Ten

Get in a right stance and extend your right arm straight out in front of you. Make a fist and keep your arm rigid along its entire length. Have your partner grab your wrist and push. Feel how his force travels up your arm and settles in your shoulder. Have your partner note how much force is exerted in order to bring you off balance.

Get in a right stance and extend your right arm out in front of you. This time let your fingers relax and curl and let your wrist relax and bend. Let your elbow relax and bend slightly. Have your partner grab your wrist and push with the same amount of force required to bring you off balance in the exercise above. If you relax and keep one point the force of his push will distribute itself along the various angles of your arm and very little of it will reach your shoulder.

These simple exercises illustrate the idea that when you are centered and relaxed you are much stronger than when you are tense and stiff. A relaxed body will naturally form angles at the joints that will cause forces applied to move around it's center and not be concentrated at a single point where the force will be most effective.

I use this and other Ki exercises to help students determine what Maruyama Sensei calls correct feeling. I have students experience both feelings and leave it to them to decide which is better.