Mark
Rub foot
- In between the two rub foot, make a pit stop. 90 degrees to your initial position.
- Chest parallel to back wall when you kick with heel.
Fist protecting heart
- Feet 45 degrees to back wall.
- Don’t rush it.
Online Classes
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
Chen Zhonghua’s Online Lesson on Oct. 22, 2020. This is a session on Yilu corrections.
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 67 min. In: English Year: 2020 Difficulty:2/5 At:Edmonton Chen Zhonghua Taiji Academy
Language
- Using Westernized vocabulary for taiji concepts.
- No difference. Even if you don’t know any language. Some students found they learned more when turning off the sound. The language is an interference until the language is recalibrated. Same thing applies when teaching in Chinese.
Separation of Yin and Yang. Separate to 2 things. Yin and Yang is a relationship.
Three types to relationship:
1. Not related. A watermelon cut into two halves.
2. Positively related.
3. Negatively related. When the door is closed, it is part of the wall. When the door is open, it is separated but related. Read more
Master Chen Zhonghua’s online lesson on Oct. 21, 2020. This is a lesson on Yilu corrections. At the beginning of the hour, there was some information on the theory of Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method. The general theory of Yin Yang separation.
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 67 min. In: English Year: 2020 Difficulty:3/5 At:Edmonton Chen Zhonghua Taiji Academy
By the time I first met Master Chen at a Phoenix workshop in 2015, I had already studied martial arts for a long time, since 1963 to be precise. So, I had strong opinions about what was correct and what wasn’t. I thought (and still do) that tai chi is called a martial art for a reason. It’s not called a health, meditative or energy art. Martial means it can be used to kill, but at the same time the killing has to be done artfully. Just clubbing someone to death doesn’t qualify. Read more
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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Twisting towel
- Must be clear with “in with elbow”. Appear to be going back and forth with the squeezing of the elbow.
Fetch water
- Same thing, two squeezes on both elbows.
To grind
- 搓 cuō, to grind. Pole, rubbing on both sides like starting a fire.
- Other way, stretching. You force the two elbows in to prevent the stretch from forcing them out. Can also say the rubbing of the elbows creates the rotation.
- And the rotation of the rod separates the two hands.
- For this practice, minimize the size of the stretch to emphasize the rubbing.
Master Chen Zhonghua’s online lesson on Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method on Oct. 20, 2020. Today’s lesson is on foundations. Master Chen Zhonghua corrected many students on typical errors while Kelvin Ho is leading the training.
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 67 min. In: English Year: 2020 Difficulty:2/5 At:Edmonton Chen Zhonghua Taiji Academy
Get one thing right
- Figure out one thing and do it right. As an anchor point for further learning. Can’t say you are walking up stairs but never found the stairs.
- Once you have the method, then you can repeat the same until the method exhausts you.
Find one point does not move to create the stretch.
In learning we have to find one thing as an anchor point. Repeat and exhaust yourself until you can move to the next anchor point. Read more
Chen Zhonghua’s Online Lesson on Practical Method on Oct. 19, 2020. Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 66 min. In: English Year: 2020 Difficulty:2/5 At:Edmonton Chen Zhonghua Taiji Academy
Read moreChinese Class
Our movements must have a horizontal one and a vertical one intersecting/interacting at the same time.
Three parallel planes
- Top plane at the shoulder (including extending the arms)
- Middle plane at the waist
- 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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Gerry
Cloud hands
- Need to rotate torso to give the appearance of the hands moving.
Getting stuck
- Issue is that you were able to “do” things since the beginning. Able to mix instructions with something you were already able to do.
- Need to be stuck unable to do it, so that it forces you to do something totally new. Never went through a time where you couldn’t do it. If there is no difficulty why would there be change?
Knowing
- Daoist idea, Humans made correctly but the abilities we have deter us from learning.
- Gained the ability to make things up in our heads.
- Everything Master Chen learned are afterthoughts / accidental.
- Don’t know when you get it, and when you think you get it, you don’t.
- A dog is just what it is, but we make up this view of what they should look like.
- Whatever it is, you don’t know it. And whatever you know it isn’t what it is.
Master Chen Zhonghua’s online lesson on Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method on Oct. 15, 2020.
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 77 min. In: English Year: 2020 Difficulty:2/5 At:Edmonton Chen Zhonghua Taiji Academy 埃德蒙顿陈中华太极馆
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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Going over
- Going over the shoulder: have to go around the shoulder.
- Like the gear shifter, has to actually change gear.
- One movement that continues to the other side (normal).
- Go halfway and change to the other side to go down (switching).
- (腰裆转换 Yao dang zhuan huan). Waist and dang (half circle, horseshoe) switching. That half circle has to be locked – the shape locks.
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.
Chen Zhonghua’s Online Lesson on 20201014. Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 85 min. In: English Year: 2020 Difficulty:3/5 At:Edmonton Chen Zhonghua Taiji Academy 埃德蒙顿陈中华太极馆
Read moreMaster Chen Zhonghua’s online lesson on 2020.10.13. This lesson is on foundations. Master Chen taught how to focus on the kua while doing the positive circle. Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 63 min. In: English Year: 2020 Difficulty:1/5 At:Edmonton Chen Zhonghua Taiji Academy 埃德蒙顿陈中华太极馆
Read moreMaster 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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Master Chen Zhonghua’s online lesson on Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method on Oct. 12, 2020. This lesson was on how to use large moves of the kua to create a positive circle. Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 48 min. In: English Year: 2020 Difficulty:1/5 At:Edmonton Chen Zhonghua Taiji Academy
Read moreOnce again Master Chen found it necessary to tell us how to learn. Many of us were practicing as he was teaching. And of course, I was one of them. He was giving each of us a private lesson and we should have been listening intently. At that point, practicing was just a distraction. Yes, practicing is totally necessary, but not when the teacher is telling us the important things that other teachers would call secrets and probably wouldn’t even teach. If we’re at all smart, we’ll take advantage of the wonderful opportunity Master Chen is providing. Read more
…learning about adaptation vs. action…screwdrivers only engage one way…
Action vs adaptation
- Only worry about that particular action. We don’t care much about the adaptation. Once the screwdriver fits with the screw, there is only one thing you can do. You can get away with whatever for the adaptation, but the action must be what it is to have power. Must identify that action.
Master Chen Zhonghua’s online lesson of Practical Method on Oct. 8, 2020.
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 64 min. In: English Year: 2020 Difficulty:1/5 At:Edmonton Chen Zhonghua Taiji Academy
Master Chen Zhonghua’s online lesson on Practical Method on Oct. 7, 2020.
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 23 min. In: English Year: 2020 Difficulty:2/5 At:Edmonton Chen Zhonghua Taiji Academy
Today, shifu emphasized on how to learn. The first thing about learning is to listen to instructions and then to copy. Some people tried to copy without listening to the full instructions, and that won’t be a success copy either.
To copy, it’s to do everything exactly the same by definition.
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The subject of the lesson continued working on six sealing four closing.
Master Chen said that people can train for many years but never make the change that will help them improve. They keep doing the same thing that they always have done. We often say old bottle with new wine but in China it is turned around, old wine in new bottle.
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Master Chen Zhonghua’s online lessons on Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method on Oct. 6, 2020.
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 60 min. In: English Year: 2020 Difficulty:2/5 At:Edmonton Chen Zhonghua Taiji Academy 埃德蒙顿陈中华太极馆
