Thoughts by the Students of Classical Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan
Campaign to promote SIGONG Gin Soon Chu as the 5th generation successor of Classical Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan.
www.facebook.com/ClassicalYangStyleTaiChi
Dec. 30, 2018
I can only describe the feeling from my subjective experience: It's as if an electric current is sent through my body, subtly, and then upon contacting the bottom of my back foot, 'exploding'. Sometimes that explosion bounces back up, all the way to my head and makes me scream as I get launched backwards, other times it's as if the energy hits my navel center and 'tickles' me internally (for lack of better words), and this makes me laugh or cackle. There are times when I barely feel a charge entering my body, yet it's as if a strong gust of wind blows through and me sends me whooshing backwards. Students and non-students have witnessed this and it probably appears confusing yet hilarious. When I first started this exercise, my body was not strong enough to withhold the pressure being applied to it, so I folded and collapsed, even though I used as much physical strength as I could muster. Slowly but surely I learned that if I could relax my individual muscles, especially in the upper body, that I could maximize the power of my connected body, much like a tensegrity model (think or google buckyball). Even still, at that time, I would get overpowered by the force being applied to my structure and would collapse or topple over, as I reached the limits of my connected strength. As I continued with this exercise, my body became more supple, flexible and connected, with less isolated muscle groups firing upon pressure being applied. In so doing, the aforementioned charge that I would feel coursing through my body became more 'alive' and visceral. As my sensitivity sharpened, and my connected body became more in-tact, I could experience more subtle interactions, with less externally visible physics interactions occurring. Only then did I even think I could begin to grasp what is meant by 'Internal Art'.
Ari Reisner
Dec. 28, 2018
Push hands as we commonly see is a competitive sport where two opponents try to unblance each other with a variety of technique. This is seen by most Tai Chi practioners as the epitome of Tai Chi chaun as a martial art. When we examine the forms, you can see that there is more to it then just pushing and shoving. So why do we practice push hands? In classical Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan there are power push hands, single joint, double joint and free style where the practioners can use a variety techniques. The point for the latter push hands training is so the practioners, while moving, attacking and defending, don't break the internal connection. If you take a rubber band and flick it it will just flop around, but if we take that same rubber band and stretch it, when it is struck the force reverberates. Through proper training and understanding of the internal principles, one builds great tenacious strength. So when you see students bounce or spasm that is just the rubber band being plucked. In a self defense situation this tenacious strength can be used to attack or defend. But for the practice of push hands (free style), it is to learn to keep that internal connection at all times in various speeds and stress levels. (Like when Sifu Gim throws an elbow at my head).
Jesse Brossa
