Positive circle steps. There are two steps and one modification. They are in, turn and out. Read more
Knowledge : Workshop and Class Notes
2019.09.08 pm Read more
Comments on 2019 North American Practical Method training camp
From my perspective, this year’s training camp was outstanding! I came with the thought that I had progressed a lot but after a short time I realized (as usual) I have so much to learn. I am basically a very beginner but I can see that each time I attend a function with Master Chen I can get a little better grasp of what he is teaching.
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Notes from Day 1, Phoenix Practical Method Workshop
These are pretty rough, just short statements.
Every movement needs to have intent and some reference. When we do taiji we need intent. Taiji is governed by yin yang.
We need to see what is really there. Usually we think we see but that is not what is really there.
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Day 1
- The kua has to come out (draw a line forward with the kua). Don’t move anything but the kua.
- Partner exercise: partner sets a dot a few inches in front of the kua; you have to get your kua to touch it.
- Add speed – do it 5 times fast. Add power – have someone hold onto your kua from the rear. Add stepping – connect it to your elbow and don’t let the elbow move.
- Learning – have to make ideas based on physical reality, not on ideas.
For this year’s Edmonton workshop we worked a lot on positive circle concepts and stretching.
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The Zurich workshop is for Tuesday and Wednesday evening only as there aren’t enough weekend on my European tour this year. 13 people came to the workshop of which 7 came from Germany. This is expected for a first workshop. Read more
Italy Practical Method Seminar on March 29, 2019. Chen Xu and Sun Yang arrived on March 28, 2019. There was a brief tour of Venice and then training. Read more
Michael Angelo, Jiuseppe Bon, Chen Zhonghua at the airport in Treviso.
The following are highlights of my workshop notes workshop March 2 to 5th. I have tried to organize them into categories so I could better relate them. I did not capture everything
Workshop notes:
All Questions Should be asked in order to bring clarity: Hear It , See it, Feel It – the 3 questions you want answered
Principle – Yin and Yang separation life – I want to be good
Concept – all moves are indirect education
Action – convert into action use
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We are here because we’re humans, not animals.
Everything is like loose sand. Among the sand, some things might have a spark. There’s nothing wrong with sand, and nothing wrong with other ways of moving, such as other forms of martial arts or football. It just depends on what you want. Master Chen is looking for the sparks in the sand.
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My attempt to recount what Master Chen said the morning of 3/2/2019 at the Toronto workshop
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Day 0
Fetch Water
- Put my front knee against the bench.
- My front knee should be on top of my front heel.
- Make my fetch water action much, much, much bigger. Only when there is size, it becomes useful. My action is way too small, Master Chen told me the same at the last workshop as well. I have not changed yet.
- Once I am done with stretching the top, while not moving the front kua, knee, foot, move the rear foot to increase size.
- Whatever I do, the front knee is not moving.
- Train the whole yilu with one specific part not moving.
At the Phoenix workshop Master Chen had someone place a pole from his hand to the arch of his back foot. In w/ elbow his and and forearm slid along the pole. He has a shorter pole placed by his front kua a slightly upward angle. His elbow followed the 2nd pole while the hand stayed on the 1st pole. He then said, it’s actually “out w/ foot” as the hand only guides the direction.
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- Reference points: counting is to establish a standard for us to be able to teach and communicate
- Direction: must not lose the aim. Don’t lose the 45 degree facing when practicing the foundational exercises
- Positive circle 3 count: 1. in elbow; back shoulder to forward foot is the axis. 2. rotate waist don’t involve spine and don’t lose previous axis. 3. push foot, aim at hand. There is a split in the middle. Again don’t lose previous two axes
About learning
1. “The teacher teaches the principle. You go home and practice.”
2. Follow the principle. Don’t deviate.
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2018.12.16 Sydney Workshop Day Two Notes – Brian Chung Read more
2018.12.15 Sydney Workshop Day One Notes – Brian Chung Read more
Attendees: Alex, OngWM, Flo, Chandra, Jojo
1. Twisting Towel train the Elbow to be in the Middle
2. Six Sealing 4 Closing train the Shoulder to
be in the Middle
3. Fetch Water train the Kua to be in the Middle
爱荷华 Iowa180727 – Patty Harantty
*** Square brackets [ ] are used to show my own attempt to add clarity, and not necessarily the words of Master Chen
P1:
Beyond the contact point you have to stretch forward
Behind the contact point you have to stretch back
Threading…like coaxial cable…pulling dough to stretch it thin
Produce a dot
Everything behind has to line up with front finger (which is pointing at the target) and makes it’s way to the rear foot…you need every body part to complete the job Read more
What brings 40 people and 16 disciples to the little city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa? For over a dozen years, Master Chen Zhonghua has been visiting the American Midwest to teach Practical Method and introduce people to Chen Style Taijiquan. Students visited from New York, Texas, Hawaii, Arizona, Colorado, Arkansas, Ohio, California, and Canada to train and learn. Read more
The body must separate into two. For example in the opening move, part of the body faces forward and part of it rotates 45 degrees
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I’m extremely pleased at what I’ve taken away from the camp. I have a lot to work on between now and the next Master Chen Zhonghua workshop, for instance:
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Pretend to fight to find the end points. Once locked, move-in the middle point.
(Alignment) Rear fingers look for the front elbow. The rear kua looks for the rear elbow.
Review and summary of V. workshop of Master Chen in Prague 2018.
2017.12.17 Sydney Workshop Day Two Notes by Brian Chung
- Coordination never occurs until there is something independent.
- Moving Step Positive Circle. The middle is independent. It cannot get involved.
- A move must be clear, don’t drag anything into it.
- Example of a mechanical typewriter – two keys cannot jam together.
