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“The true health benefits and the foundation for martial
arts application of Tai Chi can only be achieved when the practitioner
incorporates “Internal Discipline”…using internal movement/internal power to
direct and empower external movements into Tai Chi” . The difficulty with doing this is that there
is so many things that can go wrong in the process of sensing where the
movements are originating from. “For the
beginner, the difficulty lies in the mental discipline in which all attention
has to be concentrated on the core of the body”. (In the debate about use of hips vs. waist), If
the beginner thinks even one little bit about the hip for instance, then a turning move, etc. will
partially be initiated from the hip.
In Classical Tai Chi we have to become not only aware of the
sensory signals of our body but also to focus and catalogue them. As I am falling asleep at night I can often
both feel and hear my heartbeat, I feel when my posture has excess muscular
tension. I can, much like the
weightlifters flex certain muscles which I feel (without using weights). Finally and most appropriate to Classical Tai
Chi I can not only feel but also acutely control the movements of my body
core. The problem for beginners in
Classical Tai Chi is that all of these tactile “feelings” must focus on relatively
miniscule nerve signals of sensation.
Those small nerve signals are overwhelmed by the background “noise” of
the other body sensations. This is why,
for example, when I was learning to
shoot the M14 rifle in the Marines I learned instinctively to hold my breath
and “squeeezzze” the trigger. It
actually is a delicate and complex task to fire a rifle accurately (my
breathing with its innate sounds and tactile sensations in the body can
interfere with the coordination of firing).
The same goes “in spades”, for
the multi-faceted and complex movements of Classical Tai Chi.
So we want to cut down on the background signal “noise”
and in the case of Classical Tai Chi this means several things not the
least of which is reducing the amount of
extraneous or “external” movement from the body. Specifically, I mean the extraneous movement from the
limbs. Our nervous system (my teacher
says a “well tuned nervous system is prized in China”) is hard wired to take things like tactile
stimulation in terms of its ratio to other senses, it does not do this in
absolutes.
There is even a “law” governing this that was coined by E.H. Weber
in 1834 that essentially states our “ratio” of signal to noise is constant
however. Speaking of “signal” to “noise”: Looking at the videos attached to some of the other blogs, we see Master Hwa speaking in what is quite a noisy
environment. He had to speak up to be
heard over the ambient room noise, the sounds of the students, etc. So it is not a simple matter of my increasing
the volume on the video when before I render it, for to do that would also
increase the room noise. If we were in a
really quiet environment he would only have had to whisper. I’m not sure if the
law always holds true but as a rule of thumb it does seem to work.
In Classical Tai Chi we do some work with Tui
Shou or “push hands”. If you close your
eyes as we push and I press down with one pound of force on one of your hands,
then I added another pound of force you would notice the difference
immediately. That extra force sent a “signal” that equaled the intensity of the original
force. If I took a feather and put it on
the “one pound hand” you would not notice the extra weight. A feather has a
sensory input that is too miniscule to be “heard” or in Tai Chi lexicon “ting
jin” over the initial one pound weight. If you are pushing me with 100 pounds of force,
then I only need a figurative“feather” or as the Classics say “4 oz.” properly
applied (internal energy) at the right angle, with good timing…to send you
flying. Now looking at the "after" image with Master Hwa and a student here you can see the results of 4 oz. properly applied:
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Why is this a “ratio”?
In Tai Chi there is a saying that “a feather cannot be added; nor can a
fly land without setting the practitioner in motion”. Well, if a fly lands on your
“push hand” instead of my one pound of force, then I add a feather (we will all need good
luck with getting the fly to stand still long enough) you will notice the
difference in weight right away.
Our perception of any sensation uses the same ratio
principle, particularly when we focus on it.
The “signals” that a beginner senses from their movement of the core are
much too small of a “ratio” to make it through the many external distractions
of their environment, their extraneous movement of their bodies, the many extraneous
thoughts of the mind, etc. A student of Master Hwa’s had achieved some
internal movement but complained about cold fingers. Watching her form he noticed that she had “flourishes”
type movements, the extra movements were unnecessary. These are “extraneous movements’ or nerve
signals along the path of qi. Other
examples are extraneous shoulder, arm, elbow, finger, etc. types. These disrupt the flow of qi (nerve signal)
between body and fingers, body and feet, etc.
As Master Hwa says: “It is important to keep localized nerve
activity dormant and let the qi from the body take over…all good reasoning why
one should also learn “Square Form” so
practitioners can get used to movements with steady arms and hands and thus no
localized nerve impulses. “
Thus, here for
instance, are only a couple examples of why we do not want to add
in things like extra “breathing techniques” (breathing qigongs) a “top down
discipline” to the “bottom up” discipline of Tai Chi; why we do not want to do
Tai Chi to music, adding weights to the hands, why we want to stand still while
our teacher is explaining how to do something
in Classical Tai Chi (our time will come to do it with them), why we want to
stand still while our teacher is demonstrating how to do something for that
matter (our time will come to do it with them), why we don’t want to “push” or “turn”
our opponent with a lot of force if we are trying to keep focused on their
movement.
As you can see from the picture above, Master Hwa has
allowed the practitioner to generate lots of momentum in a straight ahead
direction, (he did not resist or push back with lots of force when the opponent
attacked) then when he was stretched out, Master Hwa used a “feather” to attack
from the angle. The opponent was
generating so much “noise”, he could not hear any other “signals”, namely the “feather”
of 4 oz. that Master Hwa used from the side angle. As a teacher I experience this "signal to noise" paradigm from students
who just start to learn both the form and push hands. Even more experienced push hands players have
to be reminded of this, please take this to heart.
In the Tao of Martial Applications video of Master Hwa and a student pushing hands, he
speaks of the “cooperative” as well as “competitive”
push hands. In either case one has to (along with other requirements) use fluidity of movement, sensitivity to the
opponents movements, stick to the opponent, follow rather than resist the
opponents force and finally use four oz. to deflect a thousand pounds of
incoming force. If Master Hwa is pushing
back with a thousand pounds on what “ratio” will he have to rely? “Ratio”…what ratio?
