Hello, I wanted to get the opinions of practical method students, online and in person students.

I have a couple of years of Chen taiji and Yang taiji. I was never able to understand how to generate the power of my instructors and I couldn’t get an explanation about how to do it. I was told to keep practicing and follow some basic principles like head to the heaven and feet on earth and tucking in my pelvis, be more song, open the Kua, do more silk reeling exercises, etc.

I like what I see in the Practical method because it makes sense and is very clear. I know there are videos and even zoom lesson. I have a couple of questions I hope somebody can answer.

1. Are there anybody that started off using the videos/zoom to practice? How has your progress been? Have you had to visit branch schools to get more adjustments/corrections?
2. What time is the zoom classes? I have a hard time finding the info on the website. And how much is it?
3. Where is Chen Zhonghua located at? Does he teach in person private lessons?
4. Is there anybody in the Los Angeles area that practices PRactical method that would be interested in training together?

I’m used to training barefoot on a mat in Aikido. But now doing Tai Chi I’ve got to be shod. I sometimes wear a Brooks walking style shoe or Keens. I like the stability and support but the relatively sticky sole makes spinning or turning moves difficult.

What’s everyone wearing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmlryMgL9VQ&ab_channel=KenGullette

https://youtu.be/rv1XNSG8iW0?si=mr6A7Mb8kg0zYBwI

I heard the youtuber Jake Mace say it and I am a fan of his. I am just curious if there is some master who said or something so I can look into the source and see if there are more philosophy to take.

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Thanks,

So, i have a rather academic question. I recall partially a phrase: ”不動手 動手 something something 太極拳“ can anyone fill in the "something something" and give the attribution for this phrase (author and, if possible, article/song/poem (文章)) (preferably in traditional characters...)? Also. if you wish, please to dilate on the meaning implicit therein. (Now, *there'*s academia for you...) Thanks all

I'm a bit intimidated by getting started and wondering if time of day would make a big difference, I've heard some people say they feel energized after doing Tai-Chi so i'm not sure if this is something I should reserve for the morning so I'm more exhausted in the evening and can get better sleep.

Was hoping to get recommendations as to how i could best get started and how long I should do Tai-Chi each day or if I should start with shorter sessions and increase over time?

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Not sure if there is a specific type of Tai-Chi that would be better for promoting sleep than others.

Every year on the last Saturday of April at 10am, beginning in the Earth's earliest time zone in New Zealand and ending in Hawaii, a peaceful soothing event unfolds and changes the world forever as it blooms around the Earth throughout the entire day - time zone by time zone. Gently and effortlessly the world will breathe together in a T'ai Chi & QiGong relay of calm.

This year, World Tai Chi Day will be on Saturday, April 27th.

Are you or your school participating?

So I've got 32 verses of my newly translated Qi Ji Guang "Boxing Classic" text with lots of interesting findings, but I don't want to start spamming random verses. Any suggestions for postures that might be good to go over? There's not a 100% correspondence with taiji, of course, but there seems to be a surprising amount of overlap.

https://www.ctn.academy/blog/characteristics-of-chen-style-taijiquan

Chen ZhaoKui was a pioneer that emphasised scientific enquiry and had a very refined and thorough approach to taijiquan. He is against superstitions and claims that cannot be proven that were (are) rife in the Chinese Martial Arts.

This is CZK's perspective on what taijiquan is. There's another part that will be published in the future about the fighting method (which is even more interesting) , this part focuses on the bodywork that is shared in common with other internal arts.

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I live very close to both the current lineage holder and the most senior student of Fu Wing Fei. I’m wondering if it’s practical for fighting.

I have studied old Yang style before, but they were both focused on the health Neigong and not much on the practical. Also have some experience in Yiquan but it’s just too far for me to commute.

