… There are three languages for teaching Chen taiji. First is speaking. We discuss the principles. Second is body language – demonstrating how to use the body frame. And third is hand-to-hand. First we speak, then we communicate through body language and then, hand-to-hand.
– Chen Xiaowang, Kungfu Magazine: It Takes a Village: The Taiji Economy of Chenjiagou [via]
During a conversation with my coworker, I told him I was practicing some taiji last night and to my surprise he said he did some taiji practice last night too! He said he was doing positive/negative circles and a couple movements of the Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method (CSTPM) Yilu during commercials while watching basketball. THIS IS GREAT!
Our last lunch time session must have really rubbed off on him. The beginning of the session was focused on doing 3 count positive and negative circles. During this time, I gave the following pointer:
Elbow in, no hand in. Hand out, no elbow out
To further elaborate on this point, I asked my coworker to grab my wrist. Then, I demonstrated what it felt like if I pulled in with my hand versus pulling in with my elbow. He said he felt more power when I pulled in with my elbow. Additionally, he noticed that when pulling in with the elbow, there is a slight outward twist of the forearm that affects the attacker’s grip. This was a great observation and something I had not thought about.
Next, I stood in a position where my elbow was “in” and had my coworker apply some resistance to my shoulder and elbow. I demonstrated that if I try to do “elbow out” that I would be basically trying to put my force against his. However, when I did “hand out”, I was able to mitigate his force as it felt like he just slid down my arm and had nothing to push against. Right now, I know this works, but still trying to figure out in my mind fully why and how this works.. 
Next, I taught the first couple of movements of the Yilu form up to buddha warrior pounds mortar. My coworker likes to ask “why” so this gives me an opportunity to understand the practicality of the movements I am teaching. He asked about the first movement of the form where the body turns to the right and you step out with the left leg. I explained the reason for forming a vertical knife hand with the right hand at solar plexus height and how combined with a turning of the body to the right, could be used to deflect a punch. My coworker was surprised how little movement and effort was required to deflect a punch in this manner. Additionally, I explained the importance of sensitivity and timing and how it these are applied in the punch deflection.
I then showed a couple more applications following the sequence of the buddha warrior pounds mortar movement. This included using some leg qinna, elbow qinna, noting the 2 point contact of wrist and elbow to control shoulder, etc etc. He was thoroughly shocked and surprised at how many applications could be extracted from a couple of very simple looking movements.
As we walked back to work, I explained to him how little movement could cause big movement or big reaction. The analogy I used was that of kids playing with sparklers on the 4th of July. Holding a sparkler, small movement in the wrist causes big movement at the tip of the sparkler. We could then connect this by noting that small movement in our own body can cause big movement in our opponent’s body. In a practical martial sense, the hard part is identifying the point of origination for this rotational movement.
My coworker asked me how I came to know these applications I showed him and I disclosed to him that I am learning right along with him. I explained to him that special nature of the Hong Junsheng Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method is that execution of the application is exactly how the form is trained. All I had to focus on was doing the form correctly and the applications worked. In other words:
Hong’s system amalgamated gong and fa. This means the form that is learned can be directly applied in push hands or real fighting situations. Students no longer need to practice Gong for dozens of years in order to extrapolate the fa from these gongs.
After some thinking and chatting with another taiji buddy, I have decided to start teaching my coworker the Chen Practical Method (CPM) as taught by Chen Zhonghua (CZH). In a previous session, I had shown my coworker a bit of the CPM Yilu form and my coworker expressed interest. He noted that when I did the CPM Yilu, it looked like I was fighting someone. Additionally, since I am working on the Chen Practical Method in my own time, teaching someone will give me yet another opportunity to train.
My initial reservations in teaching the CPM material was due to having very limited exposure to the teachings myself. I have been following Chen Zhonghua’s material online through blogs and videos for a couple of years. Also, I have discussed the theories of the CPM and training methods with students of CZH, but I have only recently received formal instruction in the material through a weekend workshop with CZH.
The taiji buddy I spoke with pointed out that even though I have little experience in the CPM, teaching the material may help me in my own understanding. This made sense to me and has proven to be true.
