Actual footage of Master Chen Zhonghua’s teachings at the 2011 Daqingshan Full time Taijiquan session.
Author: Chen Zhonghua Length: 63 min. In: English Year: 2011 Difficulty:2/5 At:Daqingshan Mountain Resort for Taiji
Paul Janssens January 6, 2015 at 6:17 am
This video has some very nice pieces in it that deserve watching:
2:31 – Catch and Power must be in different places. Matt and Levi practicing Push hands under the guidance of Master Chen.
CZH: “Remember, whenever you do this move, you always have too much power here on your arm. Use a catch….”
5:56 – CZH shows Levi how to properly hold the hand so it ‘hooks’ into the back of Matt. Not just a ‘hook’, but a ‘connection’.
6:30 – CZH: “The hook, no 1, it does not move, no2, it does not power up….”
10:09 – (Your own power must circulate from A to B)
CZH: “The two (hands) must match.”
12:55: – CZH: “The main thing is, the techniques are good, but you are fighting with the techniques. Do the techniques without the fighting.” (After this Levi and Matt improve their push hands)
18:29: – CZH: “First squeeze. You have to create a compression to occupy your opponent. You have to engage him. At that point, he starts to ‘pop’. Then the foot goes back.” (to unbalance the opponent)
19:56: – CZH: “Remember, the power is always 51 at the bottom and 49 on top. Our problem is that we always have 70 on top….” Some nice footage in aligning the two actions.
23:40: – Yilus (three) by students.
37:24: – CZH doing so freestyle fajin with Yilu moves.
41:56: – CZH teaching Hong Sen.
49:28: – CZH demonstrates application of ‘Embrace the head to push the mountain’ (he actually demonstrates two set ups with Hong Sen)
52:16: – CZH demonstrates application of ‘White Ape Presents Fruit’ with the same little ‘pull back’ of the foot.
53:14: – CZH demonstrates application of ‘Double Push Hands’
54:57: – CZH demonstrates clear application of ‘Brush the Knee’.
1:00:10: – CZH shows ‘Fist Protecting the heart’
I especially like the push hands tuition in this video, as it builds up on each exercise, and you see the students improve as they progress through the moves. Worth watching for those who want to learn some push hands techniques.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for that Paul, will do!
Gold nuggets everywhere in this video. It contains mainly interactive personal instructions from Master Chen Zhonghua as two partners freely push hands on Daqingshan. Direct instructions on placements of limbs, direction and energy alignment of power, when and where to apply power. One key is hook to engage/lock and power up from elsewhere (Application of indirect power). There are many more invaluable pointers on push hands to delineate here. The video is of top image quality and is very much worth keeping. The images and contents of Master Chen Zhonghua, on the mountain training ground, providing explanations of fundamental principles of the “energetics” of the Practical Method of Taijiquan in push-hand applications with such clarity are priceless.
(The video also contains recordings of students, with different levels of experience, performing Yilus that allow one to compare where strengths and weaknesses in execution might occur.)