Pulling the proverbial silk through the pearl?

The other day during lesson, I had a new insight! I don't know if it can be considered as the proverbial pulling of silk, since I have never seen a nine holed pearl, not to mention pulling silk. However, I think what I have understood may be quite close to it.

When doing the Grasp the Sparrow's Tail that day,

keeping the hands relaxed,

with the waist leading the movements,

keeping the the kua loose and relaxed(song),

I suddenly felt that I was not "moving" very much, my body sort of preferred to just be in that position. However, somehow or rather, it still moved, but very slowly, like a trickle. To want it to move more, I have to put my mind to it. Even so, it moves slowly, but I am relaxed.........

In the first step of the move, after my leg steps to the left, as my left hand splits to the left, it felt like bales of heavy, soft, smooth silky cloth hung from left hand, while I held it down with my right hand.

As my left hand splits to the left, the heavy slippery silk cloth slided along it, I had to hold it down firmly with my right hand, I had to sink my right hand, but the cloth was too heavy, I had to use my waist to propel my hand to pull it along.

But that was not enough, my right hand could not move together with with my waist and left hand at the same speed, if not the cloth would not be "pulled". My right hand had to stay in position, but the heavy cloth is pulling my right hand along with it, I had to force my right hand down(intention only)! Both my hands had to pull in opposite directions(Dui La对拉, my teacher talked about the other time! Damn!).

This pulling in opposite directions had to be generated in the waists and the arms also have to be in the correct biomechanical position and alignment for it to have the maximum effect in pulling the cloth.

I feel the resistance, but not the weight of it, that's why i am still relaxed. And so I pull the cloth, it coordinates with my breath automatically, it is heavy, whew! I feel a surge of heat come through to my back, body, right through to my arms, it is stretched, stretched to the far corners of my body.

I cannot pull faster, I just cannot, its resistance is too strong. I cannot pull slower, if not the cloth will sag downwards.

Everytime I pull, it is like pulling the dough when making noodles, the ingredients are mixed evenly and stretched, repeatedly stretched, till the strands are fine and pliable. Not too fast, not too slow. And so I pull, pulling what is within me, without really pulling very much physically, both arms relaxed, all is relaxed. And that's what the pulling is all about for me.

As you can see, it is more of an internal feeling which actually makes you look incredible when doing the form!

So try it!

Forms: Different Masters, Different Standards, Different Viewpoint

Recently, I acquired a copy of the Zhu Hai Taiji Conference DVD. Many famous Masters were featured in there, including Wang Xi An, Chen Zheng Lei, Ma Hong, Yang Zhen Duo, Fu Sheng Yuan, Lin Mo Gen, Sun Yong Tian and Wang Hai Zhou.

In class, when my friend asked my teacher how he felt about the performances, he commented that he liked Ma hong and Lin Mo Gen, and added that Fu Sheng Yuan was not too bad too.

As for me, I liked Fu Sheng Yuan the most. I feel his form has the "soft outside, hard inside" quality. And looking at his form, you can hardly find any technical weakness. when he wards off(peng) or pushes(an), it looks strong with power and backing. You can really feel the strength behind it, body alignments all in place. Impressive!

As for the Chen style, I thought Ma Hong's form looked a little too hard and fierce. However, he does have many nuances in his form that the newer generation don't. Wonder why my teacher liked him that much though.....
Actually, of all the famous Chen Style stylists, I like Chen Xiao Wang the most! His forms are always smooth and all his fajings are crisp and packs a punch. Comparatively, although Chen Zheng Lei's form is also very smooth, his fajings are just not as great as CXW's.

After the reading the article by Li Ya Xuan the other time, I did a check on him and found out that other than his daughter Li Min Di and
her husband, another one of his famous disciples is Lin Mo Gen. And when my teacher said he liked Lin's form, I had to get the DVD!

However, when I saw him perform, his form looked very soft, very volatile I would say, like the moves could easily change and transit into another at any moment. I think this maybe because of the elusive song we have always been chasing after. However, the way he moves, it seemed to me that he was treading on the thin line of technical/structural weakness agaainst volatility of form. Nevertheless, if masters are performing such a form, they would know their stuff. If taiji beginners like me are performing such a form, I am asking for trouble.