- Example of a deer. Feet move, the body does not.
- Moving Step Exercises. (1) Positive Circle. (2) Grand Red Fist (Da Hong Quan) (3) Single Leg Grand Red Fist (Da Hong Quan)
- Shift Space. Master Chen demonstrated this on me. He covered four squares.
- To Issue. When you are issuing power, your opponent must bounce out on his own.
- Three Coin demonstration. Line up three coins on a table. (1) Rear Foot (2) You (3) Opponent. #2 does not move. When #1 hits #2, #3 is bounced out.
- Not moving water (Bu Liu Shui).
- All movements must be stable. Then add layers.
- Form Individual Move Exercises (1) Whip Wrapping Around the Body. (2) Jade Girl Works at Shuttles (3) Wild Horse Parts Its Mane
- There is no right or wrong. There is only the Dao.
- Just observe what’s going on and go with it.
- Only ideas are left, physical things we don’t care. (Chinese vs Western culture)
- The art must be at the centre. We are just a small part of it. When you place yourself at the centre, you will make changes.
- Always ask yourself: What was it that I was taught the first day?
- The teacher’s job is to sequence things.
- It has to be his doing, otherwise it’s not Taiji.
- If your method is the same, you can mirror.
- Analogy of a locked door (two rods) / open door (one rod).
- The one you don’t know what happened, that’s the right one.
- It cannot move. If it moves it cannot connect.
- Train your body to outmanoeuvre them, not pick on their vulnerability.
- When it rotates, time does not exist. Weight does not exist. Power does not exist.
- Master Chen said your form is not bad. You just need to fight a lot. Otherwise the form is just imagination.
2017.12.16 Sydney Workshop Day One Notes by Brian Chung
- The two buttocks and tailbone splits into a tripod. It will take sixty years to train. Do not believe you can do it.
- Alignment is everything goes through a bottleneck.
- When the Horizontal and Vertical dot meets, it becomes a three dimensional force field.
- Peng Energy.
- From nothing, to form. Once the energy is there, we do not need the form.
- Gong Fa. Quan Fa. Tui Shou (push hand). San Shou (free, loose). Duan Shou (broken).
- Foundations. Twisting the Towel. Fetch Water. Six Sealing Four Closing. Positive Circle. Negative Circle.
- Seven Inch Knife.
- Master corrected my Six Sealing Four Closing. He adjusted the orientation of my front kua and the direction of the front hand. He then emphasised the front kua / front shoulder rod.
- Master corrected my large Six Sealing Four Closing. The rear hand must be bigger.
- Your door can never be open.
- Master Chen demonstrated using a spear. The front hand is always pointing at your opponent.
- Double Positive Circle.
- Double Negative Circle.
- Movement must come from the line. The line cannot be part of the move.
- Twilight is at 12:00 and 6:00. Find these two dots and amplify them.
- Full. Cannot add, cannot take away.
- Essence, Qi, Spirit.
- We are doing a series of mechanical movements.
- Perceived power. It does not exist. But it does.
Exercises: Moving Step
- Stepping side to side. The left foot, dantian, and right foot are three dots. Lock two dots, and move one.
- Horse stance.
- Lock dantian and R foot. Suck L foot in.
- Shovel out.
- Double Negative stepping out on a straight line.
- Double push down.
- Adjust front foot.
- Elbow in while turning 180 degrees.
- Shovel Out with hands on knees.
- Press on your rear knee, shovel out at 45 degrees.
- Shift to the middle.
- Press on your front knee, suck the rear leg in.
- So small there is nothing inside of it. So large there is nothing outside of it.
- Upper Dantian is also called the Ancestry Cavity. Zu Qiao. Middle Dantian is at the solar plexus. Lower Dantian is three fingers below the navel, three inches in.
- What is real cannot be named.
- Behind is ability, in front is function.
- If we have a question, write it down, then ask it after we are training. While we are training we must focus.
- Push hands about (1) how quickly you adapt to your opponent (2) how fast you make a decision.
- Experience cannot be replaced by theory.
- Entice into Emptiness.
- Story about Master Watermelon Peel.
- Story about Grandmaster Hong and moving the rock.
- Energy Training Exercise (Da Li Gong).
Thank you for Rachelle Bergeron and James Tam for organizing the Ottawa workshop and their hospitality. It was always great fun to attend the Ottawa workshop. A lot of important aspects of Practical Method was shown and covered by Master Chen Zhonghua.
What is Practical Method about?
Practical Method was based on a fight system from long time again. It is an exercise we do to pass along the tradition.
What is a Practical Method stretch?
It is something with a moving and non-moving part.
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In the late afternoon of the first day of my first workshop with Master Chen, a wave of remorse and sadness swelled up in me, seemingly out of nowhere. Earlier in the day, two other workshop participants talked to me about decisions they were faced with that reminded me of a difficult period in my life, but there were no other obvious reasons why these emotions would well up.
I was not exerting myself in that moment, most of us were standing in a circle watching Master Chen demonstrate something on one of the other participants. The feelings were intense, but not overwhelming. I continued to pay attention, participate, and enjoy the workshop. There was also a degree of detachment from the feelings, a sense that they were somehow taiji-related and would pass. The feelings moved from foreground to background after a few minutes, but became strong again after the workshop had ended for the day and I was on the subway alone.
They faded for good the next morning after a restful sleep. I have since been told that Master Chen recommends being unmoved by feelings that occur during training or that take us away from training. I feel I did a reasonably good job of this at the time. I find it encouraging that training remained my priority in the midst of a potentially powerful distraction.
A potential participant of our upcoming November 28th, 29th, 30th Hong Kong workshop posed the following questions. Sifu suggested that I pose the answers here so that everyone, especially newcomers, would benefit: Read more