As a tangent, I am reminded of my college days where free instruction of martial arts was offered. There were a couple of fellows that freely taught martial arts instruction, one of them trained in muay thai and the other trained in grappling and brazilian jujitsu. My room mate began training with these guys as did I for a short period of time. What I realized was they taught for free to (1) increase their own understanding of the material and (2) to test their skill against various people and body types. Both of these guys were training to fight and one of them was even a muay thai champion in his weight class. Like them, I teach my coworker for free as it allows time for me to train as well as increasing my own understanding. No, I do not train to participate in fighting competitions
Since I have decided to teach my coworker the Chen Practical Method, I have found myself thinking more about the method and the principles taught by the method. Also, trying to teach the material to a complete beginner is very difficult as it forces me to use precise terminology in my instructions. A beginner has no idea what the term song means, or what it means to “swim in air”. Instead, my instructions are more concrete: “elbow in, no movement of otherwise”, “turn waist via one knee up the other down”, etc.
The first thing I taught my coworker was the positive and negative circles. I taught using a three point circle, because that’s what I am comfortable with. I have seen videos of Master Chen doing 7 and 9 point circles, but I am nowhere near that level of body control and mechanics. At a high level, the positive circle can be defined as:
(1) Right Elbow In
(2) Turn Waist (left knee up, right knee down)
(3) Right Hand Out (left knee down, right knee up)
During the instruction, I explained there is no weight shifting, but maybe a 55/45 weight distribution caused by the up and down motions of the knees. I must admit doing the up/down motion of the knees with no weight shifting is very difficult and something I am still working on.
My coworker was shifting weight during the positive circle and said that I was too and it could not be done otherwise. So, to prove my point to him, I had him stand next to me and put his arm straight out in front of him touching my right shoulder. I proceeded to do a positive right circle and during the whole movement, my shoulder touched his outstretched arm. This proved that I was not shifting my body side to side, but merely rotating about the central axis in my movement. He was satisfied with the demonstration and saw that the positive circle could be done without horizontal weight shifting.
Next, I taught him the negative circle which can be defined as:
(1) Right elbow in, turn waist (left knee up, right knee down)
(2) Turn Waist (left knee down, right knee up)
(3) Lower Right Hand
Below is a video of Master Chen Zhonghua demonstrating the 2 circles of the Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method system of Grandmaster Hong Junsheng.
Then, we covered Twisting the Towel foundational exercise. This exercise is basically done in a horse stance as if you are trying to wring the water out of a towel. I first demonstrated the exercise with closed fist to emphasize the wringing or twisting nature. Then, I showed him the exercise using the Chen Tile Hand.
My coworker looked like he was spacing out a bit during this exercise so I decided to do another demonstration. I had him tightly grab my wrist and I showed him how I was able to counter the grip using the Twisting the Towel body mechanics. I then showed him how ineffective the move was if I just used my shoulder to drive the arm movement and then demonstrated again how powerful the motion is if the movement is driven by the up and down movements of the kua. Additionally, I emphasized the importance of coordinating the movements of the hands with the movements of the kua, that is, when the kua stops, the hand stops. I then grabbed his wrist and had him try.
My coworker was surprised by the immediate feedback on what worked and what did not. He was able to experience himself trying the move with just shoulder and then utilizing the waist to drive the movement. To me, this is one of the greatest advantages of the Chen Practical Method. You learn in a practical application scenario what works and what does not and you can adjust accordingly. This is a very different approach in that other forms of taiji will teach years of form work before any applications or push hands is trained. In the Chen Practical Method, form and practical applications are taught TOGETHER from day 1.
Finally, I showed him the Fetching Water foundational exercise. My coworker tried to follow me as best he could, but this exercise is a bit hard to grasp for beginners. Instead of going into the details of the movements, I showed him an application of the exercise. Basically, with my right foot forward I grabbed my coworker’s right wrist using my right hand. I then stepped into him and placed my left knee behind his right knee. Next, I initiated the Fetching Water movement by moving my left kua down and right kua up, at the same time doing a twisting the towel motion with my left hand on the outer edge of his right hip.
