“Make it real” Series
Exercise 1
Open the kua to cause a horizontal rotation. Lock the top by using one hand to the hold the wrist on the other side. Stretch the fingers. Where the middle finger is pointing at changes as the rotation caused by the kua happens.
Open the right kua to turn left.
Open the left kua to turn right.
Don’t let the left knee point down when opening the left kua.
Exercise 2
Imagine that something is blocking your right forearm as you turn left. You need to use power from the bottom to get through.
On the way back, you can imagine that something is blocking the forearm on the other side, you need to open the opposite kua to get through.
For the right arm, open the right kua for the forehand, and open the left kua for the backhand, so we can be more efficient to train both sides. Otherwise, we push one side, reset, and then push the same side again.
Exercise 3
Left hand up. Tie the head to the left heel to create a rod. Lift the left toes. Use the toes to turn on the heel to drive into the left kua. The head-to-left-heel rod rotates.
Exercise 4
Same as Exercise 3 at the beginning. Left hand up, tie it to the head-to-left-heel rod. Use the left toes to drive the turn to the right. 1/4 of the way, you meet resistance. Tie the left hand now to the head-to-right-heel rod, open the right kua to rotate the head-to-right-heel rod.
Exercise 5
Go up and down inside a cylinder. Leave your hands down and focus on the bottom action.
Use the kua to rotate left and right, while using the knees to go and down. Go bigger on the left and right turns.
Watch out for the knees. Older students may not be able to go too much up and down.
This is a tiring exercise.
Summary
Once our actions are big enough, we have to put back the restrictions so we don’t toss the central vertical axis.
These exercises are also teaching one of the eight methods: Kao. Top does not move, use the bottom to create the action.
Focus on the task at hand and ignore/let go of anything that has been important to you for the moment. The common mistake is that we hold on to the old/existing ideas, and those are preventing us from following the current instructions.
http://practicalmethod.com/2020/09/chen-zhonghua-online-lesson-sept-22-2020-online-video-purchase/
