Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Apr 30, 2021

Implosion

• Line up the dot underneath the front buttock and front heel, and pull them together.
• The dantian needs to adjust to allow the rear foot to be pulled up.
• Lock the head.

New Exercise

• This is an exercise that Master Chen Zhonghua learned from Grandmaster Hong. They did it at the park on the gravel. After this, they would do foundations every morning.
• Lie on the stomach, use the hands to pull up.
• Lie on the stomach, use the elbows to pull up.
• Lie on the stomach, use the shoulders to pull up.
• Only use one part to pull up, the rest of the body is just like sandbag being dragged.
• Need 3 ways to do the same looking move to be versatile, so the opponent can't figure it out.

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Apr 28, 2021

今天中文课中，我们练了怎样把胯放到手里。用了一根棍定住手、肩、胯的三角形。把胯顶到手上（或是棍的外头）。这个三角形平面中间有一个不动点，胯顶的时候是把这三角形绕着这不动点转了一下。如果对方在棍的外头堵住你，你要把这三角形转时最长、离自己最远的一点转到对方的中心，就可以把对方蹦出去。练习时，对方一定要固定住、不化你的力，才可以让你慢慢练会。

Fist Drape Over Body

• Kua needs to turn over (tippie toe if needed to get maximum range of the kua turning over)
• Right hand-elbow-shoulder triangle must remain unchanged. This triangle plane must catch the opponent, like how an oar catches water one way but not the other.
• The right elbow going up is not just lifting the elbow. It is stretching the torso so much that it flips up the elbow. Shoulder must stay downwards.
• The right kua turns over as the right hand-elbow-shoulder triangle changes position.
• Left kua must open, and don't let the left knee point to the ground. This is very difficult to do, so the instructor is likely not able to show this one.
• Central axis does not move.
• At the very last part of the movement, there is a stretch between the right elbow and the left elbow to catch the opponent, and then we rotate on the central axis, and this rotation being inside must be bigger than the outside movement to have power.  This is an example of fajin when done quickly.

Six Sealing Four Closing

• It has a similar catch with right forearm going down, right kua coming up.
• If the opponent is strong, we can get him down. If he retreats, this move while going down also drives the right fist foreward. He is caught 22. He can't be strong, he can't be loose.

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Apr 27, 2021

Back to the kua-to-hand exercise.

1. Lock the hand, shoulder and kua as a triangle, which is a fixed plane.
2. We fixed a dot on the plane, and we rotate on the dot without changing the plane itself.
3. We put this dot just under the elbow.
4. Kua becomes (就是) the hand. When the opponent touches our hand, it is the same as touching our kua. Ultimately, the opponent is touching the floor.

This plane is something that we maintain during push hands. When we have it, we can move this plane however we want.  The plane itself is double heavy, but if we can make it a revolving door, it is not double heavy anymore. The axis can be put anywhere on the plane or through the plane (a dot on the plane).

Fist of Lifting and Blocking

1. Elbow does not move.
2. Rotate the shoulder to cause the fist to change the direction.

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Apr 23, 2021

Turning Flower over from the Sea Bottom

Today, there is a big breakthrough.

The shoulders finally find the kuas in this movement. It was very possibly due to the exercise taught on Mar 30, 2021:

• Use the kua to push the hand out. Shoulder, kua and elbow are one piece. The hand stretches against the shoulder. This is a very practical push hand move.

REMEMBER THE PROCEDURE that gets me here, but DON'T FOLLOW THE FEELING.

This exercise was first taught to me in Iowa in 2018, but I didn't really practice it consistently. Since Mar. 30, 2021, I practiced it about 60 times on each side a day.

Shoulder goes down, elbow goes up and around the opponent, and the kua comes up. I need to catch the opponent between my upper arm and thigh, and then cut the opponent vertically to take out the space between shoulder and kua. Once it is over on the other side, the energy continues to flow along the arm to the fists through stretching. This stretching allows the rotation to cover more area, and results in more power.

We need to get to a point that we can totally be free to use power, speed, positioning.  All three must be done appropriately. If another one is missing or not done sufficiently, the overall look and effect will not be correct.

Fist of lifting and hitting: Torso goes down to make the fists go up and around the elbows.

Turning flower over from the sea bottom: Catch horizontally, then vertical to finish.

Sink the waist press the elbow: Catch vertically, then finish horizontally.

Arts and Science are also Yin and Yang.

Arts is breadth. More abstarct.

Science is depth. More specific.

Teaching

1. Preparation for an hour
• As you cover the same lesson over time, the preparation time will be significantly reduced.
2. Lesson for an hour
• Just think, but follow what was laid out in the prepared teaching plan.
3. Review for an hour
• Review how things were conveyed, and evaluate the effectiveness. Observe what you said and how you demonstrated, and check how the students were copying and following. Adjust the approach as appropriate for next time.

Besides the teaching time, we must practice ourselves in our own time. Teaching is not practice.

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Apr 22, 2021

Fist of Hitting and Lifting

The flip from one side to another needs to happen because of torso going down. More precisely, the two shoulder-to-kua axes go up and down against the central non-moving axis.

There are two sides on the forearm as well.

In general, it is the idea of rubber that causes moving in another area. There has to be power conversion all the time.

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Apr 21, 2021

Fist of Lifting and Blocking 搬拦肘

1. Lock the two elbows as if they are on a table
2. The two fists only go up to go around. They also have to stretch against the two elbows. Imagine that you have a wall parallel to the chest right in front.

Generally,

1. The kuas control the rotation on the central vertical axis.
2. The knees control the height of the body/torso.
3. The elbow control the horizontal movement.

