ike Sigman6H Admin · March 29 ·

Backs and Bows and "Like Plucking a Bow": Two Different Bows

There are actually two different "bow" analogies. One bow analogy is about bending and storing in the
lower back, so in effect the back is "bowed". People keep trying to draw bows and arrows, but it simply
means bowing the back to store potential energy. When the back bow is released, there is no "string",
per se ... the bow straightens and forces the tips of the bows to go outward. So when your back unbows,
a force goes down toward the ground, pushing off the ground, and pushing the upper tip of the bow
outward to push the arms.

The other "bow" analogy commonly says something like "the power is like plucking a bow". That's where
people start trying to shoot bows and arrows, but that's not what it means. It means that your power is
like pulling on a bow-string and as you pull, tension builds up, ready to release when you let go. All of
the qi-tissues in the body can be pulled tight (usually with a reverse-breath) and stretched with body
position in order to heighten the elastic tension. Then you can let-go to punch, hit, etc. So your power is
"like plucking a bow" or like "releasing an arrow", in the sense that you're letting go of a stored tension.

4 Comments

Calvin On Yeah, and in either case there's no string or arrow (thus no force being released directly in the
perpendicular vector). I mistakenly had this view for a pretty long time too.

Mike Sigman Releasing an elastic store is what they mean by "like releasing an arrow" ... but it's only
meant as a metaphor, not a direction to look for archery clues. ;)

Devlin Glen Horinek ‘The Power should be issued like releasing the string of the bow.’ i.e. effortless, just
let go. But unlike the arrow that flies in a linear direction, the power from the Dantian is
omnidirectional, like a bomb exploding, and you have to focus or channel this explosive power up
through the torso and out through your arm.
Another analogy is that you have a string/ piano wire, basically attached from the ground between your
feet to your perineum and the string is strummed and it sends a wave emanating upward through your
torso, which you also focus into any strike.

Devlin Glen Horinek The wu gong (5 bows of the body) 2 arms, 2 legs, 1 spine. But in the Internal arts we
actually refer to it as the Liu gong 6 bows, the lumbar and thoracic spine are separate bows. Learning
how to coordinate the movement of the lumbar (opening and closing mingmen point (in between L4
and L3) with the movement of the thoracic, ribs and sternum is called ‘Unifying the 2 bows into 1’, but
they’re still two separate bows.
In the Internal arts we use the power of the lumbar bow to jolt our Dantian up and back, or yank it down
and forward. The Thrusting meridian (in CIMA) goes from our perineum up through the vertical axis of
the Dantian then branches back to mingmen point and then up the back to the junction point- dazhui at
the top of the thoracic vertebrae.