Notes for Toronto Workshop Jan 2024

Single Whip

The right hand beak must be strong.

Line up the beak with the left shoulder. 

As the left shoulder goes backward, it drives into the right peak.

Once it is connected, we can further use the left elbow to drive into the right beak. 

 

Shovel out

Pump with the standing leg to cause the other foot to go out. 

Chu 杵 - A column into vertically into the ground

Ting 挺 - Ensuring straightness

Sealing

PM No. 1 is to seal. Sealing is preparation. Hong said once the preparation was done, there was nothing else. 

Exercises

1. Shoulder and hand come together, elbow on table top. Lock the shoulder and elbow. Elbow sits on the kua to be secured. Elbow in the hand all the time. 
2. Back hitting the wall, as the back hits the wal, the finger goes out.
3. The opponent pushes my dantian, I stretch my back to go over, then it is a pull.
4. The six sealing to lock, use the bottom to hit and bounce the opponent.
5. Out with hand, in with elbow, train extreme stretch in hand tendons.
6. Use toes to balance yourself when you bend backwards.
7. No moving hands, stretch the dantian forward and up, on the highest point, make a big step forward. The bigger the step, the more power there is.

Fencing: Pull the opponent in, and shoot him out.

Never stop the opponent on what he does, put a peg behind, so he can’t retreat. He can only continue, at the end, he has nowhere to go. 

齁着

夹肩不好，要搓开腋窝，肩胛拉开

Cuo 搓 

Nian 捻

Nian 碾

下塌外碾 

Cloud Hands 云手 - should be 运手 (not moving the hand, but transport the hand)

We must connect with the opponent. Connection creates explosion. Connect means through looking with the eyes, there is a reaction in the body.

Speed is precision. Adjustment is not physical, unlike lifting weight. Power is the result. Result is physical. Opponent says that you are strong, but I don’t feel so.

Empty on the body is your weak spot.

Only move my joints, nothing else.

Only dead things can cause death. We have to make the body dead, but how? We don’t move. Dead objects don’t move. WE NEED TO LET THE OPPONENT MOVE ME.

We must learn to lock the joints.

Opponent pushes my right hand, I must locate two dots on the two sides of my right elbow, align them and lock them. It is like putting a L bar at the elbow. In fact, we must use this method for every joint.

Impaling is created by using the opponent's incoming force into my locked structure with a protrusion point.

Elbow into the hand means to align elbow with hand. Hand and elbow are two ends of a stick. We must only push from one end of the stick directly into another end, and maintain that alignment throughout.

With the ability to brace the elbow, the shoulder can be pushed into the hand.

Brace my front elbow at 45 degrees, step forward.  When the opponent touches my front forearm, step forward. The hand/forearm cannot move at all.

We must not push on contact point, we should only slide over on contact.

Shifu said that I am open inside to allow energy to flow. I should start training Hunyuan qigong or Hunyuan 24. 

To poke a stick towards the opponent, line up 3 dots. one dot in me, one dot in opponent, one dot behind the opponent. The straight line itself can be empty.

To pull the opponent, line up the same three dots.

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