Knowledge : Thoughts and Understanding

Lean with Back (背折靠)

Right fist and rear kua line up.
Elbow as a handle goes around that line.
Shoulder goes down to the kua.
Kua comes up to the shoulder.

The two lines must be maintained, and they must interact with each other.

The freer the rest of the body with those two lines maintained, the more power there is.

Implosion

• Line up the dot underneath the front buttock and front heel, and pull them together.
  The dantian needs to adjust to allow the rear foot to be pulled up.
  Lock the head.

New Exercise

• This is an exercise that Master Chen Zhonghua learned from Grandmaster Hong. They did it at the park on the gravel. After this, they would do foundations every morning.
• Lie on the stomach, use the hands to pull up.
• Lie on the stomach, use the elbows to pull up.
• Lie on the stomach, use the shoulders to pull up.
• Only use one part to pull up, the rest of the body is just like sandbag being dragged.
• Need 3 ways to do the same looking move to be versatile, so the opponent can’t figure it out.

Wind up the clock. Lock one end to create spiral. 1.use body strength 2.body has the shape/structure of half pipe or spiral.
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Back to the kua-to-hand exercise.

Turning Flower over from the Sea Bottom

Today, there is a big breakthrough.
The shoulders finally find the kuas in this movement. It was very possibly due to the exercise taught on Mar 30, 2021:

• Use the kua to push the hand out. Shoulder, kua and elbow are one piece. The hand stretches against the shoulder. This is a very practical push hand move.

REMEMBER THE PROCEDURE that gets me here, but DON’T FOLLOW THE FEELING.

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Fist of Hitting and Lifting

The flip from one side to another needs to happen because of torso going down. More precisely, the two shoulder-to-kua axes go up and down against the central non-moving axis. Read more

Fist of Lifting and Blocking 搬拦肘

1. Lock the two elbows as if they are on a table
2. The two fists only go up to go around. They also have to stretch against the two elbows. Imagine that you have a wall parallel to the chest right in front.

Common mistake in push hands:

1. Shoulder tends to come up and have power (wrong).
2. Kua tends to go down and not have power (wrong). Read more

Lock the arms, torso goes down. Lock the torso, pull down the arms. Now there is power.

This is increasing distance. This is switching. This is rotation.

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开胯：功能 vs 功夫

功能:用方法达到开胯的目的。

内家拳：外边不变，内边变化。

外家拳：内边不变，外边变化。
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Go over the threshold 过关: hand and shoulder

Get to the special spot 窍: tip of the elbow, inner spot of kua to come out, back of the knee to find alignment, spot at the bottom of the neck

Master Chen explained the switching of the kuas again, how they are like two credit cards touching each other in a T configuration. We need to create a gap and then do the switch.
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Exercise 1: Use the kua to push the hand out. Shoulder, kua and elbow are one piece. The hand stretches against the shoulder. This is a very practical push hand move.

Exercise 2: Elbow Strike (the elbow has to come out)

Exercise 3: Double Push Hands: Pull the opponent in, Front foot goes forward, rear foot follows. Two hands go out from the dantian with a trajectory. We use the back foot to push.

Kelvin corrected me on Rub Right Foot & Rub Left Foot. Here are my notes on his instructions and comments.

Rub R Foot

1)Starting posture is High Pat on Horse – chest facing NW, right arm slightly bent at chest level, above R knee, L arm extended to the side, weight on R foot.

2)Pull L foot closer to R foot and rotate on L heel so that L foot faces SE. Shift weight to L foot.

3)Adjust R foot slightly by dragging its tip forward so that the the tip of R foot is behind the heel of L foot.

4)R shoulder facing SW, L arm wraps around R arm, open both arms to shoulder height, L arm backward and R arm forward, both palms facing down.

5)Kick R foot in SW direction, foot slightly arched. Do not use force to kick. You must stay balanced after making the kick.
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We started with forearm lever exercise. Aim at a dot to create a pivot. The distance the elbows goes down is the same as the distance the finger tip goes up (assuming the pivot is right in the middle).

Ratio 1:1

The meaning is that nothing is left in the middle. Every in-coming thing must go out. This is also called neutralization.

When we eat rice, ideally, we just want the energy, and other physical things should come out of the body. However, there is always some small amount of material, e.g. mineral that remains in the body. This is what causes us to be sick and become old.

Resolving door: One side comes in, the other side goes out. The key is that the door is very solid.

In our movement, redirect the incoming force to the rear foot without moving.

To be soft, it must be solid plus rotation.

