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This morning at training on the small square of Daqingshan, Master Chen had us all write down the following points to remember for push hands and when making contact with an opponent:

• Hand must be fixed on opponent
• Elbow must go down and horizontal (towards dantian).
• Elbow cannot be lined up with hand. (Master Chen had to elaborate a little more on this one: “The elbow cannot push towards the hand. It moves inward towards dantian but the force generated lines up with the hand”).
• Shoulder must go straight down
• Front foot steps in, rear foot follows

If there was any more elaboration on these points, I missed it unfortunately, due to my lacking Chinese language skills, but I hope these points can help you in your training!

Gavin
(Australian on the mountain)

Practical Method Workshop in Phoenix, Arizona

By Master Chen Zhonghua

January 20 and 21 (Saturday and Sunday), 2018

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Facebook Live Interview with our Tim Duehring. Tim is a disciple of Master Chen Zhonghua and had stayed at DaQingShan for a couple of years. He will share about his practice of Hunyuan Chen Style TaiJi and Practical Method. And share his experience living on the mountain. For those of you who are interested what it is like living in China as a foreigner.

Please post in the comment if there is problem viewing this video if you are not on Facebook

The topic of why we practice Kung Fu slowly in Taiji came up recently. Take for example the Elbow In exercise, what are we trying to achieve with it? Alignment. When the alignment is right, when the elbow is truly in, the opponent holding your hand and wrist will find it hard not to pop and gets sucked into you via your arm. When we practice slowly, we are a) feeling our way to this alignment and b) establishing the habit of being in this Elbow In position during exchanges.

Starting slow and feeling your way and establishing a habit apply to all sorts of learning. Take for example my other hobby, guitar. I certainly don’t turn my drum machine or the backing track to the maximum speed during my first trial/initial learning stage until I have some hours under my belt. When I practice slowly, I find economy in my movement when I have to change chords, it gives me time to digest how to orient my fingers before I need to change chords.

This economy is the same with the Elbow In exercise. My opponent pops when my body has enough economy, if you will, to facilitate a path for my elbow to move into the perfect alignment. This economy consists of building up your body to allow your Kua to open and turned up to meet your shoulder, while my fingers remain pointing at my opponent’s spine throughout the during of the elbow moving in. At the meantime, for your body to remain still/not moving, we maintain a fixed head by imagining the head is leaning against a solid object. In my class, our core exercises are Elbow In with the rubber cord; fetch water with the Yoga block against the knee; and the 1,2,3 step.

Give it a try; the results may surprise you!

最近談起打太極拳為什麼要慢。以收肘為例、到底收肘是練甚麼？是練對準。能對準、肘真正的能收就能輕鬆的把對方蹦起而吸到你身邊。 慢慢練收肘是要練 a) 體驗肘要放那個位才是準、b）養成這對準的習慣。

其實學習甚麼都是慢慢的練、尤其是開初學的階段。比如學習吉他的時候、直至練到有點火候前我總不會把拍子機或伴奏開到標準的節拍。滿滿練就是給自己機會去了解怎樣從一個和弦（chord）轉到下一個和弦、給自己消化一下當要轉和弦轉換時手指是怎樣最有效率的放和動。

能蹦起對方就是了解此效率。身體明白怎樣動才到給肘收的位（大概是胯對上）、對準：胯與膊能對碰（胯上、膊下）、收肘時手指保持對著對方的脊椎。同時、為了保持身體不動、假想頭是靠著硬物。我們上課都是練拉橡皮筋、頂著膝蓋提水、和一二三步。

不防試試、可能有意想不到的收穫。

The Fist of Covering Hand (Yan Shou Gong Chui) Toronto North York Taiji Class April 27, 2017

Double half negative circle open stretch. Over the top full double negative

Left hand palm up stretch forward. Right palm protect face

Right hand fist. Slide on top of left arm while pulling left arm in a fist position on side of torso

Helly everybody,

here my notes of our class today. There was no title, so I would name it: Sequence to complete an action.

Step 1

– is totally free; there is no system

– ex.: go upstairs: one can step with the left foot our right foot first, any position thinkable

– taiji example: making contact with the hand, however and wherever

– learning this step normally takes 3 years

Step 2

– is free, as long as step no. 1 is not affected

– ex.: foot on the steps has to stay, cannot move anymore, but how you are getting the rest of the body on the stairs too, is totally free

– taiji ex.: you can move every point of the body, to come in as long as no. 1 is not moving

– learning this step normally takes 10 years

Step 3

– is free, as long as the centre of no. 2 is not destroyed

– centre can be everywhere

– centre results from size, weight, angles, speed, power etc.

