20 minutes of mini lesson on several aspects of rotation. Movements vs tranquility, applications and demonstrations are shown in this video. Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 20 min. In: English Year: 2012 Difficulty:2/5 At:Edmonton
“Rotation 1” Online Video Trailer
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Wish I could be there but I am grateful for this video and seeing Gerry and Albert up there is pretty cool.
Putting my hands on Master Chen’s body to feel no movement, rotation, and extension was really educational. Something must be experienced to understand. I could never gain the depth of understanding by watching him.
出神入化根於無動之中。No move, then rotation can be expressed. The video summarizes this basic principle clearly and precisely.
Wow, this is a great video, well worth the nominal cost. Starting to clear up the concepts of rotation and not moving.
Master Chen, I have a question. I mentally understand that we are not supposed to move, but to do so if you have an opponent that is bigger and stronger than you pushing on your chest, it is difficult to not move at all (the torso gets pushed back or inclines some). I know we are not supposed to lean into the push, or push against it, but take the push into our rear foot. I wish I could feel what is going on internally inside your body to see what you do to maintain your structure to keep from moving as I feel you are doing something. I think that keeping the head suspended is probably a key. Do you also focus on maintaining a round “dang” with the tailbone slightly tucked and the front kua pushing out? Does the rear foot push so that to maintain a sense of fullness (or I’m not sure if it some type of tesnseness) in the inner leg and kua region and extending up through the top of the head? Or is it, as you say, “just don’t move” and it doesn’t really matter how you accomplish this as long as the result is there?
Thank you!
Gary Readore
Gary, you are mixing issues here. Let me explain. You are mixing this action of a rotation with an application or ability. While these appear to be similar, they are not the same. If you can do a rotation with a fixed spot, I consider that as the first step. That is the day one of your life in rotation. A strong push from an opponent is not day one of the opponent’s push. That push probably took dozens of years to develop. Understanding that, you won’t compare a strong push with the attempt to doing an rotation. So it is important to do as instructed and not try to equate that with ability yet.
Awesome video! This is going into my phone for reviews over and over again!
“Anything that goes straight down, in line with gravity, is not a movement.”
“If there is something that moves and something that does not move on the same body that happens at the same time, that is what we call a rotation, whatever that appearance is.”
“The principle has no variation, but application is not a variation; application is ways of using it.”
Master Chen, I just wanted to see if I’m understanding aspects of rotation correctly. If we think of a section of our body, say even just the hand…when we shape it into “tile hand” because we are stretching the inside longer (tension) and shortening the outside by curving it inward (compression) and the inside of the hand stays neutral (center) we have rotated it…without ever having made it look like it rotated in the common sense of the word…because we have established the trinity of forces necessary for taiji …tension, compression, and neutral axis, or push, pull, and center , or yin ,yang, and wuji???
Correct.
Thank you.
After watching the recent “Berlin private video’s” that you have just released which are truly fantastic in their extensions of idea’s you’ve been developing with us and their new layers of information, it seems the only way true rotations are achieved and utilized is by reversing our “normal” body structure and reversing all our normal actions with opponents. Taking the hand as an example, the normal relaxed hand is long on the outside and short on the inside….but when we create the “tile hand” we reverse yin and yang to create the dynamic separation. It seems that we must make all our long parts short, and our short parts long until everything is even…..thank you so much for teaching us real taiji…!!!!!!!!
Great video! Normally i avoid these ‘rotation and the likes’, because either they seem shallow to me, or they explain something that has been detailed in videos like Energy alignment, or the S line, etc. This one is different, it is a must have for anyone interested in martial arts, and specially taiji. Master Chen outdoes himself in an even better explanation of the old principles.
Rotation is simple, finding it in your forms requires detailed observations.
In my opinion this single video outshines the entire EA series.
The price is a formality, anyone should buy this.
Thanks again Master Chen for another great video.
I am a brand new student of Practical Method. The experience of this workshop was exceptional. Master Chen’s explanation of body biomechanics was an eye opener for me. The experience of power from his body was nothing short of magical. This is a true form of Tai Chi.
Thank you Master Chen for the great video of our class. It is so helpful to have the video content available so soon after the live class. Also, the illustration of the 1st move in the form is helpful.
Each time I see Master Chen, the instruction “don’t move” is repeated. My understanding of not moving seems to increase with each meeting, and more training. Why do I not see the depth of this concept at first? My understanding seems to increase with my body’s training and ability to actually perform not moving.
Time to train!
Awesome video. The last 5 minutes were priceless.
Very helpful! I have read that the millstone moves but the axle doesn’t move and consequently have been searching for this axle for years. If I understand correctly the axle is any point around which part or all of the body rotates. Joy!
I’m a very inexperienced practical method student, however, because of the very clear explanations by Master Chen in this video to my delight I am able to do the first move shown fairly well.
I would like purchase others but for some reason I’m having problems either with pen pal or this website making a purchase.
Thanks for this video, it will become my “principle” and all else applications of it.
If i may dare ask a question. Moving downwards with gravity, does this not contradict keeping dot in the kua at a fixed height thus creating an arch between knees and dantian? haven’t understood this properly.
Thanks again.
Thanks Master Chen:
“If you can do a rotation with a fixed spot, I consider that as the first step. That is the day one of your life in rotation. A strong push from an opponent is not day one of the opponent’s push. That push probably took dozens of years to develop. Understanding that, you won’t compare a strong push with the attempt to doing an rotation. So it is important to do as instructed and not try to equate that with ability yet.”
This was very helpful helping me understand that I do not understand. It is a long process before real application.
I purchased this video in October 2012 and did make a comment relative to my delight with the content within. After viewing it off and on for the last approx 6 1/2 years I still see/understand parts that I somehow missed in previous viewings.
This video is among a whole bunch of videos purchased that are my favorites and that group of videos continues to grow.