2.4 - Foci
Warning! The following section contains exercises that, if deviated from, could cause broken teeth and blindness. The reader proceeds at their own risk.
Prerequisite reading and exercises: 1.4 (on centring, posture and breath), 2.1 (autoception), 2.3 (Splitting pools of ki)
As a general rule, ki techniques need at least one focus. Focuses are anchors; they both root ki in absolute or relative space and act as a jumping-off point from where a ki-user can work complicated techniques without the need to draw genki moment to moment. From the simple point of a ki-ball's centre or the abstract entirety of a weapon, to two points in space separated by unfathomable distances - learning the fundamentals of creating a focus forms the basis of this next section.
As I'm sure you're already finding, staying on top of all the elements of ki manipulation can be somewhat daunting. Upsetting the natural flow of genki may have been a difficult enough, so how can anyone fly or even glow ki in their hand when continually drawing from the centre? Even my experienced brain would fry. But there is a way to bypass the immense effort required, and that is by using a focus.
The focus of a ki technique is, in some respects, mimicking your centre, a kind of stop-gap for ki during your technique replication. That natural overdensity in the upper chest, the pool, created at first by a restriction of breath that we split and moved? The centre point of those two pools were foci for our ki.
More than just an anchor, a focus then is an object or point of attention close to or within the intended technique that can gather ki in reserve. Having ki closer to the point of use makes life far easier for a ki-user.
Natural (or, more accurately, subconscious) foci do occur: when we attend to those we love and our own genki reaches out; when we have an injury and genki rushes to assess the damage and to marshal the body's response; or even when holding tools in our hand and our mind incorporates the object into our own self-image. A focus does not have to be part of you, another person or an object, either. In many cases the focus will be a point outside your body defined in relation to a part of you. Between your hands is the most common focus and indeed will be the first external focus we shall attempt.
If you've ever witnessed a demonstration of ki, I wager you've seen a spark of ki hovering above an upturned hand. This technique is the most common one used to impress as it requires minimal effort (you are not going to work up a sweat), can be performed in close quarters (unlike some of the more spectacular and explosive manipulations), and is far easier for beginners than hovering a half a metre in the air (though the glow elicits the same excited disbelief from a crowd). In fact, I used one of these tiny points of light to shatter the worldview of the journal editors. Convincing a board of hard-lined skeptics to give my research a fair hearing with unsolicited papers alone was always going to be a trial. A simple demonstration (and in my case a meeting arranged under false pretences - thank you, Professor Junkyou!) can go a long way.
The purpose of this section's exercises are not to create a spark in the hands, not just yet. Whilst the move does rank on the easy end of the spectrum, there are a number of elements to nail down before one can perform a tiny glow. Shiny things may blow away those who have no ki-sense or training and win you that phone number at the bar, but your peers and teachers will be impressed more by your ability to split and redirect ki's flow with nuance within and without the body. Aim high, and you may even coax a ghost of a smile from Piccolo himself.
If your only goal in reading this textbook is to make friends at parties or to see into the back of your cupboard then I permit you - and only you - to skim through the exercises over the next three sections. If you are planning on using ki for a number of tasks like flying (as I suspect many of you are chomping at the bit to do), the simultaneous components need to be mastered in isolation before combination, and one quick recreation of a party trick will not prepare you for those.
2.4.1 Hands
As tradition dictates, we will begin by building to a focus between the hands. Sit crossed-legged, in seiza or seated with your hands resting palm up on your knees or thighs - whichever is easiest to keep a relaxed-but-upright back. If you are unable to use both or either hand, keep the symmetry in the genki flow for as long as possible, and take when I say 'palm' as the part of the arm you would use to press or hold an object, and 'fingers' to be the furthest point from the body.
Split your genki to your shoulders as in the previous section. You should experience a fullness, a sense of warmth, comfort, security and correctness attributable to these pools. The centre point of the whirlpool of ki is the focus. As the genki settles there, the light pressure and warmth should build in tandem. Some genki will of course continue to thread its way along the flow of blood in the arms, performing its natural function to regulate allostasis, but most will stick to the focus.
Without breath in the arms to help push the focus to your hands the visualisation required - that expectation and imagination - is harder to conjure this time. If you're having trouble, imagine the genki caught around the focus as water held back by a dam or barrier, only a trickle passing through, the pressure building behind. Turn the valve or lift a sluice gate to let that water flow where it most "obviously" "wants" to. By expecting genki to flow in this manner, your genki will eventually deign to do so. Your genki may get stuck on its way as it ventures too far from normal experience and that is a typical stumbling block. If you find yourself stuck with warm elbows, reposition the mental dam to this new spot and try again and again until your genki reaches your hands.