– to learn this step takes normally 30 years

Chen Laoshi: “You have to put this into your yilu”, what for me is very difficult, as I am not sure about the no. 2 in every position, before going to the next one. I hope this knowledge will come to me 😉

This year we were scheduled to receive master Chen at march, but due to a few issues beyond all of us it wasn’t possible.
The problem for us locally was that by then we had already confirmed with a lot of people, teachers of other taiji styles and other arts who were attending the workshop.
Faced with having to make a decision, me and my partner Flavio Prado decided simply to conduct the workshop ourselves, best we could, and introduce everyone to Practical Method, so when Master Chen comes at a later date, everyone would be more prepared to learn taiji from him.

This is a little bit of how it went down:

We had a lot of fun and everyone was very hard working, interested and pleasant. We finally have an interested group being created which is a great step for us. Everyone in Brazil is dead serious about the martial aspect of the art, which I think benefits the practice.

Taiji is a very interesting art that has different challenges for everyone.

We covered topics ranging from basic foundations, yilu and push hands. Flavio also conducted some lessons on qigong and other general aspects of martial art. Everyone came out feeling they won something, and all of them are very excited with the prospect of being face to face with Master Chen in the future.

Hope you guys enjoy the video, all the best and keep training!

Speed is not a function of how fast you can move, but of how quickly you can close distance. As such, speed is not a matter of agility, but of directness.

Review of negative circle
– elbow in hand on outside
– drop hand strait down
– hand out once at elbow torqueing forearm keeping elbow down

starting in front bow stance after bringing in my elbow hand on outside, I found that bringing the hand down helped keep my elbow aligned when the hand went out kelvin Ho reminded me to keep my elbow down. We also performed cross hands draping over the body. Kelvin showed me how the end position had stability by aligning the elbow with the back foot with the fist out like a punch. Kelvin’s hand wrapped my punch and pushed.

Things to remember 

• Never push your opponent- just stretch your body
• Find an empty space and direct the force to the emptiness
• Constantly adjust to your opponent push by filling the space between you and your opponent.
• When stretching, stretch along the length of your body ( vertical stretch)
• Lock one side always so you can move your other part.
• When your lower body is advancing your upper body will need to retrieve backward.
• When stretching arms, lock shoulders and wrist, cage ribs. Energy will come from chest
• The closer you are the more you will be able to stretch
• When moving your body forward “sneaking in” to get closer to your opponent, feet in first then hands.
• Chest/ rib always tucked in/ caged
• Lock elbow, shoulder and wrist and open your Kua. Force will come from hip.
• There are always 3 points, if you gave one point to your opponent, then lock/control the other two points

6 steps

While still weight on right leg and left resting on toes

Right had negative circle (elbow from above), left hand negative circle – (stretching back)

Left leg open forward with heel

Step down (toes should be straight pointing straight forward)

Left hand negative circle and make a fingers “ring” (thumb touching middle finger)

Right hand positive circle

Things to check.

Elbows should be above left thigh

When arms stretched elbows should be pointing to the earth

Center always locked and stretched

‘ Behind Enemy Lines ‘

This is an expression Master Chen uses that I find particularly helpful in understanding the procedure for utilizing the method of fighting taught in the recent video ‘ Move into empty space ‘.

Engage the opponent

… this creates a ‘ front line ‘ like on a battlefield, causing the opponent to commit his troops to maintain that line. This is the same as the demarcation line. The key seems to be to cause the opponent to commit enough of his ‘ forces ‘ and attention to preoccupy him, while you move to step 2

Move into empty space ( Go behind enemy lines )

…. while maintaining the front line, you must use stealth to maneuver, another force to take up a position behind enemy lines, ( beyond the demarcation ( front line ) by moving into the empty space. The keys are, you must maintain the front line, the movement of the secondary forces must neither disturb the front line, nor should they be construed as a threat. In keeping with taiji threory, if the two ends are locked ( non moving ) this requires we move whats in the middle, ideally getting the kua in, (kua to kua)

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Block Touching the Coat (Lan Ca Yi) 

6 moves

Wrist cross (Like X) right hand on top of left, fingers pointing downwards.
Lower right elbow open

right hand positive circle, left hand close to left hip.

