Theory and Practice for occupying space
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 40 min. In: English Year: 2014 Difficulty:2/5 At:Perth
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Could someone explain why there is to much power at 1:30? Also why is it after adjusting the back foot that the power is correct?
In order to answer the above questions, you need to understand two fundamental principles of Practical Method. First, the power we train in Practical Method is structural power. The method to train structural power is “don’t move.” For example, after hands/arms locked with the opponent, you won’t move them any more. Don’t try to push or pull with them. Instead, rotate with your body powered by opening your kua and connected to the feet. Second, you need to understand the concept of lever. Make your line long so that the lever favors you. Lever requires a pivot point which doesn’t move and the force is powered from behind. That’s why the back foot quite often needs to be adjusted.
The way I see it is first Master Chen put his left foot between the legs of the opponent and touched his inner thigh. From this angle, you cannot see it but my guess is his right hand is on the upper arm of the opponent with elbow in, more or less like the right hand in High Pat on the Horse. His left hand and forearm is behind and on the neck of the opponent, with his outside left upperarm touching the inside upperarm of the opponent and his chest touching the outside of the opponents right forearm. There are at least 4 to 5 touching point. The result of this is that Master Chen’s structure has the opponent wrapped up or locked. The opponent has nowhere to go. Any fight he tries will be fighting himself.
When Master Chen says there is too much power, I believe he refers to the resistance from the opponent to his left arm. Not that he cannot use his power to crush the opponent, but that is not what we are after in Taiji. We want to use spiral power because the opponent cannot fight with it. So he adjust the ANGLE of his right foot (not the spot) so that will give him more room to rotate. He than rotate to the right and sink at the same time. The opponent just collaps because this spiral power comes from a 45 degree angle (like that of a screw) which he cannot fight with.
That is my reading of that particular move. Hope it is helpful.