Taiji Class Notes #6

Collin and Doug Centering

Hey everyone, time for some more rumination on Push Hands.

We had a nice turnout of 12 people this past Saturday.

The class played out in a fairly good fashion, let’s go over the basics and then look at a couple of things in depth.

What we covered

    • Warm up

    • 4 or 5 Gates qigong

    • Coiling qigong

    • Centering

    • Monkey Dance

    • Open practice

Qigong

I added Coiling qigong to the warm up. I did this as a deliberate escalation of the qigong the class has been working on over the past couple of months. Coiling qigong is an important adjunct to Fa Jin training. Coiling qigong fortifies the ligaments and tendons that get stressed during proper Taiji Fa Jin so you have to do it if you want to prolong your career doing Fa Jin. The 4/5 Gates breathing gets the Qi moving out into the limbs so the Coiling qigong has more resources with which to work. Since Fa Jin training is going to be one of my main themes this year for the class we need to practice effective Coiling qigong to supplement our in class training.

Centering

We got back into Centering today after a few weeks away from this high level drill. Centering is a very interesting and enjoyable thing to practice and despite its flaw, one of the most important to practice. It is a synthesis of many of the ancillary skills in Taijiquan. The full title of the drill is Listen, Follow, Attach and Adhere. (It used to be called Listen, Follow, Stick and Adhere. Dr. Yang changed it a few years ago and I still call the drill by that title occasionally.) The title can be taken to mean Listen to the enemy, Follow his movements, Attach to his limbs and Adhere to his Dan Tian/Center. The basic concept of the drill is the same as that of free style Push Hands, essentially one tries to unbalance and up root the opponent while protecting one’s own root. The difference between the two drills is that Centering is performed in a high neutral stance while free style Push Hands must be done with low stances. This difference was implemented because the student body at the time the change was instituted had poor movement/flexibility in the chest. Dr. Yang saw this lack of “softness” and made us all stand tall to force us to soften up. Standing in the high stance of Centering makes your Root more tenuous and forces you to use more body neutralization.

Take a moment to look at the picture of Collin and Doug Centering. Collin is on the left in the picture, note how Collin’s front foot is being peeled back off the floor; whether this is the result of Doug’s push or a part of Collin’s effort to neutralize the incoming energy, it is a bad habit to develop. By peeling his foot off the floor Collin is making his root more tenuous. This is a fairly common practice in some styles of Taijiquan form work. (It is the preferred way to change stance in the 24 form Taiji.) This has lead to confusion in Push Hands where it is a liability. Watch out for this error when you Push Hands.

I worked with three people in class, Jim, Doug and Mark and got a good work out from each of them.

Working with Jim left me with the impression of a great deal of Na Jin and coiling happening. (He has commented in class before that he uses the tactic of keeping me off his torso so I can not bring any power to bear.) This is a good tactic when you deal with someone larger than yourself. Na Jin is the way to go if that is the tactical course you want to pursue. When you use Na Jin you change the paradigm of the match. Since you are no longer trying to attack the individual you lot of the pressure is gone from the event and you focus on defense. This defensive strategy allows you to sit back in a relatively safe position and “learn” your opponent, biding your time until they make a mistake. Then you pounce! Jim uses this idea to good effect on me.

My match with Doug was interesting. I found him to be surprisingly strong. The only issue I had was that there was a frenzied feel to his attacks. A sense that they lacked precision and quantity was used to make up for quality. This is not to say he was ineffective, but to move to the next level of ability he needs to work on getting better results out of fewer attacks.

My last match was with Mark. I had two major observations about our play together. The first was that no matter which leg he had forward his right arm was dominant. This is something you want to be aware of because it points to a pattern in your abilities. (Generally we all have a dominant side. I am right handed and when I teach a technique or application I will use my right hand to show it. However when I Push Hands I am comfortable working with either side of my body. Both offensively and defensively now I don’t feel less at ease with left arm). I mentioned the observation to Mark and he seemed surprised so I’m glad I told him.