Shift weight on left foot, right arm positive circle and left negative right, leg stretch to horse stance (all same time) landing on heel

Rest the right feet

Stretch right arm positive circle

Single Whip (Dan Bian)

7 moves

1, 2, 3 twisting towel

4- Right hand thumb touches middle finger (making a circle) – right foot toes turns inside

5- left legs opens with heel horse stance

6- Rest the toes of left leg

7- Left hand positive circle

Adjust posture so elbows and knees are slightly bend and hands are stretched (Like T). Drop shoulders “resting” wrists stretched. Keep the right hand thumb touching middle finger (circle).

Turn Left and Buddha’s Warrior Attendant Pounds Mortar (Zuo Zhuan Shen Dao Dui)

6 moves

1-      Left hand negative circle – right positive circle same time – both elbow in the middle of torso close to the body. Right fingers still holding the “circle”

2-      Left opens negative circle stretched right hand near left elbow.

3-      Standing Buddha’s Warrior– stretch arms, keep wrists straight and open the chest by stretching , tummy tucked in, left shoulder backwards

4-       Open left feet from heel to left

5-      Turn left while dragging right leg and resting on the toes of right foot  (same as last moves of golden warrior –  Pull right leg in front of you together with right arm resting on toes / elbow in – raise leg – knee should touch the elbow. Rest of the body shouldn’t move.

6-      Last move of golden warrior except rather than fist in palm, left hand palm open rests on left hand (fist posture) (Legs same as starting position, elbows touching body.)

White Crane Spreads its Wings (Bai He Liang Chi)

4 moves

1-      Hands cross X fingers down and stretched

2-      Stretch your arms forward while right leg with toes only stretch backward, slightly right side, knee straight. Curve and lower the back.

3-      Land the heel of the right foot – put your weight on right leg and lock your right side

4-      Pull your left leg and land on your toes, while hands in positive circle stance. Left hand palm above left knee

Just recently we had the honor to serve as a story in one magazine in China “Women of China”. They have a print version beside their online platform at www.womenofchina.com.cn.

Here the two pages, thanks to Sarah Wang for the allowance to publish it.

At this point I also want to remind on our living project on the mountain. We still need some people who might be interested. Within the next season there are some candidates among our full-time students already. We are looking forward. All related information can be found   … here

So here the article:

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Hello everybody,

I have a question about the shoulders or more specific the shoulder blades in these exercises.

Fetch water:

When you practice fetch water, does the (front) shoulder blade rotate/move up or down (the back)? As for the other shoulder, does it Always do the reverse?

My experience is that it rotates up and “over the shoulder”

Positive  circle:

In the first part, rotates the (front) blade up or down and what about the second part?

My experience is that the blade in the first part rotates up “and over” the shoulder and in de second part it drops/rotates down the back.

Negetive circle:

idem, I can imagine it is the same as the positive circle.

Futher I feel a very distinctive flip when you transfer from the first part of the circle to the second part of the circle. I can remember master Chen talking about it in some videos.

Greetings,

Richard

This week it’s been 2 years, since my magical journey in Practical Method Taiji started on Daqingshan Mountain.

Weather has already gotten warmer here in Greece, so last night I went on the balcony to do some Yilus. There is something special in practicing Yilu under the stars! A light breeze from the north, made the stars to shine bright in the dark night. As soon as I started doing the Yilu, immediately my first thought went to Daqingshan!

Having spent almost 7 moths on the mountain, we passed many nights under the sky, since we had almost every night training sessions at 20:00, which included mostly Yilus, foundations, push-hands from time to time and various events, mostly in the summer. Read more

Master Chen’s disciple Ping Wei will again teach Practical Method foundations and Yilu on March 26 (Sunday, 9:30am-1pm and 2-5pm) in Irvine, California. For location and other details, please contact Al Yu at 949-331-2735, or email: mralyu@yahoo.com.

Another year, another step up to see the grand vista of Tai chi. I was able to once again participate in Master Joseph Chen Zhonghua workshop organized by Nicholas Feng, K.T. Lin, Hong Kong Chen Style Taiji Practical Method (香港陳式太極實用拳法).

On a mild holiday weekend, more than thirty participants from Hong Kong, the Mainland, Canada and India gathered to train with Master Chen. A special thanks to Ling Zili who came from Daqinshan to help with the workshop. For two days, Master Chen started with the foundations, then continued with moving, the first thirteen moves of Yilu and occasional bouts of applications training. Master Chen clearly explain how each type of training is directly related to theory of Chen Taijiquan.

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