Knowledge : Workshop and Class Notes
- 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.
- 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.
Read more
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
Vienna Workshop Group Photo 2017 Day One
Vienna, June 3-4, 2017
Host: Pawel Muller.
Assistant: Brennan Toh Read more
Yesterday I could attend the class of Nicholas Fung, situated in the middle of Hong Kong. We have been five students and trained for two hours, which passed by surprisingly quickly.
1) Content
– First we did fetch water with yoga blocks. We did fifty each side, break and another fifty.
– Then we focused on elbow in and used rubber cords for the feedback. We did again fifty each side, break and another fifty.
Read more
By Patrick Hanratty
**Due to my computer crashing these notes have been recompiled using my original written notes, which are somewhat incomplete. As such there are some blank spaces, which I’ve indicated with an asterisk. I would very much appreciate anyone filling in those blanks, as I don’t feel confident enough to do so myself.
Taking notes at workshops is a useful tool for making progress, and going over them as soon as possible (at the end of the day and after the workshop) helps to internalize the most salient points. Furthermore, sharing notes, as well as potentially helping other students in their practice, can also engender a need for the note taker to test the accuracy of their personal understanding of Master Chen’s teaching. A testing strategy that I have recently adopted is to imagine that I have to explain my understanding to other students through practical demonstration. Read more
- Ken Lang joined the class for the first time. He started learning about twisting the towel. He has been doing taiji for 10 years, and went to study at Chen Village for 6 weeks. His initial impression was that the Practical Method elbow-in was similar to what he learned in Chen Village. His teacher there was Master Chen Zhaosen.
- We reviewed twisting the towel, and how the hand is to be connected to the foot, and how to push the foot against the ground to squeeze out the hand.
- We did an exercise with one person pushing the other person’s hand up the arm, and how to prevent the shoulder being popped up, and how to stretch through the back to the rear foot to find the connection.
- We practiced taking out the space.
- I told Bruce during push hands, at this point, make it a focus to simply maintain the desired posture regardless of what the opponents does to him.
Bruce Robinson Notes:
Exercise to lock Knee whilst doing 1st move of cloud hands
• In Single whip posture advised by Kelvin Ho to stretch out both arms as far as possible & elbows are to face down, front hand stretched out (to vermillion palm) fingers extended & rear hand forms beak
1. Yilu tips on “Lower Cloud Hands”
– Lower Cloud Hands on first 4 movements:
a. the left hand movement should be clear and accurate – either positive circle or negative circle;
b. ensure the movement is complete without short cut.
This is the first time I attended the Ottawa Workshop. Great group! Thanks Rachelle, James, and Daniel for organizing the workshop, and Rachelle for my stay at her place. Here are my notes:
- Move the feet. When we train, we fix the feet. When you push hands, we move the feet. Our feet are often not mobile enough, we must force ourselves to move them, e.g. getting in changes the pivot.
- The only way to connect is not to connect. Connection means moving and non-moving parts have a relationship. Read more
I don’t know if it’s accurate, but I tried my best to record all I’ve heard and saw in the two-day workshop.
- Change “一” shape structure to ” V ” shape to get a 3D structure
- If there’s a V shape structure with ABC points as joints. A Taiji movement would be:
A as a hinge. It doesn’t move at all, but able to rotate.
B as a connection between two arms. Its track will not change because A and C are restricted. And will move towards the different direction of A.
C as the only free moving part. But its track must be pre-defined before it moves, and need to be related to A.
Practical Method Phoenix, AZ Workshop October 1, 2016 – October 2, 2016
by Chris Liu on 10/4/2016
When I discovered the Practical Method, I started watching a lot of Master Chen’s videos. This led me to read more in depth about Taiji and its rooted philosophy in Taoism. I watched, and read, and thought about it every day for over a year then one day, I finally believed I was ready to meet Master Chen. Read more
Master Chen’s disciple Ping Wei recently wrote an article regarding how to rotate the Kua and create a stable center (pivot point). The idea is simple: the center will never be stable if you try to control it by only one Kua, you have to have good control of both Kua, and move them both at the same time.
