Notes for Toronto 2-2 video

http://practicalmethod.com/2012/10/toront-2-2-online-video-trailer/

Notes:

1:00 For the topic at the moment, Master Chen talked about not moving the hand. Anything else can move.

1:24 Master Chen showed not moving the hand, but moving the body. Then he showed not moving the body, but moving the hand. This sequence of swtiching is very important.

2:30 Our movements must be clear. We want to use a structural time-based movement.

4:00 In reality, it is inevitable that we move. In order to have the effect of no movement, you can another movement to cancel the first movement.

4:44 Song da jin na. Loose hit, tight rotate. When your opponent is loose, you hit. When your opponent is tight/strong, you turn/rotate.  For external style, there is no touching, so just straight into hitting, otherwise, time is wasted.

7:25 When we think we turn, we may actually ident our kua or bend at the waist. That is not turning/rotating.

8:10 When we turn at the top, there is a straight line poking from the bottom. Both of these must exist to have power. This is like how we operate a screw driver to fasten a screw.

9:00 The right feedback is that there isn't any. We are looking to have maximum power. Where do we find it? It is when the opponent has zero power.  If we have 25, and the opponent has 20, the effective power is only the delta (5). Our normal behaviour is that we like to engage, and feel the opponent's power.

11:00 We have to not allow the head to move, so that we have a central axis for rotation.

11:27 Eyes must not follow the hand, otherwise, there is a high tendency for our body to toss.

12:20 Focus on doing one thing right at a time in training.  If we don't allow the hand to move, all other body parts will start to adjust to serve this purpose.  This idea of just focusing on one thing at a time is what will allow us to build our skills. Many people try to do everything right, at the end they didn't get even one thing right.

19:06 Three lines in the body: Centre line (fake), right shoulder-kua line, and left shoulder-kua line. Any part of the two shoulder-kua line can be used as a catch when the opponent touches us. One the opponent is caught, the centre one can be used to rotate. Eventually, that real catch can be transferred and it is no longer at where it is touched.

25:20 What is loose? It is when the object can only be picked up one at a time, like a chain.  A board is not loose because we grab a corner, we can move the whole thing.

26:20  The magic number in taiji is 3. We can divide the body into 2 parts joined together like an open triangle. We considered the two endpoints joints as well, so 2 parts 3 joints.  If we look at the arm, there is upper arm and forearm joined at the elbow. We must lock the wrist (called sitting the wrist), so that we can make the hand/fingers part of the forearm as one piece. Similarly, we must lock the ankle (called erecting the ankle). With this, we have one system for the entire body. Once we understand this model, we are free to make any combinations within this framework.

34:00 Inside must stay inside, outside must stay outside.  Inside can be the dantian, and outside can be hand and foot. Elbow is somewhere between the inside and outside, and it must never cross the boundary. Their relationship must remain the same.

37:22 To have power, the two ends must not move, while everything in between goes towards the line formed between the two ends.

40:38 Twisting the towel: Use the waist on the central axis to power the hands. The size between the hands need to the size between the feet.

42:00 At first, we use the hand to power the hand, then use elbow to power the hand, use the shoulder, use the dantian. The dantian's power is split, half goes to the hand, half goes to the foot. In order for the farther part to power the hand, whatever in between them must be locked or adjusted to say on a specific line, otherwise, the power can't reach the hand.

46:00 Ultimately, we want the power to be coming from the foot because it is very far from the opponent. Do not be content with little success along the way. This may take 20 to 40 years of work.

50:00 Twisting the tower: The two hands are on the line. When we use power, we are off the line. We need to use a physical aid (rod) to help us stay on the line even with power. With the rod, we want a lot of powers on our arm to touch the rod as it travels along the rod.

56:10 By having a device that blocks the horiztonal movement, we can train a vertical search.

1:04:00 We want our movement to hug the hump to go over. If we go dead straight, we just get stopped by the opponent.

1:11:00 In push hands, we establish a solid spot on the opponent, we go over it.

1:15:45 During an action, there must be something not moving. After the action is done, you can then move it.