"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.

The Frog at the bottom of the well!

Frog at the bottom of a well! a quote from Zhuangzi!

 "Tai Chi is like dance, like exercise, like...", wonder why Grandmaster Young did not like to hear that? If you teach, or even as we are students, you will meet many people with a limited view of Tai Chi. People in Tai Chi think Grandmaster Wu Jianquan did not know small circles, small frames. Learn a little Mandarin by the "Frog in the bottom of the well"; it's  a metaphor I have heard my own teacher. The Chinese have an expression for the limited way all of us learn to see the world:  In Pinyin it is  "jing di zhi wa," meaning "frog in the bottom of a well." The expression comes from a fable about a frog that has lived its entire life in a small well. The Frog assumes that its tiny world is all there is, and it has no idea of the true size of the world. Only when a passing turtle tells the Frog of the great ocean that exists to the East, the Frog realizes there is much more to the world than it had known. All of us are like that Frog. We grow up as members of a culture and learn directly and from the perspective that becomes most familiar to us. Because the people, through direct and indirect teaching, usually share that perspective, we seldom have cause to question it. Like the Frog, we rarely suspect how big and diverse our large our species is".

Frog in a small well!  https://mathias-sager.com

 Can any of you formulate a good "concept," much less a "true" one of what Small Circle, Small Frame Tai Chi is? Master Hwa, after 40 years, says he still discovers things. All Tai Chi is "experiential," so: "I do and (only then can I say) I understand." We'll also attempt to explain here why students should not fret over "concepts". "The study of Classical Tai Chi in the beginning through advanced stages is as logical and rigorous as the study of any scientific discipline"...Master Stephen Hwa, Ph.D. However, beginning students run up against the desire to conceptualize something that is based almost entirely on an individual's personal experience. Every Frog in the well bottom will indeed have a different "concept" hearing of it for the 1st time; how should the teacher provide a "concept" of the Tai Chi for them by mere explanation? Won't their "concept" be considerably different in 1,3,5 year if they faithfully return each day and practice? The other problem is that a lack of a concept sometimes makes students try harder to intellectualize what is experiential. For instance, one hears pronouncements or affirmations about what "Qi" is from beginning students.

 Or one hears "conceptualizations" from beginning students about the Internal Discipline. "Oh, that is like belly dancing," "Oh, that is like an exercise I used to teach in Karate," "Oh, that is like the 24 Forms of Wu Style Tai Chi, etc. Or regarding the subject of "Qi": "Oh, I know what that is, it is like energy, it is air, it is like...", or "I teach Karate, and since I have experience with that it stands to reason that I can not only teach Tai Chi, but I can articulate what "Qi" is..." Let me get this straight; Science cannot thoroughly articulate what "Qi" is, but you can? The question I have to remarks like that is, "Why is it such a persistent issue that everyone assumes they can explain "Qi" or teach how to cultivate it when they have not gone through the "beginning through advanced" stages we mentioned previously? Science has no answers at the level of understanding we talk about; how would someone who has not studied Classical Tai Chi or Qigong in-depth have an answer. When one reaches the advanced stage and contemplates such problems as, by example, "conceptualizing what Qi is" where one truly sees Science has no answers... it should be a humbling experience. How then is there any "conceptualization" to be had for the beginning practitioner?

Dao of Taijiquan is/is not Tao of Martial Applications

 

THE DAO OF TAIJIQUAN IS THE TAO OF MARTIAL APPLICATIONS ...AND THEN AGAIN, IT'S NOT! 

