Master Chen Zhonghua’s online lesson on Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method on Oct. 20, 2020. Today’s lesson is on foundations. Master Chen Zhonghua corrected many students on typical errors while Kelvin Ho is leading the training.
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 67 min. In: English Year: 2020 Difficulty:2/5 At:Edmonton Chen Zhonghua Taiji Academy
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Zoom review 20201020
– worked on ‘fetch water’ exercise, we need to learn to ‘rub elbows’, analogous to the Chinese practice of rubbing a thread or twisting a length of wool out on the thighs to create a thread, lengthening, spiraling, tightening, and drawing out the thread in the process
– following apply to ‘fetch water’ skill development:
1. elbows create a centre rod rotation of the forearm
2. elbows adhere and rub the sides of the body
3. can use the procedure of ‘going bigger’ in range of motion to give teachers a better chance of
seeing the holes in our structures and our movements
4. need to learn to move with ‘long arms’, to stretch more to allow for freer movement and not
trapping the move in the chest
5. we need to learn to ‘spread out’, to ‘fan out’, to reach out to the two extremes of the movement
6. must maintain the stretch along the same line, all the time
– on ‘6 sealing, 4 closing’ the rear arm at 3 o’clock and the front arm alignment at 9 o’clock
– think of doing all foundation movements so that at full stretch you can only get bigger
– imagine how the idea of getting bigger at full stretch can have universal applications in PM skill development (one of the methods, perhaps, in helping us learn how to climb the stairs)
– we need to try out some or all of GM’s suggestions, even the joking one’s quite literally; story shared of student trying out GM mentioning practicing with a full cup on top of his head to improve smoothness and balance, coordinations, isolation, etc.
– every skill you will develop is a direct result of listening very carefully and then training that knowledge over and over again until it becomes part of our bodies
– learn that ‘going over’ is the same as ‘switching gears’ in PM
– learn harmony then separation
– can be said to be 3 stages of a circle, 1. in with dantien, 2. kua pulls everything else, 3. missed this point
– learn to make your elbow always vertical, as if plumb line attached to the centre point of the elbow would keep pulling it down and inwards
– learn how elbows and knees go down without going downwards via a downwards internal stretch
– learn how a true stretch doesn’t need to move very much in actual measured space
– learn about how pushing knee downwards while stretching heel upwards creates a split stretch within the internal connective tissues of lower leg
– in Taijiquan we cannot change direction, only ‘go over’? (not completely sure about this point)
– learn how going from 3 dimensions into 2 can be double heavy
– when we make human moves we become 2 dimensional
…learning to live, a breath at a time…