Internal Skill & Anatomy - The Foot Pump

On Aug 24, 2009, at 4:05 AM, marcus_austin_ tcclist wrote:

'it should make folk think quite differently about how and what they are doing with their tcc - which is a very good thing.

It's very much appreciated by physicalist. ...'

Michael Phillips response:

Sorry to take so long to respond, Marcus - but it's been a very busy few days...

Encouraging folks to "think quite differently about how and what they are doing with their tcc" is the very reason I originally decided to come out of "lurking" mode and actively participate in this list, after simply reading it for several years...

I was a little concerned about your use of the word "physicalist" ; I hope that you understand that I am a "physicalist" too, insofar as everything I know about the Internal System is based on some REAL aspect of human anatomy - this is a fundamental reality that there's just no getting away from. You can't ignore the fundamental realities of human anatomy, but you CAN use the same equipment that you and everyone else has in a RADICALLY different way - and that's what the Internal System basically is - a new and radically different 'usage' of oneself.

For instance, I have mentioned the "Foot-Pump" on several occasions - this is not a figment of someone's imagination, it's an actual component of normal human physiology, now commonly referred to as "the Venous Foot-Pump"; but whereas my TCC sifu was already teaching me how to USE the 'foot-pump' in 1982, the medical usage of this term did not become common until AFTER 1988, when the article below was first published:

"Anatomy of the Venous Foot Pump; Research Article pub. Oct 30, 1988; Full Abstract:

The gross anatomy of the deep plantar veins has been examined in 14 cadaveric feet in order to assess their function as a 'venous foot pump'. The lateral plantar vein was found to be larger than the medial and is double in its proximal segment. Both plantar veins contain valves which face proximally and have a convoluted and intermuscular course. These features suggest that the deep plantar veins act as a pump that empties during contraction of the intrinsic foot muscles during the stance phase of gait.

Author/s: Binns, M (M); Pho, R W (RW);Affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, National University of Singapore."

So once again, TCC masters "got there first" - their understanding of the workings of their own human mechanism arose from becoming extremely sensitive to the inner-workings of their own bodies.

And please notice that the two researchers were based in SINGAPORE - I can't help suspecting that they first heard some local Internal master use this phrase, and then decided to look into the actual anatomy for themselves.

All that being said, unless someone knows certain other "inner-door" aspects of the Internal system, you can press your foot down all day long - but fa-jin just ain't gonna happen....

Pun Tswa: The exploding power fajin
- Pun: Shatter like a rock thrown down and hitting cement
- Tswa: Exploding

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Do not simply believe what you hear just because you have heard it for a long time.
Do no follow tradition blindly merely because it has been practiced that way for many generations.
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