1. Introduction. 2. Open and Close. 3. Open Triangle in the body. 4. Experiments with the open and close. 5. Six Sealing and Four Closing exercises. Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 39 min. In: English Year: 2011 Difficulty:3/5 At:Maple Ridge, B.C. Canada
“Open and Close” Online Video Trailer
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
the golden mean rears its head as master chen clearly discusses the method of projecting the energetic hypotenuse that supports taiji structure…WOW!
Another excellent method of explaining often used Taiji terms. It is also another key to understanding what Yin Yang really means. The following stood out in that regard:
“Without Yang, the Yin is useless.”
in 2000 … i competed in a taiji tournament in Handan… it was the 200th anniversary of the birth of Yang Lu Chan and a festival and international tournament was held. Handan is very close to Yongnian, the original home of Yang Lu Chan. I scored very poorly (in the bronze medal area)…. when i inquired as to the reason with judges….they said my mingmen was broken. I now believe that opening the kua and opening mingmen (simultaneously) are essential keys to achieving stabilization/releasing. This was a difficult lesson to learn. This video (along with many other of master chen’s generous offerings) has helped me to understand the relationship between the two. As master chen says “there are many pairs that can be opened” “creating many layers of seperation”….i’m paraphrasing … which hopefully does not misconstrue his meaning? it would seem after 11 more years of reflection…… well… you should watch this video and draw your own conclusions….linear displacement + angular displacement = the first two steps of “no protrusions or indentations”…selfishly i hope he does not become a perfect cirlcle and become bored with us before we arrive at the slightest inkling.
Good note Bruce, if I may I will add to your observation that another way to look at open/close is as a series of triangle.
Kua to mingmen is one line, if you extend it downward you get the knee, so these three points is the triangular point with kua in the middle. You can also extending the line upward, kua – mingmen (triangle center) to upper back. My point is it is good to think of structure in this manner, two line segment, three points.
Kua is the triangle center of knee and mingmen, the way to use kua to generate power is to push down (or pull up) this center point so the other two end points get pushed away evenly.
thank you wilkin….this definitely explains master chens emphasis on kua. if this can Be generated correctly..the other alignments can fall into place naturally with experience and practice.the proportion were looking for is related to what people percieve or experience as “softness” or “effortlessness”, but is really just accuracy, timing, precision …etc in opening these triangulations relative to an opponent while “matching” engaging in a mirror image of opponent, dissolving thier yang with yin until the edge of the cliff is reached ( stillness = potential energy) the emphasis on kua is essential due to its inherent inflexibility, and lack of motor control in this area of the body….the lower spine and mid-spine pass being much easier to intentionally open due to spinal flexibility, without control of the kua…it would seem….the rest would be fairly worthless in usage… thank you very much for discussing this with me.
i will work on my understanding of the last sentance in your post. it appears that is what master chen is conveying in the video…. expansion…peng….seperation….. opening …stretching the kua…while maintaining proportion and alignment….it is no wonder the learning procedure must be practical and systematic! thanks again.
“opening mingmen”
This and Mingmen itself is still a mystery for me.
stretch the tailbone down as master chen teaches, opening/flattening out the curvature in the lumbar spine…..mingmen is a connection point between upper and lower….
Thanks, i will try it out.
Is the connection point confined to a specific vertebra ?
master chen would have to answer that for you…people differ on its exact location… if you follow his method of opening kua and pulling tailbone down, it will open regardless….
sound is horrible!!!!!