Toronto Winter 2013 Notes

Your action response should be independent of the receiving stimulus: it is you who causes your body to turn, not them.  This first requires your CL to be locked at which time your initiated action catches them off guard (balance).    Provided a solid connection is established between contact points, your intended action will be compensated by an opposing moment about the dantien .  Internal movements are like bicycle brakes: it’s the tightening of the cables that cause an action.  

In terms of power, the arms are more or less insignificant.  A screw is driven into wood with a tool to transmit torque – a screwdriver.   In an ideal (taiji) system Energy_in = Energy_out, but in reality it’s Energy_in = Energy_transmitted – Energy_lost(friction, aim/structure, material…).   We want to minimize the losses as much as possible to come as close as possible to the ideal case.  Since a screwdriver is one solid piece, the loss is proportional to the ability of the user to keep the driver straight while applying constant pressure to the screw and rotating the handle i.e. the wobble or  ‘concentricity’ of  the applied torque vector with the CL axis of the screw.  This is why imagining a target further away than your immediate target is recommended for accuracy.   Geometrically you are narrowing your range of losses.  Mathematically you are increasing your probability to hit the mark.  Using the above ideas we can get a sense of one directional action:1.  Place screw
2. Apply enough perpendicular force to screw head to keep full contact between screw socket and driver bit
3. Rotate driver –> screw travels axially

Repeating steps 1-3  incrementally moves the screw along it’s longitudinal axis of rotation.  Notice each step involves one action to move the screw on it’s intended course.  Although each action is discrete, they are superimposed and not combined – a cardinal mistake on several fronts.  If you read the above steps as a machine would (1’s and 0’s), the screw would travel straight and true every single time.  For whatever reason most of us however read the steps and (sub)consciously add\remove others.   Keep in mind a screw has only one function as far as it’s concerned (to penetrate) and only one method (spiral).  If you made an honest comparison between what you are supposed to do and what you actually did, it’s safe to say they will never be the same.  Hence the results will never be the same.  But the importance lies in your intention: trusting the definition of the result and it’s method.

Now assume your arm is a screw and every other body part behind it is the driver.  Revisiting the screwdriver analogy we have the classic 1-2-3:

1. Establish intentional spatial point A — (contact)
2. Maintain constant contact aimed at point A — (lock)
3. Rotate (drive) point B to drive point A

Naturally when this sequence is iterated, the last point (B) would be in contact with the ground.  Mechanically the body can then be seen as a transmission vessel much more complex than any other man-made mechanical transmission since every part of the body is connected and has the potential for multiple degrees of freedom.  A simple ‘discretization’ of this analog of 1-2-3 would be to split the body at a shoulder so you end up with two pieces: one arm and everything else.  1-2-3 becomes

1. Place arm
2. Lock arm
3. Drive arm with everything else

Resolving

Resolve the action, don’t move your spot.  If you can stay steady, no up or down, you are working your ability for holding a spot.

Exercise 1

In a normal stance, have a partner (or two) hold a bar horizontal to the ground at approximately your chest height.  With the help of feedback from your partner(s), your goal is to compare the power required to push the bar with your body using two methods.   First body-check the bar and note the power.  Then do the following:

  1. Reset and move away

  2.  Shuffle as close to the bar as possible without touching

  3. Step out with one foot past the bar w/o touching the bar while keeping your torso upgright

  4. Move forward against the bar

Then vary the distance of your step for experimentation.  This will require that your body goes lower to the ground to step out further.

Notice that resolving each action and increasing the length of step imparts more power on the bar.  This is also why it is good to practice the form at a consistent low height while keeping the body straight.

To step out even further, it would make sense to somehow step up with the rear leg, then repeat the procedure.  The problem is how to do this without collapsing your structure i.e. bending forward?  Differentiation.  A by-product of exercise #1 requires the rear kua to be locked to allow the front leg mobility.  In this case we do the reversal for the rear leg: do a ‘vertical crunch’ on the front shoulder-kua line and lock.  This line establishes a perpendicular reference to the line your rear foot travels to step forward.   This configuration creates a clear differential in your body where the energy hits a wall is redirected to the ground.

These exercises are excellent tools for push hands tactics.   If you bend forward when pushing, you have already physically fallen.  When you lean back, it is a mental fall since you are not accustomed to the position.  Focus on bending their min-meng forward when one of their legs is locked.

Both partners present same hand and foot.  The wrists hook dorsally with the fingers always pointing at your partner.  The general path the connected hands trace is shown in top view by the dotted lines in the diagram to the right.  Each line should be distinct and clear, with succinct pauses at each corner.  There should be no “interpolation” of movement at the corners to produce a smooth continuous flow.  Use the same principles describes above e.g. feet initiate power and use the waist to rotate.  Practice with power, trying to catch your partner by getting 2 points – the shoulder and hand – so they are double heavy, which then gives you acces to the third point – their dantien.

Imagine you are the body in the lower half of the diagram.  Repeat the pattern but put an emphasis on corners  2-3 or 4-1.  From your perspective on 4-1, try to place your fist on their chest.  They should use the motion of a positive circle to neutralize your advance so your fist does not touch their body.  The roles reverse on 2-3.

The front and side views show that the elbow travels in towards the torso, or more specifically the ribs, while pointing down.    The exact opposite happens on hand out.  More importantly is what takes place between in and out.  Like a duck’s back, the combined motion path of in/out should be curved.  It is not as simple as straight in, straight out.  For there to be a smooth transition, there has to be a series of rotations inside the body.  Like a professional race car driver on the track, it is not so much the straight-away as it is the ability to handle corners which decides the winner of the race.  If you jam or interrupt the motion, power will leak from the body and/or you will ‘catch’ yourself.

Long ago the Daoist immortals made red pills to create this energy circuit in the body.  The Emperors wanted the pills for themselves and killed all the alchemists.  In response, the Daoist immortals made movements to produce the same effect.  This physically necessitates the shoulders slope down and kua rotate up, permitting continuity for the energy to travel in a like manner, dubbed the Golden Elixir – the goal of internal energy work.

1. Squat with one leg out
   Bottom should be 1″ from the ground
   Forward bent knee should be 2″ from the ground
   Front toes pointing up
2. Bounce stretch.  This gets brain more comfortable with going lower.  Stretching is all mental; you have to get the brain to allow the body to relax.

1. Step out wide 45-degrees with toes up
2. Plant foot
3. Grip the ground with toes while placing the knee over the foot
4. Lock the knee over the foot forcibly by placing both hands on top of knee and pushing perpendicular to the ground
5. Bring back foot up without any movement or wobble of the front knee or upper body.  This is where you practice “sucking” the trailing leg.

Practice the splits and sucking everyday for a few minutes each.  The goal is not in how much you do each day, but how often you keep it up i.e. consistency.  These will stretch and strengthen your internals, most notably the tendon/muscle running down your interior thigh (gracilis)?