Notes for Toronto Workshop Jan 2026

Bend the knees to go down while the torso is fixed and straight. The hand goes out proportionally.

First Move

Squeeze into dantian:

Kua up elbow down

Left elbow against the right kua

Elbow meets the kua, two become one.

There is never right or wrong. There is only one thing that is wanted.

Direction - 1

Alignment - 2

开拳

开-松开-断开

分开-拉开-转开

Day 2

Negative Circle - Lock the top and turn only the waist

Fetch Water - Back of the knee and back of the shoulder blade stretch on the same line

Six Sealing and Four Closing - Dot on hand and the back of the shoulder blade stretch

Right, reset, left, reset

Waist turning exercise (lock the top)

Twisting the towel (go down as the hand goes out)

Rip the shirt exercise with the twisting the towel

Rip the shirt exercise with six sealing four closing

Using the leg to trip, the knee goes down to the heel instead of hitting to the opponent.

Traditionally, asking and answering are through hands.

Kai - use the waist lock the top

On the opponent’s shirt only when opponent pushes

|_|__ -> |___| -> __|_|

Elbow inwards the kua.

Opponent pushes my forearm, the hand points up, hand and shoulder are a pair on the straight line, split. Nothing in the forearm.

Initial Closing Application

Shake opponent three time. Kua goes down to create distance without moving the hand. Pull elbow to the kua.

Negative Circle - turn the shoulder, but it hits the wall and it goes down instead. (Yi and Li Separation)

Suck - Knee and opposite shoulder to the dantian

Big body movement and little or no hand movement

If you are aligned, you can’t move.

If you can move, you can’t align.

Day 4

Zhou - Adherence - Hold (Doing Bie can have Zhuo)

Zhuo on the opponent is a hook, Zhuo on myself is a handle.

Looking for universal principle

Two armpits and between the legs. 3 pairs squeezing and releasing.

Release to make the book drop.

Absolutely no push, we need to be like constipated.

Notes for Toronto Workshop Sep 2025

Nothing in between two dots.

Don't be distracted by the opponent. Keep going straight.

One turns into two. One is gone.

Exercise: Elbow up, split into hand and shoulder

Back on a roller wall, and not push against the wall.

Yin yang reversal.

Opponent pushes me to the left, I move to the right instead.

We are always pushing, we should be pulling.

Don't change the system.

Real intent is no intent.

Every push must be turned into a pull.

When you feel power, there is no power.

When things don't change shape, it is a rotation.

Lock the frame, contraction will create an expansion.

Push the kua over the other side of the opponent's waist.

Not moving the contact point is the key to not fight.

Find a way to destroy the opponent's system.

Elbow goes to the hand through the forearm. (Through fist)

Always focus on finding and using the line, and not fixate on how it is for a particular example.

First turn in Pound Mortar: Wait for the opponent to push onto me, cave in and stretch to the foot. Turn the elbow without pushing forward.

Longer is stronger. Be longer.

Exercise: Hug the opponent and hold the top structure, don't open the elbows, the armpits. Drop the tailbone. 

Exercise: Hold the opponent with push and pull on the arms, lock the top. Baihui to huiyin line to the floor, rotate on that axis. Only try to rotate by a little bit, there is a lot of pressure on the legs. The opponent and myself must be one.

Kelvin Ho Yilu at UK Cambridge University Botanical Garden 20250608

Breakthrough: The opponent couldn't stand properly

Today, I realized one thing during my Sunday class. It was about on the touch of my right hand to the opponent's right hand, the opponent couldn't stand properly. There was peng. My feet was connected to his feet.

Notes for Toronto Workshop Jan 2025

Buddha’s Warrior Pound Mortar

Separate torso from arm

Keep the torso and hip inside a vertical tube

An object hits a wall horizontally, the wall can’t be moved, the wall goes down only, and the object is attached to the wall and goes down with it.

Hold the line between the shoulder and hand, bring the elbow to the kua, kua to the elbow

Always two dimensions, something going forward, something going downward

Every move must contain 3 moves.

Push Hands: Pretend to fight to gain space

Do my move to 99% and reserve 1% as trigger

Whatever the opponent does, you have to go in.

If the opponent wants space, you take that space.

If the opponent wants to be close, you create a little space, but it can’t be too far. Too far the opponent can kick or punch.

Result of matching is proportional. Match perfectly is full.

The system is balanced. No adding and no subtracting overall. We are only borrowing from one place to give it to another.

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