Enough Pain to Quit

 

                                                     

Square Form

an instruction video

 

Welcome!

 

Subject: 

 Why the Square Form Practice is the Ultimate Shield Against Knee Pain (Chondromalacia Patellae, which is what I suffered and was diagnosed with after doing “other tai chi” for only 1 1/2 years, in, ahem, 19_ _.)

Hi everyone,

Ever wonder why Classical Tai Chi Square Form is so meticulous, distinct, and block-like? It isn't just an educational blueprint—it is a highly scientific shield for your joints, specifically designed to prevent chondromalacia of the patella (runner's knee).

Chondromalacia of the patella, as a Sports Medicine M.D. told me, is caused by the kneecap tracking out of alignment, grinding against the cartilage, softening it, and creating pain. Pain enough to want to quit all Tai Chi. This usually happens due to two errors: knee buckling (inward twisting) and over-extension.

Quite honestly, Master Stephen Hwa is the only teacher out of 5 over the “other tai chi” first 25 years to now in the second 23 to give empathy and explicit attention to how, why, and what my stance is doing. Sadly informative, but he visited me and visited the “other”.  In a conversation, he confirmed what I had painfully learned. No one corrected beginners when it was obvious their derrières were sticking out all over the place. A setup for knee injury!

Here is exactly how the Square Form fixes this:

No Simultaneous Twisting and Loading:

In the Square Form, we never turn the hips while transitioning weight across a bent knee. Weight shifts and rotations are strictly separated. The knee stays safely locked in its "hinge" plane.

Flawless Tracking:

Because every step has a clear beginning, middle, and end, we can consciously verify that the kneecap's center is pointing precisely toward the toes. This balanced tracking stops cartilage wear dead in its tracks.

Offloading Joint Pressure to the Core:

By cultivating internal discipline and using quarter-body mechanics, we learn to move from our core and hips rather than relying on our knees as brakes or levers.

Let's keep paying close attention to the stillness, that “pause” between  transitions this week. It is exactly where your knees are being protected and rebuilt!

Happy training,

Jim

Important Points of Classical Wu Style Tai Chi Push Hands

The following is the dialogue of the most recent Youtube video from Workshop 2011. The subject of the workshop is the basics of doing (click here) Classical Wu Style push hands.

• Master Stephen Hwa instructs, demonstrates and allows students to participate in the learning.  The subject includes what is referred to as non-competitive push hands.  Master Hwa demonstrates the importance of the following points:

1. Importance of going fully forward in any Tai Chi posture
2. The difficulties of going fully forward
3. How to counter being pulled over while forward
4. How to crimp or cramp up your opponent's posture
5. The importance of correct distancing and the difference it makes
6. The importance of sitting back fully
7. The importance of turning the body correctly
8. The role of the pelvis in correct push hands

The times correspond to the statement in the dialogue

0:41 Say for instance that he pulls me.
0:45 You see that is why you practice the form.
0:51 You want to be in this full forward position.
0:53 Lot of people in the beginning are afraid to go into that full forward position. They feel like they are tipping over or something.
1:04 Now if he pulls me like this, I can relax my shoulder...see that?
1:09 See how much I can do that (stretch at shoulder)
1:13 Now he is kind of cramped
1:17 Because I let that go
1:21 In these things a couple of inches make a difference
1:24 So when he pulls me, I give him a couple more inches...he is cramped
1:43 Now when he comes at me I want to be able to sit back as much as I can
1:50 So it is kind of like to 2 people competing, who can stretch more, who can sit back more
1:54 So now I can sit back more than he can stretch
2:02 Now if I turn too much like this, then he can just push sideways
2:14 If I keep the pelvis still, he cannot push me
2:19 It is square here, he cannot push me, but once I do this
2:29 Very very different isn't it?
2:30 So the ability to keep the pelvis fixed and turning has a huge impact in push hands
2:40 The ability to feel comfortable going forward and the ability to sit back has a huge impact on opponent
3:04 When you go outside to push hands with people, they may not follow any rules
3:13 Then there are the people who come through the rank of weight lifting rooms, with extreme strong upper body
3:25 What they first do is grab you with 2 hands
3:30 In that situation...you remember Peter is strong, right?
3:45 When they try to grab your hands, you have to be prepared.
3:50 Once I feel you grab my hands, I have to do this, I do not let you grab solidly
4:00 Once he grabs solidly, this is harder to do
4:10 So you can use this particular move in getting away from the grab
4:32 Now outside people will stand sideways like this
4:43 So if you come forward they are going to pull like this
5:04 Now to counter this you have to exploit the weakness but there are several ways to get around this.
5: 24 One way is you don't let me really grab you
5:26 The other way is they don't make a full grab, they grab you like this
5:44 Then you have to step forward quickly and then you can jam them
5:50 So my weak point is force coming this way from the side like this
6:05 If you let him pull like this, then you are sunk.  Remember a great 90% of people push hands like this ...one sided.
6:30 Then there is the other situation with people who always keep their body perpendicular to the ground.
6:40 Then it becomes like wrestling because I am always in the middle, no one wants to sit back.
7:20 Very frequently on the youtube you see people pushing and wrestling like this, no one wants to sit back
7:30 They don't want lean forward, they don't want to sitback, they are afraid
8:29 Just remember don't get your arms to close to your body
8:40 It is kind of a right angle with the arms
8:50 Don't turn your hip too much, it is unstable
9:20 Tucking is important, because when the force comes on to you, you will get this curve or bend in your back when you do not tuck.
9:35 So this bend will stop the force right in this zone
9:40 With a correct tuck the force starts transmitting downward through my leg
10: 00 Try to keep the body reasonably straight, fold at the pelvis here. This way you will have better turning ability
10:18 If you crunch too much forward, you cannot turn the body.

