Chen Style Taijiquan and Hunyuan Taiji email: practicalmethod@qq.com
Turning around without turning around. This is referring to moving the elbow, while the hand and shoulder are not moving.
Moving the hand will tie a knot in the body. Thinking of how to reel in with the spool to bring in the hose, and how to get the hose out by holding the end and pulling it out.
All important moves are difficult. Read more
Greece
Master Chen had Kelvin Ho restate the content from yesterday’s instructions. The hand and shoulder are on the same line or track. The shoulder is fixed. The elbow goes up into that line, which pushes the hand out. The elbow is the lead.
Buddha’s Warriot Attendant Pound Mortar
Block Touching Coat
I remember reading this story in Italian a few years ago. I found this translation on Internet; hope you enjoy it! Read more
Exercise: From Six sealing and four closing position
We are focusing on a simple movement from Six Sealing Four Closing.
Master Chen Foundations Class 2 November 2020
If the hand cannot move, the body must move vertically
Hand cannot move, head cannot move, feet cannot move – only the inside can move
‘Elbow is left behind’ – elbow must lead, kua must lead
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Hello, live in Phoenix, I’ve been studying with Ping Wei for not quite two years. Looking forward to many more years of practice.
Hi all,
Here is my first recorded Yilu-First 13, with a little help from my dog, Calli.
I have been studying Practical Method in Phoenix for three years with Ping Wei.
Until this week, I never tried recording myself, but boy am I glad I did! It is such a helpful tool. .
Hi, on Tues 27 Oct 7:30AM Foundation class, Master Chen shared that when he studied with Grandmaster Feng (I am assuming its Xin Yi Hun Yuan Taiji Quan) he mentioned Grandmaster Feng’s style of instruction was to walk around and execute a single movement (randomly) and not in a continuous manner. Master Chen went on to explain that the continuous execution of Taiji styles has diluted the original essence of each individual movement as the practitioner transits between each movement. While performing it may look impressive, but these transitions between movements don’t help in mastering the power of each individual movement.
All the videos I’ve seen of Master Feng (and his daughters) executing Hunyuan are in continuous mode, so it was refreshing to hear from Master Chen about this perspective. I sincerely hope that Master Chen could share more of his learning experience from Master Feng (and Master Chen Fa Ke as well) so that we can appreciate the differences.
Separation of Yin and Yang
Going Over – We focus on this concept in several moves today.
Flash the back
Master Chen is showing us something that we cannot do. So, if we fake it, we are not learning. It is something we cannot do. The learning is to show us our deficiencies not our efficiencies.
It is very important that we never become comfortable. We must be in that position that we are uncomfortable, and stay in that position. We need to stay in that state of uncomfortable without changing our structure. This will allow our us to re calibrate.
In yilu, we must do it one move at a time until we reach our fullest extent and then reset. Master Chen is trying to bring back the original idea, not continuous. Train each move separately.
The stretch from knee to kua the thigh lengthens. We need to go into the uncomfortable position that we are about to fall down or we do fall down.
We need a clear net gain without changing shape. This net gain can only be created with the stretch and no rotation. This needs to be applied in push hands and in practice. To train this you cannot have wobbly moves. If the opponent creates a net gain during push hands and you don’t that goes into you and you lose. Net gain equals net distance.
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. Read more
Learning Taiji is like climbing the stairs. The teacher has to grind hard on you until you see the first step and put your foot on it. Whatever is correct has to be driven into you. Read more
Correction on my form
Today we worked on isolating a movement and twisting the towel. During previous training sessions we did it to feel the trajectory and range. Now we do it with a restriction. The restriction that we did it with was not to move the knee. The main action we were training was twisting the towel with a stretch, not a rotation. Read more
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
Negative Circle
Rotation is when there is movement without displacement.
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Remember to lock one body part to do stretching. Find one thing and do it right. Once you have the method, you can repeat it until it exhausts you. Read more
5th Juxian Practical Method Seminar from Oct. 17th to 18th, 2020.
Instructor: Chen Xu.
Wang Kai, Qiu Yingdong. Read more
Our movements must have a horizontal one and a vertical one intersecting/interacting at the same time.
Three parallel planes
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
Foundations on line notes ~ October 13th 2020 by John Upshaw
Kelvin Ho lead us through a positive circle stepping back drill. With our front hand out, we would step back with a rear foot causing us to go lower, we rotated/shifted from our front kua to our rear kua, rotating the elbow in on the same line with hand staying fixed on that same line…like a spear, tip pointed at the opponent. By using my kuas in this manner, my range increased.
The subject of the lesson was foundations/positive circle.
Master Chen provided some history of China and the development of taijiquan. He also related a story about how the Practical Method foundations were developed. Read more
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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Once 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
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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