Cheng Hsin Session

Well I've had my first Cheng Hsin session and so far am thoroughly impressed. Everything covered echoed my Taiji training - but it was presented in a slightly more practical fashion, and was good fun too.

It's early days, but it's looking like the Cheng Hsin and Chen Style Taijiquan will complement each other very nicely indeed. With a bit of luck I'll experience some kind of synergy effect where I progress in both better than if I was studying either of them alone - we'll see!

Leg Spiraling Kua Work

This morning I was doing my usual warm-up sequence, a few bits of which involve the turning of the torso (sort of like silk reeling without the weight-shifting - the weight stays centered). At the moment, my main focus when doing these exercises is the use of the knees and kua to drive the movement.

Having done a lot of reading and investigation on the subject, I decided that the turning of the trunk should be facilitated by one knee going up while the other goes down, and by the turning of the femur heads/kua. Whilst focusing on these elements, I ended up getting into a sort of movement that I can only, and perhaps inappropriately, describe as 'skiing without snow' (and indeed without moving forwards). I could feel a definite spiral of each leg as the trunk turned from side to side. (As an aside, this leg-spiraling business was a source of great confusion for me about 6 months ago, when I couldn't really work out how a leg could spiral given that its feet were firmly attached to the floor).

It was interesting how the muscles surrounding the kua really felt like they had been used after I'd finished - not something I normally notice. It's also interesting how much looser and more free my kua feel than they did a few month's back - it's always good to feel some actual physical progress with my Taiji.

This is definitely an area I'll be focusing on over the coming weeks, with the intention of improving the kua flexibility even more, and perhaps more importantly adding some finer control to their movements.

Cheng Hsin

Having read some of Peter Ralston's The Principles of Effortless Power (I need to get back to it), I must admit I've become more than slightly interested in his art of Cheng Hsin. Not only that, but it turns out there's a group of people that practice Cheng Hsin only a ten minute drive from where I live.



The question is, should I give it a try, and will it complement my Taiji practice - or will it turn out to be more like the Qigong class I joined, which was very good, but required a lot of practice time and ultimately interfered with my Taiji practice?

I seem to remember that Dave over at Formosa Neijia is a fan of Peter's, and that's as good a recommendation as I could hope for, but if anyone has any comments on Cheng Hsin then I'd love to hear them.

In-Depth with the Kua

Just another quick 'have a look at this other website' post on the kua.

Thanks to Wujimon for the reference (although I must admit I had already stumbled upon it, printed it out and stashed it away just in case the Internet was ever destroyed), here is an absolutely brilliant, in-depth interview with Chen Zhonghua on the function and usage of the kua. It is an immensely worthwhile read and contains a wealth of information. If you're having any troubles getting to grips with your kua, or are simply wondering what on earth the kua is (or, rather, are - as you have two of them), I highly recommend checking it out.

The biggest revelation for me, having read a lot of texts on Taijiquan over the last nine months or so is where Chen Zhonghua talks about the dantian and torso simply adjusting to the movement or actions of the kua, driven by the knees. I.e. movement is not initiated in the dantian - the dantian simply moves as a result of the function of the knees and kua. That's my understanding of what he's saying, anyway!

"The dantian area adjusts to the movement or the actions of the kua area, driven by the knees. At the same time, the dantian area can adjust to other movement, such as the shoulders being pushed or pulled by your opponent. In any case, dantian doesn’t cause action. It adjusts to actions applied on to it."

- Chen Zhongua (via Internal Arts IA).

Quoting Wujimon Quoting Chen Zhonghua

"The secret to Taiji is like a sickle cutting grass. The farther it is away from the action, the better. If you want to move the hand, rotate the elbow. If want to move the elbow, use the rear foot."

Check out Wujimon's Chen Zhonghua Workshop notes right now!

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
  

Vale Taiji or Vale Tai Chi?

Quick one: I picked the name Vale Taiji (Pinyin) because I felt this was more appropriate than Vale Tai Chi in this day and age. However, having read Bill Douglas' response to a previous blog entry, having looked at Google Trends, and having examined things from a search engine optimisation point of view, I'm starting to wonder if perhaps Vale Tai Chi was the better option...

The Low Stance Puzzle Pieces: Back Vertical vs Weight Centered on Feet

It's question time again, as I try to reconcile a couple of the desirable properties of a low stance that seem to be at odds: keeping a vertical back whilst also keeping the weight on the center of the foot (rather than just the heels).

Picture the scene: you're settling into your best medium-low horse stance (the one where your quads start burning after a minute or so), your hips are relaxed, back and sunk, your back is nice and straight and your tailbone is nicely tucked...

Here's the question: how do you maintain a vertical back without sending all of your weight straight into the heels? Isn't it physically impossible to do otherwise?

I'm probably over-analyzing things - life was so much simpler before I started doing Taiji: I'd just use my body wrongly and be done with it...

As far as I can see it there are two options:

1. Lean (slightly) forward from the hips - the lower you go, the greater the lean. Maybe the focus should be more on just maintaining a straight back than forcibly keeping it perpendicular to the ground.
   
2. Accept that your weight is going straight into your heels, but make an effort to grip with your toes to maximize balance on the feet.

I'm pretty sure I naturally do a combination of the two - any comments or alternative suggestions will be gratefully received!