Eventually the warmth, tingle and pressure will fill your hands, in particular the palms and along the side of your thumbs. Whilst these sensations will verge on the corporeal, genki is not physically manifesting itself just yet, it is still passive. This pressure is not from an active intent like push, but is the sense of life and presence that exists in and around your centre at all times. The sensation is only remarkable and unnerving in the hands as it is so out of place here. When we move to intents in the next section, the difference between active and passive ki pressures will become obvious.
Moving ki to the fingertips does not necessarily require you to split the focus into five. Pumping the fingers by flexing your fists a few times will stretch the shape of the pool. As the fingertips hit your palms, the eddies in the current will be disrupted and encouraged to divert to the fingers. Once your have experienced this sensation, it will be far easier to imagine and therefore encourage your genki to do so without you needing to flex your fingers each time.
If you are finding these exercises too easy (a minority of you, I'm sure!) and wish to push yourself, try to formally split your ki and make each of your fingertips a separate focus. When performed correctly your palm will empty and the tiny pools of genki will happily settle in the distal phalanx (last finger bone) of each digit, under the nail.
2.4.2 Between the hands
As part of your body, the hands are classed as an internal focus. Now for an external example - between the hands.
Adjust your body so you are still sitting tall but this time palms facing, wrists relaxed and near-straight. Your fingers should be curled inwards, tips or pads facing their counterpart to form an arc but not touching, as though you are holding a ball. If this position is too difficult, one hand with fingers in the same position, mimicking holding the ball on one side, will work just as well.
Your new focus will be the centre of this ball, a point usually level with the base of the middle fingers. Move your genki to your hands (across the palms and fingers) to begin. That same sensation of life, of yourself, that current of ki flourishing within the hands? Project it, willing it to extend around the new focus, the flow from both hands converging like water from two faucets. Though the genki will wax and wane, tumbling over itself at first (more a roiling anxious mist in your ki perception than a serene ball), your genki will settle if you will it to calm. At first your genki will stubbornly cling to you and be confused as you encourage it to let go - this genki was not necessarily expecting to leave the body after all - but it will get used to the new status quo. If you wish to use your breath to aid the "expulsion" of ki, that is a great way to start! But again do not rely on this method, you need to ultimately untangle genki from the breath.
Congratulations! You've created a happy ball of genki. Your first external focus!
Why have I made you to go the extraordinary effort of forcing ki down your arms, into your hands and fingers to only expel it mere centimetres from your centre? Wouldn't concentrating genki around your stomach and jumping the genki across the gap to that focus make more sense? Well, there is a method in my madness. Although ki does like to follow a simple path, remember ki is very much tied to flow, and so prefers to mimic those present in the body - much like electricity tries to follow the path of least resistance, or water flows downhill. For most people, of all their appendages the hands have the best dexterity, proprioception and therefore most nuanced ability to manipulate ki, far greater than an arbitrary spot on your stomach. And finally a practical reason - as you raise your hands this external focus will not always be near your centre but always between your hands.
Ki doesn't always behave like electricity - imagination trumps its stubbornness. Against received wisdom this exercise will work if your fingertips are touching, albeit slightly harder to perform. This difficulty is not because your ki will 'follow the path of least resistance' and refuse to jump to the central focus as some people believe, but because the sensation of touch will create and reinforce natural focusses along the fingertips and thus discourage ki to leave the hand.
Notation
Before we dive into other forms of focus and their uses, I want to introduce two notation systems to you. This will be a lot to take in at first but don't fret, I'm introducing them together so you grow accustomed to seeing the very basics in tandem, not for you to become an immediate expert. The first I will expand on in the next chapter, the second the next section.
First is choreology, the study and notation of dance… Given this and the previous section I promise I am not tricking you into joining the theatre! Many of the techniques you'll be learning later will have signature stances and rehearsable rhythms to the movements. Choreological notation, as opposed to my rambling, is the most precise way to record them.
As dance is typically accompanied by music, the notation is helpfully written on the same kind of five-line stave. The lines correspond to parts of the dancer's body and surrounding space: the top of the head, shoulder height, waist height, knees height and the floor line. When reading you are looking at the back of the dancer, so actions on the left side are to be performed with your left. The stave shows a series of snapshots - frames - with movement lines indicating how to change from one position to another. The clef for this stave is a circle and straight line below, an abstract upright body.
