Fill it in, then add one.
- Get in – Loose – get into position, set it up, dissipate the opponent’s force. Two ways: Receive (a push from) the opponent. OR, Move into the opponent without pushing. (large circle) Read more
Knowledge : Workshop and Class Notes
Old analogies – Taiji is like a rolling log (in water).
Theory Method
Back silk knot Silk reeling Read more
- Hinge
Chest must move like a hinge in order to link. (Shifu Chen puts the ends of two bottle together and shows them bending and sliding off each other in various ways.) - Split
Do the form with a center split. Then learn to split at any point in the body. This is the same as the demarcation line discussed earlier.
Saturday PM session
Practiced first 13 movements of the Yilu
“Pole dancing”
Use pole to practice getting on the line. Practice with pole against arch of far (rear) foot slanted diagonally and against wall horizontally.
(Most of this session was spent in hands-on practice, so not many notes.)
Start with 3 or more contact points and add points. Drop strainght down. (Brush Knee)
Contact points, Far points. Read more
Friday PM session – Form instruction
Repetitions must be done to make the form go into the body. This can be done with 10 yilus/day for 3+ years, 25/day for 1 year or 60/day in 3 months. Read more
Shifu Chen asked me to post my notes, unedited, to our web site. This is not because I am such a great note taker, but it is part of transmitting the knowledge of Taijiquan. Read more
Wednesday Night Class in Phoenix
- 5 of 8 Features of Practical Method:
- Eye fixed on the target.
- Concave circle.
- In with elbow, out with hand.
- No dynamic power, only structure power.
- Half horse stand, one third, one third, one third
A clip of demonstration common in Master Chen workshops.
http://practicalmethod.com/2011/01/maple-ridge-workshop-jan-15-2011-online-video-trailer/
At the January, 2011 Maple Ridge Workshop, Master Chen talked about the levels of skill in push hands.
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Preface I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Master Chen Zhonghua for his dedication to promoting Chen Taiji in the Ottawa (渥太华) area. For more than a decade, Master Chen has made regular visits to Canada’s capital, ensuring that his disciples, students, and other Taiji enthusiasts receive proper training, grasp the principles of the Practical Method, and deepen their understanding of Taoist philosophy and Chinese culture. |
Having just arrived home from the frozen tundra of Edmonton, it’s nice to be back in Tampa. The seminar was just what I needed. If any of you have spent time refinishing wooden furniture you may appreciate this. Start with an old scratched up painted and confused piece of wood like a bookcase and strip it all the way down to it’s base, sand out the scratches smooth so the original grain shows clearly. Then oil & polish it. Read more
At the Maple Ridge workshop last weekend, Master Chen went over again the mini lessons he covered in his Edmonton Full Time videos.
Master Chen demonstrated that tossing and double heavy is the same mistake. I used to think that double heavy is only applied when doing a linear move, pushing and pulling.
Read more
Master Yang Yingjian is a senior disciple of Grandmaster Feng Zhiqiang. He is the president of the Zhaoyuan Taijiquan Association in Shandong, China.
Author: Yang Yingjian Length: 83 minutes Contents: 1-2 of the Qigong set Language: Mandarin with English Interpretation by Nicholas Fung. Master Yang speaks with a very heavy Zhaoyuan, Shandong dialect. Year: 2010 Location: filmed on Daqingshan, China
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First comment Master Chen has for me is to make my stance larger when we started with circles.
We went over the details of twist towel foundation:
Read more
It is now a few weeks since my return from Daqingshan.
Master Chen’s workshop this Saturday focused on the theme of ‘division of labour’ amongst the different parts of the body; he emphasized yet again that in order for movements to become functional under pressure, one part of the body must be perfectly still while the other part rotates. We looked at this rule through a variety of examples. Read more
Toronto Sept. 2010 workshop group photo
Here are my notes:
- Anchor the hands, pull from the front foot, mid section, shoulder, and elbow. On the way out, hand leads the elbow, shoulder, front kua, rear kua, rear knee, and rear foot. Extend the hand fully to the maximum, and then somehow the energy will reverse itself.
