In any internal martial arts (IMA), we’ve all been told stories of masters having the ability to mysteriously uproot an opponent with little to no movement. We’ve even heard stories of qi projection and being able to knock down distant opponents. It’s easy to be a skeptic and consider it all fake until we’ve had the chance to experience such phenomenon.

I must admit, I’ve only truly felt this type of thing maybe once or twice. In a 12 animals of Liu He Ba Fa workshop with Wai Lun Choi, we were learning the applications for the dragon form.  He spoke about the sinking energy and how we must use our mind to sink the energy down. In addition, he emphasized the importance of protecting our breathing. If something can affect or impact our breathing, then we are ‘dead’. He was a way with mortal terms

Anyhoo, as we were working with partners on applying the application, he went around and demonstrated on some folks. I was one of the lucky folks who had the opportunity to attack him. I came in with a punch, then all of a sudden, I was heading towards the ground face first. It felt as if my forward momentum had been interrupted and redirected directly downwards. The crazy thing is I did not FEEL anything.

So, how did he do it? What’s his secret? I don’t really know, but I do know that during the workshop he heavily emphasized the notion of practicing slowly, calmly with full intention of the mind. He emphasized that we should practice at a level 2 on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the most tension. He emphasized zhan zhuang and that we should do it to calm our mind. He emphasized the importance of breathing and noted that if someone can interrupt your breath, they got you.

In a subsequent class, I was working on this application with a partner. To try and make the application work, I was biomechanically trying to coordinate my arms with a sinking. While it did work a bit, I never quite got the same effect. Then I tried something different while maintaining the same physical structure. This time, instead of trying to pull my opponent down, I just thought about my own energy sinking. My opponent punched, immediately after making contact, I thought about my energy sinking down, and the opponent followed. We both looked at each other bright eyed and amazed.

Is this the paradigm shift that ZenMindSword is referring to?

To understand this type of uprooting method, one needs a paradigm shift otherwise it will sound like new age hocus pocus or even plain nonsense to cheat the gullible.

Over the weekend, I watched Superman Returns.  In it, Lex Luthor notes, in referencing Kryptonian technology, “that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” (as quoted from Arthur C. Clarke’s Three Laws of Prediction).  Is it all just a bunch of new age magic?

Recently a coworker of mine walked by complaining of knee issues. I asked briefly show me his golf swing and I noticed a couple of big alignment no-no’s right off the bat.

First of all, I pointed out it appeared that he was twisting from the knee instead of turning from the waist.  I noted in taiji we have a rule where the knee should point the same direction as the foot. He appeared a bit perplexed so I demonstrated what I saw him doing with his knee and what he should be doing. I’ve always felt this is the best way to try and teach something as it give the person a concrete example of right and wrong.

Next, I showed him how he could turn his body by turning with the hips and folding with the kua. We did some stationary turning exercises (in front of my cubicle… ) to reinforce the idea. He immediately noticed a difference and commented how he felt different muscle groups activating by turning in this manner.

He showed quite a bit of interest so I also spoke about how the tip of the knee should not past beyond the tip of the toe. However, I explained that I like to be a bit more conservative and not allow the knee to go beyond the instep of the foot or past the acupuncture ‘bubbling well’ point.  As an aside, I’ve seen some master keep a 90 degree angle of the ankle between their foot and shin. This is something I am working towards.

Next I explained how in taiji, the outer edge of the hip should not go beyond the outer edge of the foot. This was a hard one for me to grasp and integrate into my own training as it’s easy to ‘stand lazy’ and sink into the hip joint instead of keeping the hip aligned and letting the energy sink down into the foot and ground. (Great exercise for Putting Practice into Daily Life)  The effect is quite obvious if we try and turn the body with the hip aligned and with the hip extended.

