Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Feb. 26, 2021

During training (when we are not yet successful), we use extra effort and focus to get it. It is tiring.

Once you are successful, the body gets used to it and will not be tiring anymore. The hair has been combed. The effort has gone through a filter.

Exercise: Use rotation to move a rod (front arm) through a tube.

• Issue: My front shoulder is still going forward towards the fist.
• We must put the torso inside a cylinder, such as someone wraps his arms around me.
• The front armpit needs to be tied to the rear foot.
• The front armpit is fixed, and the front shoulder is moving.
• The non-moving part must be bigger than the moving part.
• At all time, there is something outside the fist and rear shoulder pressing in. The motion will cause a breakout.
• Push the front shoulder into the line between the front fist and rear shoulder.
• The front shoulder has both vertical and horizontal intentions.
• The Front shoulder joint is free, the rest of the body is very rigid.
• Focus on the front shoulder. When we help someone, we often lose the focus or we never capture the focus.
• Teaching: First direct the focus to the right place, such as by exaggerating the movement (even including the wrong movement (not the final way we want)). Once that is achieved, then funnel the large movement into the specific target, such as the front fist in this case.

At the end, the opponent is simply afraid of such power and will just go away by himself.

Sink - To pull down from underneath (Think how a heavy object sinks into water)

Cai - Peng is 0, Cai suddenly becomes 100. Differential is created.

Horse vs train competition. Although the horse wins that competition, at the end, it's the train that changed the world.  People didn't see the power of the train at first.

Bullet creates a hole in front of it to pull forward.

Jet engine pushs the air out so much and so fast as if it pushes a wall and bounces the plane forward (Newton 3rd law).

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Feb 25, 2021

This lesson is about staying on topic, and then categorization within a topic.

There are only 3 types of movements in Practical Method:

1. Elbow-in (Pull)
2. Hand-out (Push)
3. Rotate

Overall, this is a positive circle, or we can say that it is negative circle.

Push and Pull - Straight 直 - Issue 发

Rotate - Curve 曲 - Neutralize 化

Grandmaster Hong used to put the movements on cards, and then categorize them into groups.

Rotation is the hardest because we don't usually do it in everyday life.

If push is yang and pull is ying, then rotate is non-moving.

Is 【你好】good morning or hello? If you are learning Chinese, then just remember when to say 【你好】, don't try to find a translated word only and still say it in the English way? So to speak, think in Chinese, and not in English.

During push hands, we are like a table/wall (non-moving object) ourselves, we make the opponent move. The opponent just bounces off of us.  This is a Practical Method characteristic.

Na 拿 - Chen Zhaokui - Chen Yu - Good for demo, difficult in combat

Hua 化 - Tian Xiuchen 田秀臣 - 田猴子 

Da 打 - Feng Zhiqiang (San Shou Pao, 24 Zhou), Effective for fighting

Fa 发- Hong Junsheng (Peng Jin) - Very peaceful, does not hurt anyone

Learning to use the kua.

1. Bend down with a stiff torso to the top of the head, and a fixed kua to foot triangle.
2. When opening the kua, the power goes to the top of the head and the bogttom of the front foot. 
3. This is only an exercise, this is not for fighting.

He taught how to stiffen the neck (erected neck). Similarly, we must take out the curvature at the lower back. This opens up the Du meridian. Dragon back. This is silk reeling. Open up the back. We need to make the back flexible. This is the primal energy.

Chen Changxing - Mr. Stone Tablet 牌位先生

A different kind of categorization of movements:

1. Open
2. Rotate
3. Don't move

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Feb. 24, 2021

The axis in real usage exists only functionally. 滚珠轴承 Ball Bearing.

We create a shell (restriction) on the outside, then the axis inside must exist, but you can't touch it unlike a real rod in a globe.

割 - The blade itself does not move.  Moving the rotation saw into the wood to be cut.

How to write an article?

Have a topic/title, write the outline, then fill in the details. After the article is written, even without reading the title, the reader must know what that topic/title is.

3 actions of Six Sealing Four Closing:

1. Move the front hand out
2. Move the rear shoulder back
3. Elbow perpendicularly towards the line between front hand and rear shoulder

3 actions of Positive Circle

1. Elbow-in
2. Rotate
3. Hand out

Each of these actions is perpendicular to something.

