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.

Being there for a long time

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.

Push Hands Practice Analysis

0:04 - I stretched my right hand, locked my right hand. My left thigh was behind the opponent's right thigh. My left kua moved forward and created a bie with the my right elbow, and rotated a dot at around his right waist on the opponent.

0:14 - My left hand and my left thigh created a bie, which broken his integrity. He started falling backwards, and I walked backed to make sure that he could not recover.

0:28 - FAIL - My left hand and my left thigh attempted to create a bie, but this move was not very precise, and I moved left foot out and the opponent was able to recover part of the balance would not fall.

0:36 - I used my left thigh to bump the opponent's left thigh, he was off balance. He was leaning a bit on his left, my left arm was under his armpit, I rotated my waist to right and got him to fall. I followed him and led him to the ground.

0:48 - This was the same move as 0:04, except it was done in one go starting from far away, got in and finished it all without powering up the arms.

1:05 - I locked my head and right foot, moved my left foot to sweep the opponent's left leg, which was one of his supported legs. I was rotating using my head to right foot as the vertical axis. My left hand was on his right shoulder, my right hand was on his left upper arm. My hands moved opposite to my left foot.

1:34 - I locked my head and left foot, and used that as the vertical axis. I moved my right foot behind the opponent's left front foot, and pulled it back. My right hand was touching the opponent's left upper arm.  I moved the right hand out, as the right foot was pulled back. This was Embrace Head to Push Mountain.

1:44 - FAIL - A similar attempt as 1:34 was made, it did not work. The opponent was locked at the waist, so he was able to get out of it and regain balance. In comparison, for 1:34, I used my right hand to create a lock on the opponent's waist. I tried to follow up with a left leg towards his left leg, but I missed.

1:54 - This was the same move as 1:05. I moved my left foot as I pulled the opponent to rotate him.

2:11 - FAIL - My left foot didn't go deep enough. When I rotated my waist, the downward direction was not correct as my right foot was in the way to allow the opponent to go to the ground. Overall, my rotation was too short. I followed the opponent to push him out of bound.

2:28 - FAIL - I attempted to bounce the opponent, but it didn't work as I didn't lock the opponent or he was charging into me enough.

2:31 - FAIL - This was the same attempt as 2:11. Too much upper body movement for me.

2:46 - There was a bie between my right hand and left thigh. I used my waist to break the opponent's waist. It allowed me to go over the opponent's dantian to his chest. However, he had his arm around my neck, I didn't fight him, and just followed him down until he was on the ground. If I fought him, he would be able to use my neck to stop his fall, as his feet might catch up.

3:07 - I tried to the bie between my right hand and left foot, but I wasn't close enough. I was only able to get the opponent off balance, but I followed up to push him out of bound.

3:12 - FAIL - I tried to use my right foot to sweep the opponent's left foot, but he was able to stretch and maintain his line. I should have hooked his left leg, and pulled it up to execute Initial Closing instead.

3:24 - My left foot didn't go deep enough, my left shoulder popped up.  I should have dropped my left shoulder to stretch my left hand and left foot out. I bent at my waist instead. The good part was that I didn't try to stand back up. I moved to the right to continue the move, and then rotate to the right to throw the opponent. The opponent grabbed my right wrist, so my footwork pulled him along to become off balance.

3:34 - FAIL - This was the same move as 0:48, however, the opponent had his arm around my back, so he was able to pull me down with him. Part of the problem was that I tried to hold him down gently.

3:50 - FAIL - This was the same move as 3:34, and the same problem occurred that the opponent's arm was on my back and was able to pull me down with him. Another problem was that my left foot didn't get out of the way for the opponent's fall, so he fell right into my left foot, and caused to fall as well.

4:05 - I used my left hand to pull the opponent to get him off balance. I walked backwards and pull him along, and at the end used my waist to turn to spin him out and around myself. He landed out of bound.

4:22 - This was the same move as 0:04. I had more distance away from the opponent. My left hand did a bie with my left knee, it broke the opponent's integrity. It was falling backwards, and I was standing perpendicular to him, and was safely out of his way of falling.

Overall, I was not powering with my arm, I was using my arms/hands to hold the opponent, and acted with my bottom.  Master Chen Zhonghua gave a comment of "Good".

8 out of 20 attempts failed, that's a 40% failure rate.