Comfort Zone
Contrary to what the movies might have us believe fights take place at very close range. Rarely do you get the opportunity in real life to deliver a clean spinning wheel kick in a bar and knock out your opponent with the heal of your cowboy boot. Fights take place when someone has violated your personal space. Words may be exchanged but, the fists will not fly until your space is violated.
Personal space or comfort zone is a matter of culture. In the U.S. we tend to insist upon three feet as a buffer against intrusion into our comfort zone. In China, where there are over a billion people, there isn’t enough room to insist everyone stay three feet back so their comfort zone is much smaller. In some cultures the distance has nothing to do with space available but, rather on the cultural norms; such as Italians who can get quite close when talking while Germans tend not to do so.
We allow people we trust into our comfort zone which invites those trying to gain our trust to ease ever closer in an effort to become trusted. It also encourages those who wish to intimidate to advance into our zone in an effort to create discomfort and place us off balance. No matter the size of our zone or the cultural norm that governs it, we all feel the need to protect it and everything inside of it, namely ourselves.
Since we function most effectively inside our comfort zone it is advantageous to learn more about it and how to use it.
Peng energy is the key to establishing and maintaining your comfort zone. You can think of it as a bubble. Anything staying outside this bubble is safe and anything coming inside is danger. If you can learn to manipulate this bubble and use it to keep danger at bay, then you will effectively be using taijiquan skills.
Peng-lu-ji-an can be applied to the bubble. Instead of waiting until you opponents energy is applied to your body, you can begin to answer his questions when they are applied to your bubble.
Curious thing about the bubble, it expands, contracts and then expands again over the life of your taijiquan practice. In the beginning you make your bubble very large as a defense mechanism against attack because you lack skill and sensitivity. As your abilities increase your bubble shrinks in size because of increased confidence and skill. Later when your skills and sensitivities have reached a truly high level your bubble expands once again as you are able to sense and express energy at greater distances. This is not some mystical power that emanates from your fingers like lightning; rather it is more like an awareness of and an expression of presence.
When thinking of combat don’t look to reach outside of your comfort zone to attack; if it is necessary to strike an opponent at distance then close on the target, place it inside of your zone and then explode. By staying inside of your zone you will be less likely to lose your balance either by over committing your action or by being grabbed by your opponent.
One of the best methods of practicing to feel and manipulate your comfort zone or bubble is to play push-hands with your eyes closed. Utilize any push-hands exercise you wish, but keep your eyes closed so that you must feel the presence of your partner and his expression of peng-lu-ji-an and not be tempted to look for visual clues. Presence is created by energy and you can feel energy.