Information, Energy, and Force — Thoughts of a Master

Force is secondary. Information is primary. The nervous system does not fight violence; it fights prediction errors. Peak performance means minimizing energy expenditure per unit of effect. The true battlefield is the interaction between two nervous systems. Information determines when energy becomes relevant. Energy determines when force appears. Force determines what happens in contact.

Many people believe internal martial arts are about speed and strength, but they are about far more. They are about perceiving and directing the opponent’s energy rather than resisting it. Your own energy is grounded instead of chasing movement. True sticking means that the other person reacts to you, not the other way around. The moment force arises, it is absorbed, redirected, and taken over. You do not win because you are stronger or faster. You win because the other person’s energy is no longer under their control. Soft on the outside, unavoidable on the inside — that is an essence.

Surprisingly, much of this can be translated into Western technical language. The principles taught by my teacher Daniela form a portfolio of precise experiential engineering. She works through them with me line by line. Na Ging — seizing the opponent’s frame — means controlling the opponent’s structure, which leads to controlling their force transmission and ultimately their balance. Biomechanically, if you disturb the hip, spine, shoulder girdle, and stance line, the opponent can no longer transfer force effectively. Force emerges in contact, but you determine the conditions of that contact. You do not accept confrontation where it is offered.

Not resisting is the gold standard because resistance generates counterforce, consumes energy, and drives the nervous system into alarm mode. Neither resisting nor insisting means redirecting force, changing timing, changing angle, and taking over structure. We redirect instead of blocking.

Chasing hands means reacting to symptoms instead of structure, and that always makes you too late. High-level practitioners follow a line from the center of mass through the hip and pressure line into the timing window. Real sticking means making the opponent stick to you. In contact, there is a continuous stream of sensory information: pressure direction, muscle tone, timing prediction, and intention signals. It is like tactile radar. The instant force appears, it is borrowed, redirected, and taken over. This is Newtonian physics combined with timing and fascial elasticity. You use pre-tension, reflex chains, elastic recoil, and directional change within micro-time windows. You do not lose because I am faster. You lose because your energy is no longer yours. Timing, structure, force vectors, and the nervous system are manipulated until your system begins working against itself.

Soft on the outside means no unnecessary muscle tension, no warning signals, and maximum adaptability. Unavoidable on the inside means structure, timing, impulse transmission, and elastic kinetic chains. Control the contact and you control the force. Manage the energy and you control the exchange. Control the structure and you control the outcome.

Borrowing force means using the force that already exists in the opponent or environment so that you barely need to generate new force yourself. It means redirecting opponent energy, taking over opponent timing, and hijacking opponent structure. Physically, borrowing force relies on three conditions. There is no contact without force. The opponent’s impulse already exists. When someone moves, they have mass, velocity, and direction — that is momentum. You do not need to create it. You only need to read and influence it.

Small angle changes can create large effects. Minimal redirection is enough. Timing beats strength. Recognizing intention before movement is decisive. Borrowing force uses elastic biological systems such as tendons, fascia, and muscle pre-tension. Structure replaces muscular effort. When you are properly aligned, force travels through you instead of stopping in you.

You are not only borrowing force. In contact, you read tone, direction, timing, and pre-movement intention. The opponent’s nervous system reveals movement before visible action occurs. You allow the opponent to initiate, use their acceleration, and change structure minimally. Physics does the rest. Force already exists. Borrowing force means organizing yourself so that existing force works for you instead of against you.

Borrowing force means having control over the system that produces force. Once you control that system, the force effectively becomes yours.

When concepts such as Seizing Energy, Borrowing Force, or Sticking are analyzed through the lens of modern neurobiology, biomechanics, and physics, remarkable structural parallels to classical Qi theory become visible. Na Ging provides control over structural coupling. When two bodies come into contact, mechanical tension systems, sensory feedback loops, and motor prediction models become coupled. The nervous system operates strongly in a predictive mode, constantly calculating what will happen next.

When a practitioner takes over the opponent’s structure, the opponent loses structural autonomy. Their movements are now running through an external mechanical framework. Their nervous system begins receiving inconsistent feedback.

Either resist nor insist correlates with a clear physiological principle: avoid co-contraction, minimize energy expenditure, and increase reaction speed. When two systems tense against each other, energy consumption rises, sensory resolution decreases, and adaptability slows down.

The instant force appears, it is borrowed, redirected, and taken over. This shows strong agreement with physical principles. Momentum already exists. Force does not need to be generated if movement already exists. Small directional changes are often sufficient.

There is no enemy contact without information. As Heiner Müller expressed in essence, the decisive factor in the universe is not matter, but information.

Life is information processing under constraints of energy and time. Force is expensive. Information is leverage.

There is no enemy contact without information. There is no contact without sensory coupling. There is no action without prediction. There is no efficiency without informational advantage.

The nervous system fights prediction error. The brain is constantly attempting to predict sensory input and minimize deviations.

In contact, three processes occur simultaneously: mechanics, sensory processing, and prediction. Mechanically, there is momentum, force vectors, leverage, and mass. Sensorily, there is touch, proprioception, and pressure direction. Predictively, the system is constantly calculating what will happen next.

It is not the opponent’s strength that defeats you, but your incorrect response to the direction of their force. Anticipated force can collapse structure. The nervous system is fundamentally fighting loss of control.

Victory often comes from forcing the opponent into false predictions. This aligns closely with feints, broken rhythm, directional changes, pressure modulation, and manipulation of contact conditions.

Sabotage the opponent’s predictions.