MOVEMENTS & TECHNIQUES

The background Martial Arts for ISAI in the meaning of applications are mainly different styles of Taiji Quan, Pangei Noon and Russian Martial Arts. But only in the meaning of the martial applications.
ISAI doesn’t look even similar to these styles because all the movements without exclusion were constructed according to the principles of ISAI which differ greatly from any other style.
For example - in ISAI there no any direct punch or kick or any straight movement in any dimension.
For example let’s consider the forward kick.
There is no really forward kick in ISAI.
There are four basic almost forward kicks which are all actually only one.
The same will be correct also for the every other kicks - side, back, round and so on as well as for strikes, punches, pushes and any other movements of the body.
The movement of the kicking or stepping leg is always similar to the movement of the hand on the same side of the body.
The same will be true for the knee movement and for the elbow.

To make it a little bit more clear please imagine your pelvic moves horizontally clockwise it watched top-down (your right hip moves left-to-right and backward).
The initial position of the hands is casual, but one hand is up and the second hand down, otherwise the position of the hands will be static and awkward.
If the right hand is up (it means that the left one is down) then the 'fish play' will happen as hereafter, otherwise go to 2.
Close to the end of this above mentioned pelvic movement, at the head of the right fish, when the movement of right part of pelvic passes from the back to the head of the fish, your hands will stat to perform 'fish play' mostly vertically and clockwise, if watched by the performer. At this point the right hand still is up and has collected delay comparatively to the pelvic, so the right hand tends to the left while the shoulder pushes to the right.
The left hand is still down on the left side and is pulled to the right.
Your right leg coordinated with your right hand (or your right knee with your right elbow) will kick top-down with a heel from the center to the right or to the right-forward or forward or to the right-back or back and to the any angle between these directions. The right hand moves top-down clockwise and your left hand moves clockwise down-top.
This is a little bit complicated movement when described verbally because of the delay of ligaments movements compared to the pelvic turning movements and also thanks to the changes of the size of the ‘aquarium’ or circle during the movement of the pelvic, hands and the leg.
Why the right leg will move top-down?
When the right hand up it is caused by the slight rising movement of the right shoulder, which is caused by slight curving to the left of the upper part of the spinal colon and by the slight movement to the right of the lower part of the spinal colon.
This last movement will caused by the right hip’s rising movement and will bring the right hip and knee up.
This is why the leg and the hand on the same side of the body move the same ‘fish play’ (there is delay due to the flexibility of the spinal colon).
This is also the turning movement of the head which starts with a greatest delay but arrives the first.
This movement of the head is a very important and influences and turns all the body, somehow similar to the tail.
The distance between the hands and the body will increase when the hands start turning from the left until the hands will be in front of the body and will decrease when the body will turn back and the hands will be at the right side of the body (the body turns counter-clockwise).
In the moment of the kick (the actual application) the hands and elbows will be parallel to the floor and in the symmetrical points comparatively to the chest (for all the kicks) and the right hand and the head looking at the direction of the kick. In these points the movement of the leg and hands is the fastest and the most applicable.
The limbs now in the middle of spine of the fishes while the hips and shoulders in the highest points of bellies (the change of rotation direction) or in tails of fish turning in opposite direction.
This is why in Yang presents Yin and vice versa.
The empty hands will ‘keep the ball’ or ‘aquarium’ during all the time. The size of the aquarium changes all the time and depends on the size of the projection of the distance between the hands on the line between the legs.
In the wide horse stance (‘ma bu’ in Chinese) the hands can be held wide and will be close to the front of the body if seen from the side.
In the bow stance the hands will be narrow distanced and can be far from the front of the body according to the distance between the feet.
Otherwise it will be difficult to keep the balance especially when touched and pushed or pulled or while turning.
By the way in ISAI there are no stances nor positions, just turnings according to the ‘fish play’ pattern. The stances just are points on the track, and can be used exactly as we use the points in cases we have to drive lines on paper.
Generally speaking ISAI is a formless style.
This fact alone makes it in some meaning to be desired and looked for target for everybody, who practices so-called internal styles of Wu-shu, because in all these styles the final achievement is to be the formless.
Here in general this achievement only is a basis for the future development.
So this is a first (out of four) possibility.
The second one is the same movement of the pelvic but the ligaments move counter-clockwise, it means that the right leg will kick down-top-left-right with an upper part of the foot or with fingers. It starts when the right hand is down and tends to the left of the body (due to delay of the hands comparatively to the turning of the pelvic) and the left hand is up in the left side of the body.
3th and 4th possibilities are the same as 1th and 2th but the pelvic will turn counter-clockwise and the limbs held on the right side of the body.
It means that the right leg will kick top-down-right-left or down-top-right-left respectively.
During all these kicks your empty hands and the kicking leg will perform full ‘fish play’ movement but the standing (if you don’t jump) leg performs zero-size fish play movement because it holds the immovable ground.

The movements described in par. 1 and 4 I call ‘Natural Movements’.

The movements as in par. 2 and 3 I call ‘Reverse Movements’.

The movement 1 is a ‘Natural Movement on the back leg’.
The movement 2 is a ‘Reverse Movement on the back leg’.
The movement 3 is a ‘Reverse Movement on the front leg’.
The movement 4 is a ‘Natural Movement on the front leg’.
There is a simple and natural method to convert the directions of the turnings of the hands and legs(Pls. see my drafts attached).
By the way, our natural walking as well as a running actually are the ‘Natural Movement on the back leg’.
Exactly the same principle is observed when any other natural movements, martial movements, massage, breathing, so called static and dynamic exercises, any kind of external or internal movements are performed during all different drills and form, internally or externally. Actually it is no really static situation or full stop of movement exists in the Nature, there is always some amount of movement exist everywhere in any time.
No other movement’s pattern except of ‘fish play’ is applied in ISAI.
In any moment the kicks and strikes as well as any other martial movements can be performed in any possible direction and angle which are mostly depending on the direction of the body and on the opening of the hips which are defined by the will of the performer and which follow to the openings and directions of his spirit.
In other words in ISAI any movement can be followed by any other movement, forming the countless number of combinations.
The work with different kinds of weapons and tools is under the same principles but some distortions caused by weight and configuration of the tools will take place.
Contrary to all Martial Arts I ever saw and read about, ISAI was created in up-down direction, from theory to practice. This makes a great difference.
It means that we begin with ISAI from study the biomechanics of our body or, in other words first of all we study the Natural Law of the ‘fish play’ applied to our body. We start from the mechanical or bodily aspect and go inside to the energy and mental level. Later we go outside to the spiritual level.
At the beginning we don’t think about martial application at all, we just try to study ourselves, the ‘fish play’. Otherwise any future performance of ISAI will be incorrect, the pair of fish will be broken,’they will jump out of aquarium and die’.
The next step of our study will be the Martial Applications and finaly at the last third step we will come to the study and understanding of the Natural Law of the ‘fish play’ again, but in the higher level, level of Universe.
This is not linear but rather spiral process and these three steps are studied endlessly.
This approach make clear the ultimate importance of the Martial Application Study to these who wants to reach the level of Universe.
So, in order to resume, I would say that ISAI is the art totally based on the Natural Law of the ‘fish play’, performed ceaselessly internally and externally for the Martial uses as well as the natural exercise for the health and spiritual development.
It is also an aesthetic play that reminds externally a kind of Eastern dance.

About ISAI

Principles

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MOVEMENTS & TECHNIQUES