We need to make the opponent double heavy using parallel opening.  At that point, we are full.

Yin and yang are orthogonal to each other (90 degrees).

Achieve stability through movements. Rotation leads to non-movement.

Open Kua -> Rotate -> Don't move

Find a referenced fixed point

Every move has movement and adaption.

When something is moved, there is no active action by it.

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Feb. 22, 2021

Key things, e.g.

1. Forward is to push.
2. Backward is to pull.
3. Middle is to rotate.
4. Separation of yin and yang

We must remember the key things even if we don't understand it.

When we see "Fill in the blanks", even if we don't know the answer, we must fill in the key things. It won't be wrong overall.

There is a gap in between. It's can be too large or too small. Just right, it must have that "ke-cha".

We must remain a student as long as possible.

Even when we are instructors, in term sof time spent, we must spend more time as a student learning than as a teacher teaching.

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Feb. 19, 2021

Chinese Class

Shoulder and kua must be open to be able to find a relationship.

Yin-yang is a relationship. We train to seek such relationship in different body parts.

Going straight is to hit (打).

Rotation is to avoid/neutralize (化).

open (开) | <- style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;">|, To open is to parellel open (increase the distance between two plates). What we can actually do in the joint is very small. Big joint, max 3 inches. Small joint, max 1 mm.

<- style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;">Applying this concept of open in our actions, let's take fetch water as an example, the opening of the front should be like this. There are two plates at the end of the front hand and rear shoulder. We have to create a parallel opening at the front kua.

Oval object rotation: There is no constant radius. X axis is long, Y axis is short. In this case, rotation creates length. This is mutation (变异).

A joint is not a sphere, rotating it is like rotating an oval.

Spiral is rotation with perpendicular movement.

Daoism is big science.  It has a big theory that won't change.

Vibration is an example of the parallel opening repeated very quickly.

沾衣十八跌 - 18 ways to fall by touching opponent's clothing

English Class

Client-server computing vs centralized computing

Confederation vs Centralized

憋过去: Opening a stuck jar lid.

Exercise: Hold up a straight arm. Front shoulder is the middle, pull the rear shoulder backward to power the arm forward.  Front and rear shoulders must be connected/related. This is an example of the oval object rotation. This is also rotating a lever. This is a different way of looking at the movement for a triangle with an invisible side.

He talked about the eight methods again.

There is only peng energy used in 8 different ways.

There is only offense in our taiji. If we talk about defense, we have already lost.  On the touch, the opponent should have lost already.

Master Air Vent Cover

I was training to go down without pushing forward. I used a chair with a high back. There are felts underneath each leg, so they wouldn't stretch the wood floor. They also provided some amount of friction. I noticed that just by going down, the chair would be passively squeezed forward. I made sure that my arms were not moving. Every time I finished going down, I had to adjust my feet to move closer to the chair. As the chair was squeezed forward, one of its legs got caught at the air vent cover, and couldn't move forward. The result was that the chair rotated around the stuck leg as the chair was further squeezed forward before. I was thrown out in response to the rotation. The feeling was indeed quite weird. Note that the movement causing myself to be thrown was not created by the air vent cover. All it did was maintaining not moving, and making one of the legs to get stuck.  This was real separation of yin and yang.

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Feb. 18, 2021

Chinese Class

When we rotate, if the rotation goes forward, the entire object must move back to balance it.

Rear kua rotates forward, the kua itself must go backwards.

The number of breaths is limited in lifetime. Taoist will make the breath long, and limit the number of breaths as few as possible.

Taoist story, put himself inside an enclosed space. Light a candle, if we limit the size of the flame, the candle can last longer. He needs to keep the fuse as short as possible by cutting it.

If we have progress very quickly, we may not have progress for a long time. The amount of progress within a period is fixed. We need to control the progress, so that we can keep going. Not having progress for a long time is a factor that will make people quit.

We need to breathe in and then breathe out.

We need to start with elbow-in and then hand-out.

The biggest pair: yin and yang.

分 (fen/separate) -> 开 (kai/open) -> 转 (zhuan/rotate)

分 is a concept.

Practice horizontal movement vertically. Practice vertical movement horizontally.

