Hi.Jim, Thank you for the "Learning the Internal Dynamics of Tai Chi" article by Eva Koepsell. I am just seeing this email now. I did learn of a group that meets locally twice a week. But I am way out of practice will try some YouTube videos in the meantime. Thank you very much for your help/interest. Truly delightful.
Take the "internal" test (Fajin video link)
Hi John, Good thinking! John, I challenge anyone who reads this blog post to try what Master Hwa does in the video. Along with the lengthy email I just sent I also want to say that you should try what he is doing in the Fajin video link here for yourself. Do it exactly as he is doing it, straight up, leaning, big stance, little stance. Then when you do it with a tiny stance, as straight up as possible, and your body does not make your feet move as you "fajin" push, then you are doing internal. Students can get "internal," moving from inside out from the core if they work at it. But raising the hands, the arms, moving the legs with external movement from shoulders, knees, hips as "Form" is "wishful thinking" and does not get it...believe me, I tried. I welcome your thoughts and comments on that.
I learned Tai Chi in 1976 that was not Tai Chi, but it was good exercise. I will explain that problem. As the excellent "...learning the internal dynamics..." article says, in so many words, not all Tai Chi is Tai Chi. Then I studied from a video I bought from "Inside Kung fu" magazine and learned the entire 108 Form from the video of Wu Kwong Yu Eddie Wu. I showed what I learned to him, he said, "very smooth, I'm impressed," and I started going to Toronto for ten years. That style stresses "turning from the hip, " a major joint in the body. But boy, did I learn an incredible amount about martial applications. There were very good fighting and fighters there; my black belt in Tae Kwon Do did not stand a chance in sparring. I gave up "getting my kicks" for Wu's Style Tai Chi. I ended up teaching "Defensive Tactics", other duties as assigned, while I worked for Homeland Security. However, I still wanted Internal.
I will continue to help you as much as possible since you are mindful of the videos. "Tai Chi is mindfulness". Classical Wu Style Tai Chi moves from the core. If the move comes from the "inside out" of the core, it is an internal move; if not, then it is external. My 90-year-old"er" teacher told me that. Then he did a workshop for the only 4 of us teachers in Buffalo, WNY: and told me, "not everyone who starts Tai Chi wants to be a proficient practitioner." In other words, they "think" they want the smooth, flowing movements, must be so easy, right? But then realize early on: Who wants all of that "left hand, now right hand, no ...the right hand" stuff for 100 years? Like all of us, I would add that they have passing clouds of thought called "wishful thinking." The funny thing about "wishful thinking" in our consumption-driven culture is we are quite often not mindful. Most often, we are mindless, and we do not know that we are.
Unfortunately, as I experienced with "Tai Chi for exercise that is not Tai Chi," not everyone who teaches Tai Chi wants to be a proficient teacher. Like all of us, they are subject to the same wishful thinking and mindlessness of us all. And also the mindlessness of the very students they want to teach. The funny thing about mindfulness is that those who have it know that they aren't very good at it in their hearts and minds. It is most definitely including yours truly, who is quite often mindless. Those who do not have it think they are good at it, aka Dunning Kruger Effect. And by golly, it is the same at everything from Curling to Tai Chi to Astrophysics.
I also count as a friend Stephen Hwa (Hua Jiping), who coined the phrase "ordinary force." So before looking at other Youtube videos, I would like you to take a look at the Youtube video Fajin part 1Take the "internal" test
Please take a hard look at the video from 2:30 on, through hearing the term "ordinary force". I used ordinary force in my "Tai Chi for exercise" for approximately 30 years until my study began in Classical Tai Chi in 2003. I rediscover each year since my "introduction" in 1976 that I was doing Tai Chi that used "ordinary force". I would safely say if a Tai Chi teacher can exactly duplicate what Stephen Hwa is doing in their 70s. And they do it with tiny steps, perfectly upright stance, movement from one inch only, against someone bigger and very rooted at 4:14 of the video then they are doing Tai Chi as the Internal Martial Art that it truly is. Otherwise, to quote my teacher, "are doing good exercise, but what they are doing is not Tai Chi". Tai Chi movement has to come from the abdomen and back, aka the body core, and that video is the "Acid Test ." Hope this helps.
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