DQS Taiji 2024

Shovel out is need to be matched with elbow in. There is a non-moving dot in the middle.

When the standard can be outside, you are not the standard.

封缝 feng - seal the gap

After the seal, just shake the middle, 1 and 2 to set up, 3 to shake

Thigh behind his thigh - shovel out, hit with the kua, don’t let the opponent fall backwards, he should sit down.

From one, split into two vectors.u

Aim at one dot in opponent’s body, and walk around.

Iowa Camp 2024

Exercise:

Lock the bottom, move only the top.

Lock the upper arm, move only the forearm.

Lock the forearm, move only the finger.

Move the front finger, at the same time move the rear heel.

Matching exercise: fist to the stomach 3 times, match with the same pressure, direction.

Six sealing four closing arm bar, match with finger out, hollow arm. This is to go over.

To go over, the tension needs to go over, e.g. resist with the elbow, then only at the finger, nothing at the elbow.

Hollow - the outside has not be very strong, then the inside is hollow. It is all relative.

Buckle the elbow, and then buckle the kua.

Pressurized release of the kua when someone pushes that kua straight down.

Joint needs to do push against each other to cause the rotation. Fluid will be reproduced to rejuvenate the joint.

松打紧拿 - When the opponent is loose, hit. When the opponent is tight, rotate.

When you hold a screwdriver, you know you can’t get through, you give up. When you go against a wood board, you know you can get through, you will work on it.

Push Hands:

Look for the opponent’s line, follow it, extend it, don’t disrupt it, get it close to the opponent, go to the other side, add something towards the ground without disrupting the original line.

Break the unbeatable arm

Fold at the elbow crease

If the person is too long, we have stretch to open it before breaking at the elbow.

Pull the opponent’s chest in, turn the foot, stick the kua in, don’t protrude the butt, wiggle and squad down to get the opponent down.

Aim the finger to opponent’s rear foot, only do a twist at the armpit to cause a rotate towards the opponent.

Lock the top, rotate. My problem is the protruding buttock. When I rotate, I switch the weight to the other leg.

The joints are the engines, armpits, kuas, knees.

闭穴

Taoism: you follow the way. Follow and follow, eventually, you merge with the way.

The teacher leads you to go through a door, if you go through the door, and look back and tell people to go through. The others said there was no door, to go through, you have to believe.

Hand is in the air, shoulder is more solid relatively.

Turn shoulder into the air, turn hand into solid.

Only work on one, once it is achieved, you have two.

Maintain the distance between the front finger and a dot on the back. Walk forward like the wall behind my back pushing forward.

In with elbow hits a dot on the side of the stomach, on contact, rotate, it bounces the forearm back to the opponent.

Find the centre (belt sword story)

If I can find the centre, no one can find my centre.

Do it before the opponent starts the move, and do it before it ends and before it starts again.

Push Hands Technique

1) Put my right foot in between the opponent’s feet

2) My head to right foot as an axis at 45 degrees to the ground

3) Pull opponent towards my chest (not stick my chest to his)

4) Spin my left foot/leg around the opponent’s back, this causes as spin with the opponent, so he falls to the ground

2nd version

1) Put my right foot in between the opponent’s feet

2) Put my left foot to other side of my right foot

3) Turn and put the opponent down on the ground

Sandbag

The sand is at the bottom, switch the bag upside down without changing the position relative to the environment.

Slam the sand to the new bottom, which was the old top.

Will the non-real stuff to be real, so I can give up what the opponent cares about.

We really press down the hand and turn the elbow. We tend to press down on the elbow to fight directly. This is the idea of sending the energy there to the hand.

Six sealing four closing

Lift the left, we should do it such that we fall down until our right side height does not change.

My shoulder is too tight when the elbow goes up,

The shoulder should go down while the elbow comes up.

Two types of opening:

Leather

Joint needs to open under pressure

DQS Taiji 20240411

When we move the arm, there is a dot in the chest that does not move.

Flash the back

1. there is an arch in the legs
2. When rotate, don’t push up the shoulders
3. Left foot and right elbow align

When engage with the opponent, don’t push, treat the contact point as the pivot, move the back downwards. The front kua cannot retreat.

Six Sealing Four Closing Application

1. The front elbow goes into the hand

Stretch the two dots, one dot between the two middle fingers, and one in the middle of the chest, empty at the elbows (ignore the elbows).

Exercise: Grab opponent's right arm. My right hand on his bisep, my left hand on his right wrist. Stretch my left hand out, when he resists, pull my right elbow to my right kua. Shrink the middle, so he can't get out. 

Opponent has a dot, I have a dot. Need to adjust myself to line up the two dots. Once it is lined up, when the opponent feels it, he will bounce himself out. I don’t do anything. If I do something, it has to be stretch out of the non-moving part.

When pushing hands, find your most comfortable/solid position at the end. You have to start with a slightly awkward position and end with a comfortable position.

When a force goes out, another force has to come to the dantian or to the floor, it has to form a close loop. I am not fighting the other person, I am only doing my movement. He happens to be caught in the way.

Taiji Simple Exercises

1. Rotate the shoulder with elbow being the handle, stretch the hand out on the line. [Left/Right]

1a. Rotate the kua instead of the shoulder, this means even more indirect relative to the hand. [Left/Right]

2. Go down from right shoulder to right kua, rotate horizontally from right to left, go up from left kua to left shoulder, rotate horizontally from left to right. [Clockwise/counter-clockwise]

2a. Make it more rounded instead of square

3. Rotate the dantian up and forward, at the highest point, step forward, and follow step with the rear foot. [Left/Right foot forward]

4. 1-2-3 stepping

5. Kick with heel [Left/Right]

6. Squad down without moving the knee forward

7. Rubber band: Straight arm to go over the head, go back and forth

8. Rubber band: Two straight arms forward holding a rubber band, press the chest forward to go to the other side.

9. Rubber band: Step on it with the foot, and pull it up to tighten it with the non-moving hand, push the kua into the rubber band. [Left/Right]

10. Rubber band: Swing the rubber band left and right to make it fly

11. Rubber band: Swing the rubber band backward and forward

12. Quick sand

13. Push with kua to rotate left and right

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.