This week it’s been 2 years, since my magical journey in Practical Method Taiji started on Daqingshan Mountain.
Weather has already gotten warmer here in Greece, so last night I went on the balcony to do some Yilus. There is something special in practicing Yilu under the stars! A light breeze from the north, made the stars to shine bright in the dark night. As soon as I started doing the Yilu, immediately my first thought went to Daqingshan!
Having spent almost 7 moths on the mountain, we passed many nights under the sky, since we had almost every night training sessions at 20:00, which included mostly Yilus, foundations, push-hands from time to time and various events, mostly in the summer. Read more
I had an interesting experience lately. I took singing classes with a professional classical singer. It was only one single event, but I learned two important things in those one and a half hours which are not only reflecting back on my Taijiquan but also on my life in general.
Western Learning Methods
Everything is about intellectually understanding things. After listening to my singing for a short time and before the teaching started I got two or three pages of text describing how the breathing organs work and how those relate to singing. Doing Practical Method for a while now and being in contact with eastern learning methods I just skipped through the pages to see if there’s something useful. I asked the teacher whether knowing this stuff is of any importance, especially in the beginning. She said, being a little puzzled, that most people want to know what they are doing, first. Intellectually. I explained, that I do PM and I trust her as a teacher to lead me through exercises which she figures are important for me at my current state. She started teaching me.
Feeling Awkward
With different exercises she tried to get me in a mode where the voice was full. She put me on a stepper on which I had to walk while singing. At some point I had to lean forward in a shoulder wide stance. Singing “dui dui dui” up and down the scale in this position felt strange and she directed me saying “try this” or “try that”. At some point my voice felt awkward. The setting of my muscles in my vocal tract was so wrong. I even got a little scared somehow. I stopped after being in this state for not even a second. Suddenly the teacher almost shouted at me: “why did you stop?! That was wonderful! Do it again!”
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find that setting during the remaining 15 minutes of the lesson.
This moment, when the awkwardness was on its peek was the moment when the door opened. I didn’t step through it, but now I know it’s there, at least. Even if I would have find this door without the teacher, I would be convinced that it’s the wrong door.
Last week Kelvin Ho review turning flower out at bottom of sea. he posted a video and the following points
1) Maintain a non-moving vertical rod from head to left heel throughout the action.
2) Hold the right forearm in front of the chest with a fist, while the left fist is on the side of the body.
3) Throw the right fist down to the right side as hard as possible with a raising right knee to create a scissoring effect, while throwing the left fist up to the left ear.
4) There should be no tossing or turning of the body, but there is a spiral stretch along the vertical rod Read more
Practical Method Meetup in Vienna, Europe 17th – 19th February 2017
What a cool experience! On 17th of February 2017 we had the first PM Meetup in Europe. A meetup which was dedicated to meet other groups practicing our art. It was no workshop in that sense, but we were lucky, that Rick Pietila, a disciple of Master Chen was still in Vienna at that time and was leading most of the training. He prepared a training schedule which build up over the course of the meetup. Everybody was exhausted afterwards, but happy to meet other peers and to have learned so much from Rick.
1) Maintain a non-moving vertical rod from head to left heel throughout the action.
2) Hold the right forearm in front of the chest with a fist, while the left fist is on the side of the body.
3) Throw the right fist down to the right side as hard as possible with a raising right knee to create a scissoring effect, while throwing the left fist up to the left ear.
4) There should be no tossing or turning of the body, but there is a spiral stretch along the vertical rod.
Master Chen’s disciple Ping Wei will again teach Practical Method foundations and Yilu on March 26 (Sunday, 9:30am-1pm and 2-5pm) in Irvine, California. For location and other details, please contact Al Yu at 949-331-2735, or email: mralyu@yahoo.com.