[ Figure 1 ]
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The feet and hands are the parts of the body most transcribed, and are written as |, _ and a dot when they are in front, level, or behind the core of the body respectively. When elbows and knees are bent, they are indicated with a shorter, perpendicular line crossing them (or as an x when behind). The arcs below the stave indicate the direction the toes point in, and the hooks on the hand line follow the direction the curl of the hand follows (relative to the dancer's core) to show where the wrists are pointing.
A diagonal line instead of a level line implies there is contact with the body (\ and / for left and right, adding a perpendicular line or circle if in front or behind). A fainter right diagonal line (/) crossing through the symbol implies the body part is on the wrong side of the dancer's centre line (i.e. crossed-over), and a fainter left diagonal line (\) is used if the extremity is on the wrong side of the waist line (so hands and elbows aren't confused with feet and knees).
There are plenty more rules of notation in choreology, but that is enough to start reading the staves below.
[ Figure 2 ]
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A note for those already familiar with this particular notation: the default is to assume ballet positions, that arms in front are slightly bent at the elbows, hands held with a characteristic delicate grace and level feet are fully turned out. Whilst you can adopt this, no such grace is required here. Arms out straight means arms out straight, and feet are marginally turned out for your stability and comfort.
The stave beneath this is for the fluxology, so-named for the study and notation of ki's flow through time and space. Each of the five lines and gaps between the lines represent something different to the dance stave. From the top-down for the lines we have: a free line defaulting to the aura for neatness, the left hand, the right hand, the right foot and the left foot. Again this is as though we're looking at the person from behind, but this time they're leaning over - the clef for this stave shows this position. The gaps correspond to the head, the upper chest, the centre, and the pelvis. Below the stave can also mean the aura. Lines can be added above or below to refer to objects or other people.
[ Figure 3 ]
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Time progresses left to right as the with the dance stave, but this time as a continuous flow rather than a series of frames. Circles represent foci, both dotted and solid lines the flow of ki. Various modifications to the focus indicate whether there should be a change in flow rate, charge, amplification, or a rejection of ki (see diagram). Dashed lines represent genki, solid amplified ki or a mixture. A dotted line means ki from others. Vertical lines drawn between ki or foci shows a connection between them, like simultaneous action or a focus positioned relative to the foci indicated e.g. between the hands. When a line passes through a shape, that means the corresponding intent has been applied to that branch of ki. A tight row of ki lines serially connected with vertical lines are all branches of the same flow of ki at the focus they surround, though different intents may be being applied to the branches. Line weights can indicate if the proportion of ki is intentionally different between the branches.
[ Figure 4 ]
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Above are examples of relaxed positions and the simple flow of genki we have used for exercises 2.4.1 and 2.4.2. Note how, from context between the hand positions in the dance stave and whether or not the hand focuses are connected in the ki stave, it is possible to deduce the foci's position.
2.4.3 - The feet
Much the same way ki can be pooled in the hands, the foot can be a handy focus, too. The feet and legs are already a strong focus as mitigating the stress of walking is managed in-part through genki.
In this case I want you to treat the instep of your foot like the palm of your hand. Of course, you probably don't have the same flexibility in your feet as your hands and so cupping the feet in the same way will be tricky. If you can sit soles of the feet near-touching that would be perfect, though extrapolating from the average person's flexibility you may have to make-do with outstretched feet turned marginally inwards. Thankfully this old dog's still got it!
The same principles as before apply, but this time begin with the split focuses at the top of the thighs and expect genki to want to flow to your toes. Release the dam to nudge your ki along the intended path to your feet. Ki is more accustomed to pooling in the legs than the arms to brace when walking and so it will happily settle around your joints. It may then need some gentle persuasion in the form of visualisation to tighten up inside the foot. Remember to wiggle your toes to force genki right to the tips, too.
Now, imagine the external focus either directly between the the feet, or projected from both insteps to the centre of the ball they are trying to grip. If it would help at first to use a sports ball to find this point, please do so.
[ Figure 5 ]
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Why concentrate ki here? One preemptive (and potentially dangerous) leap of logic Pan students often make is to assume this must be the first step towards flight. Indeed, pooling ki at your feet and pushing yourself from the ground like a firework is a very effective form of propulsion. But fireworks have carefully designed fins to stabilise them and no method to reliably turn. Using a ki blast from the feet to fly will cause you to careen off into the blue and leave you hurtling towards an untimely death.
