Online Classes : 202010 Online Classes

Chinese Class

Separation of Yin and Yang

In today’s class, the following students received partial Yilu corrections. The focus of the class was going over.

• Louis Sacharske
• Tomek Raganowicz
• Kerstin Frotscher-Kummle
• Kevin Chen
• Travis Knaub
• Yuxin Liu
• Paul Pryce

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Going Over – We focus on this concept in several moves today.

Flash the back

• After elbow-in, we use the kua to cause the elbow to go over, so that we can grab the opponent’s wrist on the other side.
• The other elbow moves in this move also requires going over to break the opponent’s arm at the elbow.
• Before turning backwards, we just lock the left hand, and bring the right foot over to the other side. Read more

Correction on my form

• Need to have 3 solids
  • There is a line at the shoulder level between the front hand and rear shoulder (first 2 solids)
  • I need to stretch the kua down to create the 3rd solid.
  • The first 2 solids form the horizontal bar of a T-bar, while the kua stretching down creates the rod of the T-bar.
  • Master Chen Zhonghua demonstrated six sealing four closing with that rod not moving. Without this part, I will not be able to rotate. With it, things start to become 3-dimensional. It was really like that there was an auger in him.
  • This may seem like a contradiction while we need to push the front kua up, we also need to stretch it down to create a solid. Read more

Chinese Class

We do our form in a low stance to train gong. When we use it, we don’t go so low, because it is not agile enough.

Movements need to be big and long.

The kuas need to be just a bit higher than the knees. Read more

High Pad on Horse

• Rub the torso
• Only rotate the two shoulders and two kuas

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Chinese Class

Negative Circle

• In-with-elbow, Zhuan Guan, Out-with-hand
• We have get the proper ideal image in our mind, even though we can’t do it properly at this point.
• We must be expressive in our movement during training, so the teacher/instructor can see your intent.

Rotation is when there is movement without displacement.
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Chinese Class

Our movements must have a horizontal one and a vertical one intersecting/interacting at the same time.

Three parallel planes

1. Top plane at the shoulder (including extending the arms)
2. Middle plane at the waist
3. Bottom plane at the knees

The integrity of each plane must be maintained. There is a vertical rod that goes through the middle to connect all three planes to fix them in a particular way, but yet they are free to move any other way. Each plane is like a trampoline. This is how we convert opponent’s incoming kinetic energy into potential energy stored in the trampoline, and eventually back to kinetic energy aimed at the opponent. You can also lock any of the planes, and move a different one to create a vertical stretch. With these 3 planes, you can create a lot of variations and configurations.
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Whatever it is that you know, the truth is not like that. Whatever you don’t realize, accidentally it is the correct thing.
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Positive Circle

• Focus on the use of front kua in Positive Circle to increase the size of the circle.
• When going down, step the rear foot backward.
• When coming up, step the rear foot forward.
• Do the same on both sides.

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Master Chen Zhonghua started with a story about the history of China and Chen Style Taijiquan. Before the first Qin emperor defeated 6 other kings and united China, there was the period of Spring and Autumn 春秋 (which has nothing to do with the two seasons). Back then, there were 800 states, each had their own cultures, and they all flourished. Today, there are different levels of governments in China: Federal, Provincial, and County. The Chinese government wanted to get rid of the county level government, but they couldn’t done. Each county turned out to map back to the old states. The Chinese government had full election for village officials, but there are large families at the county levels, with full election, these large families will gain control at the county level goverments. These families managed to get around the one-child policy themselves.
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The subject of the lesson was corrections of yilu. Four students performed parts of yilu and received corrections. Read more