Top 10 Zen Forest Qi Gung Secrets for Hockey Players

(Photo by Cancan Chu/GettyImages)

Is Alex Ovechkin Playing Kung Fu Hockey? The Pittsburgh Penguins accused him of hitting with an intent to injure after he hurt Sergei Gonchar and others.

Is Alex Ovechkin using the secrets of Far Eastern energy movement techniques when he plays hockey? His slap shots and wrist shots are so hard, you have to suspect he is using qi gung, kung fu, or some secret Shaolin techniques.

Yesterday, I wrote a column called Top 10 Zen Forest Meditation Tips and it proved to be popular, so I thought I'd follow it up with the Top 10 Zen Forest Qi Gung Secrets.

The high speed, hard hitting sport we call hockey is becoming ppopular in Asian nations so quickly, the NHL may soon have to plan for an Asian Division when it goes global, with Divisions in Canada, the USA, Europe, and Russia.

Claude Lemieux made his return to the NHL this year by way of playing for the China Sharks before joining the San Jose Sharks.

It amazes me there aren't already a lot of Asians or martial arts experts excelling in pro sports in North America. After all, the Far East is the home of the martial arts and energy exercises, starting with Qi Gong.

Sometimes I wonder if certain players like Ovechkin are using the ancient secrets of the Shaolin when they play hockey.

Here's the top ten things you need to know about Shaolin, Qi Gong, and Kung Fu for hockey.

1. Qi gong is also known as Qigong, chi kung, and so on. However you spell it, it has a close relationship to the Chinese martial arts and to traditional Chinese medicine.

2. Qi gong or chi kung is also related to tai chi.

3. Chi means energy, or life force, as in "may the force be with you."

4. Qi gong masters can, reportedly, harness chi, prana, or energy flow and used it to throw a person across a room, break bricks with bare hands, boards with heads, and so on.

5. Qi Gong originated in a temple called Shaolin, where a mysterious, bearded, blue-eyed Buddhist from southern India taught some tired monks how to get in shape.

6. Qi Gong is at the heart of many martial arts, including ju jitsu, tae kwon do, judo, Bagua, Drunken Boxing, Eagle Claw, Five Animals, Hsing I, Hung Gar, Lau Gar, Monkey, Bak Mei Pai, Praying Mantis, Fujian White Crane, Wing Chun and Tai Chi Chuan.

7. Zen Buddhist monks may not like to make a connection between energy exercises and all those violent, competitive sports, as they are non-competitive pacifists.

8. At the Zen Forest, meditation is followed by qi gong exercises and the combination of the two is very energizing.

9. Using qi gong in the Zen Forest, I learned how to split logs effortlessly for hours.

10. Shaolin Soccer was a silly movie and so far as I know, nobody has used qi gong for shaolin hockey, for some reason.

You have to wonder what goes into the shots of Alex Ovechkin. He takes more shots than anyone and they are fast, hard, and accurate.

Blocking his shots hurts, as the New York Rangers discovered in the first round of the NHL playoffs this year. Getting hit by one of his shots accidentally cause injury.

His shots that miss the net have shattered the glass behind the goal. Is he using the force, or life energy?

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