As I moved, he let out a little yelp as he felt very uncomfortable. I let him go and he sighed a bit with relief but then asked me to do the application to him again! He said it felt so weird and not at all what he had expected and that he had to see it again. This time I explained to him that I was basically using my body like a gear box. The kua movement and my body placement caused his right elbow to be over extended against my chest affecting his right shoulder. Additionally, my left knee going down knocked out his foundation behind his right knee, removing the foundation support of his right leg. Finally, my left hand twisting against his right hip pushed his body down into his unsupported right leg. In summary, I pulled on his right arm, knocked out his right leg while pushing his body down into where his right leg should have been.
Furthermore, I explained to him that the Chen Practical Method teaches up to make our body bigger than it appears. In effect, the Fetching Water exercise increases the surface area from left knee to right right shoulder. In other words, there is a stretch happening between the left knee and right shoulder and I was basically stretching his body across my lengthening frame.
In the workshop with Master Chen Zhonghua, he spoke about framing our opponent. In essence, you are stretching your opponent out on an imaginary frame (think picture frame). As the opponent’s body is stretched like a string filled with tension, only a little pluck of a finger results in the reverb of the string, ie affecting the whole string. I stretched my coworker’s body and then applied a little “pluck” with my left hand, which was enough to disrupt his whole body. The crazy thing is that it felt like I did nothing and used very little energy. Note, the Chen Practical Method is all new to me and I am learning as I go along, sort of like, on the job training
An example of Twisting the Towel foundation exercise can be seen at time 4:45 in the clip below.
After this demonstration, I called it a session. We both walked back to work discussing what was covered with a new sense of enthusiasm and energy!
Just finished listening to a radio interview with Chen Zhonghua on the Mind, Body and Spirit Fitness Show on Tulsa Radio KFAQ. Rick Thomas of Thomas Academy recently hosted a workshop with Chen Zhonghua and appeared with Master Chen on the radio talk show.
The radio interview has been posted to the Practical Method Blog. Listen to all 4 parts of the talk show:
Enjoy
After last nights zhan zhuang session, I went through the foundational exercises of the Chen Practical Method (CPM) as taught by Chen Zhonghua. The exercises included:
Upon completion of the exercises, I noticed a soreness of the inner thigh muscles. In the Chen Practical Method, there is no weight shifting, therefore motion is generated by the up/down movements of the kua. However, initially, the practitioner can simulate this by over exaggerating the up/down motions of the knee.
One thing I realized right away when trying to do the “one kua up, the other kua down” motion is how tight my kuas are. I thought I had pretty loose kuas as I can easily “fold” into the kua during a horizontal weight shift. However, in the CPM, there is no folding of the kua, both kuas are to remain active.
How does a kua remain active? In my newbie opinion and exposure, both kuas must hold a bit of tension. I know, I know, it’s blasphemy to say the word “tension” in the context of taiji, but truly, it’s the only way I have been able to define it. For example, when the right kua goes up and the left kua goes down, my right kua often folded, thereby releasing the tension of this musculature. In a push hands scenario, my opponent could use this folding to take advantage of me and direct his energy into my folded kua, causing me to lose balance. Try the same exercise again but this time keep a bit of tension in the right kua and do not let it fold completely. Feel the difference? I do.
Externally, folding the kua that goes up and keeping a bit of tension in it may look the same, but internally there is a very different feeling. First off, with a folded kua, I felt my structure to be a bit weak in such a way that a push to the folded kua would not be able to redirect the energy into the foot. With the same kua active using a little bit of tension, I can now feel the imaginary line from hand to foot. In this way, an incoming energy could be easily redirected through the active kua and down into the foot.
Okay, enough of this kua talk, what does this have to do with the Dang? One of the requirement of Chen taijiquan is to keep a rounded Dang. The Dang is defined as the inner region of the thighs or keeping a rounded crotch. Get into a horse stance, draw a line from right inner foot to crotch to left inner foot. This is the Dang.
The body mechanic requirements of the Chen Practical Method, in my opinion, truly facilitates the notion of keeping a rounded Dang. By keeping both kuas active and only utilizing an up/down motion of the kuas, I felt what it means keep a rounded Dang. I felt a soreness within the inner musculature of my thighs and kua. I would liken this sensation to riding a horse but at the same time, keeping one’s thighs tight around the horse, no matter the movement.
Ask yourself, do you keep a rounded Dang during practice and if so, how do you train/maintain this requirement? In my opinion, a rounding of the Dang naturally occurs by following the biomechanical rules of the Chen Practical Method.
