Last night I was doing some single handed silk reeling exercises and noticed I had a bit too much tension in my arm during ‘count 2′ of the exercise. To briefly describe the posture, count 2 of the single handed silk reeling exercises consists of the weight being mostly centered, hips and shoulders squared facing forward and arm/hand in front of the body.
Basically, I felt there was too much tension in my forearm and elbow region during this movement. Then it suddenly dawned on me, I had a flashback of my seminar with Chen Xiaowang, and remembered that he often asked folks: “Where is the qi?”. In this posture, the answer to that question is dantian. Then I placed my mind on the dantian and lo and behold, I instantly felt the tension release from my elbow and forearm!
It’s amazing how much control the mind has over the body. I realize more and more the key is going back to the basics. When in doubt, go back and review the foundational material. Review zhan zhuang (standing meditation) and seek to find it’s connection to the current issue. Review silk reeling and look for connections. I remember asking my instructor how much standing and silk reeling should a person do in relation to form work. His answer was it depends on how good the person’s silk reeling and standing is….
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Sounds like your getting the internal and mental control down well, you should try meditating out the form or techniques your going to work on and picture doing them perfect it’ll be fresher on your mind when you go to do them. A meditation of push hands can also give you new ideas of ways to use the techniques from a marshall stand point