Hi.
I'm interested in what kind of training methods do you do in addition to Qi Gong, to help you feel your body and relax in martial arts?
In addition to concentrating on everyday walking, standing, walking stairs down and up while eyes closed...
I have tried a bit of astanga and hatha yoga. Both increased my flexibility and energized me in the mornings. But stopped doing them, without proper instruction I started hurting myself and getting my lower back jammed.
I've went a couple of times to a feldenkrais instructor to learn body connectivity and sensing. In feldenkrais the instructor may for example ask you to lie down on the floor, raise your right hand up pointing at the sealing and then ask you, do you feel a weight change between your right and left heel while raising the arm. I found it very beneficial! Feeling of walking, standing etc was totally different after those classes.
Something a little similar is Alexander Technique where the instructor might "put you" in the right or a better relaxed position, while for example standing. I felt weird when it was done for me, for a while I had no shoulder pain from an old injury and felt very relaxed while standing. It gave me a better idea of what it means to be positioned in the center.
I've given a try to modern dance and similar dance style called contact improvisation. In both dance styles the practitioners is encouraged to learn a natural and relaxed way to move the body in sync with your feelings and improvise in movement. I found it beautiful and beneficial for martial arts, many practitioners there moved there bodies in very beautiful circular and spiral ways.
In modern dance, and a japanese martial art I found ukemi training beneficial for understanding relaxation while crushing into floor. It has been helpful for me to understand the continuity of movement and how it is possible to decrease the amount of pain felt, when being hit or kicked. Training ukemis with tai chi speed makes it very interesting and encouraging to focus on breathing while training it.
My sister is a pilates instructor and has given me a couple of lessons. It had some similarities to feldenkreis and yoga. I found it fun and challenging. It helped me to feel and understand the waist movement and breathing in sync, and also strengthened the deeper muscles of my body. But I have some injuries which made it difficult for me to perform some of the exercises, so I've had a break from it now.
Last but not least, zen meditation (zazen: sitting with legs crossed, counting your breaths) has helped me a lot to focus on getting the mind and breath to sync with each other, taught me patience, silence, not getting so easily mixed up in thoughts, and the feeling of being here and now, which helps me when performing form in tai chi...when my concentration is starting to break. I love zen meditation, but lately been a very lazy fat bottom and hardly doing it at all.
Also some literature from writers like Eckhart Tolle and Anthony De Mello have helped and encouraged me to train awareness when being in everyday situations like sitting in a bus, walking to store etc. I believe these moments have also taught me how to relax better when training TCC and to realize "NOW"
I'm interested in trying Kundalini-Yoga in near future. Time will show if I like it...and will I meet Shiva.
How about you?