"External" for balance but at a price

 

"EXTERNAL" STRATEGIES FOR KEEPING YOUR BALANCE? (BUT AS WE AGE, THE WHEREWITHAL STRENGTH TO USE THEM DISSIPATES) As we age, we gradually lose our ability to balance because we lose "external" muscle strength, vision and sensory perception. I have felt the "INTERNAL" movement to keep balance kick in over 20 years of doing Classical Tai Chi. Researchers say we use these "external strategies," but what do/can you use if you become proficient in the "internal discipline" of the core? All of these "EXTERNAL MOVEMENTS" happen, and you are hardly aware of what you do. None of these use the body core, also known as the internal discipline to keep balance. So, unbeknownst to us and unaware, we resort to "external" movement. Yet, although you aren't aware, your core stabilizes your body, allowing you to move in any direction, even on the bumpiest terrain, or stand in one spot without losing your balance. What if you can improve your core movement by getting more proficient with your "internal discipline"? Viewed this way, it can lessen your risk of falling. Keep in mind that everyone at times accidentally begins to lose their balance.

HERE'S WHY I SAY "EXTERNAL STRATEGIES" "The researchers say we start to lose balance, then follow one of three strategies to keep from falling. All are attempts at getting our center of gravity back over our base of support. The "ANKLE STRATEGY." Ankle strategy works for minor upsets. We shift our center of gravity backward or forward by rotating our body around the ankle joints to bring it back over the support base. As an unsteady person, you may find yourself doing this while waiting in line or standing still for a long time. The "HIP STRATEGY." Hip strategy helps avoid the more serious upsets. We move the hips one way or the other to regain balance. When we bend the knees to brush our teeth or wash our hands, we shift the hips over our base of support. We may also find ourselves shifting our hips at more difficult times, as when we begin to tip sideways or perhaps when we are blinded, as in taking a polo shirt off our heads. The "STEPPING STRATEGY". The stepping strategy occurs when we stumble or are pushed backward. We take several quick steps forward to get steady."

"What if this guy is right and I can get proficient at "internal movement," won't I have the "two birds" in one hand that way?

Charles Press and Donald H. Blough. BALANCE. Xlibris. Kindle Edition.

Tai Chi has 2 purposes

 

Here's why I wrote that much Tai Chi is nothing more than "choreographed yawning":  I worked for the U.S. Customs Service and studied Wu Style as a "knock em down and drag em out" martial art in Toronto.  I found out (in a roundabout way) that the Wu family name is "Ng" in Manchurian.   My supervisors at the Peace Bridge in Buffalo said that someone named Ng was there with a dozen Chinese Canadian people who had swords in the trunk of their cars. He said that Mr. Ng said he knew me, and I expected him to demo at the "Y." I said to ask him if he uses the Chinese name Wu which fortunately was the case. Customs was concerned because there was a BOLO for an "Ng" mass murderer in Canada.

I'm not a diplomatic teacher, and that sometimes turns people I can make no apologies, and I am not diplomatic here. There has been too much belittling of Tai Chi, and I explain that below. I teach students also to check their reasoning in Tai Chi. My teacher does not pussyfoot with me either; he calls me on it when my reasoning is wobbly or way off. We both have also explained in the video and in great detail why there is great reasoning behind video learning over classroom learning. I have also written of my own experiences in learning from his videos.

When you read my blog and Facebook in-depth, I think you'll find the raison d'etre of Classical Tai Chi is not stress and inner peace. Many things call themselves Tai Chi but are merely exercise or "wine and cheese" excuses to socialize...they are not Tai Chi. In my experience, those so-called Tai Chi's all cut corners in the learning. Take out movements here, take out moves there, pretty soon it does not resemble its original purpose.  You do all that cutting of corners, and the whole logical structure collapses. There has been way too much of that.

In my experience, stress relief is "perks"; however that comes with much, much time, not a fad of the month club. The reason for Tai Chi's existence is to enable one to attain longevity while living like a young person ( while living in the springtime of one's life). These benefits do not come overnight.

Many people don't think Tai Chi is a martial art. Young Wabu (my teacher's teacher) was a top-notch martial artist when he met Wu Chien Chuan. Young was already a Master of Pekkwar Monkey Boxing and versed in numerous other external style martial arts. He was notable in Hong Kong. Young told my teacher that he could not mount an attack against Wu because Wu would keep him off balance. That is Tai Chi as a martial art.

I talk to many people who not only don't think Tai Chi is a martial art; they run the other way when you tell them it is. There are many byproducts of the original Tai Chi purpose:  Tai Chi for seniors, Tai Chi for spiritual growth, Tai Chi for stress relief, Tai Chi for idiots (name of a book on Amazon), Tai Chi for arthritis, Tai Chi for Fibromyalgia, Tai Chi for kids, etc. is there any wonder why people think that way? I am a martial artist, but above all, I'm here to "right the Tai Chi ship,"  not cater to Heinz 57 varieties of Tai Chi.

