Many forms, one practice

Master George Xu engaging with students in a workshop. He has lessons on Patreon.com, Students of Masters George Xu and Wu Jie

Many long-time practitioners learn more than one form of taijiquan if they practice long enough—Yang, Wu, Chen, Wu Hao and so on. Many learn more than one form of martial art, as well—Xingyiquan, Taijiquan, Baguazhang, and so on. They also learn many weapons and associated forms—sword, staff, etc. They probably all learn some form of qigong, too. All of which suggests that they also have many teachers in their lifetimes. Each style of training enhances each one of the others and all really merge into a dedicated, lifelong practice.

I have had three core teachers: my taijiquan teachers, George Xu (Guo Ming), Susan A. Matthews, and lan shou master, Wu Jie, who lives in Shanghai. But I have learned from many more during 20+ years of seeking diverse opportunities.

Tim Dymond, a friend and fellow student, moderates a Patreon site (Students of Masters George Xu & Wu Jie) in which you can learn Chen, Xingyi and Lanshou with three different masters of each art. GM George Xu, with whom Tim launched the site, adds very distinct lessons to the site regarding basic martial awareness and technique according to his predator theory which informs any art you practice.

Lan Shou Master Wu Jie teaches video lessons on Patreon’s Students of Masters George Xu and Wu Jie.

Lan Shou Men Master Wu Jie is a systematic and precise teacher of Cao Quan and Fan Quan form. His teaching style is kindly and efficient, and detailed—from method to application.

The latest addition to the Patreon group is Master Qian Shi Ying (Nelson), the son of Qian Zhao Hong, the great 10 Animal Xing Yi master from Shanghai. Nelson has been building his teaching credentials since his father passed away a few years ago.

The video production values are good. Master Xu’s lessons go from about 20 to about 50 minutes long. Master Wu’s lessons, each of which are usually about 10 minutes long, come with English subtitles, but lately Bob Lau has added English audio translations to the instruction. Nelson Qian speaks English, which makes his info more available. You can also sign up for a What’s App discussion group with other patron’s. Plus, you can engage directly with Master Wu on WeChat if you are able to get signed in.

Many students of these arts nowadays don’t have the extra luxury of growing up in China surrounded by martial arts communities. We begin learning later in life and the time we devote to them is limited. Having an opportunity to learn by video on demand can add immensely to help focus your energies more efficiently and successfully. If you sign up on the Patreon site, say hello to Tim for me.

It’s gardening (and backache) time

It is springtime and people are getting out into their gardens, preparing soil, digging, planting, weeding, mowing, and all sort of other activities. After winter inactivity some of us just might ache after a day’s work outside. Especially some of us older folks. As one person I know said once after a morning of moving and lifting stone, “I moved muscles I didn’t know I had.” 

After day of laboring in the garden, most will tend to lean back into the sofa or easy chair and relax those sore muscles. The thing about that is when you get back up and walk you are even stiffer and sorer more than when you were working. The trick is to stay active until you have loosened up enough to prevent the stiffness from setting in.

You probably wouldn’t feel like going to the gym after all that lawn labor. More power to you if you do. Aerobic probably wouldn’t help nor would lifting weights. Some stretching exercises certainly could. So could doing some tai chi. I can tell you why; because tai chi moves muscle that we don’t usually use in day to day activities. Muscles that we need to activate just as much as any other muscles; tendons and ligaments for that matter. In fact that soreness we feel could be as much or more in our connective tissues than only muscles.

The trick to helping to alleviate the stiffness and soreness is to loosen and stretch gently. This is what tai chi movements provide. They release tension in overly tired regions of the body. When you lift and haul and bend over and such, you are tensing muscles and tendons and joints and ligaments and so on. In tai chi you’re spiraling, loosening, stretching, coaxing things to let go where they are stuck. You’re allowing the blood to flow through and the muscles et. al to release tension. You’re not forcing them or overworking them. Plus you’re moving parts that aren’t included in your daily routine. Those parts that you do happen to use in gardening and other yard work. So if you have sore muscles that you didn’t know you had try a little tai chi to bring them back in alignment. It will get you back in shape for the next time you’re in the garden. 

The personal learning journey of tai chi

(This post was first published June 2017 and has been revised and republished)

A journey of learning entails the step-wise progression of putting pieces of information together and building a body of knowledge. It’s a body of simple, personal observations filed away for later use—not assumptions, or guesses, based on conventionalized thought. It is not one thing or another to be argued, right or wrong. Learning is based on your own discoveries. It is experience and the memories of experience.

