This is the section 3 of the Yilu corrections for Anton Phipps by Master Chen Zhonghua.
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 38 min. In: English Year: 2020 Difficulty:3/5 At:Edmonton Chen Zhonghua Taiji Academy 埃德蒙顿陈中华太极馆
This is the last section (section 6) of the Yilu corrections for Roy Croucher by Master Chen Zhonghua.
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 42 min. In: English Year: 2020 Difficulty:1/5 At:Edmonton Chen Zhonghua Taiji Academy 埃德蒙顿陈中华太极馆
Inflection points in differential geometry are the points of the curve where the curvature changes its sign. In the illustration below, it is when the tangent turns red or when the curve intersects with the X axis in this case.
Foundations on line notes ~ October 13th 2020 by John Upshaw
Kelvin Ho lead us through a positive circle stepping back drill. With our front hand out, we would step back with a rear foot causing us to go lower, we rotated/shifted from our front kua to our rear kua, rotating the elbow in on the same line with hand staying fixed on that same line…like a spear, tip pointed at the opponent. By using my kuas in this manner, my range increased.
The learning ratio is strange. Many years of hard work (5 till 10 years) without results. But once you understand the rotation, within 3 months every move of the Yilu starts to make sense
Master Chen Zhonghua’s Private lesson for Roy Croucher on Oct. 13, 2020. Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 47 min. In: English Year: 2020 Difficulty:1/5 At:Edmonton Chen Zhonghua Taiji Academy 埃德蒙顿陈中华太极馆
Master Chen Zhon ghua’s Oct. 13, 2020 private lesson for Anton Phipps. This lesson used the applications of the first 13 moves of the Practical Method to illustrate how the moves are to be done.
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 58 min. In: English Year: 2020 Difficulty:3/5 At:Edmonton Chen Zhonghua Taiji Academy 埃德蒙顿陈中华太极馆
Master Chen Zhonghua’s online lesson on 2020.10.13. This lesson is on foundations. Master Chen taught how to focus on the kua while doing the positive circle. Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 63 min. In: English Year: 2020 Difficulty:1/5 At:Edmonton Chen Zhonghua Taiji Academy 埃德蒙顿陈中华太极馆
The subject of the lesson was foundations/positive circle.
Master Chen provided some history of China and the development of taijiquan. He also related a story about how the Practical Method foundations were developed. Read more
Master Chen Zhonghua started with a story about the history of China and Chen Style Taijiquan. Before the first Qin emperor defeated 6 other kings and united China, there was the period of Spring and Autumn 春秋 (which has nothing to do with the two seasons). Back then, there were 800 states, each had their own cultures, and they all flourished. Today, there are different levels of governments in China: Federal, Provincial, and County. The Chinese government wanted to get rid of the county level government, but they couldn’t done. Each county turned out to map back to the old states. The Chinese government had full election for village officials, but there are large families at the county levels, with full election, these large families will gain control at the county level goverments. These families managed to get around the one-child policy themselves. Read more
In our system, the kua is the dan tien, when both kuas are open, the dan tien is ‘full’
One your body learns rotation, all moves in Yilu make sense. Without rotation, no Yilu moves make sense. All the movements will be ‘fake’, ‘made up’, because there is no rotation. Read more
Master Chen Zhonghua’s online lesson on Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method on Oct. 12, 2020. This lesson was on how to use large moves of the kua to create a positive circle. Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 48 min. In: English Year: 2020 Difficulty:1/5 At:Edmonton Chen Zhonghua Taiji Academy
Master Chen Zhonghua’s Toronto Workshop March 2020-5
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 9 min. In: English Year: 2020 Difficulty:4/5 At: Toronto, Canada
Master Chen Zhonghua explans the Practical Method signature move: Fist Drape Over Body. This move requies coordination of the entire body. Master Chen gave Kelvin Ho a lot of detailed corrections.
A few days ago my Tai Chi Practical Method teacher here in Queenstown, NZ took this video of me to mark exactly one year of practice for me in the Practical Method. I am one of Yuxins foundation members. Prior to starting on the Practical method my only Tai Chi experience was approximately one year of Yang style. Read more
Once again Master Chen found it necessary to tell us how to learn. Many of us were practicing as he was teaching. And of course, I was one of them. He was giving each of us a private lesson and we should have been listening intently. At that point, practicing was just a distraction. Yes, practicing is totally necessary, but not when the teacher is telling us the important things that other teachers would call secrets and probably wouldn’t even teach. If we’re at all smart, we’ll take advantage of the wonderful opportunity Master Chen is providing. Read more
During this time of the pandemic, I had a very valuable opportunity to attend Shifu Chen Zhonghua’s online class. By listening, seeing and following the instructions given in the class I began to understand the principles of the Taiji practical method and apply them to yilu and push hands. All this time I thought that I understood and could do yilu well, but what I understood was wrong. Read more
I named this the Yilu Project because I have taken some steps to “clean up my yilu”, and this is my baseline for measuring progress or the lack thereof. I have been attending weekly online classes with Master Chen Zhonghua. Having access to consistent corrections on my yilu and foundations is a “once in a lifetime opportunity”! Additionally, I have been getting feedback from my Taiji brother Kelvin, who has a very good eye for details. Feel free to point out mistakes.
There were many corrections and a number of important conceptual points on how to learn.
-We have 2 general types of movements
Action movements are what the particular form is about in order to execute a particular application on an opponent. Must be accurate.
Adjustment movements are to position body parts to be in place to execute the action movement. Accuracy in getting there is less important.
We must know the difference. We tend to not know or show the difference.
-Master Chen repeated the instruction, as he has many, many times, to listen and watch as he explains. Do not attempt to copy while he is explaining. We miss much of the instruction while we attempt to copy. I have heard this so many times, yet I was copying while he spoke in the class this morning.
-Not one move in PM Taiji is like any other in life or sports. We must see that the moves are unique to PM Taiji. MC does not move like an average person, but the average person, as in we his students, THINK we move like MC. He has said to me specifically in other zoom classes that I make a good copy of the moves, but he can see that I do not really do the essence of the moves. We tend to compare to other movements and other sports, but PM is different from those moves. I must say that I make many of these comparisons. I would say my whole education has been based on building on comparisons and it is a very difficult thing for me to not compare PM to other human activities. I can see now that recalibration must happen without these comparisons.
Only worry about that particular action. We don’t care much about the adaptation. Once the screwdriver fits with the screw, there is only one thing you can do. You can get away with whatever for the adaptation, but the action must be what it is to have power. Must identify that action.
What does it mean to get something into the body? You are able to do it without thinking about it, e.g. when you can complete a yilu talking to someone, this means the yilu movements become automatic, while your attention is in talking to that person. Read more
A leader is someone or something that others follow. If a number of people have to go through a tunnel that is only large enough to fit a person through at a time, the first person who goes through it is the leader, whom the rest of the people just follow. If multiple people try to go through the tunnel at the same time, there will be a jam, and no one can come out the other end. Read more
The first two items allow your camera to be set at the appropriate height, distance and angle for the teacher/instructor to have an optimal view to provide feedback to the student. These items can be replaced with other equipment that can provide equivalent adjustment of the camera. The 3rd item facilitates note taking (don’t forget to post your notes too at the website).