Chen Taiji Practical Method and Hunyuan Taiji on Daqingshan Mountain

Rhythm

Shifu: You need to get the rhythm/counting of the form.

After you learn it, then it becomes music. But this cannot be thought. Everyone „hears“ his/her own music. And this is only after a long time of learning the correct rhythm.

As a teacher I cannot correct your music. I can only correct the rhythm.

Example: Diana. Once Shifu got her out of her own way to to it she lost track of the move. But when she started from the beginning of the sequence without interruption she could easily finish it.

Shifu: When you have a rhythm you don’t miss a move. Because you’ll immediately realize whether you missed one or not, i.e. you get out of your rhythm.

If you have no rhythm you are likely to miss moves.

What is rhythm: basically  it’s counting. 1,2,3 then 1,2,3,5 then 1,2 etc.

Han Ri from Wulian actually added extra counts to every move. This way you have to count them through and you are less likely to miss something. Even if you miss one, it’s a much smaller detail. The form still stays basically the same.

When Shifu started teaching he couldn’t stop at any point an continue. Because he got out of the rhythm as well. He had to do a little sequence of the part before to get to the position.

Kick after fist protecting heart

Shifu: The kick is in the rotation.

Wrong:

1. Knee up
2. Kick, i.e. foot up
3. Foot down
4. Rotate

Correct:

1. Knee up
2. Kick and Rotate from Kua/body

Kicks in Rub the foot

Don’t go up with a straight leg. It’s

1. Knee up
2. Foot up (kick)
3. Foot down

What is Stiff?

Stiff looks like if you are counting. But the intent is on not loosing power. So you never let got (become loose). You grab somebody and you want to move him. But you canot let go with your hands. So you move from the kua.

Misc

The cloud hand in moving fist is called „red fist“

John Upshaw

• Fist Protecting Heart to Tornado Kick. Too big. Before the turn, you have to come back into the core
• Small Catching and Hitting. Rotating from the core (in and out)
• Drop the Hands (before Embrace the Head to push the Mountain). This move is a cross between Six Sealing and Four Closing and Punch Covering Hand Read more

We covered the following tonight:

Negative circle

1. Do it in a way that the arm triangle does not change shape externally.
2. Focus on the opening of the shoulder and the elbow
3. Think of the forearm and the upperarm rotating longitudinally and independently.
4. When doing elbow in, make sure that the shoulder is down. This is like instead of getting the elbow to go over on its own, make the shoulder contribute half the effort by going down, so that the elbow can go over by completing the other half. Read more

Flash the back- the left hand cannot move.
Once you know the choreography, you will be corrected in terms of applications. The applications will help you with the choreography.

Step forward to hand covering punch – imagine as if your hands while you are punching are tearing something. The left hand holds hard and the right hand tears it. It is not like what we normally understand as a punch.

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Being asked a question during this class, Master Chen pointed out that he seems to be giving contradictive information from time to time, e.g. to inviting us to ask questions and then saying: ‘You shouldn’t ask that kind of question’.

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• Missing one step. Do not miss any step: 1) in with elbow, 2) turn with the waist. Do not combine. Follow the steps. Follow the procedure. Follow the instruction

Today several students received partial Yilu corrections. Form corrections are always foundational.

Jacek Wolochowski

• In with elbow. Not enough elbow Read more

Elbow and hand relation must be there. Your elbow twists without moving your hand. You can exercise this by having one person hold your hand and you twist your elbow. Hand don’t move, shoulder don’t move and only rotate the elbow. Once you have a stretch in it, you have Taiji. You pull in with the elbow and your hand simultaneously pushes. To withdraw is to issue. When you are physically able to do this, you have Peng energy. Add this to the form. Once you understand this, you realize that there is a stretch. Read more