Although, such a risky move may just be what you need…
My parents' home in Mount Paozu Sept 795, discussing unusual implementations of techniques with my father Son Goku, and Piccolo.
Goku: Oh! And there was the time I did the Kamehameha with my feet in the Tenkaichi Budokai! Have to admit, I'm still proud of that one.
Gohan: In the 23rd, right? How did that thought even cross your mind?
Goku: Well, I couldn't fly back then you see, so Piccolo - being the super smart guy he is and all - had flown way up to get the height on me. I was getting pretty desperate and jumping to trade blows wasn't cutting it. Then I remembered a time I'd seen the scene before. Do you remember, Piccolo? When I was a kid.
Piccolo: To my eternal torment, yes. Father seared the image onto my retinas.
Goku: [Chuckles] Way back when we fought King Piccolo, he'd grown to the size of a house to try and stop –
Piccolo: He wasn't the size of a house - at that moment, anyway.
Goku: You sure? He felt like the size of a house.
Piccolo: Because you were tiny, making the memory all the more humiliating for me… At some point King Piccolo had Goku right where he wanted him, half-dead with a broken arm and shattered knee. He couldn't stand, so my father wrote him off. A huge mistake. Never write Goku off.
Goku: Aww, you flatter me.
Piccolo: King Piccolo flew up high, preparing to finally put an end to Goku's meddling with a ki blast, when the kid shot up from the ground like a rocket with his working fist outstretched. He punched straight through my father's chest.
Goku: You see, I couldn't jump anymore because my legs were useless, so I did a ki-blast with my good hand to push me off the ground, and then turned mid-air to slam him. It worked, and we won. Are you sure he wasn't a giant? I went clean through.
Piccolo: Very sure, pipsqueak. See? What normal child would think to do that? Never write Goku off. Or any of you Sons for that matter.
Gohan: 'Desperate times', as they say - we're pretty accustomed to those… So, the tournament?
Goku: Ah yeah. Well, I remembered that fight, but this time I had my feet and both arms. I needed my hands free to deck Piccolo, naturally,–
Piccolo: 'Naturally'?
Goku: – so by saying 'Kamehameha' as I fell I tricked him into thinking I was going for the blast with my hands when I actually channelled ki through my feet, threw myself at him, and smacked him in the face with both fists. It wasn't enough to win that time but I got you good!
Piccolo: The callback was not lost on me. Of course, I did a little hands-free blasting of my own as payback…
Being just as competent using a part of the body other than your hands (Dad his feet and Piccolo his antennae) can both release you from a bind and gift you the element of surprise, and with that the advantage.
4.2.4 Tongues and other focuses
Speaking of, one oft neglected focus (and yet arguably the easiest to use) is the head - specifically the tongue. As we're not used to thinking of the head as anything other than a house for the brain and something to protect most don't train this focus out of lack of imagination. But like the feet, learning to use your tongue can be an effective counter and, given the ease of the focus, free up effort to allow very complicated intents.
I skipped over the head until now as despite being the easiest focus, the idea of forcing you to sit cross-eyed with your mouth agape and tongue drying to a sad, shrivelled slip of jerky is - whilst amusing for me to watch - not hugely appealing for many students.
Since by now you will have brought ki to your hands and feet, this should be an easy task. If you need to do so, use one breath to bring the natural upper pool into the head. The tip of the tongue, which we are often cognizant of, will gladly harbour that genki (sorry, I know many people hate being made aware of their tongue and how it sits in the mouth). As you do this you may instinctively feel the need to poke out your tongue, as though continuing the breath's flow from the mouth. Your eventual goal will be to close your mouth and have the ki concentration secretly grow behind your teeth to preserve the element of surprise.
Don't panic that your mouth will fill with ki and explode! Unless you assign an intent to the ki, the ki will only gather, not interact with your body in any way. Many students are scared to hold their tongues back thinking they will break their teeth. Although, if you do wish to use the tongue to release a generic form of push intent, please remember to open your mouth when launching - I'm not going to pay for your dentist!
Using this focus isn't exactly a pretty sight; it elicits bizarre kiai from users and fits of giggles from onlookers. Some of the most complicated intents, such as Gotenks' Kamikaze Ghosts (a long story) use this focus, as well as their more simple Ki-Butterfly cousins. In the latter case their creators often breath directly into cupped hands out of politeness. Please push to surmount the anxiety of using this focus, as being able to unflinchingly use the tongue when your four main limbs are pinned is something not a lot of assailants will see coming.
