Several students’ yilu were corrected today:
Sooyeon，Carlotta，Raymond，Karen，Gerry
Knowledge : Workshop and Class Notes
“Make it real” Series
Exercise 1
Open the kua to cause a horizontal rotation. Lock the top by using one hand to the hold the wrist on the other side. Stretch the fingers. Where the middle finger is pointing at changes as the rotation caused by the kua happens.
Open the right kua to turn left.
Open the left kua to turn right.
Don’t let the left knee point down when opening the left kua.
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We started with double positive circle.
We used a rubber cord to tie to elbow to the waist, so that the elbow does not move by itself.
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Today, Master Chen corrected the following students’ partial yilu:
- Karen Mattox
- Gerry Gebhart
- Albert Chung
Single Whip
Master Chen used the foot shovelling out in single whip as an example to talk about the concept of using a stick to pry open something. We shove the stick into a crack, then the front end of the stick cannot move anymore and stays in the same place. We can then make the crack bigger by prying with the stick. The key is that the one of the stick is not moving. As we pry, we may meet resistence, we can add a longitudinal rotation as we pry, it will allow the stick to go over the resistence. Regarding the single whip, we want to make sure that the toes do not point up as we shovel so that we can apply the longitudinal rotation on the entire left leg. As we shovel the left foot, the weight must stay on the right foot. As we shift over to half horse stance, the longitudinal rotation on the left leg occurs at the same time. Read more
Six Sealing Four Closing 六封四闭
Grandmaster Hong Junsheng studied the names of each move. He looked into the origin of these names, and how the pronounciation might have changed when the information was passed down based on the dialect of the region. The dialects in China can be so different that people from one region might not understand people from another region at all.
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Master Chen demonstrated the foundation exercise Moving-Step Shake the pole, which is the positive and negative circle. He held a real pole to begin with to show the idea behind the foundation exercise. He locked his fron hand, which was holding the pole as a pivot. The rear hand moved the pole. Read more
Master Chen corrected a few people’s partial yilu today. Each person should remember himself/herself the stopping point, and so it can be continued from that point in future lessons when it is that person’s turn for correction again.
To stretch, we need to so find anchors on the two ends.
Empty means solid, it means power.
We need to find a line in ourselves. Master Chen showed Tinh Thai a version of fetch water that line up her rear elbow with the front hand. We need to make sure that the front shoulder is not in the way.
If we want to have grip in the hands, we need to have grip in the teeth and in the toes.
Six Sealing Four Closing
- Hands don’t move. Create a line between the front hand and rear foot. Read more
Moving Step Positive Circle
- Hold your head up, tuck the chin.
- Each body part performs its own duty. Don’t merge together.
- Factory workers work, not everyone does the same job, but at the same time.
- Example: Move the feet back and forth by themselves, keep the central axis upright, move your hand out and elbow in.
- The waist must go backward while the hand goes forward.
Morning Session
1-2-3 in general means that we must have a method, and there is a procedure.
We have to listen with our eyes. We can’t just close our eyes and say that we are listening.
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These are my notes from Master Chen’s zoom lesson on Re-calibration, on August 11, 2020
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We need to tune a thermometer. First we find the zero. We set a standard then we can use it to measure Read more
Recently, I attended a Practical Method seminar with Master Chen, hosted by Ping Wei in Phoenix Arizona. In preparing for the seminar, I “learned” the first thirteen moves of Yilu form so that I could follow along as much as possible. I believe the seminar was supposed to be regarding the first thirteen moves of Yilu form and foundations. Read more
Yilu and foundations are for warm up
Then one must learn, create yin yang split
Action has movement, physical structure has no movement
Hand and screwdriver analogy —
Screwdriver doesn’t work on its own but is turned by hand
i.e.