Train with the rear foot at the corner, and a big enough stance to lock the body (especially upper body).

Taiji is only realized with speed.
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Started with basic foundation teachings with Kelvin.

Concept 1-Twisting Towel

The hand leads elbow away from your body.  The elbow leads the hand in towards your body.   The movement is originated from the Kua and not the hand or elbow initiating the movement.  The concept of opening the elbow is to keep the hand and forearm on a straight line moving in and out of the tunnel or tube.  Opening the elbow allows the movement to come more from the center of my body.  Elbow and hand should not move too much into overextension.  The movement should be limited to only what your Kua can open.

Concept 2- Lifting water

Half horse stance-distance ideally should be 3 calf lengths, shifting forward 1/3 in front distance and 2/3 rear distance. The Kua initiates the motion.  The front shoulder, rear shoulder and hand begin in a triangle formation initially and then becomes a 3 points on a line.  Kua should be opening the elbow. Hand are in a shape of tile with slight curve.  Space between fingers and thumb closed and all fingers are extending.  Wrist is sitting by extension of wrist and opening separating into opposite direction.

Exercise 1: Use the left hand to grab the right wrist, stretch the right fingers. This is not just a demonstration, it is the method to train. People often ask Master Chen how to train, in fact, he just showed us. We only need to do it 60 times in each session. Doing it 60 times means to not use too much power, or using the right amount such that you can do it 60 times. When you use the left hand to grab the right, squeeze the armpit to lock the left hand, so that the left hand itself does not move. In order to stretch, we must lock something.
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When the body action is correct, the energy is wrong.

When the energy is correct, the body action is wrong.
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Maintain two lines (This exercise came from Twisting the towel.)

1. Head to foot
2. Front finger tip to the central vertical line on the back

We want to first stretch things out, and then add something in the middle to further stretch a little bit. We must constantly add that little bit of stretch in our training. This is neigong training.
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Fetch Water
Application: Shoulder strike (kao), power comes from dantian
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What is success? It’s to never give up.

Why would one give up? He had a change of heart.

中文两字词语是阴阳的。信念 – 信往外，念往内。
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During the class I was training the following exercise. I stopped now and then to write down what Master Chen was saying.
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Importance of practicing yilu diligently – only then will you understand what Master Chen is saying – and your yilu will improve.

One principle 分陰陽 (Splitting Yin Yang).  Example: Left vs Right. You need a vertical central axis to distinguish L from R. (You need 3.) Same with top and bottom.

六字真言: 不動 旋轉 開胯 (Don’t Move; Rotate; Open Kua)
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Hold a rod not by grabing it with the whole palm, but split the span into two dots. One dot on the index finger underneath the rod acts as the pivot, and another one at the root of the palm placed above the rod acts as the balancing arm. We can tilt the rod the other end of the rod this way without lifting the rod itself.

This is what allows the power to go along the rod to the other end, and it is said to go over.
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During training (when we are not yet successful), we use extra effort and focus to get it. It is tiring.

Once you are successful, the body gets used to it and will not be tiring anymore. The hair has been combed. The effort has gone through a filter. Read more

This lesson is about staying on topic, and then categorization within a topic.

There are only 3 types of movements in Practical Method:

1. Elbow-in (Pull)
2. Hand-out (Push)
3. Rotate Read more

The axis in real usage exists only functionally. 滚珠轴承 Ball Bearing.

We create a shell (restriction) on the outside, then the axis inside must exist, but you can’t touch it unlike a real rod in a globe.
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Key things, e.g.

1. Forward is to push.
2. Backward is to pull.
3. Middle is to rotate.
4. Separation of yin and yang

We must remember the key things even if we don’t understand it. Read more

Chinese Class

Shoulder and kua must be open to be able to find a relationship.

Yin-yang is a relationship. We train to seek such relationship in different body parts.

Going straight is to hit (打).
Rotation is to avoid/neutralize (化).
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Chinese Class

When we rotate, if the rotation goes forward, the entire object must move back to balance it.

Rear kua rotates forward, the kua itself must go backwards.
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Chinese Class

45 degrees vs 90 degrees

90 degrees are theoretical.

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When we do the correct taiji actions, your opponent will always feel your actions are awkward to him. We just do what we train to do.

对手对不上。

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Negative Circle

1. First adjust, lock the middle finger tip, elbow-in over the top
2. 3-way split
   1. right elbow-in to the left rear
   2. shoulder down
   3. right kua and knee point forward but not moving Read more