What is Chi?
The answer that has helped me the most came from my teacher Mark Davis. He told me that chi was awareness of energy that is already there. At least this is how I translate what I learned, (sorry Mark if I got it wrong).
So when I build my chi I am building my awareness. I am becoming more receptive. If you think about this it makes great sense.
Watch people when they first start training and they have little awareness of the use of gravity to move the body, but as the years pass you become more and more aware of the energetic pull of gravity and how to use it.
Learning to feel the intent of others starts slow but can lead all the way to the Sakki sword test and beyond. With these examples gravity and intent were already there you were just unaware of them.
As your awareness grows and you learn to connect and utilize these existing energies you are capable of things that are attributed to “chi”. The potential was always there, the energy already existed the only thing missing was your awareness of it, sometimes referred to as chi.