THE "SECRETS" OF TAI CHI...(there are no secrets)

Let's not continue to conflate "Fajin" (a delivery of power) only with the "one-inch punch" that Tom Kostusiak is so gracefully partaking of. That Fajin "punch" which time-wise is of SHORT DURATION! As you see in the photos which also show Tom being Fajin yanked aka "longer duration" and Punch "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 in failure a non-discernment of small differences in sensation that we feel.  This also involves our subsequent ability or inability to both note and choose options and movement efficiency.

 In a workshop, Master Stephen Hwa said "...the amount of Fajin you can deliver is proportional to how compact you can make the delivery..."  From that I discovered  it is an established principle that the smallest difference in sensation we can discern is proportional to the magnitude of the more prominent sensation. The more prominent "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.

There are no secrets to Tai Chi, if you want to develop a "one-inch punch" in a hurry go home and do slow 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 spread it over years as a "long duration" of developing power via Tai Chi Form practice, complete with health benefits with the same persistence.

Another aspect is the idea of how the "short" seems to be contained in the "long". The "long" seems to trace a seemingly infinite number of points from which the short-burst "fajin" can emerge instantly. Points, stops, pauses, straight lines, tangents, back to points from which force can be delivered from any angle. Do your Square Form it’s loaded with “points”! 

The idea is not only to strive in short burst power from one point, but to cultivate the long which creates many more possibilities for the short. The converse is not true, the long cannot come from the short. This seems to be related to the idea that we do not show the application but the intent "Yi" when we practice "Form".  

If the application were more pronounced in the form we do, it would probably have many short-burst movements and it probably would not be good for our health due to the jarring that would occur. It seems that only in the intermediate stages of practice does one begin to realize this point more fully and really "feel" the potential for short burst anywhere, making it meaningless to strike a heavy bag, or break boards repeatedly with internal "short" to cultivate it.