In arm wrestling, we must allow the elbow to be pressed onto the table, then you can move the forearm horizontally a little bit.

We must convert energy (horizontal to vertical, vertical to horizontal). Every conversion multiplies the size of the energy.

Think about drifting, the car continues to go, but the direction changes.

Think about how kayak turns, we put the oar on the right side to create resistence with the water, and the kayak will turn right to go around the oar.

The wheel of a car only rotates, but the tire pushes against the ground, and the car only goes forward.

https://www.coursera.org/lecture/how-things-work/how-do-powered-wheels-propel-a-bicycle-or-car-forward-rX0WH

English Class

In Taoism, there is one thing that cannot be compromised, everything else can be adjusted.

Four ounzes overcome one thousand pounds

Four ounze bo (拨) 1K jin.

四两拨千斤

拨 means to pull a trigger, to pull, to tip.

Set up the opponent on the cliff, only use one finger to poke.

Never corner a dog.

Ji is water. Water has the property to fill you up.

Ground dragon: Step up without moving the front (left) hand. Step back to pull back.

Our actual movement goes backwards. As a result, something goes forward/gets bounced.

We have no downward move, our brain prevents us from going down.

I found a setup with a high-back chair against the wall.

We don't want to go down when we get older.  If we can still go down, we are young.

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on on Feb 17, 2021

Chinese Class

45 degrees vs 90 degrees

90 degrees are theoretical.

We must hit at 90 degrees.

Hit the solid, and never hit the empty.

We must progress like peeling onion.  It can't be in the future we look back that what we learned was totally wrong. It can only be a more shallow level.

Theoretical and practical must be adjusted.

The closer you are to theoretical in our practice, the better we are.

Theory can't be changed due to our actual practice.

We must adjust ourselves over time to the theory. Theory is absolute.

Great speed means as if you hit against a non-moving object.

7-inch knife across the chest needs great speed if the leg is not behind the opponent.

Acquaintence only for people who do not train practical method.

English Class

In positive circle, the leader power changes within the arm. Bottom line, we change the leader to go over/rub around the resistance.

Our movements live in the cracks.

The opponent's movements are unrelated to ours.  They are like they can't see you. They feel like that they are not here.

What the audience sees is not what I focus on doing.

Random Movements -> Regulated Movements -> Start to move -> Start to draw a circle -> Start to turn -> Start to rotate

Rotation = Movement without displacement of space

Art is overall (which means captures everything). Technicality is specific.

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Feb. 12. 2021

When we do the correct taiji actions, your opponent will always feel your actions are awkward to him. We just do what we train to do.

对手对不上。

Our actions are like on the handle side of a pair of scissors. Your opponent is on the blade side. The rivot is the demarcation.

Master Chen talked about the story with 2 young guys (21 to 22 year-old). Master Chen set up the rules. whoever fell down would lose. It didn't matter how one would fall down.  The opponent agreed on the rules, and would not get a 2nd chance to try.

Howard Jee from San Franscisco sat down very slowly, but the impact happened before that. He sat down before he got whipblashed already. Originally, it couldn't be understood why he sat down slowly would be hurt. It looked like one movement, but the impact happened very quickly, and it was missed.

How to ride the bicycle, step down with one foot, and then step down with another foot. Smoothness comes with a smooth transition. This is 腰裆转换. Energy can only go straight. Rotation can cause change.

Pull the rubber band to a point that can't be stretched anymore, and at that point, put the shoulder into it to break it open.

When we can't realize where the obstacle is, we can never overcome it.

We can only go into the next stage after we have exhausted the current stage, and it won't work anymore, it automatically seeks another way.

Produce a sudden stop from any posture.

Taiji uses the body to show the space, to show the negative/opposite part of what people normally understand/interpret.

When Master Chen is cleaning/wiping a structure, we are constantly breaking the structure instead. He is going around the space, but since we can't see that space, we charge right into it.

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Feb. 10, 2021

Negative Circle

1. First adjust, lock the middle finger tip, elbow-in over the top
2. 3-way split
1. right elbow-in to the left rear
2. shoulder down
3. right kua and knee point forward but not moving

Open

• It's like you pull the finger, and it makes a sound in the morning.

When taking the wheel out of the car, to be able to take out the knot, we need to stand on it wrench, and push down to go over the stuck position.

