Breakthrough: Throwing the kua and find the stick behind it

Today after practicing 5 yilus with John Upshaw, we trained throwing the rubber band around the waist. Then John mentioned that he was looking for the back of the knee going into the line between the kua and the heel. This reminded me to do the same, and use that to drive the waist. Stepping on the right heel was supposed to cause the waist to turn left, and vice versa. I used this method instead of the previous method of throwing the waist around to cause the rubber band to fly. This allowed my vertical central rod to be more stable. I looked like I was just walking when throwing the rubber band around. Later, we tried putting the rubber band on the side to throw it forward. I was able to throw it forward and upward. Then I realized how I could throw my waist by digging downwards and then upwards, and at the end stretch the knee backwards and stepping the heel down to find the stick to support the kua.

Indonesia Workshop 2023

Day 0 3 points on the opponent in 3 dimensions. The first 2 creates a bie. Create a wall behind me, head to kua to heel. Move the wall forward from the achillies heel. Never deviate from the centre line regardless how the body may look like. Opponent fist on my sternum. stretch one shoulder around, lock it, stretch opposite shoulder around. Top does not move, move bottom in. Hands don't move, stretch the kua down, forward and forward. Don't push or pull the opponent down, stretch my bottom down, or wiggle my bottom downwards. DON'T CHASE THE OPPONENT!!! Keep the sternum locked, rotate on that dot. Lock the outside with the opponent, rotate on a dot inside the opponent.

Find the gap 找缝

When the satellite orbits around the earth, it does not leave the earth nor fall back onto the the earth. It follows a certain track known as an orbit. How is this track created? It is created by one force pulling the satellite towards the earth, and another force moving the satellite perpendicular to the earth. The two forces must be balancing each other out. If the perdendicular one is too large, the satellite will leave the earth, and if the other force is too large, the satellite will fall back down to the earth. The gap/orbit/track is the one that separates the two forces, in other words, allows the two forces to harmoniously co-exist at the same time. When you are running on that track, you will not feel either force, but they both exist. When we push hands, we must find this gap. One way to find the gap is to rub/grind 搓/碾 to cause a rotation. We must continue to find the next gap once the one is used up (or we run to the end of the gap). The gap disappears when the opponent changes the posture, the way they apply force, or the timing. We must always match these things with the opponent before we can find the gap.

Notes for Iowa Camp 2023

出一个 Something comes out of nothing Twisting the towel: one third from dantian to head ine third from dantian to each foot Move the dantian a little bit to kick start everything Story: Grandma rubbering fibers to make a thread Learn something to do it right, don't learn something to solve a problem When you do it right, the problem will not be a problem. Learn the principle and not the application. The application is only used to illustrate the principle. Pushing hands is linking and delinking. 磨刀不误砍柴工 Taiji is Static Action. opening of the dang exercise the inside of the leg pushes the knee out while the outside of the leg pulls the knee back in. The knee appears to not move but a lot is going on. I was holding shifu's lower calf and the inside of the thigh. Arm Wrestling Press the elbow onto the table to make the hand and elbow one piece. Inside the arm you need to create a lever, with the pivot at the table. Lock 3 points and rotate the arm together Smoothess comes from years of grindng. Move the base to catch yourself, like catchimg a ping pong ball. Big and Small Six Sealing Four Closing Look for the thing with front, power from the back Mercedes Logo 3 prongs, two halved Switching of the axes in Six Sealing Four Closing Yao Dang Zhuan Hua 腰裆转换 I need to open my lower back, stretch it verticaly. Concave circle, incoming energy slides back out Convex circle, incoming energy goes back to me to make me feel good. Front hand/Back hand bie Back hand never moves, finger changes to adapt the front hand position to create the bie. Positive Circle Turn with waist, lock the rear kua by sitting the rear kua into the rear heel, move the front kua Out with hand, fill and lock the front kua, move the rear kua 润笔 means to buy the painting. Lock the point little below the sternum and stretch the mingmun down Six Seaing Four Closing Lock my top, lower my bottom in the direction that is just off the opponent's fixed point Fist protecting heart Turn up the opponent's elbow and lock hist wrist with left hand, touch the point above the elbow tip, press down to create bie, stretch my back to create a downward force and rotate my right forearm on the opponent at the same time. Moving Step Positive Circle Break down the move such that the transitional move is not part of the forward or backward movement. Take out the negative space Take away the chair before someone sits down Yilu Correction: Butt Protrusion made my center of gravity in the chest and a little bit more forward, the rotation is in my chest instead of the waist. Using fajin in yilu made the alignment deviate Doing fajin in foundation is easier to keep alignment as the movement is simpler

Shanghai Workshop 2023

玄关 - Empty Point, 5 of them Fetch Water - Front hand and rear shoulder, two points must be on the same straight line

Connecting through an empty line

Today, I was teaching the class, as part of Fist Under Elbow, to grab with a tightened fist, and then do in-with-elbow without moving the fist or powering on the fist more. After that, we moved on to finding the line for in-with-elbow against the opponent's chest. If the opponent's chest is a horizontal straight line across, we needed to identify a T, in which we needed to perform in-with-elbow along the line perpendicular to the opponent's chest. After that, I demonstrated we could replace the perpendicular line with an empty line if we can pull precisely at the bottom of the T.  The intersecting point and the power (pulling) point are connected through some body parts of between the opponent and me, but the structure through those body parts allowed the empty line to be maintained, as illustrated as the dotted line in Figure 1.

Figure 1

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Feb 22, 2023

Level 3 Chinese Instructor Class

1. Exercise for conversion from rotation to linear movement (based on Six Sealing Four Closing movement)
2. Think of 2 balls enclosed tightly within a container. When we rotate, rotate only one of the 2 balls, and not both.  If we only have one ball, the rotation we attempt tends to toss the ball.
3. When doing the exercise, the front kua needs to rotate, but the typical mistake is that both kuas are tied together, when the front kua moves, the rear kua is moved as well.
4. When doing the exercise, the waist turns to the left carrying the elbow but the forearm and hand stay on the curve track going forward while the front kua will stretch and rotate on the opposite curve at the bottom.

Push Hands Summary

Today, I was pushing hands with a non-student, someone I pushed before Covid. This person does not know how to lock, but he was looking for a place that I am locked by testing with a push. I tested myself with having peng on contact, and even he tried to hold on to my arms, he slided right off along my arms. Then I tired without extending my arms, just focused on walking forward, it also bumped him out. It was like he was caught in the river current and had to go out.