Such a simple idea doesn’t take a genius to understand. So that I read the article, got the idea, and I thought I got it.
Part I (13 corrections)
- deeper and wider stance in general
- always think of elbows first in general
- Opening move
- Keep the left hand fixed in space
- Turn the left elbow as much as you can
- Keep right hand higher than its elbow
- Imagine holding someone’s arm at two points
- Keep the left hand fixed in space
- Buddha’s warrior attendant pounds mortar
- right-hand comes up straight
- do not move centre or body
- Read more
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Chen Zhonghua correcting Todd Elihu at the 2016 Iowa Workshop.
When the elbow comes in, the finger must aim onto person. Actually, every move must aim onto person.
- When locked at one or two points, utilize another set of points beyond the initial set of points to go over/break out.
- Isolation exercise #1: partner holds your arm at the wrist and shoulder. You squeeze the muscles on the body-side of the where he has his hand on your shoulder, then extend the fingers. Each move must be independent from one another. Switch back and forth. Read more
Six sealing four closing: Must be like inside a round cylinder. Muscle must rotate around bone. Don’t move. Hand must be like inside tube and body must adjust to be aimed correctly. Hand out, elbow in can only be done if front lat goes down to the rear arch and front kua rotates to curve up to connect to the rear shoulder. Pull elbow back to be in alignment. Step in a little bit with just the lower body to fill space. Don’t push. If one part is off it throws the entire body out of alignment.- 18 posts in the body… they cannot collapse into each other. Read more
Iowa 2016 day 1;
Align backward , never fight forward… feet are too close together, arms are as well. Shoulder needs to stay in the kua.
Full front kua in the line, align the arm . Then open the rear kua… the front kua,is always the filler, the rear kua is always the stretcher…
The end of every move must be totally straight. ” stay on the line”
Day two.
Workshop Practical Method Chen Style Taichi Quan push hands by Grandmaster Joseph Chen Zhonghua
De Glind 26-27april 2014, Netherlands
These notes are partly chronological and based on how I percieved them. I kept as close as I could to Master Chen’s exact words.
Day one
The workshop started with an introduction. Underlying the art of Practical Method Taiji Chen Style are thirteen dimensions. These thirteen dimensions are divided in two levels. Eight dimensions are related to the air; five are related to the floor.
Most Important: Nobody can see, what Chen Laoshi is doing (except Chen Xu), when he is throwing a stone in the water and waves are appearing, everyone is asking, how to make such waves (form of the waves, etc.), but he just throws the stone- first 13 moves: shovel out, waist cannot go forward, has to be zero, only can go down, to push out
- shovel out means to bypass
- your opponent is strong in different dimensions, you always wrapping around him
- all forward moves you have to lock yourself down
- movements must be led by the piece were I and you don`t touch, move as one piece, like one wall going at you, which part is leading is very different
- Read more
Maxime Fréchet·Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Author: Maxime Fréchet
Here is a little review of the workshop with Master Chen Zhonghua. I’m not in a position to explain anything so I’m just going to share my feelings and experience.
Great experience! Zhonghua Chen is a kind and humble person. He often shares but not too much either. His approach goes straight to the point. He makes you understand principles and concepts with clear words and demonstrations. There is always a bit of Dao in everything, which I really appreciate, it keeps your mind open. Great bunch of people from different countries, good atmosphere and workshop in English.
We had 19 people attending the Toronto workshop this time. 5 of them were first timers. We started off with Master Chen talking about the positive circle, and continuously focusing on its various aspects.
Here are my notes:
- Only move your foot forward towards the opponent, everything else does not go towards the opponent. Read more
I just returned from a 3 day workshop in Toronto. I would like to thank Master Chen and all of the other participants for providing me with this learning experience. All of these notes are mental ones and I will make sure that I take down physical notes on subsequent trips. All errors and omissions are my own. I would like to thank Kelvin for calling me out on my note taking or lack thereof. I totally forgot how to be a good student. I believe that it is important to take notes as a) they will help you to remember what you have learned and b) some of the instructions are personal points of guidance that might apply only to you and as such will not appear in anybody else’s notes.