得意忘形

为什么分门派？

过来多年为什么会变？

因为没有真正明白。

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Apr 16, 2021

Common mistake in push hands:

1. Shoulder tends to come up and have power (wrong).
2. Kua tends to go down and not have power (wrong).

There are 2 kinds of movements:

1. Machine-like: When something is wrong, it can't continue.
2. Human-like: When something is wrong, compensation will be made to allow it continue incorrectly (in a way that is not part of the original design).

We want our actions to be machine-like.

Kao 靠

1. Concept: Two parallel boards separating from each other.
2. Lock the hand, open the armpit, so the hand goes out against the side ribs.
3. Don't move the kua here, as the movement there is 3 times that of the armpit. It will throw the torso off.
4. No rotation in this exersise. This stretch can only happen within a short distance, otherwise, our body will start to rotate.

Periodically, we have to revisit all we know about the taiji, and don't believe what we have. Use different ways to test and verify it.  In order to make progress, we have to believe that we are right.  In order to break the particiular level, we have to believe that we are wrong.  The theory is empty and never wrong. Whenever we materialize it, we make progress, but at the same time, we are wrong. It is like, we have to make something, and destroy it, make it again, and endlessly repeat this cycle, and refine our taiji. If we don't materialize it, it is not real.

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Apr 15, 2021

Lock the arms, torso goes down. Lock the torso, pull down the arms. Now there is power. This is increasing distance. This is switching. This is rotation.

Torso going down without the hands moving makes DF line longer than AC line. 

Put the hands on the opponent's chest. Put the rear foot further back. Now there is power. This is increasing distance.

 

The length between the hand and the rear foot increases.

Let all the corners be out.

If we have 3 points:

Lock one move two is creating compression.

Lock two move one is releasing power.

Three ways that will cause a student to quit after realizing how simple taiji is:

1. Why didn't the teacher tell me earlier that it is so simple?
2. It's so simple, I don't need to do it anymore.
3. I falsely believe what I do is correct because it also WORKS!

A few things that I held on to for years about taiji:

1. Rotation may not look like what I think. Rotation only needs a non-moving part, a moving part, and a relationshiop between them.
2. A lever.
3. Open triangle (triangle with one side missing) - Single Lock and Double Lock.
4. Stretch - it requires at least one non-moving dot.

正圈的小要点大关键

练正圈时，我们一般记得的是：收肘、转腰（胯）、出手。做梦也想着。但是练了一段时间后，进步不大，胯或其他关节没打开多少。

在这三大要领以外，还有一些往往没注意但其实一开始就学过的要点。

在做正圈的整过程中，概念上我们要把身体定住。

具体上我们要：

1. 前手中指永远指着同一点。
2. 前手腕要永远保持伸直（坐腕）。
3. 定住头。
4. 马步要开得够大（所谓够大就是要给自己一点难度，标准宽度是三只小腿的长度）。
5. 后脚跟地上的参照线保持90度（扣着它）。参照线是前脚跟和后脚指之间的线。
6. 后膝盖往上往后往后。

前三点能练开前肘肩胯，使动作幅度增加。后三点能练开后跨。若能把这些要点加上三大要领练上身（时刻保持），练正圈时就更有效率，更能把关节早日练开。

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Apr 2, 2021

不在同一个维上意思是什么？

例： 开拉链，解鞋带

太极拳就是去找洞。 我们必须固定支架才能找到洞。 固定支架是掤。

我们必须在推手中固定对手，以便我们可以戳入洞中。 人身上其实有很多洞，但是如果对手不断移动，则看起来好像没洞一样，碰那里，那里都是实的。相反来说，我们能转起来，就没有洞了。

普通人只会横着的或是竖着的动。 我们训练能够同时做这两个种动作。 在一个简单的示例中，我们横着的跟对手对抗，然后加上竖的动作，就行了。

拥有不同的观点就是能够看到已知维之外的另一个维度。

从悬崖上掉下来是进入另一个维的一个例子。

悬崖在那儿，并没有改变。 有一天，我们突然看到悬崖上空无一物的部分，以及它们的用途。

What does it mean to be not in the same dimension?

Open zipper, untie shoe lace

Taiji is to find the holes. We must fix the lattice to find the holes. Fixing the lattice is peng.

In push hands, we must lock the opponnent up, so that we can poke into the empty space. There is a lot of empty space, but if the opponent keeps moving, it may look like there is no empty space.  Wherever we touch, it is still solid.  In the contrary, if we can rotate, we will have no holes.

Normal people only know either horizontal move or vertical move.  We train to be able to do both at the same time.  In a simple example, we lock up (match) the opponent's horizontal move using our horizontal move, then execute the veritcal move.

To have a different perspective is to be able to see another dimension besides the known ones..

Falling down the cliff is an example of going into another dimension.

The cliff is there and didn't change. One day we all of a sudden see the empty and solid part of the cliff, and what they can be used for.

To get it, we must be able to stick around long enough.  Different people may prefer different methods, but time is required to get there.

Exercise: Make the part from kua to hand a stick/board, push the kua outward on a striaght line.

I realize that I need to keep push it out, I tend to stop and push up half way.

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Apr 1, 2021

开胯：功能 vs 功夫

功能:用方法达到开胯的目的。

内家拳：外边不变，内边变化。

外家拳：内边不变，外边变化。

拳不敌法，法不敌功，功不敌气，气不敌意，无意是真意。

用六封四闭的动作练前肩胯轴。

陈老师教用橡皮筋捆在腰上，试能不能用腰它飞起来。飞起来代表力能循着橡皮筋往外走。最后，能不能瞄准橡皮筋的外头。

概念：出一个  Something has to come out.