On Nov 25, 2022 in the English instructor class, Master Chen Zhonghua mentioned that Grandmaster Hong was there with Grandmaster Chen Fake for 14 years from 1930 to 1944 before he moved to Jinan. Many students came for a short time to learn from Grandmaster Chen Fake. Grandmaster Hong was there every day listening to Grandmaster Chen Fake teaching others, Grandmaster Hong would wait for everyone else to be gone for today, before he would get his chance to work with Grandmaster Chen Fake. Master Chen Zhonghua said Grandmaster Hong was always there compared to others who would come and go. I just realized in my professional life, I was in the same database product for over 20 years, although I was working directly in certain components, I actually knew them well compared to others who didn't have as many years of experience.
Friday, November 25, 2022
Monday, October 31, 2022
Push Hands Practice Analysis
Friday, September 16, 2022
Line up the forearm and rear calf
What does it mean by lining up the forearm and rear calf? There are 2 ways:
- The forearm and rear calf can on the same line, but separate into two sections.
- The forearm and rear calf can also be on two parallel tracks.
Friday, September 2, 2022
Refining Flash the Back
Overall, flash the back is used to throw someone over the top. We started training with a stick to understand the idea of a lever. The left hand is a pivot and does not move at all. The right hand holds one end of a stick, it starts at a location front of my body. It stretches against the non-moving left hand, and goes downwards towards the floor, and then goes up on the other side, all the while stretching more. At the same time, the right move from the front to the back, it is used to pull the stick. We have to imagine that the other end of the stick has a heavy load. We catapult the heavy load over our head and throw it. As my right hand stretches down and back, there is a point where the opponent's power disappear, and we need to quick switch to the other side with the left hand continuing the overall vertial rotating motion. The use of the stick makes it very clear how the lever works here.
Now without the stick, we need to rotate the dantian area. We need to thrust the dantian to the left and up to go around the top. The stick is like between the left hand and the right foot. The movement of the right foot allows the left hand to turn over at the dantian.
Friday, July 29, 2022
Driving energy on the two sides of the forearm.
Today, Master Chen Zhonghua talked about how to cause energy to go around within the forearm. It involved using the shoulder to cause the elbow to go over within a vertical plane of the entire arm. We have done similar exercise for the kua and knee standing on one leg.
The elbow is not allowed to move, but it has to rotate. The elbow rotation is driven by a very big motion at the shoulder.
Friday, July 1, 2022
Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on July 1, 2022
Chinese Class
In Six Sealing Four Closing, there must be a stick that does not change direction between the two hands. In Practical Method, there are rotation and resolution. Rotation is not considered a move. Resolution is considered a move as it causes something to change position with respective to the ground. The result is 螺旋缠丝 luo xuan chan si.
This is moving a rotating saw to cut a piece of board. As the saw makes contact of the board, the rotation does not slow down, the saw blade does not change shape as someone pushes the saw through the board (or the board through the blade). The common problem is that we change shape or direction as we move
English Class
In training, we must lock the whole body, and move one body part. Use a big stance in Brush Knee in Oblique Stance to lock the body up, and try to only push up the front (left) kua. Only in this kind of training, we can train to gain the power. Most people just train the useless moves, moves that make them feel good. The move we want to train is the one that we don't want to do, and it is one that seems impossible to do.
At the begining of the 2nd Flash the Back, I need to lock the front (right) hand and put the rear (left) shoulder into the same line with the front hand. Lock them, and try to open front (right) kua, lock the front kua, and move the rear (left) kua.
Before the jump after Flash the Back, I need to make the right kua bump into the left kua like newton balls, to cause the jump (no movement in the body).
After Punch Covering Hand, I need to shrink the distance between the right elbow and the right kua, in order to suck the right foot up to complete the turn.
In Single Whip, after the right hand and left foot stretch, I must rotate the left kua to get into the left half horse stance. I can't just move the left kua.
Saturday, June 4, 2022
Bevel Gear
- The torso rotation is limited to above the chest - The arm rotation is only driven by the horizontal chest rotation. The bevel gear is still working in this way, however, it lacks an extra level of indirectness (the vertical distance) created when the kuas initiates the action.
- The two gear discs are not attached - The person is independently moving the arm and the torso trying to match the rotations and make them proportionally. The external appearance is almost the same as the intended outcome, but the mechanics are not.
- There are no two gear discs at all - When the person rotates the torso, the arm will change the direction that it is pointing at following the torso rotation.
- The torso is not one solid cylinder - When the person attempts to rotate from the kuas, the chest adds a separate action and does not follow the action from the kuas. The result is that there is a twist in the torso, the energy leaks at the left shoulder.
- The arm is pushed by the shoulder - The person uses power at the shoulder to push the arm out. The torso rotation is not involved, i.e. no bevel gear setup.
- Using the arm to punch - The person is using the upper arm to throw a punch.
Wednesday, April 20, 2022
Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on April 20, 2022
Exercise:
Move right kua to the front, left kua to the back.
Move right kua to the back, left kua to the front.
This increases range.
Eventually, the ending diameter needs to be longer than the starting diameter, even though the difference may be very small.
We need to a twist in every part of the body.
Thursday, March 31, 2022
Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Mar 31, 2022
Exercise
- Heavy head tied to the ground
- Push the kua out to extend to the line between the head and the ground
Six Sealing Four Closing
- Need to make sure the kua shoot towards the hand while the torso rotates, otherwise the hand is too light.
- Need to do 40% of movement with the front kua, and 60% of movement with the rear kua.
- We need to produce a stop (which is the switch between 40% and 60%).
Friday, January 21, 2022
Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Jan 21, 2022
Exercise 1:
- Lock the two shoulders
- Lock the two knees
- Only move the kuas
Exercise 2:
- Lock one knee
- Move the kua while open the foot in oppositive direction
- This stretches and twists the calf
- Lock the head, kua, knee, foot (one line)
- Pull in the forearm to the dantian while pulling in the calf to the dantian
- There must be a whirl in the dantian (qiu)
- Hand to elbow (forearm)
- Knee to heel (calf)
- Dantian to middle of forehand
Monday, January 10, 2022
Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Jan. 10, 2021
Thursday, January 6, 2022
Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Jan 6, 2022
- 10 times on each side
- toes up
- body needs to go down to make the kick straight
- 1-2-3
- 1: Elbow in
- 2: Lock the front hand and front foot, use elbow, shoulder, and kua to dig
- 3: Follow step and hand out