I recently decided that it was time for me to start learning Cannon Fist. Although I learned it from my first Chen Taijiquan teacher, I have happily forgotten it since starting the Practical Method in 2011.
Today, I met a man who noticed me reviewing Cannon Fist in an empty hallway of a nearby mall.











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.













