Notes for Phoenix Workshop 2011 Video

http://practicalmethod.com/2011/11/phoenix-2011-13-move-correction-and-application-online-video-trailer/

Notes for this video:

1. In the example of a top, as long as it keeps spinning, it has a centre. However, that centre may travel along the floor as time progresses. A centre must always exist for any particular action.
2. In taiji, a 3D object is considered 2-dimensional, it's the action that adds the 3rd dimension. In other words, a position without action is like a 2-dimensional picture.

10 Yilus a day

Beginning on Nov. 30, 2012, I have been doing 10 yilus a day plus the following foundations:
20 Positive Circles
20 Negative Circles
20 Twisting the Towel
20 Fetch Water
20 Six Sealings Four Closings

8 yilus a day

Beginning yesterday, I am now doing 8 yilus a day. It takes about 1 hr 40 min to complete them. I also notice that recently I am no longer out of breath after doing the daily yilus. The current focus is not to collapse the rear kua, and try to constantly stretch between the foot and the knee, and between the knee and the kua.

打手歌

掤捋挤按须认真。 上下相随人难进。 任他巨力来打吾。 牵动四两拨千斤。 引进落空合即出。 沾连粘随不丢顶。

Power of the Wave

Today, I went to the beach. I had two big water guns. While I was filling up one with water, I left the other floating in the water. The waves were pretty strong. When the water hit my leg, of course, it wouldn't hurt me. However, when the wave pushed the water gun, and the water gun hit my leg, it hurt very much. There are two aspects to consider:
1) If my leg in the water is like an opponent and I am like the water, I will just glide through, and the opponent won't be able to stop it as there is nothing for him to hold on to, and there is practically no resistance.
2) The water gun didn't move itself, it was moved by the water. In order to make the energy in the wave to do some damage (to hurt my leg), that energy cannot become dispersed. Through the water gun structure, the energy stayed focused. On the other hand, my leg stopped the water from moving forward as there was something I was able to hold on to.
In life, there are so many things related to taiji (yin and yang).

Taiji Theory

This video by Master Chen Zhonghua covers the definition of taiji, yin and yang, how we should practice:
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDM0NTEyNjU2.html

Kelvin Ho Yilu on July 18, 2012

2000 yilus milestone is reached today!

Since Oct 2011, I have been practicing almost every day. I started out with 5 yilus per day, and increased it slightly to 6 yilus per day in order to make another goal of 2012 yilus in 2012. A number of taiji brothers are working on this 2012 goal. Master Chen told me to do 10 yilus per day, but I am not there yet.  I need to shorten my break between yilus, and so that I can increase the intensity and pack more yilus within the same amount of time. 10 yilus within one hour will be very good as it would mean pretty much no breaks in between and averaging 6 minutes each.

He got bounced!

Today, I pushed hands with a friend for about 20 minutes. Nothing taiji happened for the most part, a bit of getting stuck, a bit of tuck-of-war, a bit of just moving around. However, for one move, my friend got bounced and both of his feet were off the floor together. According to his description, he felt he was lifted off the floor very lightly. I felt that the move was correct at the time, but I didn't really know how that was achieved either. It just happened. Hopefully, something similar will happen again in the near future.