Full Time Courses : Full Time Blog

We did part horse mane stepping foundation, we just do these along a line. Master Chen said this move require rotation so the body move in a straight line and the arms movement need to keep elbow in.

Another moving foundation is synchronized double negative circle hand opening, during closing we turn the body 180 degree to face the other side, step, then open the arm again. Master Chen pointer is to not open the hand out until you have sure footing, you can not do action during stepping, need to be ’empty’. This is a common error when student step in during push hand, as the tendency is force oneself in. If the opponent feel force then he will immediately resist

Go out to train at 5:30am and these youngest fulltime students were already jogging around the taiji circle

Morning lesson: Moving step double positive foundation, common error is linking of the torso with the arms.

Keep waist on a constant aim, while two arms circle in their own line. These three directions are independent of each other. Each arm circles are independent, don’t make the two arms movement linked.

We are doing it in three steps, forward-backward-forward, then turn 90 degree, forward-backward-forward, so the result is the body move forward in a line, while the stepping is in 45 degree directions.

Arriving in August, the sun is already up at 5 am, the temperature go up to 30 degree today, compared to 37 degree in Beijing where I stay a few days

morning lesson： sequence in push hand, ‘ding’, get in, push, if it doesn’t work, ‘zhuan guan’

I showed Beijing Rick last night that when being pushed, he has to learn to ‘ding’ instead of turning his body to neutralize. Master Chen often told me I was moving too much when doing it the wrong way.

‘ding’ is commonly used as 顶住 which mean withstand.

While I was waiting in Weifang I thought I would take a walk and check out the Kite Museum. An hour later I and my suitcase arrived only to find out they were closed for the day. So I decided it was a good place for an Yilu before heading back to the train station.

Try to guess the meaning of calligraphy in the first photo

For DuanWu Festival, the students are learning how to make Zongzi or rice dumpling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXjhLWNuL8Q

video from daqingshan below

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Most students attending the festival have arrived.  They came from Czech Republic, India, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, USA, Italy, Denmark, Australia.

May from Singapore, Bruce from Denver,Spencer from Chicago, and David arrived recently.

Recorded at the new Taiji Square at Daqingshan. Master Chen demonstrate the importance of connecting hand to feet. Sink, don’t let it break at the shoulder.

One of the activities for full time students at Daqingshan.

Editor Note: an old post from July 2010, please consider attending Full Time Course 2013.

The daily practice of the Yilu is finally paying dividend. The investment of doing Yilu twenty times per day, by following Steven, Charlie, Khamserk, Wilkin, Michael, Lee, is slowly instilling a ‘rough cut’ of the form in my body.  There is still a lot of work to be done, but Master Chen and Master Sun are very helpful in providing advice at the right moment. Read more

Master Chen is requesting clips of group doing yilu in landmark location of the local city as part of the Daqingshan Taijiquan festival in 2013.

The festival will be held in last week of May to inaugurate the new Taiji Square, and the plan is to present these clips on the big screen.

Also students coming to Daqingshan can be part of the festival by bringing their local traditional clothing.

Today is Marc last day. He stay for 4 weeks on Daqingshan

Outside inside separation, example: a drum, an egg.

Fulltime students went to Yiyuan to enter the push hand competition

Thanks to Michael Winkler for the recording

Chen Xu is staying at Daqingshan this summer. He switched to practical method after pushing with Charlie Gordon in 2010 tournament.