Tai Chi has to achieve two purposes, be there for martial ability and be there for health. It comes from martial artists; for instance, members of the Wu family were bodyguards in the Imperial Palace and officers in the Manchurian Banner Guard. BTW, "Ng" is Manchurian. They learned from the Yang Family (martial instructors of the emperor's family), Yangs learned from Chen Family.  Wu Chien Chuan (bodyguard/soldier) was the teacher of Young Wabu, the teacher of Stephen Hwa, who is my teacher. I am the teacher of those present and past students who wanted the art for martial arts and health purposes.

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"Hand" 按 is everywhere

 

In the Classical Tai Chi Square Form Manual,https://www.classicaltaichi.com/PDF/squareform.pdf all of the 108 movements have "names." In the context of answering the "name" concerns of a student on Teachable.com, Master Hwa stated: "Do not put too much attention on the names. The names are just for the convenience of reference. My teacher never mentioned any names of the movements, and he said it is entirely arbitrary. I am using it here purely for reference purposes."

I think this is terrific advice, especially for those of us who do not speak Chinese. Much in the names of Tai Chi movements is lost because we must rely on "run of the mill" English translations. However, what is interesting is that the words seem to run a gamut from the seemingly inane to the very poetic. Some seem Taoist or even Buddhist. Some even seem as though they advise on how to behave oneself. Yet some suggest how to move during the Tai Chi. There is talk of various objects and even how to use them. As typifies statements about Kung Fu, there are descriptions and how to move like certain animals. We know that Classical Tai Chi has to be beneficial for martial arts and health, and some of the names are straightforward descriptions of kicking and punching.

So in keeping with my talk of knowing very little Chinese, I studied small amounts of Chinese at the International Institute in Buffalo, as well as Buffalo State College. Ironically, what has been intriguing in my study of Tai Chi has been the amount of ink/brush Calligraphy I learned from a Chinese American artist. I never fail to discover and learn something new about both. For instance, I am intrigued by the character for the English word "Hand" 手 because I recently discovered its true character composition. 手 is both a word and a radical. It is written as 扌 when used as a radical on the left side of a character.

A look at the "Square Form Manual" shows that a vast majority of the Chinese characters use扌as well as手. "An," 按, where you can see the "radical for hand on the left is frequently translated as "push," which is the character for one of the 13 postures of Tai Chi. Hopefully, what might improve national push hands competitions is the fact that "An" is also used exclusively in forms of Massage. "An mo" is a type of Massage used for health maintenance and to restore vitality. Its name means "press and stroke" in Chinese, of which "press" is translated as "An".

Gentle with yourself and others

 

In some instances, there have been personal misfortunes to push hands or sparring with advanced practitioners or even teachers who fulfilled the aggrandizement of their egos by physically hurting someone. When one pushes hands with a less advanced student, one can easily sense the point of weakness and imbalance and gently move them off balance to make a point. One does not need to hurt a student for them to learn. So, a student can very well feel that their balance is teetering and get the point. In the same token, one can also be an experienced practitioner and still learn. For instance,  this student never did 3-dimensional push hands till meeting Master Hwa.  There was confidence and trust in him not to send a student flying, so one relaxes to "sense" what he was doing, and in that instance, I learned how to do it myself.

If the lesson involves an application like "White Crane" or "Repulse Monkey," for example, the student can gently be guided to the ground instead of being dropped from a distance. In freestyle push hands sparring, many good partners would put on the ground by doing it gently. It is a tremendous leap of logic for some to understand that the "one-inch punch" does not even need the "inch." It can be done much as in push hands when one is in contact with the opponent. So it does not require an inch of distance and can be quite a shock, so one does not use it in sparring to protect the partner.  One gets even more effective when executing a joint lock, and there is no need to hurt. Do not boost one's ego by using it to throw a student across the room when one knows very well it could happen with a slight twitch.

White Crane as example of how to bend at the waist

 

White Crane Video

8. White Crane Spreads Wings 白鶴亮翅  Bending and turning is done by the waist Posture 8 – White Crane Spreads Wings  Bend forward at the waist In this brief look at the "form," whenever we bend our body, we bend the pelvis at the hip joints rather than bending the lumbar region of the back. The lumbar region of the back is a weak part of our skeletal structure. The pelvis, however, is quite strong. The movement here as a good example of pelvic and waist movement, is a neuro-musculoskeletal activity. The nervous system stimulates the muscles, and the muscles move the skeleton. So there is a source of movement in the "internal energy" of the waist.  Part of the source should also include the pelvis. 腰 The waist here, in Chinese, actually consists of two characters. These characters, yao-hsi, are often translated as the single word "waist." Yao-hsi means "waist" (yao) and "crack" (hsi). The "crack" refers to where the body bends. Thus, this "crack in the waist" is what Master Hwa calls the "crimp" where the clothing folds below the belt.