People ask about getting tai chi right. “What’s the right way?” they ask. Or “What am I doing wrong?” they wander.  If you ask me, I think they are a little hard on themselves thinking they are not doing good enough. I tell them not to think of it as either right or wrong, just that you’re refining from where you are in your efforts to learn tai chi. Today’s practice builds on the practice before. It’s cumulative. This thinking helps to dispel the idea that you have to do it according to a predetermined rule before you can claim you are doing tai chi at all. The only way to know tai chi is to do it at the level you are at. Only the individual practitioner sees the way. It’s personal. No one else can see it for you.

The simplest activity can be a practice of tai chi—even a single basic repetition. Even sitting for 60 seconds and breathing mindfully is doing qigong. Anyone can do that anytime and, every time you do, you’re building upon the practice before. You will see results if you do it regularly.

Tai chi challenge: practice

Learning the simplest things in tai chi can be a challenge, not because they are difficult; but, because we’re unfamiliar with them at first. It requires practice. Tai chi is like that. Life is like that. For example, sometimes new learners grasp the details of simple cloud hands only with considerable effort. It seems so easy on one hand, but there is so much more. You feel something missing. Or remembering to maintain a proper stance while moving the upper body takes reminding ourselves over and over. With practice though, we gradually build familiarity with the moves, then we become more comfortable, then we can refine what we’ve learned. Every successive practice is a refinement of the previous one. Over time we improve at the learning process itself. We become better learners. We are able to sustain concentration longer and with more depth. We look forward to new information so that we can practice learning skills that the moves themselves teach us.

One opportunity from tai chi

Tai chi offers an opportunity to look beyond the surface. To see not only what a practitioner is doing on the outside but deeper on the inside. Not usually an immediately obvious for a beginner. You have to develop skill to look within the other and yourself. It takes practice to see the depth of a practice. From where does movement originate? What is the underlying intention? What is nature and quality of the Qi (energy)? 

The body is a connected unit

Intricate in design and function, mind, heart and body are one. The energy body within is the other singular unit. The tai chi practitioner works to recognize this yin-yang connection. That feeling is the energy body becoming aware. It awakens when allowed to finally take its rightful place. The whole human is capable of so much more than we have been aware. 

The masters say fang song

Be soft, loose. Almost everyone says that. Newer teachers say it even though they have yet to feel it fully in their own practices. They believe it is correct instruction, though. This is understandable, but the lesson is not always easy to get. It takes time to form understanding. Perhaps you learn it only in stages. I do not know how common the following approach is, or if it is not at all common. If you have it figured out, let the rest of us know.

As a teaching point in a lesson plan, the instruction to be soft is a meaningful hint, a guide pointing out a desirable state. You are always at some point along the learning path; and each person will be unique in how their bodies express soft and loose. Plus, soft can have different meanings to different people depending on where they are in learning. Each person’s experience of it will differ at some stage of development. It can evolve over time and practice, and can apply to other concepts, such as gravity and sink.

However simple or complex the instruction, the learner will practice what they think is soft. Over time they begin to feel more. They become more sensitive to subtle changes in the body’s response to movement, thus allowing relaxation and softness.

So what do the masters mean when they say to be soft and loose?  No tensing in muscle for one. No clenching. No working too hard. Not to be too loose to the point of flaccid, nor so loose that you overstretch and strain a joint or tendon/muscle. 

It could further mean to move just at the right time when the Qi flows through thus inspiring the body to move in response. “Qi go through” is a concept that can play a role in soft and loose. The idea is to feel something moving separately of the physical body. Master Xu calls it two bodies.

What exercises can you do to help grasp fang song? Basics are good for beginners and probably all levels. Circles of different sorts help me—vertical, horizontal, diagonal and so on. 

To keep in mind: Tension redirects Qi and pulls it into hard spots, thus restraining its flow and depriving you of its healing power. However, some parts of the body, such as legs and related muscles, must harden as least momentarily in order to deliver power, to form a foundation for loose and soft—to allow arms and trunk to be loose and free and soft. 

The arms are loose because they are not bearing the weight or “carrying it,” as George Xu has said to us. The energy is redistributed to the Zhong Ding and Dantian. The arms are light and the core is leveraging the weight and moderating the Qi. Distribute the weight and balance it with power. There is no over burdening of one part and under utilizing another. Balance and alignment, both in standing and in motion. Zero point, no waste.

—Nov. 28. 2021

Old into new

In tai chi, there may be a better way to do a move or technique that is not necessarily right or wrong. There are many methods to achieve similar outcomes. What is more important to me as an instructor is that a learner do something different than what they normally default to in their movements. If anything is the correct step, that is. Whether the teacher says do this or do that is important particularly inasmuch as it helps the student change old patterns of movement into new. Beginners should think about this.