FYI:

Via Robi Sen’s Blog

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July 22-23
Taijiquan Excellence with Chen Xiaowang
Come to the Washington, DC area to study under this generation’s greatest Chen Taijiquan Grandmaster — the current 19th generation standard-bearer, Chen Xiaowang. Known globally for his subtle details and unmatched explosive power, Chen Xiaowang will teach Push Hands (Tui Shou) and Silk Reeling (chan szu jing) for those seeking true Taiji skill enhancement —taught through 4 high-impact modules.

• Saturday, July 22
> 9:00am-12:00pm, Silk Reeling 1
> 1:30pm-4:30pm, Push Hands 1

• Sunday, July 23
> 9:00am-12:00am, Silk Reeling 2
> 1:30pm- 4:30am, Push Hands 2

Tuition:
Any 1 module–$80
Any 2 modules–$130
Any 3 modules–$190
All modules–$250

Payment:
Send check made out to “Stephan Berwick” to:
Stephan Berwick, P.O. Box 1697, Falls Church, VA 22041
*Payment must include a note which indicates your module selection(s) and contact information.
> Deadline for registration: July 17, 2006
> Cash only at the door.

Location:
Hyatt Regency Reston, Reston Town Center,
1800 Presidents Street, Reston, Virginia, USA
Tel: 703-709-1234 (Hotel faces Reston Parkway)

To download a PDF-flyer for this event, click here.

*Seminar curriculum subject to change pending registrants as of July 17, 2006.

TaiChi Today covers the Key for Commencing Position and it’s pretty cool. Often time, I’ve heard of instances where Chen Xiaowang will remain in the commencing position for literally MINUTES before starting his form. When I trained in wushu, I was taught to remaining in commencing position until I was “ready to begin”, it’s a position of focusing, relaxing, preparing, commencing…

I really enjoy Point 4 in the entry:

(4) Centralize your thought
Soon the attention concentrates on to your body. When inhale, pay your attention to the place you left focus from last time, started from chest (Tan Zhong region), when exhale, your thought is going from chest to abdomen median line downward until to your dan tian region. Repeat 3 ~ 5 breathes (In Chinese Medicinal Theory, Qi moves about 3 inches with each breathing!). Then maintains the attention at the Dan Tian region, this is called hold the spirit to Dan Tian. The student should try to feel the subtle changes on the Dan Tian, and stay as long he can maintain.

source: Key for TaiChi Commencing Position

Often, I’ve just “done it” but not really know exactly what I’m doing when I try to relax or gound myself during this posture. When I was studying Liuhebafa under the Wai Lun Choi camp, he advocated doing the “commencing position” roughly 3 times, this included the arm movements! Great detail went into the breathing and when “lifting” the arms, what joints in the back (3 of them) opened/closed. It was really nice to get into this type of thinking just during the commencing posture.

Then under my chen instruction, instruction regarding dantien rotation was added to the mix. Basically, during the commencing posture, I was told the body is continually sinking ever so slightly. And with this sinking involved a backward-over-under type of dantien rotation in conjunction with the arm movements.

It’s really quite amazing how much depth and detail can go into a physically simply appearing posture like the commencing position. Just imagine how much detail and correction could go into a posture like ward off, or single whip!

It’s funny that I ran across a post title Doing Chen Like Yang on Formosa Neijia b/c this is EXACTLY what I was doing yesterday during lunch and was going to write about it!

I integrated a couple of “take aways” that I got when I trained under the TT Liang camp, these are:

• Keep the wrists straight (Fair Maiden’s Hand)
• Only Step as far as can separate full/empty
• Hold Postures for counts

I’ve mentioned the wrists stuff before and was surprised to get similar corrections from a chen instructor and CXW on keeping this area straight. Over time, I learned that you can still “appear martial” with a straight wrist by adjusting the angle of the elbow and lifting a bit instead of keeping the elbows fully sunk. This, coupled with the idea of “holding tennis balls under my arm pits” is what I try to incorporate in my current training.

As mentioned before, I still have issues with trying to go too low. I really believe it’s due to all my background with ultra low stances in the wushu I did back in the day, but I’ve been slowlying changing this mindset. Now, I try to only step out as “long” as I can still distinguish between full/empty and not “drop” into the stance while not letting my knee go beyong my instep.. wow.. that was a mouthful Doing this has shifted my stances up but it’s strange that I feel quite a leg workout even in a high stance! I attribute this to getting the energy past the hips and into the legs.

Thirdly, I took away the idea of holding fixed postures. Under the TT Liang camp, each posture has a set number of beats it takes to complete, but when training, this could be extended to holding all postures for 6 beats. Personally, like Chessman, I prefer to hold the postures for a certain number of breaths. I tend to do either the 3 or 4 breath depending on how I feel. However, mostly, I’ve been training to hold the end postures for breaths, I think I might incorporate extending the transitions for breath counts too! I think that would be quite interesting an enlightening. Imagine a transition taking 3 breaths and then holding the posture for 3 breaths.. whoa! ..

Yesterday, I actually incorporated these three points into my chen form. I did the yang form first but then did some chen after and I must admit, it was quite fun. I really do enjoy the sequence and movements in the chen form. Something about doing the “blue dragon rises from water” or even the fajing at a slow speed is F-U-N.. heheh.  I haven’t fully decided to make any jumps from chen -> yang, but at this time, I plan on doing both and having fun with them.

Had my first session in a new training location yesterday during lunch and IT WAS GREAT! I had contacted the reverend of a nearby church inquiring if I could train in their backyard and received the OK. I was ecstatic! Walking to the backyard, I noticed a little tree enclosed area in the rear corner. It was so nice and peaceful with a good mix of shade and sun.

Upon arriving, I did a bit of standing meditation (zhan zhuang) to get myself centered. After which, I started off with the first section of the yang long form. It was a nice form to begin with and I was focusing on “trying to relax”, which sounds kind of funny b/c I was “working hard” to relax I think I’ve fallen victim to the “cool guy” chen creep and I’ve focused too much time and energy on maintaining low postures. I’ve raised them up quite a bit and thighs are about 45 degrees instead of the 80-90 that I used to do in chen.

Has this helped? I think so. I focus more on the alignment of keeping my shoulders, knees, and foot in the same plane with the knee not extending past my instep. In addition, doing it such a way has made myself more aware of my stepping and that I was not *really* able to differentiate between full/empty when going low, but really trying to focus on the shift now.

In addition, without focusing too much on stance, I’m starting to notice other parts of my body more, especially my mid/upper back. I could really sense some tension build up in that area, probably due to all the increased computer work and less time training In addition, I really felt some tension in my wrists/forearms. I’ve shifted things a bit and trying to maintain a “fair maiden’s palm” kind of alignment where my wrist is generally kept straight instead of bent.

This reminds me of something I read on the rationale for keeping the wrists straight. The idea is to allow the qi to get to the fingertips. It’s hard enough to get the qi there but even harder with the wrists bent. The example then went further to note testing this theory with a young baby/child. At a young age, the back of the hand can remain relaxed with the wrist bent but this is generally not so with older folk due to the tension and stresses gained over time. I tested this out on my son and it was RIGHT! I first felt the back of his hand in a relaxed state and it was quite soft. I then bent his wrist to form a 90 degree angle and it was still soft. For myself, soft when straight, but quite tense when bent! Hmm.. not sure if this is completely valid, but it’s definitely something to consider.