On a mild holiday weekend, more than thirty participants from Hong Kong, the Mainland, Canada and India gathered to train with Master Chen. A special thanks to Ling Zili who came from Daqinshan to help with the workshop. For two days, Master Chen started with the foundations, then continued with moving, the first thirteen moves of Yilu and occasional bouts of applications training. Master Chen clearly explain how each type of training is directly related to theory of Chen Taijiquan.
3 Videos with Theory, Student Practice and Correction on Twist Towel, Fetch Water, Six Sealing Four Closing
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 28 min. In: English Year: 2016 Difficulty:1/5 At:Perth
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
We continued the topic about the triangle in today’s class. To apply the triangle during push hand or Yilu we need to realize the following keys:
How many triangles are needed
The more the better as long as it can contribute the indirect force to the final result.
My understanding is we need at least two: the first one is formed in upper body. It involves contact points. The triangle can be two hands + one shoulder or one hand + elbow + shoulder or one hand + two shoulders; the second one is formed in lower body. It can be one foot + kua + shoulder or two feet + kua. This perfectly explains the theory of “rooted in the feet, initiated from the legs, controlled by the waist, ended in the fingers”(其根在脚,发于腿,主宰于腰,形于手指).
Apply one triangle on top of another
Keep this in mind: fix one and then apply next. This is required by the rule of “Don’t move”.
Build a solid structure
A solid structure will be like a rod or chair. Opponent’s power will be directed to ground and bounced back to them easily.
The solid structure will also support forming triangles.
We always look for opponent’s weak point in their structure, so we can apply our triangles accordingly.
Twisting towel – Ning maogin
Straight torso – spine stretched – legs apart –bend knees a bit just to make upside down U shape … Imagine there is a horizontal bar just below navel area, stretched forward and vertical rod from head to ground
Fingers always stretched and slightly open, except the thumb, thumb touching forefinger. Arms at navel level, stretch forward tucking elbow towards the center of your body- keeping wrist locked (wrist doesn’t movie) elbow straight – shoulders locked (moving only within its socket)
At the moment Master Chen is giving the 21th Practical Method Seminar on Daqinshan. More then 80 peoples are participating and there are both advanced (beneath them many disciples) and beginners.
This is a book on Hunyuan Qigong and Hunyuan Taiji by Master Chen Zhonghua. It is an essential book for anyone practicing Qigong.
Its contents are mainly based on the Hunyuan Qigong of Grandmaster Feng Zhiqiang and the personal experiences and explorations of Master Chen Zhonghua.
Position of elbow in positive circle: After warming up with what we learned the last 2 weeks, we reviewed the line that the elbow follows in first move of Positive Circle. It should follow a straight line as if it’s in a track. Fingers should still point at same spot. We tried looking at the line the forearm was making in mirror.
To finish positive circle after turning at waist, lead with hand as if forearm is in a tube and sliding out sequentially. Don’t let forearm deviate outwards as it wants to.
Today we covered 5 exercises. Here are some corrections Kelvin Ho gave me and reminders in class as I understood at the time.
1)Twisting the Towel -Don’t move arms with arms but move arms and hands from same side foot. Make sure pelvis doesn’t move. Remember to keep hands stretched out and to stretch through whole arm. Keep on the centre line. Read more
Another exciting two hours today in Richmond Hill class. Two notes to share with audients:
1. Amazing triangle
Actually using triangle to apply indirect power is not a new topic, but today our practice really impressed me. I started to understand how important it is and how to apply it to all forms.
How to form a triangle: hold two hands together as point A and two elbows are the other two points (point B and point C). Partner tries to hold the two elbows tightly using his two hands.
Practice one: push two elbows out against partner’s two hands. It is very hard. Read more
One of my corrections from Sifu during a private lesson in 2015 was on separation of hand from my head. For instance, when out with hand in Single Whip, as I placed emphasis on the stretches when my hand went out, my head would follow…this would occur at varying degrees, yet that isn’t relevant because any deviation of the head changes everything as I will get to soon.
**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
This week it’s been 2 years, since my magical journey in Practical Method Taiji started on Daqingshan Mountain.
