The Yin and Yang of Classical Tai Chi

Yin and Yang video

I have rarely seen this move done correctly in large frame Tai Chi. If you have more questions? Please go to classical-tai-chi.teachable.com and take the "Health and Strength with Tai Chi" course for $27. To elucidate further: I would say that one can certainly see how the body is twisted in this picture with the back foot at a right angle and body turned to the front. This occurs when you do not follow Wu's edict of 6 harmonies "hand follows foot, elbow follows knee, shoulder follows hip", Ironically the Tai Chi Classics is frequently touted by large frame practitioners and "harmonies" is outlined in the "Holy Writ" of Tai Chi Classics. Actually, I have rarely seen the edict followed correctly in a large frame. The catch is that those are "external harmonies" applicable to large frame and use just the extremities in the reference. A small frame follows the external harmonies but they originate from the core and not the extremities. One has the thought that the core is like a centralized drive train that controls the wheels and not the wheels controlling the drive train.

Learning how to focus your muscle movements within your torso can help in stimulating your blood flow and lymphatic flow. It begins to teach you how to maintain the “springtime of your life”. Student comments echo their questions and difficulties but they need to understand our bodies are stubborn in lifetime habits of using muscles externally but now they are recruiting "new" uses of those same muscles. One needs to understand until those muscles in the process of becoming useful for internal movement, often temporarily turn out to deter the intended purpose of the movement. To resolve this during training, Classical Tai Chi with eminently rational logic has to develop skill in the traditional concepts of yin-yang and it's the delineation of movement and stillness to instill principles of inner balance of muscles in the body.

Liked on YouTube: Yin and Yang of Classical Tai chi

Yin and Yang of Classical Tai chi
Learning how to focus your muscle movements within your torso can help in stimulating your blood flow and lymphatic flow. It begins to teach you how to maintain the “springtime of your life”. Student comments echo their questions and difficulties but they need to understand our bodies are stubborn in lifetime habits of using muscles externally but now they are recruiting "new" uses of those same muscles. One needs to understand until those muscles in the process of becoming useful for internal movement, often temporarily turn out to deter the intended purpose of the movement. To resolve this during training, Classical Tai Chi with eminently rational logic has to develop skill in the traditional concepts of yin-yang and it's the delineation of movement and stillness to instill principles of inner balance of muscles in the body.
via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZCPDzJsqMk

Training for Fajin

Video link: Classical Tai Chi walking exercise and Internal Discipline in Tai Chi Walk

A civil conversation about training for Fajin I had with Louis Swaim, a former editor at North Atlantic Books and author of The Essence and Applications of Taijiquan:

Louis: "I think I understand what you are proposing; however, I still find the emphasis surprising. I should say that although we talk about the legs generating Jin, it is true that the waist, arms, and hands also do something. They cannot be limp and may even provide a substantial amount of energy. One of the ways in which I teach as I try to translate my understanding of the classics in everyday terms is to say that we should always generate power with the biggest and strongest muscles available and let smaller muscled do supporting work. According to at least some definitions, the muscles controlling the thighs and pelvis are the strongest. They certainly have more range of motion than the muscles controlling the lumbar spine. I would say that the waist can add power to the legs, but not the other way around. I would say that the legs are the heavy springs and the waist has the medium springs. Once the heavy springs have stored the maximum energy they can, they can share some with the medium springs without loss of collective power; however, if you try to maximize the storage in the medium springs before the heavy ones, you will steal energy from them and limit them."

Jim R: "The compact and tight compact Forms use “pulling” with both front and back. The step size is quite small in a compact Form very small in tight compact…much smaller than even what Wu Gong Yi showed in the Gold Book. That pulling is accomplished by the “engagement” of contracting (abdominal, back, buttock) core muscles with the legs. The style does not eschew pushing with the legs, it uses it with discretion. For instance, it can use pushing once the opponent’s balance is offset, then a pushing movement, even with a larger step, can be added opportunely.

As far as elaborating on the reasoning for “rooted in the feet, generated by the waist, controlled by the legs and manifested through the fingers” as you have talked about in the Classics.iThis statement may be applicable to certain Large Frame moves which use the leg to generate the pushing force. But, it is not applicable in the Compact Form which generates power from the torso, and is important to remember not only the difference in a frame size that I speak of here. It is important to remember how equal and opposite force will be sent from the waist down through the pelvis to the leg, finally absorbed by the ground through the foot. During that instant, the buttock and leg will naturally energize to transmit the force to the feet, thus firming the lower body structure to support the fa jin."

Liked on YouTube: Internal Discipline from beginning form

Internal Discipline from beginning form
Silk Reeling Exercise and Offline Exercise One might define silk reeling exercises as a continuous symmetrical simple internal movement or movements. When it is done correctly, one will achieve a continuous energy flow in the body. It is a "neigong" exercise. The I 08 move long Form in the hand of an advanced practitioner is a giant, complex silk reeling exercise with internal energy circulating continuously from beginning to the end of the Form. However, for less advanced students, it is best to start with a few simple moves converting to a continuous symmetrical exercise to practice. With that, one will be able to learn gradually how to move with internal discipline and enjoy the sensation of internal energy circulation. Many movements in the Long Form can be extracted and converted into silk reeling exercise. For beginning students, we often start them on the Body Turning move and an exercise alternately raising right and left arm from hanging down position to the waist high position and then lower them to complete the cycle. The Turning Move is the easiest to teach and to be appreciated. The raising arm silk reeling exercise looks extremely simple, but is a challenge to achieve as an internal move.
via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=revEBzDGSrk

Small moves necessary but not sufficient in "Small Frame" Tai Chi

 Small Frame v. Large Video

 

At Master Hwa's 75th, 2007, 2 years after becoming the first certified teacher of Classical Tai Chi

Wu's Style Discipleship ceremony, circa the 1980s

Ambulocetus said about the video: "It's the same for all martial arts; Jujutsu, karate, aikido... Start with big moves and gradually make them smaller."

Classical Tai Chi of Buffalo said: @Ambulocetus "Thanks for the opinion, but it is considerably more complex than that and I think you miss the point here. Big moves of the arms and legs can indeed be made smaller in Karate, Aikido, Jiu-Jitsu but this story has more chapters. BTW Master Stephen Hwa taught Classical Tai Chi for years at a Karate studio in Rochester, NY and one of my students is a Jiu-Jitsu "Professor", owns an Aikido, Jiu-Jitsu Dojo and learned the Wu's Style Mid- Frame from me. I taught the Wu's Style Mid- Frame (learned from Wu Kwong Yu, Eddie in Toronto) to the owner of a local Karate Studio who first saw me doing the Wu's Style Sword Form. Eddie Wu never once mentioned "make them smaller" to me about the movements and I was a disciple. The Karate teacher, may he rest in peace, was featured in Black Belt Magazine for the sheer number of martial arts that he practiced, but I don't recall him mentioning "gradually making his martial art movements smaller". Master Hwa's own teacher's daughter has a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu and teaches the Classical Tai Chi at the Jiu-Jitsu Dojo in Chico, California. Nevertheless, to continue, the bigness of limb movement being made into the smallness of limb movement is a necessary thing but not a sufficient condition when it comes to the presence of the "internal discipline" he speaks of seeing at 1:40 where sophisticated movement originates in the core.