
Presenter: Kelvin Ho Length: 55 mins Difficulty: 3/5 Language: English  
Year: 2022 Location: Toronto, Canada
This lesson covered: 2. Block Touching the Coat (Lan Ca Yi) We also disussed: Taiji Trinity
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*** Personal notes on the video instructions ***
– All Pinyin is written in full capitals, with tone indicated as a number following it (easier to lookup if you want the corresponding character later).
– The notes below are a reflection of the notes I take during class, shared here to incentivize people to watch the video, and do not in any way constitute a replacement for it.
– I think there are quite a few golden nuggets of information in this video. See, for example, explanations at the times:
– 11:30 – shovel step
– 16:55 – feeling in count 6 of Pound Mortar
Acronyms used in the notes:
– LF = Left foot
– RF = Right foot
– LN = Left Knee
– RN = Right Knee
– LL = Left Leg
– RL = Right Leg
– LK = Left KUA4
– RK = Right KUA4
– LH = Left Hand
– RH = Right Hand
– LE = Left Elbow
– RE = Right Elbow
– LS = Left Shoulder
– RS = Right Shoulder
– LA = Left Arm
– RA = Right Arm
– CL = Chest centre line
– TH = Top of the head
– PC = Positive circle
– NC = Negative circle
– DT = DAN1 TIAN2
– CB = Shovel Out / Shovel Step (CHAN3 BU4)
– XMB = Small horse stance (XIAO3 MA3 BU4)
– ZMB = Left horse stance (ZUO3 MA3 BU4)
– YMB = Right horse stance (YOU4 MA3 BU4)
1. First move of YI1 LU4 recap
– Shoulder width for the two feet
– It’s ok to keep it at a wider stance to fix you but not too large, so you can’t move
– Raise hands while keeping the body at the same position (no popping the body up)
– Catch opponent’s arm, causing a BIE2
– Add the turn without moving central axis
– Open foot at 45 degrees
– Turn like a revolving door, tossing is a common mistake
– LH middle finger points at the same point (DIAN3) in space throughout the entire movements
– LE needs to cross over the CL (may require lowering body)
– Default count for movement is 7 (original)
1. Raise hands
2. Turn
3. (Inner) Pull LF
4. CB with toes up
5. Transfer weight
6. (Inner) Pull RF + RA
7. Land in XMB
– Not counted – the RA extension
– Alternative count for movement (based on application):
1. Raise hands
2. Turn
3. (Inner) Pull LF
4. CB with toes up
5. Transfer weight
6. Stretch RA
7. (Inner) Pull RF + RA
8. Land in XMB
– When doing the pull steps above, remember to not move the support leg
– Typical compensation for improper form: sticking bum out
– Proper form requires flat back
– Remember, CB is like digging out a trench with the front foot, but all weight is in the back leg
– Toes should try to point back to the head
– As soon as the front foot lands, the knee stops at the top of the ankle.
– This is a single movement
– GOLDEN NUGGET: to do CB, lock the back knee, push forward to shift the weight.
– The push is actually more like a hip flexor/hip abductor stretch (watch the video at 11:30 for a better view of where the stretch is felt).
– This is important as an exercise for opening the KUA4
– RA stretch (Count 6 of alternate movement count)
– Not moving the arms themselves
– Lock LK and open the RK
– Squeeze (with shoulders?) RH and LE out
– Create two stretches
– Between RH-RF (vertical plane)
– Between RH-LE (horizontal plane)
– Power is given by one or more stretches
– Hands are in the track, squeeze hands in track
– Count 6 requires opening feet to side and stretching before locking the the entire LL
– Don’t push up, don’t move LN
– GOLDEN NUGGET: At 16:55 there is a description of how it feels when you’re pulling the feet forward
– Pull needs a lot of lower/side core muscle stabilization.
– Always stretch the wrist joint open and hold it for the tile hand
– Count 7:
– Upper body doesn’t move
– Pull RN to RE but RE is fixed, don’t bring it down to meet the knee
– LK pushes into LF (heel)
– RH is a NC
– Both elbows are tucked in
– Keep tight with no slack
2. Second move of YI1 LU4 (Block Touching Coat – LZY)
– Count of the movement:
1. Extend hands
2. Pivot and tilt up
3. Five stretches
4. RE in
5. Shift weight
6. RH out
– Count 1
– Stretch fingers of both hands slightly to left, pointing downward
– Imagine someone is pressing down at wrists
– Can’t just open hands diagonally
– Wrists are like pivots
– There’s more than 1 way to do it
– The important thing is to keep a pivot in the body, especially under pressure.
