Xavier Santiago

Practice Yi Lu segmented for 10 years. If not, you are moving all over. That is wrong. Every move must show exactly what you are doing. If you don’t finish the moves, you will not synchronize and it is as if you are speaking a different language from Practical Method Chen Taiji. 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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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

In brush the knee the right arm should never move the hand. In with elbow, turn waste without moving hand, then out with the hand.

At our level, the improvement only comes from being bigger.
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Class focused on corrections for foundation move “Six Sealings Four Closures”:

When you toss, your move has even more than the energy can bare. Read more

Yilu & Erlu 1

by Xavier Santiago on 2013/02/15

Yi Lu is one of two forms in the Chen style Taijiquan lineage of Chen Chanxin who condensed the postures of the 7 barehand forms of Chen Wanting into 2 forms; Yi Lu and Er Lu. Yi Lu is the training form of Chen style Taijiquan.

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Originally written by: Xavier E. Santiago-Albizu  Feb 1 2008

After reading Master Chen´s “Relaxation and Rotation” comment, I have the following question. When doing push hands would trying to apply concepts such as “neutralizing, listening, and adhering” still be getting into the opponents dimension? Read more

In this workshop many deep Taiji concepts were explained and practically demonstrated by Shifu, Chen Zhonghua. Videos recorded during this workshop include the following: “Body Structure”, “Differential 2”, “Space and Time”, and “Rotation 1.” Shifu, please correct any incorrect statement that may be found in my notes. As time allows, I will continue to transcribe and publish the rest of my notes: Read more

The following article was once originally part of Master Chen’s former webpage www.chenzhonghua.org. It gives us Grandmaster Hong Junsheng’s first-hand account of what actually happened in the talked about encounter in a martial arts tournament in Beijing between Great Grandmaster Chen Fake and Wu Tunan. I thought it would benefit everyone interested in Taijiquan history to read this article and learn of Grandmaster Hong’s first-hand knowledge of this encounter. I want to thank Shifu Chen Zhonghua for allowing me to re-publish this article in Practicalmethod.com. Read more

Corrections given to me were to do my movements bigger.  Small movements at the beginning will cause you to make many mistakes in your movements.  Read more

As every time I receive instructions from my Shifu, Chen Zhonghua, I understand more that what he has always talked about is one principle that is applied in countless ways.   Read more

There is a difference between being on and off.  On refers to that point where everything is aligned.  When your opponent pushes against that point there is power against the push.  Read more

Here is a brief summary of the notes I made in Hunyuan World. I hope I was able to have some understanding from Master Chen´s teachings in the seminar. I am open to any corrections on these notes. Read more