Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 58 min. In: English Year: 2020 Difficulty:1/5 At:Edmonton Chen Zhonghua Taiji Academy
Knowledge : Workshop and Class Notes
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
- We have to keep in mind one thing: Master Chen only pick up universal things. He chooses one person and corrects his/her move, but everybody is doing the same mistake
- We continued with Knee up and down (Xi Zou Shang Xia)
- After learning the choreography the next step is to reach the extreme. Stance and size must become very big
- We have to learn to lock one place. This will force other parts of the body to continue the move. Restriction is a way to train the entire body Read more
Six Sealing Four Closing
- The stretch of the elbow against the locked hand comes to a stop.
- Switch to use the central vertical axis to rotate. When it is done, switch to the rear shoulder-kua axis to continue the rotation in the same direcction.
- Switch to the front shoulder-kua axis, power with the rear kua to cause the hand to go out. Read more
- Arm: don’t stretch out fully. The elbow must be bent
- Power should come from the kua, not from the shoulder
- The stretch must start from inside
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
- At the beginning we repeated the move we were training on 2.11.2020: Lock hand and shoulder on the same line. Move the elbow upward toward the hand/shoulder line
- This move is the foundation. The power comes indirectly. Only this way we can cause a bounce
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.
Chinese Class
Buddha’s Warriot Attendant Pound Mortar
- How to lift the right leg? It has to stretch out and then come back.
- Many people would make the buttock protrude when lifting the leg.
Block Touching Coat
- The horizontal move (5th count) in Block Touching Coat is not actually a horizontal move.
- Lock right kua, move left kua, and then lock left kua, move right kua
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
- Lock the two ends: Hand and Shoulder on the same line. Move the middle: Elbow
- The elbow is placed down. It has to move upward towards the hand-shoulder line
- Elbow and kua move upwards
- Intention is how you lead the action
We are focusing on a simple movement from Six Sealing Four Closing.
- Push the elbow up towards the shoulder and hand line.
- The elbow is the one that drives out the hand.
- Don’t move the hand itself. Read more
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
Read more
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.
Chinese Class
Separation of Yin and Yang
- 先合后开 xian he hou kai – Together at first, separate later.
- How it separates, the rate it separates can be regulated later.
- e.g. Six Sealing Four Closing, Punch covering hand Read more
Going Over – We focus on this concept in several moves today.
Flash the back
- After elbow-in, we use the kua to cause the elbow to go over, so that we can grab the opponent’s wrist on the other side.
- The other elbow moves in this move also requires going over to break the opponent’s arm at the elbow.
- Before turning backwards, we just lock the left hand, and bring the right foot over to the other side. Read more
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
- 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.
- The first 2 solids form the horizontal bar of a T-bar, while the kua stretching down creates the rod of the T-bar.
- Master Chen Zhonghua demonstrated six sealing four closing with that rod not moving. Without this part, I will not be able to rotate. With it, things start to become 3-dimensional. It was really like that there was an auger in him.
- This may seem like a contradiction while we need to push the front kua up, we also need to stretch it down to create a solid. Read more
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
Chinese Class
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
Chinese Class
Negative Circle
- In-with-elbow, Zhuan Guan, Out-with-hand
- We have get the proper ideal image in our mind, even though we can’t do it properly at this point.
- We must be expressive in our movement during training, so the teacher/instructor can see your intent.
Rotation is when there is movement without displacement.
Read more
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
Chinese Class
Our movements must have a horizontal one and a vertical one intersecting/interacting at the same time.
Three parallel planes
- Top plane at the shoulder (including extending the arms)
- Middle plane at the waist
- Bottom plane at the knees
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.
Read more
Whatever it is that you know, the truth is not like that. Whatever you don’t realize, accidentally it is the correct thing.
Read more
Positive Circle
- Focus on the use of front kua in Positive Circle to increase the size of the circle.
- When going down, step the rear foot backward.
- When coming up, step the rear foot forward.
- Do the same on both sides.
