Tuesday Foundations lesson included corrections on Twisting towel, Fetching water, and Six sealing four closing. Shifu emphasized the shoulder going down and also taught a chest opening exercise.
Kelvin’s notes from Chinese lesson
- Hand moves the least; elbow more; shoulder more than that.
- Fix the hand by holding onto something, or pointing at a wall.
- Demonstrate that the shoulder goes down by touching it and explicitly feeling it go down.
- i.e. T-bar: Rod in the middle moves very little, while rotation on the ends of the bar is very big.
Shoulder goes down
- Shoulder in the way: The shoulder should gradually disappear (become part of the line)
- Down really means to go down. You actually have to do it physically. When it’s in your mind, nothing actually happens.
- When you go down, the chest and hand aligns (angles) to the base. So that pushing the chest is like pushing down on the feet (it doesn’t move).
- The chest caves in relative to the shoulders. It goes to the other side of the shoulder line.
Chest opening exercise:
- Start with chest is furthest forwards, hands are furthest backward.
- Chest goes back until it is furthest backward, and hands are furthest forward.
- Next, with hands fixed in place, only move the chest from furthest forward to backward (chest has to cross the line to get to the back). Has to change from moving the outside and fixing the inside to moving the inside and fixing the outside.
Literally go down
- Go down until the knee is on the floor, to feel what it’s like for the knee to be on the floor. Then replicate that in the circle so that the knee is like it’s on the floor.
- Take the oncoming force onto the floor. The chest has to be on the floor, otherwise it becomes a horizontal fight.
Flipping the hand
- Flipping the hand is moving the hand without the body. It flips when the body goes to the other side.
