Notes:
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In today’s class Kelvin Ho has provided feedback. The following are what I remembered:
- Detailed steps for turning body during “Buddha’s warrior attendant pounds the mortar”:
- before turn the body to left, fix every part of the body
- Stretch head upward
- turn left foot to left 45 degree, align left knee with left foot
- form a rod on left side of the body: maintain the left leg position by pushing knee backward and pushing kua forward. This will ensure the rod is very stable
- move weight to, and keep weight on left heel
- bring right elbow to front right
- bring right foot to front. The body is turned around the rod formed. This is why forming the rod strong and stable is very important. This rod appears in many other Yilu forms.
- complete rest of the form
- Read more
Positive circle
Lower body
Legs apart – toes aligned with the other foot heel – foot open 45% outward and the other feet, toes close inward a bit – leaning closer to the front foot – Knee 90% measured at the ankle
Eyes
Choose a focus point and keep your eyes pinned to the focus point always
Upper body and movement
Shoulder and wrist locked- fingers stretched – index finger pointing towards your focus point and not above your eyebrow – start with palm down pointing towards the ground- bring elbow to right ribcage from waist twist all the way inside without losing your focus point.
Repeat- in with elbow – turn with waist – out with hand. Keep elbow bend all the time. Torso straight- knees turn up and down but not up and down.
45% in and out finger always pointing
Power comes from the heel
Hello everybody,
It’s the first time now that I am on Daqingshan in January, and I have to say that it is really enjoyable. 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.
After the 2-days Hong Kong Chen style Taiji practical method workshop held on 17&18 Dec, I joined the regular foundation Sunday class. Starting from my 1st day training, I learned the importance of the kua opening. When doing twist-towel or fetch water foundation, by opening the Kua, power can be transferred from the foot (ground) to the hand. Read more
Kelvin Ho gave us feedback on the first 7 moves of Yilu today. some examples to remember
Buddha’s warrior attendant pounds the mortar – in first move both arms move from the elbow. The right arm is a negative circle. Elbow is down and palm faces floor when you stretch out after grind out. To lift foot twist right elbow even more to connect and lift foot.
Block touching coat. – in step out adjust weight to front foot before arm moves and positive circle starts
Single whip – hands start at 45 degrees and end at 45 degrees as the elbow comes to centerline and fingers and forearm follow the same strait line rubbing against an imaginary vertical finger. The end of single whip the left hand out is a positive circle.
Brush knee – the left open hand drops down crossing knee. The end of brush knee when both arms are extended squeeze in on chest and down back as to not cause a rise in the chest. I found this very significant feedback because this is true in so many of the moves. It also seemed to have an impact on my next move to keep my back steady in initial closing.
Today I realized how significant independent practice is in this practical method. Your body needs time to adjust to perform proper alignment and stretches. If your elbow has limited mobility or you cannot convert the squeeze in the chest to the back and downward, you need practise before you can move forward with more constructive feedback.
Using activity to find the middle
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 60 min. In: English Year: 2016 Difficulty:1/5
Today I realised, why I like (our) Taiji that much. We had class (Patrick, John and me), Chén Xù was teaching. He showed us twisting the towel. Push the left foot and then don`t move (one point on the right side of the body), push the right foot, don`t move (one point on the left side of the body). This is the same principle Chen Laoshi explained in this video . When I heard Chén Xù`s explanation, I thought, that this is so illogical. Because, if you lock the right side and turn the left, and then lock the left side – there where you are – and turn the right, in the end you are moving forward. Although I saw Chén Xù doing it, believing his explanation, my mind said: How??? That`s not logical.
Just for joking I asked him about my worries and he said, don`t care about it!
This for me is the challenge and attraction. I always loved maths but practical method is more complicate! It seems to be so logical and scientific, but then very often, for me it makes no sense at all 🙂
Lesson on the parts of Practical Method System.
Gong Fa (develop internal energy) how to move
Quan Fa (choreography) yilu, erlu,
Yong Fa (usage) push hand, loose hand
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 62 min. In: English Year: 2016 Difficulty:1/5
Detailed instruction on Qigong Breathing, how to coordinate with body expansion and contraction
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 62 min. In: English Year: 2016 Difficulty:1/5
Instructor Kelvin Ho worked through a number of items in today’s class today with me and Bruce Robinson.
All Movement – keep elbows pointed to the ground, open hand position and stretch through to fingers
Buddha’s warrior attendant pounds the mortar – start with right hand against chest as you turn hand releases from chest, front hand does not retreat. after ground out completes keep elbow pointing down as you stretch to fingers at end of stretch right elbow in.
Block touching coat – left hand is negative circle , right is positive circle. adjust lower body outward before starting positive circle.
White crane spread it’s wings – As part of stepping back adjust your back so that it is solid before moving the left leg back and raising and stretching the arms from the back outward to the finger tips. Easier said than done the idea of fixing the back against an imagery wall so that it does not move is very difficult. However by working with Kelvin today I can see what I am working toward.
