We have always been told by Master Chen not to push, not to move the hand. If that is the case, what can we do?
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Kelvin Ho
Thank you for Rachelle Bergeron and James Tam for organizing the Ottawa workshop and their hospitality. It was always great fun to attend the Ottawa workshop. A lot of important aspects of Practical Method was shown and covered by Master Chen Zhonghua.
What is Practical Method about?
Practical Method was based on a fight system from long time again. It is an exercise we do to pass along the tradition.
What is a Practical Method stretch?
It is something with a moving and non-moving part.
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Recently, I understand more about the statement:
“Rotation is the result of linear movements.”
Our actions are like on the tangent of a circle. The non-moving dot is the centre of the circle. Every linear action is very small. The direction changes all the time. The sequence of such actions along with non-moving dot cause the rotation. The actions are continued on top of each other, and they have a relationship with the non-moving dot. In the form, it is like dragging the flesh around some non-moving rod or dot. It is almost like someone pushes the arm on one side for elbow in, and someone else pushes the other side of the arm for hand out. This is related to the stretch that Master Chen Zhonghua showed on the inside or outside of the forearm. Another example is that if someone touches me in the front, I don’t move the front, but I stretch the back over or around that non-moving front.
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Yi (intent) is not just a thought. In my current understanding, yi describes an ability for your body to do a precise action as you command it to do. In other words, your body listens to your brain. It takes training to get to that state. Master Chen Zhonghua has said before, “the real intent is no intent”. Think about riding a bike as an example. After you have learned how to ride a bike, you don’t think about how to coordinate your hands and feet, how to balance, you only think about where to want to go. You appear to be able to do it with ease. For taijiquan, we need to train long enough to make an action habitual, so that we don’t think about it when we need it, and it just comes out.
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Related Article: http://practicalmethod.com/2014/07/triangle_double_lock_single_lock/
My family was visiting Ottawa for the weekend of Oct 21-22, 2017. James Tam, Ming Tam and I got together to train early on Sunday morning. It was a great training session, and we worked on the following:
1) Stretching and how to progressively connect the hand to the rear foot
2) Half horse stance: how to fill the front kua, how to do one knee up and one knee down
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This video describes in taiji what we do is equal and opposite to the result we desire.
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Who is a true disciple?
A true disciple is someone who follows the teacher based on the principles of the teachings. When the teacher evolves in his understanding, a true disciple will do the same. Even if the teacher and the true disciple don’t see each other for an extended period of time, their evolutions will still head in the same direction.
Principle: Separation of Yin and Yang
Concept: Indirect Power
Action: In with elbow no hand, out with hand no elbow.
These are three ways of describing taiji. They are one and the same.
Master Chen Zhonghua discussed the above during a Q&A session at the North American Practical Method Training Camp from Jul 29 to Aug 2, 2017.
Name: Mark Hanley
Class: Richmond Hill
Practical Method Start Date: Oct. 15, 2016
Martial Art Experience: Karate Black Belt, and practiced Yang Taiji previously
Name: Bruce Robinson
Class: Richmond Hill
Practical Method Start Date: May 23, 2015
Martial Art Experience: Practiced Aikido and Yang Taiji previously.
Name: Kewei Sun
Class: Richmond Hill
Practical Method Start Date: May 23, 2015
Martial Art Experience: Practiced Iron Shirt when he was young.
Left to Right:Dominic Lo, Ken Fong, Eric Foo, Kevin Sun, Lucas Lu, Kelvin Ho, Bruce Robinson, Peter Li, Mark Hanley, Patrick Kuo
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Location: Vine Cliff Park – Vine Cliff Blvd and Hazelton Ave.
Date: Apr 9, 2017
Time: 8 am – 10:30 am
Instructor: Kelvin Ho
Fee: Free and open to public
If it rains that day, the event location will be moved to:
Bayview Hill Community Centre (open area near the pool)
114 Spadina Rd, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 2Y9
This open class is an event to pre-celebrate World Taiji Day, which will be on Apr 29, 2017. It welcomes anyone interested in learning tai chi. It will let participants experience a typical class, which includes foundations, form and push hands.
See you there!
Registration is recommended, please contact Kelvin Ho by emailing kelvin.ho@practicalmethod.ca or texting 647-738-8384.
- Twisting the towel
- Fetch Water
- Six Sealing Four Closing
- Positive Circle
- Negative Circle
- Double Positive Circle
- Double Negative Circle (together)
- Double Negative Circle (alternate)
- Positive-Negative Circle (Pole shaking)
- Positive Circle – Moving Step
- Negative Circle – Moving Step
- Six Sealing Four Closing – Moving Step
- Double Positive Circle – Moving Step
- Double Negative Circle (alternate) – Moving Step
- Positive-Negative Circle – Moving Step
Kelvin Ho was invited to perform taijiquan during multi-cultural week at Sir Wilfrid Laurier Public School on Mar. 23, 2017.
We worked on a few different moves in the form today. The first 3 moves required standing on one leg.
- White Ape Presents Fruit (Drilled 50 times on each side)
- Kick with Right/Left Heel
- Turning Flower out of the Bottom of the Sea
- Punch to the Groin
- Punch to the Ground
- Turn Over Body and Double Kick
1) Maintain a non-moving vertical rod from head to left heel throughout the action.
2) Hold the right forearm in front of the chest with a fist, while the left fist is on the side of the body.
3) Throw the right fist down to the right side as hard as possible with a raising right knee to create a scissoring effect, while throwing the left fist up to the left ear.
4) There should be no tossing or turning of the body, but there is a spiral stretch along the vertical rod.
Today, we focused on the details of 3 foundation exercises:
- Twisting the Towel
- Fetch Water
- Six Sealing Four Closing
- Ken Lang joined the class for the first time. He started learning about twisting the towel. He has been doing taiji for 10 years, and went to study at Chen Village for 6 weeks. His initial impression was that the Practical Method elbow-in was similar to what he learned in Chen Village. His teacher there was Master Chen Zhaosen.
- We reviewed twisting the towel, and how the hand is to be connected to the foot, and how to push the foot against the ground to squeeze out the hand.
- We did an exercise with one person pushing the other person’s hand up the arm, and how to prevent the shoulder being popped up, and how to stretch through the back to the rear foot to find the connection.
- We practiced taking out the space.
- I told Bruce during push hands, at this point, make it a focus to simply maintain the desired posture regardless of what the opponents does to him.
In 2016, two Practical Method workshops were held in Toronto in January and September, with over 20 participants coming from Toronto and its surrounding cities, Ottawa, Montreal, New York, Michigan and as far away as California.
Video in Chinese: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjkwODU2OTE2.html