- Everything comes from the foot.
- Find the fixed spot on the opponent or point in space, then rotate around it.
- Peg the rope 9 times, each section needs to be tight (with tension).
Sept. 24, 2010: Toronto.
Giuseppe Bon and Massimo Seresini of Italy. Second private lesson. Checked entire form again. Worked in the yard in the beautiful sun and breeze. Worked on the foundation drills also. Main correction is on the chest position.
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Giuseppe Bon and Massimo Seresini of Italy. Second private lesson. Checked entire form again. Worked in the yard in the beautiful sun and breeze. Worked on the foundation drills also. Main correction is on the chest position.
Read more
Below are my notes from all the remaining days of the seminar:
lower body = earth Read more
Notes:
-Talking about stretching to attain proper structure: Chemicals/toxins deposit in your ‘corners’. Eliminate all corners/creases and create the arch. No power. Structure! Read more
July 26, 27. Cannon Fist Workshop.
Thank you Master Chen and Allan for your time and excellent teaching so far. The first two days have been great! Read more
While drawing the circle there must be no moving of the body. However, the body must not move. The arm must not be flimsy and must always be constantly pushing down. However, half the energy that goes down must go up. There is an invisible horizontal wall preventing the arm from going down to the ground. This is an abstract wall, and it’s placement is of your own decision and position. The head must be suspended by a string. The head pushes upwards, however, there is an invisible ceiling on top of your head preventing your head from going up. This gives you peng energy. Read more
Rion Swanson
Thank you again Master Chen and Allan for your time, energy, and patience this weekend at the seminar! It was excellent as always.
Below are a few brief notes. These are but a few key points and are as I remember so therefore may need correction! Read more
- Worked on Yilu form to half mark.
- Completed basic foundations.
- Push hands.
- Master Ai Shenghua from Weifang came to visit. He is currently in Toronto on a work permit.
- We welcomed Allan Haddad to our workshop.
- Worked on how to find the exact opposite and stretch on it.
- Worked on using your opponent’s pushing force as a point of anchor to get in/close to the opponent.
- Made individual corrections.
Master Chen mentioned in the last workshop about the concept of 45 degrees. He was referring if there was an incoming energy directing at you at 45 degrees, one way to react would be to push at 45 degrees w.r.t to your body. Doing a rotation would be the same thing.
Here is my understanding after thinking about it:
The outgoing energy will be perpendicular to the incoming force. For the rotation part, a tangent of a circle is always perpendicular to the centre, so it is the same thing.
Earlier today, I was doing some gardening at my backyard. I had to create a flower bed, so I needed to remove some existing grass. I was using this half-circular flat shovel usually used to create a nice edge. At first I was using it perpendicular to the ground, trying to cut through the grass and its roots by hammering it or stepping onto it. It didn’t really work. The shovel wasn’t sharp, and a fair amount of the force going down to the ground was bounced straight up back to my hand. By accident, one of the hits landed at 45 degrees to the ground, and on impact, the shovel slided across horizontally, and it worked much better like a knife this way, and my hand didn’t feel any rebounding force. I believed that this could be explained in physics, however, the more important point was that Master Chen demonstrated something quite similar before.
You push on something in one direction, and since the hand couldn’t get advancement, it went to a different place.
I found this taiji thought during gardening interesting.
Current Disciples:
Read more
The hand must have two functions in Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method.
- Fixer. The hand is used to catch the opponent. In this sense it functions as a hook, rope, or vice. It only needs to apply enough strength to affix the hand on the opponent.
- The hand acts as a CV joint to deliver the power from the body. This power can be a push or a pull.
Common mistakes:
- The hand moves after contacting the opponent, resulting in inability to affix to opponent.
- The hand applies power in an attempt to fight the opponent. This will result in not having enough power. This stops the power from the whole body from going to the opponent.
Three aspects are important.
- The stick/staff must be strong. If it bends, it can not bend in a way that energy stops.
- There must be a pivoting point. The pivoting point must not move.
- The level should be longer than the load.
