Friday, January 19, 2024

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



Friday, January 12, 2024

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.