Liked on YouTube: Connect Toms arm to core for seniors mp4

Connect Toms arm to core for seniors mp4
Something to mull over: As in this video, what happens when we have to think about how to connect our arm to our core...even with someone stretching it out? What happens to "Muscle Memory"? In Classical Tai Chi it is a "yes and no" because it is not ever definitive. Sometimes it's "yes", sometimes it is "no". When Katharine Craster's Centipede was asked about his "muscle memory" by a Toad: A centipede was happy – quite! Until a toad in fun Said, "Pray, which leg moves after which?" This raised her doubts to such a pitch, She fell exhausted in the ditch Not knowing how to run.
via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKtwR9IEXIw

Liked on YouTube: TAI CHI SQUARE & ROUND FORM MASTER STEPHEN HWA

TAI CHI SQUARE & ROUND FORM MASTER STEPHEN HWA
In Tai Chi there is talk of seeking straight from curved, curved from straight. Many people say Classical Tai Chi Square form is “robotic”, my teacher says “the more robotic the better”…it gives us a plethora of straight lines and delineates what parts of the body move and don't move. Everyone thinks that Tai Chi's movements should always be round and smooth I talked to my teacher Master Stephen Hwa about the Calculus, straight lines, and curves in Tai Chi…he said “you are on the right track”. BTW Master Hwa was the scientist at Xerox that others came to when they had Math problems. Anyway, if I want to draw a curve I might start with a few points. Let’s say I put points on a paper and name each N, S, E, W, N, NE, NW, etc. So I have all those points (directions). Now I connect N to NE to E to SE to S, etc. with straight lines. Once I have the lines I can draw curved lines between the points. In The Classical Tai Chi Square form, there are many straight lines, and angles. Where the movement ends is the end of a straight line but if you have visualized what I say then the end of the lines, those points are tangential to the curve, and those points, changes in direction are where internal energy is released. Indeed there are other folks Tai Chi that says they do Square Form. What they don't say is they do Square Form in a Small, Mid, or Large Frame. Classical Tai Chi does square in a Small, Compact, and Tight Compact Frame. It is essential for the plethora of small, compact, and tight compact curved movements of the Round Form that use internal movement from the torso.
via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzmahSaL_kY

A Bumblebee cannot light or leave it...

  A Bumblebee cannot light or leave it...

Folks and some Tai Chi aficionados say the precision Square Form is Robotic.  Actually, "more is better" because the differentiation of localized impulses in the body is easiest to make when the stimulus is smallest. In my take on the Tai Chi Classics if I hoist a 50 lb. barbell over my head I won't feel any "differentiation" if a bumblebee lands on it.  If I am holding a piece of ribbon I would feel the "difference". The same thing when I hear, see, smell, etc.  If someone with a blaring stereo in their car pulls up next to me I can notice a change in the stimulation of that music only if they lower the volume, the change is really significant. This is a physiological law and it also applies if a stimulus is very small to start...only then can we detect small changes. As precise and robotic as they appear the movements of the square form are actually small in their own right, articulating at the joints as they do.  This stimulates the student's senses with their "smallness" and increases sensitivity to movement and that can translate into better movement in the Round Form.  In other words, Square Form is not stimulating the whole body as much Tai Chi is wont to thereby putting a lid on localized impulses which result from unbridled and for beginners most often random movement.  translated into changes in their movements. With square form, one can observe the effect the movement had on the sides of the body, neck, shoulders, pelvis, and more. One also has the opportunity to make corrections also to improve overall body structure.  Observing those changes will lead to decreased muscle tension in body, this is called the delineation of Yin and Yang, what moves and what does not move at any given time.  The effect on the brain is a reorganization of the motor cortex and tuning of the nervous system. If you take a moment to analyze the body at start and after square form, you can feel that certain portions feel weightless, one has achieved relaxation.  Again, differentiation or we say "delineation" works best with a small stimulus now we begin to see where "..when one part moves... the whole body moves..." in the Classics is merely an observation of incorrect and unhinged movement and NOT an instruction on how one should move.  After all, an infant will move an arm and the whole body will move, human beings naturally get additional neural synapses as they mature. One reaches for the coffee creamer and hopefully, their whole body does not lurch out of the chair.

Liked on YouTube: Do not mix Internal and External in arm mp4

Do not mix Internal and External in arm mp4
One cannot do "internal" and external at the same time in any part of the body, arms, legs etc. In this video you see arms stretching or being stretched and then internal being used or vice versa. Watching Master Hwa's arm stretch when pulled is "yielding" then "fajin" when opponent crimps up their arms and you are close to their chest. If you are going to "ting" jin and "follow" the opponents movement then use stretched or one might say "external" movement. Actually in push hands you can do one then do the other but the two cannot operate at the same time. In this event, one would have to setup the parameters for external (elbow and arm not directly in front of centerline and more toward lateral sides of body) to successfully be able to extend the arm fully and easily once more. Among arm, shoulder, and core, it is often difficult to tell which part is leading or following. It is best to always keep the shoulder passive as a follower. But the arm, the elbow, or the finger, filled with “yi”, may sometimes give the sensation of leading the movement. The synergistic effects between core movement and engagement of arm and core give unexpected results. When I try the engagement exercise on students new to my class, it seems to help them to learn how to make the core move.
via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tx_2Acujvo