"Hello. My name is ***** I would so much be honored to study Tai Chi Chuan under Sifu Roach. I have a good friend that is a student of Chinese internal martial arts. When I called him about having an interest & advice, told him about Classical Tai Chi of Buffalo & Master Hwa, he became very excited. Saying the best book he ever read was "The Dao of Taijiquan." He also said that his teacher was a great fan of Master Hwa. It seems the endorsements are there for me. Hearing all this from my friend, his opinion I value very much, I am very, very, very excited. My phone # is. Thank you"

Hi Master Hwa,

"I am also bcc to my students about this message, which I find opens many opportunities for interesting glimpses into Tai Chi history as well as our lineage. It also provides an opportunity to explain what we do, albeit by comparison; nevertheless, I found writing interesting. Perhaps this man will digest this and come to study after all."

Jim Roach

Master Hwa said: "Jim: I know the confusion. Actually, I regret not meeting him. He is one of the few tai chi practitioners who is truly searching for the truth. Sometimes, he tells his students," what I taught you last month, forget about it, it is not correct. let's do this way."

Stephen Hwa

Hi *****

I'm under the impression from speaking to Master Stephen Hwa that Master Stephen Hwa gets the question "are you related to Jou Tsung Hwa" quite a bit. He patiently explains that his surname is Hwa and therefore no relation to Jou (surname Jou). Actually, at a World Tai Chi Day event, while watching a demo of "5 animal frolics", Master Stephen Hwa told me that his family surname Hwa in original Chinese spelling is Hua. He also tells me that the family is related to a distant ancestor Hua Tuo who may be the first ancient Chinese surgeon. 

Stephen Hwa mentions the "Dao of Taijiquan" published in 1989 in his book "Uncovering the Treasure" published in 2010 and speaks of a couple of Jou's statements. In his book, Stephen Hwa references Jou, Tsung Hwa's statements.  He says that the "Torso Method" he mentions in "The Tao of Taijiquan, p. A31" is none other than the "Internal Discipline" explained in loving detail in "Uncovering the Treasure, p. 1 and 2, that he teaches in Classical Taijiquan.

Although Jou also mentions Wu Jianquan style Tai Chi in his book, he states that he studied Yang and Chen styles for the most part. 

 Master Hwa has taught Classical Tai Chi to participants at "Jou's" Tai Chi Farm. He refers to that in "Uncovering the Treasure," where he describes a "Western Boxer's" unsuccessful and painful attempt to "take a punch" from Hwa (one-inch punch popularized by Bruce Lee) without using a pad. At this link, Stephen "Hwa's" teacher was Yang Wabu (Young Wabu), who later worked as a Dr. of Osteopathy after working in import/export in Hong Kong but was highly proficient in numerous martial arts, including Bagua Zhang. He was a known master of Pekkwar Monkey Boxing when he met and learned Taiji from this link of the renowned martial artist Wu Chien Chuan who, along with his father, had both worked as bodyguards to the emperor of China. Early on, Wu had learned the Yang Style from the members of the Yang Family themselves, but as described in Wikipedia, Wu later shortened the stances and altered the "frame" in other ways. 

 I studied with Wu's great-grandson Eddie Wu for many years; even his frame is somewhat larger than the frame size we use in Classical Taiji. In addition,(since I studied with both Wu and Hwa) I am the only student of Hwa's that can personally attest that Wu does not teach internal discipline; however, we do. Briefly, the Wu form I learned from Eddie turns from the hips, the form I learned from Hwa turns from the waist, for another thing, it is much much smaller. As a former disciple of Wu, with great respect for the family, I can attest that the "internal discipline" of Classical Taiji is a return to the roots of Taiji before the styles began to change. When Young Wabu learned from Wu Chien Chuan, he was learning from the 2nd generation. When Wu was not there, young Wabu used to teach classes for Wu Kung I (son of Wu Chien Chuan). Young Wabu's daughter Sonia tells me that she was in Wu Kung i's classes, (but her father was not Kung i's student since he studied with Kung i's father, Chien Chuan, Yang was Wu's colleague and not his student) and she used to fight with the men. She tells me that she was 11 years old and Eddie Wu was only six years old, and she used to ask Eddie to stop bugging her as the little boys like to do.