I attended the Practical Method Iowa Workshop 2015. Officially, the workshop was on Sep 12-13, 2015. I spent a total of 6 days there from Sep 10-15, 2015. It was the best workshop I had ever attended. We had a lot of dedicated Practical Method people there. Thanks to Levi and Christina who let a number of us stay at their place the whole time, and gave us the opportunity to immerse in taiji with Master Chen Zhonghua. Thanks to Levi and John for taking care and arranging food, as well as driving us around. We woke up early at 4:20 am to start doing yilus before breakfast, and we often pushed hands till 10:30 pm at night. It was just wonderful being around my taiji brothers.
The following are the notes I took:
Day 1
– Keeping the back straight at all times
– Always have an aim at the centre, every movement should result back to the centre (don’t deviate from it)
– Keep the movement small, otherwise it is wasteful, and there won’t be any left.
-Separation: When the hands have power, move in the waist. Have power in the waist, the hands can become free. Nudge in bit by bit.
Read more
The Vancouver workshop was taught by Steve Chan and Bill Vanderhall. Driving in from Calgary, I was able to get some good training in and meet up with the Vancouver practical method group again. Read more
Shifu Chen Zhonghua often emphasizes how to learn Taijiquan. This web site has a great article called 6 Methods of Learning Tai Chi. (Read this if you have not already.) It expands and elaborates on Grandmaster Hong’s “Look, Listen, and Ask” practice method.
In motor control research, I found the neurological basis for this method of learning. There are neurological mechanisms called mirror neurons. The basic premise is when we see a person do something, mirror neurons fire off in our brain attempting to duplicate the pattern in our nervous system required to copy the movement. At first, it is an imperfect copy because it follows old neurological pathways. With repeated viewing of the action, our brains and nervous system do a really good job of creating new neurological pathways to accurately copy the movement. Read more
June 20, 2014 (?)
I’m not entirely sure if the date for these notes is correct. I believe they were from an evening class, but they may have been from a workshop. I should have posted these right away, but better late than never I suppose. Read more
After two and half month passed since my first trip to Irvine, I went back on January 31. This time, Edward came to join the group. We worked briefly on foundations. Mostly, I focused on teaching Yilu.
Foundations are important. Yilu is the core. The more students know about Yilu, the more fun they can have while practicing alone. I was able to finish the first 30 forms to “Upper Cloud Hands” and “High Pat on Horse” in the morning. (We did the first 13 moves in last workshop.) Read more
On the invitation of Mr. Lai Qingwen, two instructors from Daqingshan, Chen Xu and Li Xiaohui, went to Yishui, Shandong province to teach Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method as taught by Master Chen Zhonghua. They will be in Yishui from January 30, to February 3, 2015. Read more
Notes from Toronto workshop:
-Make the dot longer to control where they fall. Must add 3rd dimension. Curved line automatically works in 3 dimensions.
-Change of position allows the length to be changed. Do not change the angle. Read more
These are some of the photos at the Toronto Workshop on Jan. 15, 2015. Worked on Foundations, Yilu, and applications. Push Hands techniques are mainly based on scissors power: two lines crossing with a fixed spot on them.
Today was the first day of the workshop in Sydney. After some adminstrative issues and handing out the t-shirts, Master Chen took control and started in quick sucession of static 3 count elbow in, turn waist, hand out. Soon this developed in stepping positive circles, and before everyone recovered the class was already twisting (wringing) the towel. We also explored the three way split, the effect of the resultant power (usually the other person on the ground).
We then continued with an extensive series of applications related to the movements of ‘Buddha’s Warrior’, and Master Chen demonstrated various variations to the applications with the foot kicking in the knee, the foot sliding behind the leg, the foot sliding behind the leg and kick the opponents leg from under them, the split of the kua at the front for higher moves and the back kua for lower hand moves, how the three way split applies to this, and much, much more. Read more
