Frequently Asked Questions

I allow students to post blogs and make comments without approval, but anyone registered can comment. I have to approve comments for non students since I don't know everyone who is registered, but I do know and trust my students not to post thoughtlessly.

In the Chi Factory curriculum we have many excellent meditations, drills and exercises to help you change your condition. Training for health or martial is really a question of emphasis or 'flavor'. Both martial ability and health are byproducts of proper training, not goals in themselves. We train for awareness and - most importantly - because we enjoy it.

Think of your health, if it's poor, you address the cause not the symptom. Martial ability and health are the symptoms of practice. Expectations of an 'end result' of any sort limit your ability to be in the 'present moment' and subsequently diminish your ability to respond appropriately to the conditions at hand.

'Eating Bitter' refers to the efforts and energy required to change your condition and is an important concept in traditional training. Instruction challenges you on many levels, without hard, bitter training you cannot come to know your limits, much less expand them.

The Greater Flow refers to the '5 Rings' of energy movement in the body. Each of the four limbs has a specific circulation that one can feel as the awareness deepens. There is also a fifth Ring associated with the torso - down the front and up the back. Meridian work is a subset of the Greater Flow.

In our methodology, recognizing the Greater Flow opens the joints, supports good health and cultivates Listening Skill or Ting Jin. Maintaining the 'Flow' also ensures that the structure is balanced, correctly aligned and that relaxation is present. In short, the Greater Flow is a foundational tool for 'Harmonizing with Yourself to Harmonize with the Opponent'.

It depends on what you commit to the process. As a rule of thumb, three good practice sessions per week will enable reasonable progress. If you can only get two sessions in, you will maintain your level, but slip over time. Four sessions is best.

So much depends on how you define 'Proficiency'. The Chi Factory seeks to help you change your condition. Think of the Chi Factory as a tool for refining the body, deepening your awareness and increasing concentration.

When refining, loosening or softening the body, progress can be easily measured in terms of range of movement, pain relief and raised energy levels. Structural accomplishment is similarly easy to quantify... you are much stronger.

Since measuring progress in awareness and concentration is so difficult, we endeavor to note the external manifestations or symptoms of such progress. This is why partner training is so essential. In solo training you may feel or believe that you've improved, but as soon as you touch another person, you know.

Without the honest feedback provided by vigorous partner training, progress in mindfulness and concentration is just talk and conjecture.

That having been said, a reasonable level of structural integration can be reached in three years of dilligent practice. You will notice immediately more relaxation and increased energy. Going beyond this, it's hard to say how long it will take since students are so different and have such wildly different expectations. Besides, it's the journey, not the destination. Try to manage your expectations keeping in mind the present moment. This is one important aspect of "Empty Cup, Beginners' Mind".

A question was asked:

"I've been thinking about "grace". 

"Grace" (capitalized) represnts some kind of spiritual experience; "grace" has something to do with harmoniously integrated movement."

In the UCB program, what do you consider to be 'Natural Grace', is it both of these or one?

Kelley Graham responds -

Yes to both. I chose that word carefully to describe my program. The meaning depends on the student's expectations.

I feel that Internal Kung Fu enriches all aspects of life's experience. For those on a spiritual path, my program is useful. For those who are not, my program is useful.

The UCB Program emphasizes the ability to contact and, more importantly, develop the parts of the brain associated with consciousness, insight and awareness.

The result of this process is that a person behaves well and in accordance with the highest standards in, hopefully, any context. Professional, personal, private, spiritual, physical... Whatever the conditions, 'natural grace', is apparent in all movements and decisions.

'Natural' means it's already there - part of our Primary Inheritance - only to be realized or uncovered for expression. Hard work is needed. Much bitter to get the sweet.

'Grace' also connotes dignity and composure under stress. especially when taken in context with 'Power'.