History and Development of the Midwest Group
Master Chen Zhonghua’s first workshops in Iowa were in 2007 and 2008, hosted by John Brown. In the summer of 2009 I organized the first Midwest Practical Method gathering, along with Tim and Levi, in the Northeast Iowa area, which was led by Tim Duehring. The group met periodically throughout the year for several years. Tim move to China to work for Master Chen, which Levi Sowers then led our gatherings. Several of our group members became disciples of Master Chen Zhonghua, which initially, Tim was the only one. The Midwest disciples, in chronological order, include: Levi Sower, John Upshaw, Erwin Ramthun, Jeff Clevenger and Christopher Dusek.
Levi Sowers and I have organized 3 Midwest Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method Workshops that was taught by Master Chen. These workshops occurred in October of 2013, September of 2015 and July of 2016. We have organized the first North American Practical Method Training Camp that will be led by Master Chen this coming July.
In 2016, two Practical Method workshops were held in Toronto in January and September, with over 20 participants coming from Toronto and its surrounding cities, Ottawa, Montreal, New York, Michigan and as far away as California.
Make the body like steel of constant power, but at the same time the joint can turn
This video is available on the chinese site with more chinese explanation. http://www.shiyongquanfa.cn/index.php?p=34521
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 5 min. In: English Year: 2016 Difficulty:2/5 At:Hong Kong
It’s amazing – to me – how long I’m into Taijiquan. This photo was shot in Turkey where I spent Christmas with my family. Even then, shortly over a year into Taijiquan an Yilu or two daily were mandatory to me. I’ve been to China once already and to me it was clear that I want to give Taijiquan much more time. Back in 2010 it was the old frame I practiced. Since March 2014 it’s Practical Method. It still and much more fills my life. I practice on my way to work, while carrying my kids nopen doors, … always. I had so many insights, new experiences, I met many new people from all over the world and spent more then 7 month in China to study this martial art.
Travel
Trains and flights within China can be booked via internet on these platforms. They also have apps for mobile devices:
http://www.ctrip.com
http://www.qunar.com
Places from where our drivers can pick you up are following. The prices are for one car going, it might be shared with others.
– Qingdao airport pick up is US$100.00
– Rizhao airport pickup US$40.00
– Weifang train station pick up is US$70.00
– Wulian train or bus station pick up is US$10.00.
Visa
Usually the procedure is always the same: You need our invitation letter plus the hotel reservation, with this you go to the China Visa Center, and a few days later you can pick up the visa. Common maximum is 3 month study-visa, this may be extended for 1 more month when you are in China.
But sometimes also longer periods may be issued. The longest is 1 year, when you have a job in China.
Next year with the opening of the school in Wulian we will have several job opportunities. For details get in touch with me via: mail (at) practicalmethod (dot) de.
Shopping
Hey Guys, actually you can buy nearly everything in China. We first came here with three packages of diaper and then found out, that you can buy them in every supermarket to nearly the same price like in our country (Germany) 🙂
Hard to get is coffee and cheese. But if you really need something for your “survival”, you can get really everything online on www.taobao.com. This is pretty much like amazon in the west. Somethings are more expensive then in our home countries, because they have to be imported (chocolate, bio-baby food etc.).
A hint for using the search field of taobao: try to translate to Chinese first, then enter the Chinese characters. Taobao also can deal with lot’s of English terms, but the price range is quite large and very likely you get much better deals when entering Chinese.
Video in Chinese: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjkwODU2OTE2.html
Notes:
- Master Chen when answering the question focused on Practical Method itself, and left it to the audience to do the comparison, as he couldn’t represent the other art.
- Practical Method’s core is rotation. Spiral and silk reeling is rotation plus distance.
- We can never do true rotation. It’s impossible for us to do 360 degree rotation. We can perform a lever action. A lever action is a part of a rotation.
- Form training is to create levers in our bodies.
- Grandmaster Hong Junsheng has the 10-word saying “Out with hand no elbow, in with elbow no hand”. Lin Ketong calls it 10-word mantra.
- This mantra actually describes the lever action.
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
Do you want to live in tune with nature, surrounded by people striving for similiar goals, raising your children (if you have or want to have a family) in a harmonious community, rather than give them to the kindergarten?
Or do you have some money at the bank, but no idea what to do with it, how to invest AND would you like to spend some years on our mountain?
Then Daqinshan is the place for you! “Daqinshan” (大青山), literally “big green mountain” is a remote area in Shandong Province. Read more
Tim Duhring on Daqingshan
Foundation Introduction, Master Chen 13 Move demo. Two videos
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 9 + 9 min. In: English Year: 2016 Difficulty:1/5
Perth, Sydney, Gold Coast
Notes by Brian Chung on day 1 of the workshop with Master Chen Zhonghua and Chen Xu.
Notes 2016-12-10 Sydney Workshop Day 1
1. Practical Method consists of Gongfa (jibengong), Quanfa (yilu, erlu, jian, dao, waxwood pole), Yongfa (tui shou, san shou).
2. We start with only the physical. In the end, there is nothing physical.
3. 3 things we don’t work with. Breathing, Fingers, Eating. We were born with these abilities.
4. The middle must come out.
5. Did you see the middle? Did you see the red?
Fetch water detail, Twist towel detail. Two videos
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 11 + 7 min. In: English Year: 2016 Difficulty:1/5 At:Prague