With counters in mind, the eyes are another helpful focus and I've seen them used many times (Piccolo even used them in that same Tenkaichi Budokai final). However, I will not encourage you to use them at this point. You have not learnt to control intents yet and I do not wish you to do even the slightest hint of damage to your eyes. The eyeball itself can act as a very convenient spherical focus and the pupil a perfect exit to channel through. Even the lens can be used to focus and direct the ki if your imagination wills so. However, to do so means allowing your ki to interact with the lens and this opens the door to permanent injury. To that end I caution against using the eye for a focus right now, but if you feel like you need more practice on the face, creating a focus a handspan away from the tip of your nose will be far safer.
[ Figure 6 ]
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Finally, those readers with tails may also find the tail tip a useful focus, too. For those possessing the most dexterous types, I've seen ki-users bending the tip around to a curve - much like one would cup a hand - and focussing in the crook. The tail tip can be used much like a finger tip too, and if the tail is long enough to get behind an opponent at close range, you can attack where their defence is usually weaker.
2.4.5 Aura
The aura can be a useful place to pour genki into. Setting up a pattern of high flow rate from the centre outwards can help drag ki from your centre without you needing to actively drive it. Though be careful - ki that has left the centre begins to degrade (unless imbued with a hold intent, more in the next section). This mean you cannot carry around an infinitely dense cloud of ki in case of emergencies, so pick your moment. This preparatory technique is called aura shoring, and forms the basis of a number of nebulous and surrounding techniques we will cover in the future.
The focus for the aura then is the centre or more generally the body - only this time instead of concentrating the genki we are expelling it. This is a harder technique as we usually understand a focus as a point of attention to bring ki to, not to avoid. At first you may find splitting ki and channelling it out through the hands, feet and even head easier, but in this case that is very much making ki take the long way round.
[ Figure 7 ]
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To expel ki cleanly one can imagine an empty, calm bubble growing from the centre, genki riding the surface like dust on a shockwave until the bubble leaves the body. If that doesn't work for you, just as a river's eddy can be disrupted by putting your hand in the centre of the whirlpool and causing all the flotsam and jetsam to flow onward, so you can still the internal natural pools through visualisation and allow genki to meander its own way out the body.
When creating a barrier most ki users will default to using their hands to channel ki outwards (then anchor to the centre once the technique is in place), however being able to pop a barrier without gesturing can help you escape from some hairy situations. Utilising already held ki for a barrier is far faster and more efficient, to boot!
2.4.6 Compacting Ki
Go back to exercise 4.2.2 now, drawing ki into a focus between the hands. I want you to pay close attention to how your genki flows around the point focus - how it is denser at that point and tapers away, the particular flows and branches, the speed and frequency of how these flickers change direction. The exact nature of the densities and behaviour of those eddies will be unique to you.
Next, I want you to compact the ki down to a point however you can. Try this without reading ahead. Remember the method of expectation and imagination.
What happened? Did you try to squeeze the ki, it caving at some point and slipping back through your mental fingers like a water balloon? Or did you spin the ki and tighten the whirlpool, with some licks of ki flying out? Or a mixture of both, a folding and squashing?
There are two schools of thought on the best way to reduce ki down to a point - whether to compress directly, encouraging the ki to head towards the centre point; or to rotate it all together, applying one tight and orderly movement to the whole flow. They both have their pros and cons.
[ Figure 8 ]
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Compression is the most direct way to compact ki, maintaining a similar density profile to its resting state within a smaller volume. Play whack-a-mole with the ki takes a lot of effort due to ki's resistance of this squeeze trying to maintain its more nebulous form, though this method will come marginally easier with practice. The equal compression will keep the spherical shape, and these balls are relatively simple to direct when they have been released.
Rotating ki requires only one command and so is less taxing in terms of effort. The rotation keeps ki orderly and stable, too. However it will gravitate towards forming a disk, so the ki needs to be pulled out at the poles to form a sphere. The tighter the rotation, the harder the shape is to maintain, as the ki tries to fling itself apart along the outer edge. When imbued with particular intents and released, rotating ki is harder to direct than its compressed counterpart.
Some techniques will require compression (ki balls), others rely on rotation (kienzan), and some a mixture of both (beams). We all have a natural inclination towards one or the other, and so whichever is more natural to visualise and maintain will be the best for you to lean on.
The figure shows the symbols for compression and rotation followed by another symbol that the ki flows through, an intent. This intent - hold - and two very common friends - pass and push - will be detailed in the next section, 2-5, ready to finally put together in the last section of this chapter, 2-6.