Having learned from Chien Chuan himself, Yang's approach was very meticulous, as was he. My own opinion is that Gongyi (who says as much in the Qi magazine article) was very interested in attracting as many people as possible. Therefore, for one thing, Wu Kung I did not teach the square form or tight circled round form of his father but instead taught a "rounded square form." That is the form that I learned from his grandson Eddie Wu in Toronto. It is pretty different from the smaller frame (in my opinion), highly articulated square form, and compact and tight compact form that I now teach in Classical Taiji. However, Classical Taiji is still a "Wu's" style, just that as I say...it is a return to the "roots

Square Form end cloud hands mpg

Square Form end cloud hands mpg

This is a slow-motion video snip of the Classical Tai Chi Square Form. There is no sound. What is important are the many hand movements, the turning of the feet, and the timing of them all. If one learns Cloud hands then this section will undoubtedly be of concern because of its complexity and timing.
via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_shXC7kC5cA

Tai Chi world is small with a narrow mind

 

Sifu Jim R. writes: Pictures show small and compact frames, so do not think large, very large and mid-frame were the only ones he knew. The last picture shows a young woman because of the torque in her right knee and foot making a very painful stance. Whereas Master Wu's very large stance seems excellent and very comfortable. As a metaphor, the world is vast but very small at times. If one has a narrow mind, it can look even smaller. Barbara R., a student asks questions of Master Hwa about Wu Chien Chuan's large stance and its usage in all situations.

From Classical Tai Chi Forum Volume 5 August 2003. https://www.classicaltaichi.com/forum/pdf/forum5a.pdf

Barbara, a student, writes: When watching a video of the 1995 International Wu Style Federation Convention and heard a speaker refer to "Lao Jia" and "Xin Jia" From the translation, it appeared these referred to the long-form as taught by Wu Chien Chuan and as taught by his son, Wu Gong Yi. The speaker said he had studied with both and set out to describe the differences, which seemed to be mainly differences in depth of stance—he kept using Drop Stance (Downward Posture, Snake Creeps Down) with a deep drop; as an illustration of "Lao Jia,"……… Master Young Wabu was a student of Wu Chien Chuan and Master Hwa was a student of both Master Sonia Young and her father Young Wabu. Master Sonia was a student of Grandmaster Wu Gong Yi and her father was Wu's colleague and also taught Wu's classes when Wu was not there. It seems very clear that Master Hwa is in about as good a position as the speaker (whose name I did not catch) to comment on this. The difference in "Lao" and "Xin" as I understood it is mainly a difference in how much external exercise you want to get along with the internal or whether you are looking for a practical fighting form or a showier one…………. Pictures of Wu Chien Chuan doing Tai Chi suggest that he did do Drop Stance with a reasonably deep drop, at least for the camera—but did he do it that way even in his last years? Would he have done it that way in free sparring? …………

Master Hwa's response: One listens to that "speaker" and cannot believe he said that. Just because he was taught "large frame" by Wu Chien Chuan when he was a teenager, he thought that was all Wu knew! If he thought that when he was a teenager, it is excusable. However, now at his old age, with all the published discussion about Wu's prowess at Compact Form, and still thinks that way. He is genuinely clueless. Unfortunately, this kind of person, who saw a master play one style, immediately assumed that it was that master's style, or that family's style, who has muddied the water about the history of tai chi. Prime examples are: Yang Ban-Hou had other teachers besides his father, Yang Lu-Chan, and therefore his style is different from his father. "Large frame" or "large circle" is the hallmark of Yang style, ignoring that several Yangs are known for their zeal for compact forms, such as Yang Shao-Hou, brother of Yang Cheng-Fu. He reminds one of a Chinese saying, "sitting in the bottom of a well trying to figure out how big is the sky."