– Sink RS to tilt RH up
– Count 2
– To open up, don’t just extend hand
– Think PC: first need to have RE in to then do RH out
– RE gets to in the CL, to be in the inside
– RH is PC elbow in, LH is NC hand out
– LH is bent at wrist
– Count 3
– Hand out is done by opening the chest
– Don’t move the hand
– Imagine there is pressure on the RA (forearm)
– Remember to use indirect power (hence the chest)
– Open KUA4 ⇾ Open chest (see 27:30)
– The opening comes from the inside
– No tossing the central axis!
– Count 4:
– All pretty much at the same time:
– RA does PC: Elbow in (squeeze into middle)
– LA does NC: Elbow in (so remember it comes from top)
– CB with RF: RE squeezes DT, DT squeezes RF
– Count 5 (sometimes omitted):
– RK-LK stretch to shift weight (see golden nugget for CB, same kind of stretch)
– Stopping the foot upon landing
– Emphasis on not overstepping the knee, maintaining the angle
– Count 6:
– RH out, LF on tummy
3. Theory/Principles:
– “What is outside, stays outside. What is inside, stays inside.”
– Outside: 5 points – Hands, Feet, Head
– Always stretch in 5 directions outwards, want to go away from the body (even feet) – “Five points going out”
– Inside: everything else (including elbows!!)
– Pulled into DT
– Net result of these forces: always maintain a stretch
– Example: hand should not follow elbow in, it should want to go out (and hence produce a stretch in the forearm and wrist)
– Like a tug of war, one side wins by a little and that causes the move.
– Watch the video to see the different when there is a pull/stretch around 34:30 (very clear difference).
– This is Hong’s 10 word principle:
– “In with elbow, no hand. Out with hand, no elbow.”
– Principle: Separation of YIN1 and YANG2
– Encapsulates everything we do
– Concept: Indirect power
– Idea of what is created by the principle
– Action: “In with elbow, no hand. Out with hand, no elbow.”
– Integrity of structure is important to create indirect power (otherwise one cannot create a lever, and lever is key to indirect power)
– Bulldozing opponent is no TAI4JI2
– you should match the force, then add another force (ideally in an orthogonal plane) on top of it.
– If the opponent is good, they will match on the other force dimension and both get stuck
– Then to resolve the stalemate you need to add a force
– The first who can’t match the force loses
– Same thing we can do with “In with elbow, no hand. Out with hand, no elbow.” the rest of the body should do it too:
– e.g. head needs to go out, shoulders wants to go in
– e.g. foot needs to go out, knee wants to go in
– These are one of the HE2: like a tight rope that is tucking you to the DT
– SLOWLY INCREASE THE NUMBER OF YI1LU4’s YOU’RE DOING TO 20 A DAY
– Path towards 20 a day:
– In the beginning you are not physically able, it needs to be a goal
– Try to spread it out throughout the day, specially in the beginning (lack of resistance for example)
– In the very beginning goal should be to do 20, not do 20 perfectly
– Can’t do it all at the same intensity either
– Often corrections slow it down (you want to spend more time in the movement you’re getting better)
– Focus on one area of improvement
– Not doing enough leads to poor habits and not enough change in the body (so you’re not really progressing much)
4. Personal reflections:
– Count 6 of Pound mortar:
– The lower the stance, the mode demanding it feels to conform to the requirements.
– Probably it is a good idea to start with a stance that is as low as possible, but I’m still able to do the movement correctly
– Point of almost breaking down is probably higher than you would like to admit.
– Way too low: you fall down as you cannot cope with the movement requirements (e.g. not moving knee).
– Way too high: do not feel the crunching of Kelvin’s explanation at 16:55.
– Count 1 of Block touching coat:
– Stretches out hands, sometimes looks as if it produces a corkscrew motion side effect on the hands.
– Wonder if this is intentional/helpful to in applications if someone is grabbing your wrists, but maybe it’s nothing.
– More than one way to do the pivoting, but I suppose in the beginning it’s best to just try to do it as close to how Kelvin is doing as possible.
– 20 YI1LU4’s a day:
– I’m over-optimizing. I should not worry so much about trying to do everything for a move right before progressing to the next one. Should prioritize/speed up copying the entire form and match Kelvin’s advice.