Six Sealing Four Closing

• Don't move the shoulder
• Front middle finger tip does not move
• Use the front elbow to push into the front hand
• The front hand and the rear elbow form a line
• Use the front elbow to initate the action and create a split between the front hand and rear elbow
• We need to use a  real dot in the middle that does not move.
• Master Chen used a mouse pointer on the screen to demarcate the non-moving middle.

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Feb. 5, 2021

Chinese Class

Rotation is to neutralize. It will not cause the opponent to feel anything.

Revolution is to attack.

A circle is really a spiral, a point never goes back to the same place.

We must always have a restriction. Sometimes, it looks like a line, it looks a wall, it looks like inside a tube.

Back Fist:

1. Lock the forearm (Use the other hand to grab and secure it)
2. Stretch and rotate (like a spiral/screwdriver) against the shoulder, eventually, it will stretch against the kua.
3. Use the move to train locking the elbow, and stretch around a rod.

Yilu Correction:

1. Use the waist to finish each move.
2. Fajin needs to be done at any place.

English Class

Rotation is to neutralize. It will not cause the opponent to feel anything.

3-way split: Only move the hand and foot, the middle has to go down.

Brittle means not enough ability to stretch.

Bamboo snake toy:

Finding the alignment in taiji is like finding the alignment to make the snake toy straight.

Belt Sword: Find the alignment to poke into the tree (Grandmaster Hong showed Master Chen once)

Waxwood Pole: Two people fighting with that stick holding it on each end. Master Chen can rotate the pole at the point of breakage to move it, so the pole won't break.

When we seem to pick someone up, it's because we cause him to jump, and the stick follows him.

河图: 5 is stability (Chryler symbol), 3 (Mercedez symbol).

3 5 7

1 5 9

8 5 2

Rhythm: Hong said we used rhythm to defeat the opponent. Dance uses rhythm to harmonize with the partner.

Push becomes Pull. Push and pull belong to the same dimension. After pull, it becomes suck, e.g. you fall into the hole.

What Hong said didn't make sense to Master Chen early on got stuck with him.

Master Chen is not scientific, although often he sounds scientific. Taoism and science may coincidence in many areas, but Master Chen's thoughts are based on taoism.

If you can find real yin and yang, they will be wuji, and universe will disappear.

Universe exists because there are yin and yang. If you can make yin and yang balance, and they become zero, the universe disappears.

On the surface, taiji is mystical, taiji underneath is real.  We just can't see/detect it.

You stumbled into a new level, you realize you didn't understand it before. This process goes on and repeat forever.

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Feb. 4, 2021

Hong's flower garden, everyone is welcome to come, take  what you want.

Present the same information to different people. It's to you whether you get it or not.

Focus on the key topic/item. Get that right. If it happens, one thing is right, everything is right.

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Feb. 3, 2021

Chinese Class

White Crane Spread Its Wings

Right hand and left foot are a pair. As they go out, the body has to do down vertically.

Brush Knee in Oblique Stance

Left hand and right foot are a pair.  As they go out, the body has to do down vertically.

This is like the ring of an umbrella going down on the shaft to open the umbrella.

English Class

Find the perfect distance and placement of the feet, so the dantian can power up.

While the 5 points go out, the dantian must still be able to pull them back when needed.

If you hold out the two hands, we must be in a position that we can stretch a little to reach the fixed walls that are placed specifically to give a restriction.

Having a belt around the waist provides that restriction to limit the movement of the waist, as the waist should rotate in place.

3 tests/thresholds:

1. You blame yourself.
2. You blame your teacher.
3. You think you got it.

Most people will quit because of the above.

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Feb 1, 2021

Separation of Yin and Yang

Teacher must let you hear, let you see, let you touch.  That is an example of separation of yin and yang happening. Separate things happening at the same time.

Brush Knee in Oblique Stance

• The two hands are horizontal movement.
• Kua going down is vertical.
• They are in different paths happening at the same time.
• 同时不同步

One part can only do one thing.

Instinct 直觉

• Eye is designed to see.
• Ear is designed to hear.

When we make a receiver that can interpret audio. This is something we make to mimic ear, and it is beyond the original/natural ability.

When Master Chen listens to us, he can hear our state.