bio-electromagnetic field, they realised that people emitted a sense of their emotion and will that had an unexplainable effect on how they felt to be near. The Japanese attributed this to the field of energy emitted by a person reflecting their “Spirit” or character, nature, and will, or intent. It had been observed that, when you pay attention to this feeling from others, that you can tell a great deal about them, very quickly and accurately; in a dangerous society, you could sense not just when an attack was coming, but what the attack was (to a degree, such as direction of attack, to which region of the body, with which limb etc.) Nowadays, practitioners exhibit this skill by receiving attacks from opponents whilst blindfolded! It was noted also that you could project a sense of strength or vulnerability of a region to your opponent, drawing an attack to that area, where, of course, the combatant receiving the attack would be ready to anticipate and act accordingly.

The next step in the development of the Japanese study of Ki since it was now considered spiritual energy, was that you could not only manipulate the path and channels of energy within our bodies, but to control the field emitted. It was also realised that energy travelling along those channels or “meridians” in the body had an effect on the organs of the body so that both healing and harm could be done to yourself and others by correctly (or incorrectly as in some cases) manipulating specific areas along these meridians. This was done by applying pressure at particular angles and became known as pressure points. (This discovery was further developed in no small part due to the influence of Chinese medicine and Chinese T’ai Chi.)

Tai Ki teaches several different kinds of pressure points including, meridian pressure points, nerve pressure points, tendon pressure points and vascular pressure points. All have different effects, and if used irresponsibly, can cause great harm to others.

Some benefits to Tai Ki practitioners today.

1 Firstly, Tai Ki aids physical conditioning by taking the body through repetitions of both slow and fast (only slow to begin) movements, then free-flowing movement, where posture, strength, breath control, flexibility, technique and mobility are developed.

2 Secondly, Tai Ki aids mental focus and concentration as each exercise needs your full attention to develop it to its full potential, but also to learn to sense your own, then other’s energy field.

3 Thirdly, Tai Ki is illustrated with its practical combat application to promote understanding of its purpose, and to help reinforce why getting it right is so important. Therefore, for advanced students, sparring with opponents gives an opportunity to evaluate your progress.

4 Fourthly, your self-discipline grows, as complacency prevents progress and causes ineffective technique. It takes growing discipline to prevent haste and to lengthen your patience, to perform the techniques and exercises as well as you can.

5 Fifthly, the ongoing benefit of performing gentle exercise is self-explanatory, but because you are learning about developing your internal energy, there is an enhancement over the physical exercise alone.

In short, Tai Ki is of proven benefit to physical and mental health; it is a combat discipline, therefore practical for self defence, and is gentle enough to be suitable for most people, yet challenging enough to keep even fitter people stretched as their skill and talent progresses. The risk of harm to the practitioner is extremely low for the first few years, and only develops with the desire to progress, so you don’t have to fight with it, you can just learn to your own level of comfort.

Thank you for your interest in Tam-Ryu Tai-Ki-Jutsu and we hope you enjoy your training with us. For more information you can contact us on the telephone number or by e-mailing us at enquiries@streetsafe.co.uk.