Twisting towel
Hand doesn’t move on it’s own,
Kua is responsible for action on hand
Technically
object is yin &
Action is yang –
Fixed for consistency and to avoid confusion
At higher level it doesn’t matter which one is which, just know there are two and can be switched
There has to be a trap to walk in for opponent
Trap doesn’t change shape/size
Trap is designed so that you can have the hold
Hold gives access to ligaments and not muscles, working on muscles is futile
Opponent’s arm is not sufficient to get the hold of the whole body
Body parts are irrelevant for the hold,only think of to hold the line, have a grab from both side of teh line and not just one
Drill-
Sink waist to press elbow
Hand should be complete dead no move on its own, and that is quality like a steel, otherwise it absorbs like cotton
Shoulder rotates on vertical axis and doesn’t get displaced
Two ends have to be related, timing has to be coordinated
Stretch in right shoulder has to be totally matched by stretch in left heel
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Only two ways to move opponent .
Lever- lock middle and move the ends (strong opponent)
Anti-lever – lock the ends and move the middle (loose opponent)
Two ends and the middle are independent of one another. However opponent thinks they all happen at same time because the difference in time is so tiny it goes unnoticed.
A nut (micro living that lives only morning to afternoon) can not fathom a qun (mythical bird that lives many years) and for qun a nut did not exist, however they both live same life cycle birth-growing-reproduction-death.
Taiji encapsulates everything – in time.
If one splits that fraction of second when action was done at two ends and middle into million parts, these three actions will be only 3 of those million parts and totally different (although sequential) and they have no relationship to one another but for opponent it feels as if they happened at same time and they have relationship.
Chen Zhonghua’s Sept. 2019 Toronto Practical Method Workshop videos.
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 10 min. In: English Year: 2019 Difficulty:3/5 At:Toronto
2020.02.12 悉尼笔记锺百豪 (英文) Sydney Notes by Brian Chung (English)
Day 1
- Double negative has to be more vertical – open below, closes up top.
- Buttocks cannot protrude. Kua is not open enough. It will hurt.
Jieshou, a Chinese word that means “accept hand”, is a term used in Practical Method. You will get an idea of what it means after viewing the video clip.
It is important to know that Practical Method does not allow head-on collision in making initial (or any other) contact with the opponent.
This is a clip of teaching video at the Dec. 2019 New York workshop.
Ottawa Broadsword Seminar on Oct. 26, 2019.
渥太华讲座场地20191026 – Walking towards the Legion Hall.
渥太华讲座场地20191026 – 1
This is where we held our first Ottawa Practical Method Seminar in March 1998.
渥太华讲座场地20191026 – 3
Front Door of the Legion Hall
渥太华讲座场地20191026 – 2
Front of the building of the Legion Hall on Montgomery.
- Gears on either side of spine move in opposite direction
The gears twist on either side of the spine and your intention along with where you are looking can send power in any direction you want. You can also add better control by also changing the percentage of each lever. with straight spine hold with front left kua use right hand across. them Opening kua to right
Power comes from restrictions, stretch to point of rotation, Movement is muscle., no movement is a lever
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When practicing yilu:
- Put myself inside a fixed sized box.
- Pull against the sides of the box coming into dantian.
- Push against the sides of the box going out of dantian.
Notes from Grandmaster Zhonghua Chen Workshop on Sept. 14 & 15, 2019, Edmonton, PM Studio
埃德蒙顿2019.09.14讲座合影。本文作者是右四（后）。 Read more
So we were doing lots and lots of six sealings four closings exercises at the end of the Vienna Workshop. I was leading the group and counting. Then, at #476 something in my hip cracked open. A rush of pure energy run through my body and I felt like a conductor between heaven and earth, and then … Read more
First I had to not push the opponent and just find the wall with my back. When it wasn’t working so well it was because I was too far from the wall. It got a little bit better, but I was hitting the wall too straight so my stretch wasn’t as long as it could have been. Once that was fixed by lowering more to hit the wall, my fingers were not angled correctly towards the opponent and extending past the demarcation line. Once all those things were corrected, I was able to push better. Read more
Positive circle steps. There are two steps and one modification. They are in, turn and out. Read more
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