It is correct that what they did for the camera was not representative of their style. During that era, printed pictures in the book have inferior quality (I have several such books), challenging to see any details. If a pose was in the compact form, it probably showed very little of what was going on. Master Wu's pictures are all in a substantial size frame style. As told by one of Wu Chien Chuan's students, an interesting story was that he asked Wu why one of his tai chi photos had the wrong posture. Wu said that the photographer told him to do it this way. The story shows that these masters did not give a hoot about their photographs. Master Young Wabu described how Grandmaster Wu, during sparring, could stick to the opponent, keeping the opponent constantly out of balance. (Master Young is the "opponent" describing what happened to him when meeting Master Wu) Master Young shows the epitome of tai chi martial art. It is formless; an abstract of all the training he had undergone- leg power from "large circle," internal power from "small circle," movements from form practice, sense and touch developed during push hand, sparring exercise, and more.

Classical Tai Chi is a scientific martial art

  A scientific video

Classical Tai Chi is a martial art, and if it were an art like painting, a "one-inch punch" would merely be one type of brush stroke in a universe of methods. I digress, but I have a particular place in my heart for those who belittle Tai Chi's fighting ability, a special place in the heart, especially for those who engage in Tai Chi learning for only a short time and say that. Digressing further, let me tell you of a Judo vs. Kung Fu story, but it could be any martial art. I was personally acquainted with both teachers. It seems a Kung Fu Master who was renting a Judo Dojo said: "… don't do Judo, Kung Fu is better…." He meets the Judo Master while in the Dojo, who, with an upraised chair, said, "…so Judo is no good, Kung Fu is better…"?

My point is that my teacher, Master Hwa, has said, "…in a fight anything goes…". Working Shore Patrol in the Marine Corps, I saw this, but it was entitled "…in a fight, anything goes but first go the tables and chairs…". My teacher has previously spoken at the College about "...old masters, wanting to prove their art..." They, in so many words, were saying:..."... come on, let's fight"…".

To say nothing of contagious diseases, in this very different world today, I am sure there are many reasons besides law and human decency why we should not use that approach. It is no longer a matter of expounding Chinese wisdom via Western Science since China has also arrived in the 21st century. Master Hwa has spoken (after all, he is a retired Ph.D. Engineer) of his Fondness for his own teacher's systematic and scientific approach to the art. As an engineer, I like his expert and scientifically disciplined explanations for some pretty amazing things I have personally witnessed in Classical Tai Chi. His reasons come in the form of analysis and exposition of physiology and mechanics.

As my teacher, and in this video, I like his "physiological and mechanical" teaching of constantly reminding me to turn at the waist (Yao) using "internal discipline," Not turn at the hip girdle (Kua) to merely turn the "full" upper torso a complete turn. Classical Tai Chi, on the other hand, uses even, "quarters," "halves," "x, y, and z-axis, of the "Yao" in a very advanced level. This consists of complex combinations too numerous to mention of "quarters, halves, and x,y,z" axis movements.

"Fajin"??? "One-inch punch"??? Those are the tip of the iceberg. There is a veritable smorgasbord of Fajin from all angles and striking surfaces of a proficient practitioner's Classical Tai Chi body. In light of the plethora of combinations, it is a "palette" of functional movement rather than one brush stroke-like "one-inch punch." To conclude: The physiological effect of a lowered twisting action he speaks about in the video, exaggerates the signal and thus the stability of the core. If you are throwing yourself off balance, damaging your knees through excessive torque and shear force, then you have done much of the opponent's work for them. After all, my teacher and I have several videos showing the disparities, and you can see them all on Youtube. Let it not be said that I am "talking through my hat" because I did "twisting at the Kua" for many, many years before Classical Tai Chi.

Do you admire Master Hwa's use of the "one-inch punch"? One should respect the Science and Art behind it and put their admiration to work learning this art from A to Z. Rather than taking violent methods to prove our art, let's try to understand it. Yes, in Classical Tai Chi, we demonstrate many applications, but they always come with detailed scientific analysis. Once we know even one thing with the help of modern science, we are one significant step closer to the truth.