Wow.. I didn’t realize how often I think of Chen throughout the day! I caught myself multiple times just walking around doing Chen silk reeling arm movements! I caught myself multiple times standing, and then unconsciously stepping out into preparation for Chen silk reeling stance! I caught myself thinking about dantien rotations and qi paths…

By the immortal words of Willie Nelson, here’s an Ode to Chen:

Maybe I didn’t hold you
All those lonely, lonely times
And I guess I never told you
I’m so happy that you’re mine
Little things I should have said and done
I just never took the time

You were always on my mind
You were always on my mind

– Source: Willie Nelson – Always on My Mind

I was talking to a buddy of mine about training.  Like myself, he has dabbled in multiple styles over time. He mentioned this idea of daily, weekly, and monthly training. He has certain things he does daily, certain things weekly, and certain things monthly. He’s currently pursuing some “old Yang” stuff and has pushed Chen to be part of his “monthly training”.

I then have another taiji buddy that does EVERY SINGLE FORM HE KNOWS EVERY SINGLE DAY! This includes a gang load of qigong, some xingyi, some bagua, some liuhebafa, some wushu taiji, and like 6-8 reps of a chen set! 

Talk about comparing either end of the spectrum!

Starting on the 16th day of January in the year 2007, I will dedicate three months to strictly Yang Style taiji. I’ve been jumping back and forth on this issue for quite some time, trying to figure out which path is the best for me.

In my training, I do some Yang, I do some Chen, then I sit here at the computer comparing and contrasting the methods and trying to figure out the reason behind the difference. Instead, I will just do and explore.

There are many reasons for trying this out, but ultimately it comes down to feeling better after a session of Yang versus a session of Chen. I tend to feel more relaxed, more aware, more focused, just more of everything without the knee pains

I began today’s session with zhanzhuang training. Usually I would’ve done it for a fixed 5 or so mins over lunch, but this time I just let myself relax into the practice. I held the posture until I felt like I was ready to begin. No forcing, no looking at times, just waiting for my body to let me know it was time.

This reminded me of a practice from my wushu days. My coach would tell me to stand with my feet together and eyes closed. Remain in this position until I am ready to begin. But once I start, do not stop. No hesitation.

After some time, I opened up my eyes, shifted my with onto the right leg and stood with my feet together until I felt centered and ready. After a couple of deep breaths, I slowly lifted my left foot, resting on the tip toes. Slowly, I visualized energy coming from the ground and up my body. Following this energy, I lifted my left foot and rested it shoulder width apart from my right foot.

In working with these type of visualizations, I noted my breathing was much calmer, my movement much smoother, my mind more intent, my mind calmer.

It felt a little bit funny not doing any Chen in this session. But overall, I felt good. Calm and rejuvenated. Now that’s a training session

I remember it was one summer afternoon, I was 15 mins into my preclass zhanzhuang session when my teacher walked up to me and said, “Come over here, I wanna show you something”. Usually when this happens, either he shows me really cool applications and I get thrown about, or he shows me a new form or exercise. This time, he grabbed four bricks and arranged them so they formed a little square.

“I want you to step in such a way that in each step, your foot is aligned with one side of the square.” He then walked around the square taking a total of four steps and in each step, his foot was aligned with the square. Then he walked away. For the rest of the class, he didn’t say anything to me. In fact, he barely acknowledged me, but I knew him. I knew he was watching me out of the corner of his eye to see if I would practice what he showed me. To see if I would make something out of it or just forget it and move back to my old training.

I first started off going counter-clockwise, but after a while, I started getting dizzy, so I decided to turn around and go the other way. But then the question came up, “HOW TO TURN AROUND?” He never showed me how to turn around. I fumbled around for a while until I started connecting the dots. “Ahh…” it was like a lightbulb, I figured out how to turn around. I turn my hips on the weighted foot and just go the other direction!  After I figured this out, I turned to him to seek some acknowledgment and confirmation, but he was working with someone else.

At the end of class he came to me and said “Good. Stack the bricks against the wall. Think about stepping and it’s relation to the hips when you move.”

Over the next couple of weeks, I learned single and double handed palm changes. Nothing fancy, 1 single hand palm change, and 1 double hand palm change. I learned about walking in big circles, I learned about walking in small circles. I learned about turning quickly, I learned about adjusting my footwork.  I made little yin/yang symbols in my stepping patterns

Over time, I learned the choreography to the Liuhebafa Swimming Dragon Bagua form. I learned the moves, I learned the applications, I tried to do the apps, I got the apps done on me   It was a fun summer

Below is a clip of GM Wai Lun Choi demonstrating the LHBF Swimming Dragon form:

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTy00zNttWk

A buddy of mine is on the quest for “old Yang” and asked me if I had ever heard of or ran across anything of this nature? I easily replied, “No”. But the researcher in me couldn’t really let this go. I at least wanted to find some examples of the style. Luckily for me, in my browsing of taiji videos on Youtube, I ran across the following video of Wei Shuren demonstrating the Yang Style of Yang Jianhou:

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq0Uci8HvIU

Could this be the infamous secret Yang set? In viewing the clip, there seems to be quite a bit of effort placed upon intention. He just looks like he’s totally absorbed in the form.

Many students of Taijiquan practice incorrectly – first learn the routine, and only after they are skilled at it they explore the principles; what they do not understand is that through this empty practice without principles their bodies already get used to the incorrect way of practice, stiff, inflexible, with physical strength.

Once the students want to explore the principles, the way they move (with stiff and inflexible strength) already becomes habitual and the problems are very difficult to get rid of; and although they practice correctly for a long time later, Internal Strength (Nei Jin) is out of their grasp and there is no way that they can reach deep understanding of high skill levels.

– Source: China From Inside – Excerpts from the book “The True Teachings of Yang Jianhou’s Secret Yang Style Taijiquan” by Wei Shuren

What are some examples of these teachings? The article goes into quite a bit of detail regarding the reasoning for learning both principle and movement together. The article must be read to fully do it justice. However, at a high level, the excerpt outlined the ideas of:

• Crown of the head suspended
• Expression of the Eyes
• Empty Armpits

These are some of the points I try to train in my own practice. Often times, I tend to look down to check out my feet. This is a No No as it can easily disrupt any sort of “intention training” that may have been happening. I was taught we must try to *feel* the correction and then replicate ourselves.

As for the eyes, I whole heartedly agree. I’ve often heard you can tell the level of a master by just looking at his eyes. Not this glazed over inwardly look, but this “eye of the tiger” stare… Not the mean eye of the tiger but imagine a tiger in the jungle. Note the intensity of the eyes, yet the relaxed demeanor of the face.

The idea of empty armpits is something I value in a taiji set. It has this element of keeping the body opened and relaxed. It reminds me of some yiquan visualizations where you imagine beach balls underneath the arms. I like this visualization.

Any additional points or comments about this style would be greatly appreciated.