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!
The third time is a charm! The following day after our second session, he wanted to tag along again. This time, I wanted to formalize the session a bit as I think he my stick around for a while. My goal is to get him through the Yang long form up to the first white crane. For this, I will do the following general format:
1. Zhan Zhuang Centering (10-15 breaths per posture, 2-3 postures)
2. Like stationary qigong
3. Follow along Hotel Taiji (Beginning of Yang long form)
4. Question and Answer of things covered in last session
5. Detailed breakdown of 2-3 postures in Yang long form
6. Practice detailed posture breakdown
7. Maybe 1-2 foundational stepping exercises
8. Follow along Hotel Taiji
For the third session, I spent a bit more time doing some stationary qigong exercises. Exercises included “rolling the ball” while shifting weight to the left/right leg as well as some Sun style open/close type hand posturing. At the end of the qigong session, I asked my coworker how he felt and he said good and relaxed. I then asked him how his hands felt, and he noted there was a tingling sensation as well as some warmth. I then covered a bit about the qi can flow to the extremities of our bodies when we’re relaxed and linked the sensation to blood circulation and oxygenation. I didn’t want to get too deep into the esoteric stuff, so kept it light and easy
After the third session, my coworker commented that he enjoyed the new format. Additionally, he noted that his thigh no longer hurt like they did in the first session. This is good as lunch time taiji is all about getting outside, enjoying the weather and doing some relaxing taiji
Surprisingly, my coworker wanted to tag along on my next taiji outing. This is great because I have been thinking about some different approaches to presenting taiji material. I wanted to focus a bit more on foundational training as opposed to giving him a bunch of little test tastes to wet one’s appetite.
This time, after the zhan zhuang centering, I had him get in a bow stance. Next, we just shifted the weight from front leg to rear leg. After a couple of repetitions, I introduced him to the double ward off hand posture during the forward weight shift. After a couple more repetitions, I incorporated the roll back hand postures on the rear weight shift. Next, the squeeze (ji) was introduced. Finally, the hand positions for the taiji press were brought into the mix.
Little by little, I was building up the gross patterns required for the grasp bird’s tail sequence. In my opinion, it’s better to teach people high level choreography and relaxation. Doing so, gives a feeling of accomplishment. This activity actually felt quite good and something I think I will incorporate more into my own training. There’s something relaxing about rocking back and forth, I’m not exactly sure what, but I’m assuming it’s related to the whole taiji ruler exercise, but I’ll save that linking connection for another time
Next, I had my coworker follow in the Yang long form up to the first white crane spreads wings. I like this sequence and this is something I often practice in my own training. After four repetitions, you end up making a nice little box. The sequence is compact, easy to learn and contains lots of material to work on.
Since my coworker had not done any taiji before, I wanted to see his affinity towards Chen style, so I introduced the Chen Village single handed silk reeling. For this, I broke the movement down into 4 counts and highlighted the weight shifts, waist turns and hand placements. Next, I briefly showed him the Chen Practical Method positive circle and had time try to follow along. During this instruction, I felt a bit unease as I was still working on this material and don’t feel confident nor have I received the permission to teach the material.
After he mentioned some soreness in his thighs, I told him to just relax and I did a small demo of the Chen Practical Method Yilu for him. This felt good as I have been working on the Practical Method form and was glad to have an opportunity to practice it a bit in an open space.
Noting his vibe at the end of the session, I have a feeling he will continue to tag along and do some taiji over lunch with me. As such, I am planning a more formalized curriculum to cover. Right now, my plans are to start off with some zhan zhuang, then have him follow me in the Yang long form up to the first white crane spreads wings (dubbed hotel taiji). After which, I will give some detailed instruction on the movements, perhaps 1-2 movements per session. The session will end with another round of the "hotel" Yang long form. I think this will be enough to give a good primer on taiji and will give me some foundational material to work on. I still do my own training in the evenings, so I guess the lunch time activities is just bonus
A coworker of mine has expressed some interest in learning taiji, so I have invited him to join me during my lunch time sessions. The first "class" was last week when the temperature was roughly 50F. It has been a while since I have taught someone, so I felt a bit rusty and unsure about what to cover. Generally, I tell people that if they want to tag along and just follow what I do, then by all means go for it. This is my own way of not formally teaching, but just letting someone follow.
Personally, I have some reservations about teaching as I don’t really like to formalize the event (curriculum, time frame, warm ups, etc). However, I have received permissions from my former instructors to teach. In fact, back in the day, I used to help teach class all the time and even taught a class or 2 when my instructor could not attend. From a styles perspective, I have gotten permission to teach some Yang style and Chen style silk reeling and basics. I mostly will stick to the basic foundational training and may cover the first section of a form. Beyond that, I tended to refer the student to my instructor at the time if they wanted more instruction. This methodology has worked out well for me, but things are a bit different now since I am not receiving any type of formal instruction on a regular basis. On the other hand, I have tons of material to work on that I have recieved formal instruction on. In other words, there is some time before I reach the end of my comfort level of what I feel I am able to teach.
Furthermore, one of my own worries about teaching is that I will not have time to work on my progress. However, I do feel there are some basics and foundations that I could use more work on, so might as well teach and do, eh? Plus, teaching is a way of fleshing out my own understanding, so it does have it’s plusses.
The first session was basically a mish mash of things. I always start my own training session with a bit of zhan zhuang for centering. I taught the 3 basic postures of zhan zhuang (wuji, hands at dantien, hands at heart) with some minor alignment corrections (chin tucked, ear centerline with hip and foot, etc). Not wanting to scare my coworker away, I kept the postures relatively short in duration. Next, I covered the bow stance and did some taiji walking drills. The first walking drill was done with hands at sides, followed by hands at heart height zhan zhuang, followed by parting horses mane hand positions. I did a similar sequence for the footwork used in repulse monkey.
Then, we did some basic foundation exercises with feet shoulder width apart and knees slightly bent. In this posture, I covered the hand positions for open/close taiji, part horse’s mane, brush knee, repluse monkey, cloud hands. Finally, we ended the session with him following me through the standardized 24 form up to the white crane spreads wings. Overall, it was a good session and he was surprised how sore his thighs felt, even when everything was done in a really high stance.
