When you see videos of Chinese martial arts masters bouncing people back a fair distance with a very light touch (YouTube is full of them) then unless the opponent is just taking a dive (as usually found in Aikido) what you are seeing is usually an example of ‘Jin’. Jin is not unique to internal Chinese martial arts like Tai Chi Chuan – all Chinese martial arts use Jin to greater or lesser extent. Or perhaps they had it at one time, and it was lost over time. Inevitably, things get lost over time.
It’s got to the stage now that if somebody shows Jin skills then it’s assumed they have been added in as a new “internal” version of said martial art by a special master. When you see somebody who is now doing an ‘internal’ version of martial art X (Wing Chun seems a popular choice at the moment) what the master usually shows is basic Jin done with very little explanation.
So, what is basic Jin? This and other questions like it will be answered by Mike Sigman in this handy video.
The Tai Chi Notebook 
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Here’s Mike in action…. I’ll let you judge for yourselves….
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This is just great and so informative. Thank you very much for your expert explanations and guidance.
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To Richard Huigen:
Yes, you are training your JIN when practicing the forms. In fact, the more you practice, the more you refine it and make it powerfull. To express FAJIN, just take the forms apart and practice in isolation and repeatedly. For example: Wild Horses Mane is one of the best that teach you about release JIN.
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Human being is free in essence and thinking. KNOWLEDGE (including Taijiquan) is not the property of somebody else or LINEAGE. The TRUE VALUE is on the commitment performing any task, and the SKILL, lays in there…
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I agree Ken – nice comment 🙂
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I found the comment left by Baiyuantongbei to be just like so many other keyboard warriors. Mike Sigman happens to be one of the first American who explained actual body mechanics to those of us who had been taught by bad teachers who had no idea what proper structure and jin was. Isn’t it easy to leave drive-by negative comments instead of doing something positive as Mike has done for the past 20-30 years?
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I will always wonder what in the world qualified Mike Sigman to comment on anything related to Taijiquan. No really. Lineage? Proven ability? What?
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Thank you very much for the reply. I’ll take this to heart.
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I think it is, if you already know or have felt Jin, however no training is a waste of time. Keep training and the opportunity will present itself.
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In your opinion, would it be possible to train Jin through practice of the forms ?
I ask ,beacuse i have not yet the possibillty of attending lesson at this stage of my life.
Perhaps later on it becomes an option, but fornow. i’ll have to work on taiji myself.
Thank you in advance for taking time and effort to reply,
With best
regards,
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