Sometimes when I try to relax(song) to a similar stage as him, I find my hands to be "floating" like there is no substance. Usually it would be called relax and sink(Song Chen), as opposed to relax and float. But the sink part still eludes me at times.

In this DVD, I find that there are 3 ratings of masters: average, above average, good and excellent.
For example, Fu Sheng Yuan, Ma Hong, Lin Mo Gen and another guy performing yang style with the surname Li would count as excellent.

Chen Zheng Lei , Wang Xi An would be good.

There are some masters whom I think still lack the inner kungfu part of things but have excellent smooth forms which takes a lot of practice like Cui Zhong Shan and I would classify them as above average.

But there are some masters who really look quite average like Sun Yong Tian.

Nevertheless, all of them are much better than me and it would take years before I reach their level.

With my present limited knowledge and experience, this is as much as I can gather so if anyone could point out my mistakes and correct me, please do! Thanks!

Why didn't you just LISTEN?

Damn! What was happening yesterday???!!!! I was supposed to be listening but whenever people pushed I just pushed back! Should have listened, should have looked inside, should have felt for opportunity! Damn! But when someone pushed, I just pushed back....

Sorry, just venting frustrations! Back to more practice........
Oh yeah, there is a nice article by Li Ya Xuan here http://qi-journal.com/Taiji.asp?-token.SearchID=Li+Ya+Xuan

Relax cleanly, Relax fully.

Relax cleanly, Relax fully, Relax deeply, Relax thoroughly, Relax and sink. Once strength is used, you become a solid structure waiting to get beaten and broken.

Last Sunday at lesson, my teacher was saying that he noticed we were all still too stiff and hard with our movements. Like while we were performing our motions, he could see the muscles in our arms all tensed up. Not good! So he demonstrated some moves and his arms were really relaxed, muscles not showing! Damn!

Another thing, he said that in taiji, your true intention is hidden, so do not display your intention explicitly in your moves. You must be like " want, don't want, want , don't want", and not show them like, ok i am going straight for your chest here!(Step Forward into Seven Stars)

So I reflected on myself and my form. I found that, true, my muscles were not exactly tensed, but they were taut throughout. And I sort of tend to tense them up a little like maybe at the end of a movement or something, or when I try to stretch my arms in some motions or when I try to focus my intention at that point. But then I realised, ya, focus intention does not mean to tense muscles! A common pitfall.

So today, I decided to try his method. Leave the arms as arms, relax them, go through the motions, enjoying them, like you are moving through the clouds. Then I realised, hey, some of my movements now have to be generated by my waist, for it to be effective. And so, I start to train and move with my waist and not my arm muscles. Then I realised, hey, the power is going straight into my arms and expressed in them! Incredible! As such, my movements became slower, fuller and more complete with substance.

Circles of Push Hands

Disclaimer: This is not a tell all post of the circles part of push hands! I am just starting on it! Please correct me if I am wrong!

This lesson done with the intention of experimenting how moving in circles have to do with push hands.

Experiment: When the opponent pushes , I sort of draw a circle with my wrist, arm, waist and kua.


Findings:
Lets say in a Right hand Single hands push hands situation(haven't learnt double hands), I press（按）, opponent wards off (Peng), I get ready to receive and feel for the direction of his incoming force. Let's say it is towards my chest from my left. He comes in in a horizontal circular motion with his right hand and drives my right hand out to the left as far as possible. I grab the exact opportunity when he decides to attack to my chest. I relax and sink my arm and my kua relaxes, ready for any shifting motion required. I then then ride on his attack while creating a slight circular twist with my waist, shoulder, arm and wrist. This releases the tension between his hand and mine and his hand seems to lose what he was initially pushing on.

This is the opportune time, while riding, I do a slight circular twist of my forearm and brings his arm to an empty spot created by my empty kua. He feels his strength is falling into emptiness, he withdraws, I enter.

I do a circular twist originating from my leg, to my kua, to my waist to my arm, and brings it out through my forearm and wrist. I neutralise his arm aside and enter immediately.


Conclusion:

Well, you can say findings were quite positive and the experiment was a success. The test targets were well neutralised.