Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Nov. 25, 2021

Lu is converted to Cai.

In order for that conversion to be successful, we must DECEIVE the opponent. The opponent thinks that we are doing lu, but in fact, we are doing cai.

Lu is achieved by hand.

Cai is achieved by elbow.

Only when we use elbow to do the movement, we can accelerate. We can accelerate with hand alone.

A bicycle can't never outrun a car because our legs can't get the wheels to turn faster than an engine. There are limitations that the legs can't overcome. It was simply made that way.  

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Nov. 24, 2021

3 Dantians:

Upper Dantian: Head, area above the chest

Middle Dantian: Belly

Lower Dantian: Lower Abdomen

They represent 3 states: From bottom to top, solid substance -> power -> non-substsance (idea)

Simialr to 精->气->神

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Nov. 18, 2021

Breathing in Practical Method is actually no active breathing.

Master Chen Zhonghua talked about that breath from his father lying down in the last days of his life.

He observed that the lung rose up, and then it went down while the abdomen rose up. The air went back and forth. The bottom line was that it was not like a normal breathing. The frequency of the exchange became longer and longer.

Eventually, the last breath came out. There was some blue liquid at the bottom at the end.  This was the burst of the original qi that was given to you at birth by your parents.  If at the end, it comes out, one is said to have died in a natural death, and it is very rare.

Breathing from the heaven. Heaven is outside of our body.

e.g. For a partially filled balloon, if you squeeze the air on one side of the balloon, it will go to the other side of the balloon.

Fajin exercise with White Crane Spreads Its Wings. Stretch from the side, no popping of shoulders, no movement on the arms.

For my Cloud Hands, I need to engage the gears (elbow, shoulder, kua). Each does its own thing.

My shoulder was following my elbow at first.

There was no enough activity in the kua. I moved from my ribcage. I should move from the kua, and engage the shoulder and the kua.

Master Chen Zhonghua Online Lesson on Nov. 11, 2021

水功 （慢） vs 火功 （快）

20 趟拳是水功 。慢慢改变身体，不用用力太猛。

用力练一路是火功。

动肘到拳肩线，但拳肩线不能改变方向和位置，只能变长。

Water vs Fire

Water is slow and steady.

Fire is rapid and fluctuating.

Doing 20 yilus is like water. No need to use a lot of power, just let yilu transform your body slowly and gradually.

Training yilu with power is like fire.

Open chest exercise:  Lock the middle of the chest, stretch the two shoulders around. Lock the two shoulders, and push the middle of the chest out.

Breakthrough: The front hand finds the  rearelbow on a straight line. The key is that the striaght line remains the same initial position and direction, except it becomes longer at the end. If we look at the first fists, they only travel on the same straight line throughout the move.

Now I need to the things in between the front hand and rear elbow to line up, e.g. the two shouldlers, through rotation and stretching.

Milestone: Bouncing a person whom I met for the first time

于广洋 came from Shandong Province. He contacted Msster Chen Zhonghua to find out more about Practical Method in Toronto. I made an arrangement to meet with him, although I am not certain of his real intention of such meeting. In order to represent Practical Method, I went ahead anyways. We met at King Square Food Court. We introduced ourselves. He currently lives near Niagara Falls, and works in an Orchid farm. He came up to Canada in 2016/17, and is now Canadian Permanent Resident. Before he came to Canada, he learned Hong Style Taijiquan from 宫志伟 in Shandong for about 8 months. I talked about how clases were run locally and online. Once I figured out that he did not have bad intentions, we touched hands so I could show him a bit what Practical Method was like. He is a bit taller than me, but is of the skinny type. We started out with a single-hand four-corner push hands, so I could see what he was like. The hands went through the four corners, and I didn't feel any threat, and my hand went into his chest, and he was bounced. After that, we did the push hands we normally would do. I asked to push with more power and in whatever way. I found myself bouncing him very easily. I did not need to move at all, and I just needed to poke at his centre to bounce him both feet off the ground to a metre or two. I would sometimes hold his hand, so he couldn't go very far, and I would pull him back. I might work as a resolving door, and let him pass me by. He was very happy to experience this, and his eyes lit up. He said he was always wondering how the bouncing was like in taiji videos he saw.

He was curious how to learn this. We furthered discussed the various ways. He was about to go back to China for several months. He planned to go to Daqingshan to learn, and at the mean time, I introduced him to purchase the 零基础 Chiinese video package to get him started. This is the first time I was able to bounce someone whom I met for the first time easily. According to Master Chen Zhonghua, this is a major milestone. It takes a long time to have the first time, and once we experience 3 times, it would start to become normal, and I won't consider it a big deal anyomre. 

The previous experience about bouncing was:

1) In one of Toronto workshops around 2015, I was practicing taking space with Ernie Aleong. During this experience, I found that I bounced Ernie. It was a by-product of the exercise. This is the first time ever bouncing someone.

2) I practiced with Ernie once a week at that time. Ernie has been a very good partner, as he was able to lock himself really well and was very eager to help me so that I could practice the same move over and over again only concerning to see how I should adjust myself. I appreciated him very much. I started practicing bouncing with him. From him, I learn what it was really like. A very strong impression and a set of procedure were laid down.

3) At first, I was only able to bounce him with his cooperation. Later, I could do it easily with him, but not with anyone else.

4) Later, I started to able to bounce my students in a demo situation, and the time it took to set up each time became less and less.

5) On Nov 1, 2021, I was able to bounce this person whom I met for the first time easily. Although it was not like he came to attack very fiercely, there was no cooperation nonetheless.