Chen Style Taijiquan and Hunyuan Taiji email: practicalmethod@qq.com
In early Autumn 2019 I was training with Lutz and Fabian. I was doing a common drill for the Practical Method, Fabian as partner: He was pushing my arm repeatedly with same power, speed, distance and rhythm. On his move I was training the elbow-in/foot out (on the front side). Read more
– Movements need to be deep enough to make sure every body parts are stretched out. To feel the bottom. Fingers touching the wall and body sinks to find the solid. Read more
• Whenever you do a move with the arm, it doesn’t effect the torso.
• Then enhance the size of the arm movement.
• Then when you do arm movements, the torso can move up and down. They are still functioning separately.
Movements are separated when:
• If then they’re considered touched.
• If body specifications match, it is called real.
• movements need to be totally independent.
We hear those things often. In this article I‘ll give an overview of what that means and also write a little bit of how to implement it into your body.
The concepts are very easy to explain. So here we go: Read more
The Berlin/German branch of Practical Method would like to announce a free online workshop via Zoom, in german language.
For sign up, please go here:
https://practicalmethod.de/online-sessions/
and see this clip to get an idea:
Thanks for sharing to anyone who might be interested, and thanks to Master Chen for inspiration!
Practice Yi Lu segmented for 10 years. If not, you are moving all over. That is wrong. Every move must show exactly what you are doing. If you don’t finish the moves, you will not synchronize and it is as if you are speaking a different language from Practical Method Chen Taiji. Read more
Day one group photo of the first Zhu Ma Dian Practical Method Seminar on Nov. 28, 2020.
I started learning Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method in 2005. I learned a rough version of the yilu within nine months. I am a persistent person that continuously seeks progress. As the years have gone by I have missed essential details that are in the form, even though many people would not recognize those missing pieces. Let face it, a form with 81 postures in which each posture has several movements/stretches/rotations in it is a huge undertaking!
Three examples of Master Chen`s clarity of hands on explanation of certain types of dealing with energy taught me invaluable lessons. If the students follow instructions then all will be able to do things that will be amazing to themselves. By practice you build up not only martial skill but also health. From the beginning when we start to learn Practical Method we are trying to apply the most fundamental principle of taiji in partner exercises and push hands: the separation of yin and yang. Taijiquan is in my words in this context an effect on the opponent or partner by using taiji principles that spring from our understanding of the exact teachings of Master Chen Zhonghua and is defined by the stage of our practice.
What is the seam (缝 feng)?
Positive circle – must stretch from rear side. Must open the inside. Has to be from crotch and back leg.
Feet look like tip-toe, but actually power is going down. This is the strongest.
3-part circle: 3 body parts: arm, torso (rotate from kua), foot (kua to rear foot)
The movement comes from 3 different sections – the opponent cannot catch or stop you. Read more
Through the years, in Practical Method I‘ve heard the word power associated, as different aspects of the same power, to words like: Structure, length, space, accuracy, rhythm.
The Lesson today was about Rhythm or Sequence of movements: there are very few people who cannot remember the choreography. But we all are at different levels of managing the rhythm. When your movement are totally disconnected, you will be very efficient in applications and push hands Read more
Rhythm
Shifu: You need to get the rhythm/counting of the form.
After you learn it, then it becomes music. But this cannot be thought. Everyone „hears“ his/her own music. And this is only after a long time of learning the correct rhythm. Read more
John Upshaw
Flash the back- the left hand cannot move.
Once you know the choreography, you will be corrected in terms of applications. The applications will help you with the choreography.
Step forward to hand covering punch – imagine as if your hands while you are punching are tearing something. The left hand holds hard and the right hand tears it. It is not like what we normally understand as a punch.
Being asked a question during this class, Master Chen pointed out that he seems to be giving contradictive information from time to time, e.g. to inviting us to ask questions and then saying: ‘You shouldn’t ask that kind of question’.
Today several students received partial Yilu corrections. Form corrections are always foundational.
Jacek Wolochowski
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 58 min. In: English Year: 2020 Difficulty:1/5 At:Edmonton Chen Zhonghua Taiji Academy
Elbow and hand relation must be there. Your elbow twists without moving your hand. You can exercise this by having one person hold your hand and you twist your elbow. Hand don’t move, shoulder don’t move and only rotate the elbow. Once you have a stretch in it, you have Taiji. You pull in with the elbow and your hand simultaneously pushes. To withdraw is to issue. When you are physically able to do this, you have Peng energy. Add this to the form. Once you understand this, you realize that there is a stretch. Read more
On line Yilu class November 12th 2020 by Johnny Upshaw
• When going down on the left side and brush the knee, the shape/ structure does not change.
• Going down while retaining our structure creates vertical Peng, which we try to train.
• Keep the structure is not to lose the Peng. Don’t retreat and don’t drop.
We continue on the exercise with one knee up and one knee down from last week.
The torso is like a cylinder that goes down in a free-fall fashion. We can hold up the cylinder, and yet we can’t push down the cylinder. The cylinder is pulled down by gravity, something is outside of our body.
In brush the knee the right arm should never move the hand. In with elbow, turn waste without moving hand, then out with the hand.
At our level, the improvement only comes from being bigger.
Read more
Six Sealing Four Closing