My second observation was that Mark’s skill level had increased relative to my own. This forced me to Center with him with my eyes open by the middle of the second round. (I didn’t want to lose every point. Vanity thy name is Jeff.) If you don’t do a lot of Push Hands or you only do it with your eyes open you may not realize how opening my eyes to compete with someone is a big difference. Remember that we close our eyes to increase our sensitivity. Limiting our information gathering by cutting off our main input is an immense handicap. We are visually oriented creatures. So when we do anything with our eyes closed we are forced to pay more attention to other avenues of input. (This is why I say Listening Jin is a synthesis of all our senses.) I imagine our brains being forced to devote more processing capability to the rest of our senses. So if I feel the need to open my eyes with an opponent then I am in dire straits.

Centering and the discussion of doing it eyes open or closed led to the question of whether it is possible to raise up the spirit with the eyes shut. Bull asked this question and it is a tricky one. It is my opinion that “raising the spirit” is easier with the eyes open. Spirit is a particular thing in Taijiquan. When you talk about spirit you really start to approach the Taoist roots of Taijiquan. Spirit is the part of you that matters in Taoism. It is the part that lives on after the body falls away. Spirit is nurtured and developed through the alchemy of your life. So when you raise up your spirit in Taijiquan you doing something very potent. It is more than gritting your teeth and plucking up your determination. Raising the Spirit involves leading Qi into the upper Dan Tian so the spirit has more energy and is more vital because of that Qi infusion. That is why I say it is easier to raise the spirit when your eyes are open. We are visually oriented creatures. When our eyes are open it is easier to lead the Qi up to the third eye or upper Dan Tian simply because our attention is more easily focused up there with our eyes open.

Mark gets the final comment on the topic of training Centering with the eyes closed or opened. (I’m paraphrasing him here.) He said that with his eyes closed he is able to better sense what is going on in his body and get a better connection to his center. This in turn allows him to act as a unified whole. This “gut feeling” of Mark’s is very important, gaining a kinetic sense of your body is one of the great results of Taijiquan practice. When you can expand that feeling to include your opponent you have reached a deep level.

Monkey Dance

The group then moved onto the drill I call “Monkey Dance”, one person is in the middle with her eyes closed and two or more people will randomly push the “monkey in the middle” trying to break his root.

I want people to experience their natural reactions to an attack. This is almost impossible to achieve because of natural limitations. Everyone who participates in this drill knows what is going on. So it is several steps removed from reality. But since everyone in the middle has their eyes closed they are at least a little surprised. This drill is progressing nicely. Several people are starting to stick to their attackers; this is a good evolution. One or two people are attempting counter attacks which seems pretty promising to me. We need to make the attackers work in a more intelligent fashion and react to what the person in the middle is doing a little more realistically. Some the comments are all decent from the group about this drill. I want to emphasize this point though. I am interested in what you do when you are first attacked, not what you do after you have been in the middle for two of your five minutes. I want us all to experience our “natural” reactions or as close to it as we can contrive.

(The attackers are also noticing that I reserve the right to circulate in the room and attack them, cue evil laugh.)

Mark and Brian in the Fighting Set

Open Practice

The last half hour of the class on Saturday is an open practice. I enjoy this time greatly because it gives me a chance to spend some time with people on the material that interests them. (I can go on forever in the main class about the stuff that I want to do.) I got to check a number of people preparing for Testing. I also got into an interesting discussion with Brian and Mark concerning the Fighting Set generally and the take down from Grasp the Sparrow’s Tail (left) in particular. Brian commented that the take down seemed a bit contrived when he and Mark practiced it in the Fighting Set. I asked them to show me how they did it and I noticed that Mark wasn’t controlling Brian’s center and breaking Brian’s root when he tried to do the take down. We eventually got it sorted out, but it just reinforced the idea for me that breaking the root is so fundamental to all of Taijiquan.

I am pretty much done for this week. I am going to end with a few pictures of the class that I was lucky enough to receive. Thanks a lot to Patricia Ritz for taking the pictures.

Bill and Dan

Dan H. exploring Single Whip

Cliff and Ken working on Peng ,Lu, Ghi and An

Ira and Christopher doing Double Push Hands

Jeff Pratt began his study of Taijiquan at YMAA Boston in 1987 and has reached the rank of Instructor (3rd degree) in the YMAA system. He specializes in Pushing Hands, which is advanced two-person practice in Taijiquan. Jeff is also a disciple of Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming. He has had extensive training in the spectrum of disciplines comprising YMAA's Taijiquan program.