Liked on YouTube: FRED

FRED

via YouTube https://youtu.be/lR8AMwLEZXU

Concerning integration of internal discipline into Round Form

Concerning the integration of Internal Discipline into Form Play. This cloudhands exercise just done on the heels is a great precursor to eventual integration of internal discipline with round form cloudhands... IF and WHEN there is good quality of round form. Students may be making good progress in the class but need to keep in mind there is a qualitative minimum before we worry about quantities. If we have good quality in our form and it is the standard, then moving often with internal discipline is within reach. This is why it is so important to do internal movements, quarter body, upper body turn, etc. separate from form practice, LITERALLY ANY CHANCE YOU HAVE ANYTIME. Too often I see students attempting in vain to do internal in the form when they are constantly corrected for making mistakes like "wrong direction", "incorrect position of hands", "bad timing of movements".  I understand this day and age is impatient for results but find a teacher that can  thoroughly immerse you in the principles and explain those same principles behind all of this in Classical Tai Chi.  Please keep all of these principles in mind and catch yourself when you try to force internal on a movement that is wrong in so many other ways.

Liked on YouTube: Richard Dawkins - The Explanation for our Existence Part 1

Richard Dawkins - The Explanation for our Existence Part 1
Richard Dawkins - The Explanation for our Existence Part 1 Richard Dawkins is interviewed by Cristian Castillo-Davis about the explanation for our existence and the diversity of life in general through evolution by natural selection of "potentially immortal" genes. SUBSCRIBE to "Question Everything" https://www.youtube.com/QuestionEverything Brought to you by: "The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science" http://ift.tt/1sPEJba Stamp Student Union University of Maryland College Park, MD Date: April, 2011 Clinton Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is an English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008. Dawkins first came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which popularised the gene-centred view of evolution and introduced the term meme. With his book The Extended Phenotype (1982), he introduced into evolutionary biology the influential concept that the phenotypic effects of a gene are not necessarily limited to an organism's body, but can stretch far into the environment. In 2006, he founded the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. Dawkins is an atheist, and is well known for his criticism of creationism and intelligent design. In The Blind Watchmaker (1986), he argues against the watchmaker analogy, an argument for the existence of a supernatural creator based upon the complexity of living organisms. Instead, he describes evolutionary processes as analogous to a blind watchmaker in that reproduction, mutation, and selection are unguided by any designer. In The God Delusion (2006), Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that religious faith is a delusion. He opposes the teaching of creationism in schools.
via YouTube https://youtu.be/AmO2xzOLB5c

What is "small circle" Tai Chi, what is "internal"?

http://youtube.com Besides my own personal study in the 70's, 80's and 90's for a considerable time at numerous locations, particularly Youtube. I did a search of all of myriad sources, websites, videos, images, articles for actual instruction on true "small circle" Tai Chi and I do not find "small circle" Tai Chi being taught. Although I saw the words "small circle" used quite frequently, a critical examination (with an accompanying comparison to Classical Tai Chi) of the body structure, foot positioning, size of footsteps, (in many cases "extraneous") movement of the extremities, and lack of "internal movement" from the core of the body, demarcation/delineation of yin and yang, positioning of yin/yang pairs, etc. revealed to me that there is no "small circle" Tai Chi being taught. This picture gives a good comparison of what is "small circle".

 In the truest sense, saying one's Tai Chi is "small circle" is like saying their Tai Chi is "internal". Recently, a new student said "...internal is what my teacher is teaching in a particular Style short form.." yet I asked the student to show me their "internal" and they said"...well, that is what my teacher said he was teaching...". I think "caveat emptor" is particularly germane to what we discuss along with "all that glitters is not gold". wherein the attractive "external appearance" of something is not a reliable indication of its true nature.

Your body and mind on stress

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/28/magazine/relieving-stress-mind-over-muscle.html

Try a little experiment: This is what happens to your body on stress. Squeeze fists, arms, shoulders, face, core, etc. into as tight a squeeze as possible...now without letting go of the self-inflicted tightening STRETCH DOWN YOUR TAILBONE as you see in this picture, whether you are standing or sitting. If you cannot do that then pull in your lower abdomen until you feel the tailbone stretch down, then hold the stretch for 5 or 10 seconds. You will feel all the tenseness leave the body. This is a remedy for stress, anger, fear...

Liked on YouTube: Internal Discipline in Bassball

Internal Discipline in Bassball
How to generate power in baseball using Internal discipline in Classical Tai Chi. For more information, see classicaltaichi.com
via YouTube https://youtu.be/UzUSV_wQSwk

Liked on YouTube: Internal Discipline in Tennis by Roger Federer & Selena Williams

Internal Discipline in Tennis by Roger Federer & Selena Williams
How to generate power in tennis by Roger Federer & Selena Williams using the internal discipline of Classical Tai Chi. For more information see classicaltaichi.com
via YouTube https://youtu.be/fuu881kl0Os

Returning the splendor of Tai Chi

Since post-Qing Dynasty, about 1911 and the tremendous popularization of Tai Chi in China the few Tai Chi Grandmasters "simplified" the "forms". In simplification, they removed more than the example "internal discipline" that you see here:http://www.classicaltaichi.com/internal-discipline.html

. In removing what the essence of Tai Chi movement was, they also did away with the need for explanation. The learning was made more difficult in doing this however because it became an act of constant memorization of a sequence of movements with no explanation of rationale. In so many words people were told and to this day are told to "just follow along, and you will get it." In teaching the "internal discipline." Stephen Hwa has begun the process of bringing Tai Chi back to its original splendor.

Why "Uncovering the Treasure" is not digital

There will never be a digital version of "Uncovering the Treasure" coming to a Tablet, Cellphone or PC near you. For one thing those electronic devices cannot "open and close the body along the spine" like this book can...for another that book smells so good when one's "nose is buried in it". Unfortunately batteries are not included with the book but you can smile when the flight attendant tells everyone to turn off their electronic devices. The book feels different each time, much like the Classical Tai Chi form.  To paraphrase my teacher as well I think there will always be more books passed on to other people than tablets.

"Uncovering the Treasure" by Stephen Hwa, PhD available at Amazon.

Understand "fajin" as being multifaceted

Let's not continue to conflate "fajin" only with "one inch punch" which time wise is of short duration. As you see in the photos which show "longer duration" and "short duration" of force. How do we do either or both? If there is a "secret" to success it is to be found by us in our discernment or non-discernment of small differences in sensation that we feel and our subsequent ability or inability to both note and choose options and movement efficiency. In a workshop Master Stephen Hwa said "...the amount of fajing you can deliver is proportional to how compact you can make the delivery..." AND as I have said "... It is an established principle that the smallest difference in sensation we can discern is proportional to the magnitude of the larger sensation..." The "larger sensation" for all of us is the much larger section of the body that is away from the much smaller area that we wish to move.

IMHO: There are no "SECRETS" of Tai Chi, if you want to develop "one inch punch" in a hurryyyy, go home and do slowwww quarter body movement as a punch for 2 hours a day for a hundred days. The thing is there are slim and none people willing to do that...the "secret" is in sheer persistence for a "short duration" of time. Or you can do it spread out over years as a "long duration" with the same persistence.