To top it off, I gave a little dash of harmony.  I explained in taiji, we try to harmonize the elbows and knees. Everything starts together, everything stops together. I then demonstrated this concept in the motion of a golf swing. They do not have to move the same distance, but the elbows should not finish their range of motion before the knees. As an enrichment exercise, I asked him to think about the harmony between the shoulders and hips.

In the end, I told him these are some of the principles of unified, whole-body movement in taiji. While all of them may not directly apply to golf mechanics, think of these the next time you swing the club and either feel pain or a disconnect.

The last time a coworker wanted to tag along in my session, she basically said she would just like to try and follow along and do whatever I normally do. I told her I tend to start off with a bit of standing meditation before going into silk reeling and ending with form work. Being she didn’t want any formal instruction but wanted to just follow-along.

I did my normal routine. Some light stretching of the arms, neck, waist, knees, etc. After which, I went directly into about 20-25 mins of zhanzhuang broken down into quarters. I did roughly 5 mins or so of just wuji (hands at side), then shifted to another 5 mins of hand near dantien. After that, did roughly 10 mins of ‘embrace balloon’ or universal post posture and ending with 5 mins of hands at side near waist posture. I recall peaking over to check on my coworker during the embrace balloon phase only to see her shaking a bit, so I asked her to lower her hands to about abdomen level instead of heart/chest level.

Fast forward to the next day, I asked if she wanted to come along and she smiled and declined. Because of this, I’m a bit hesitant of introducing newbies to things like zhan zhuang, static posture training, and isolated movement exercises. This is a bit saddening as I feel these are the core foundational exercises and things that will give you the most ‘bang for your buck’ exercises.

This reminds me of a conversation I had with a long-time taiji practitioner where he basically mentioned how people have preconceived notions about taiji. They think it’s just moving around all gently and soothing which results in a huge disconnect when they begin to realize it’s hard work. Sure, it may look easy just ’standing’ there, but when you ask someone to do it for 5 mins, they cringe. Tell them a minor requirement is 20 mins per session and they think you’re nuts.   

Yesterday, another coworker wanted to tag along to see what all this taiji hub bub is about. Instead of going through my normal routine I started off with some silk reeling, then the first section of the yang form, followed by some taiji stepping exercises and ending with a very small bit of zhan zhuang. I told her the session was a high level overview and should be used to ‘wet one’s appetite’ about taiji. Since I’m all about being a ‘taiji-herald’, I want people to become interested in taiji, even if that means I must veer off my own training for 1 day :0)

While playing the Yang long form, I suddenly got this weird feeling of ‘cultivating potential’. Not really sure how to describe it, but it felt as if I was ready at any and all times to release this energy I was building up. The form began to feel like I was slowly cultivating potential energy.  As I moved, from one grasps swallows tail to the next, I never once felt as if the energy had been released.

Even when I played postures like Single Whip or Part Wild Horse’s Mane, I never felt as if the energy leaked. Even though Brush Knee Push Step has a strike, I never felt as if the energy was released during the strike. The energy just slowly flowed into the next transition, like a smooth, unbreaking wave.

Rounded and expansiveness body, yet concealing the hidden power ready to be released at any given time.

Where I live, it seems as if the weather basically jumped from winter to summer. Last week, temps were in the 50F range and now they’re 70F. While I do enjoy the bright sunny day, I don’t like to train when it’s too hot or humid outside. I remember last year, I went outside to the nearby park when it was like 92F! The weather was SO humid and I really didn’t want to sweat, so I did my chen form in an ultra high stance.

Yesterday, I started off the session with a bit of zhanzhung under the shade of nearby trees. I then went straight into the Chen laojia yilu set. The set felt nice, but I began to sweat a bit after beginning the second section. While sweating is not necessarily a bad thing, I’m not fond of heading back to work drenched in sweat.

After finishing the Chen set, I did a round of the Yang long form. Even to this day, I’m still amazed at how different the 2 sets feel. The Yang set felt nice, light, smooth and not much sweating. My mind was calm and I could feel the slight breeze blowing against my arm. A great way to finish the training session.