The Correct Body Structure of Classical Tai Chi

I recall my early days of study, particularly those in which I had teachers who were long on enthusiasm and short on experience...some with only 1 year more than me.  In retrospect I recall them telling me to "sitback, sitback, sitback..." with no accompanying instructions on HOW to sitback correctly or WHY I was doing it wrong.  Obviously, I was doing it incorrectly, I thought, otherwise why would they keep repeating "sitback, sitback, sitback..." in a stacatto fashion?  Master Stephen Hwa addresses "sitback position", HOW, WHY, WHEN,  "forward position" and more in a 12 minute segment taken from a 2011 workshop.  The segment is more appropriately named "The correct body structure of Classical Tai Chi". You can go to the Youtube video of the segment by clicking on this link:

THE CORRECT BODY STRUCTURE OF CLASSICAL TAI CHI

Master Stephen Hwa: 

I went to Shanghai and a relative of mine told me his Uncle is a big guy in Yang Style Tai Chi in Shanghai.  He is also a Catholic Bishop  there and so they use the church to practice Yang Style Tai Chi. They are like this.  And then when they are older, in their “60’s”, the whole group, everyone has bone spurs in their lower back. Because the compression, the stress on the lower back caused bone spurs. You know this stress sometimes causes bone spurs, right? That unusual stress on the joints causes bone spurs. Every one of them has bone spurs in the lower back.

Student:  Master Hwa, you talk about the sensations occurring in the back, do you talk about the sensations occurring in the front as well?

Master Hwa: Some, but mostly in the back. Also, remember when he spoke?  He just raised an excellent point.  Remember, we said, going forward, all the weight has to be on the front foot? Now, the whole back is not entirely relaxed because there is a stretch in the lower back, down to the heel, try to maintain the touch of the heel on the ground.  Now, do you feel that stretch? Now you don’t have weight on it, but you should feel that stretch. You work to maintain the heel touch the ground. So the leg is kind of straight, not with bent knee.  Not with bent knee.  So you want to maintain some force on the leg to maintain the stretch. Not bending the knee.

Student: Do you sense that stretch continually when you are transferring weight back?

Master Hwa: Yes, when you are pulling back, there is more in the front now. When you are pulling back, and again using your abdomen.  Pulling your body back like this, again pulling with your back foot. There is more sensation comes more in the front. The sensation comes more in the front.  This sitting position actually is a very awkward position. But again, when we do push hands, when we do the push hands, you will realize this is such a very important position. One of the most important positions, but it is a very awkward position. A lot of people do not know how to do that correctly, a so called sitting motion.

Okay, any other questions on this segment?

Student: Can I ask you a question about sitting back?  When you are sitting back are you tucking the buttocks and sitting at the same time?

Master Hwa: Yes, tucking and sitting back at the same time.  When you are sitting back, it depends how you do it.  You can sit deeper and deeper, the deeper you can sit the better.  With the sitting back, you still should be able to turn your body.  Because that is the purpose of your sitting back.  You sit back, you turn and the guy falls.

Student: Master Hwa, when you are sitting back are you shortening the length of the abdomen?

Master Hwa: Not too much.  If your shoulder is too much (hunched over), your turning is limited, you cannot turn very well. You still need that length of body, so you can turn.  When I sit back, it is not just sitting back, I have to turn, to redirect. If you are too (hunched over) it is harder to turn. If you keep your body stretched (lengthened) then you can turn better.

Student: It is a pelvic tilt?

Master Hwa: Yes, the crease is not abdominal, it is creased in the pelvis.

Student: The farther you are down, the more your back stretches up?

Master Hwa: Yes, right, you find your back is kind of pulled up.  Certainly, if your step is big, your sitback is naturally quite low, OK? Now, we don’t teach the large frame.  The large frame, the step is big and it does teach you how to sit low. Now if you don’t sit low correctly, you are not sitting, your body weight is more toward the front. When you sit back correctly, the thighs have to be even (parallel).  Now my body is facing forward, if I am not sitting back, my body is facing to an angle.  On such an angle, I have a strong side and a weak side.  So when I sit with thighs parallel, my teacher checked it.  The reason he says this is “you are facing the opponent squarely and not crooked”.  If you face an angle, then you face opponent at an angle, so he is using the “thigh” guage.  Most other martial arts are facing the opponent really at an angle with the body.  We are facing the opponent squarely and you will be able to redirect the opponent to either direction. If I face him at an angle, I can redirect to one side only but cannot redirect to the other very well. So you are giving a signal to an opponent that you have a strong side. So if you do push hands with “outside” practitioners.  So how can you handle him to take advantage of his weak side.  Then not falling into his trap of succumbing to being pulled by his strong side.

Student:  When I sit back like this should my thigh feel tight?

Master Hwa:  Yes, really tight

Student: When I sit back this leg muscle is very tight. I have a weak right knee so I notice this.

Master Hwa:  Then you need to take a smaller step. If one has knee problems you always keep your step small.

Student: Could you address the importance of tucking the chin?

Master Hwa: Right, when your chin is not tucked, and people push you hard enough, you head may snap back.  If your head snaps back like this you are very weak. We constantly stretch our head up using the neck muscle to support the head rather than using the cervical vertebrae part of the spine to support the weight of the head.  In doing so, you also develop the neck muscle.  The neck muscle is important in preventing whiplash.  When you sit back you have to feel the tuck of the chin, the stretch of neck muscle and that is why you feel the back is pulled up.