I'm new to this forum but I've been around a bit too and it's the same all over. I just think it's interesting to see how this happens in every spot on the internet with people chatting about TJQ. You always get some keyboard warriors trying their best to cherry pick something to make a political point or something. Since I just recently joined here and this was one of the first things I saw I think it's interesting to be aware of and why people do this. I saw this post, https://www.reddit.com/r/taijiquan/comments/1ccaqr2/on_tucking_the_tailbone/
With the OP posting this dude Marin's butt as I heard he's done before (a bit funny for sure). It looks like he tried extra hard to find the pic that supported his attempt, like the butt is in the wrong position or something. https://imgur.com/a/yPTGb8A

Then there is an actual video of the dude practicing and it tells a different story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFQxbZcvjdM&t=7s
It's almost like you cannot just take a snapshot and make it this or that. You actually have to see the person moving. I am confused about why that is not obvious. And what's with the endless politics? No one gets tired of it? It was obvious that the video shows something totally different to the idea pushed with the pic itself. Isn't this obvious?

Someone asked what the dantian was and my comment was that it's physical. Muscular. True, I can feel sort of a "one point" sort of thing in the place below the navel, but that's just an artifact of sensation or centrality (hard to say, exactly): the actual dantian is a muscular area between the diaphragm, pelvic floor, mingmen, and abdomen that controls/manipulates the rest of the body via the tensile connection of the qi tissues.

The video ends (Imgur limits videos to 60 seconds) with Wang Zhanjun laying on the floor doing the classic "toss from the belly" that even Yang Banhou was reported to show off. My only comment about this kind of demonstration is that people need to let the dantian develop from moving the body and not make the mistake of doing isolated dantian tossing: the dantian is useless unless you are training it to move the body.

https://imgur.com/a/bLVaeo1

Hey yall.

I’m just wondering some things a new dude could do at home with myself to get my posture correct.

Wall sits? I can take pictures and such to see where my issues are but it’s hard to exactly fix them without feeling where I’m supposed to be exactly. Like building the body memory stuff.

I know I could YouTube stuff but I’d rather ask here. There are free classes that I have started to attend but I want stuff I can practice at home alone.

Homework if you will haha.

Thanks!

Although there are downstream "Taijiquan" styles derived from the Chen-style, most of the salient "Taiji Principles" are ones that Yang Lu Chan dictated to Wu Yuxiang, although there were either some misunderstandings or some errors of transcription. One of the common, basic axioms is often translated as "tucking the tailbone" and I've seen some people (too many) who walk around with the tailbone tucked as part of a "store" mechanism.

The actual admonition is about relaxing the lower back to the extent that the tailbone drops. One of the main reasons for this relaxing of the lower back is that the lower back is part of the greater dantian structure. You can't move the body with the qi unless you use the dantian. If the dantian is locked because your lower back is tight, you obviously aren't using the dantian. So, for people without a lot of experience in whole-body movement, one of the first things you can do is watch the lower ... if you see a consistently stiff lower back, there isn't any dantian usage and essentially erases the idea of what you're seeing being "Taijiquan".

The caveat would be that in the higher levels of ability, the demonstraters rely more on the elasticity of various body areas, so their use of physical movement is much less. "Movement goes toward Stillness". Still, when you see incurved spines, it's all over: it cannot be Taijiquan because you can't manipulate the qi with an incurved spine.

https://imgur.com/a/yPTGb8A

I've been hard at work translating the entirety of Chapter 14 of Qi Ji Gang's "Boxing Classic" which /u/DjinnBlossoms fortuitously turned me on to in an earlier thread. The results have been enlightening, shocking in some cases, and I'm quite excited to share what I've found, but there's A LOT. So for the moment, I'd like to present my one translation and analysis of "Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg / 金雞獨立". I believe it reveals Rooster's intended application and the subtle performance mechanics of the movement. And while the Boxing Classic is not a taiji manual, I do think that it sheds light on the original technique on which taiji's Rooster is based.

First, here's an earlier post I made discussing possible Rooster applications. Rooster Stands on One Leg Application - A Video Buffet In that thread, I had come to a personal tentative conclusion that Rooster was a kick check defense. I can happily now say that I was probably wrong.

Second, for reference, here's the link to Brennan's text and translation of [Chapter 14] (https://brennantranslation.wordpress.com/2019/08/31/qi-jiguangs-boxing-classic/).

Into the translation:

Let's first look at two different existing translations of the Rooster verse (Verse 2 of Chapter 14):

Brennan:
With GOLDEN ROOSTER STANDS ON ONE LEG, I go from dropping down to rising up.
As I place my leg, I swing across with my fist.
The opponent is thrown onto his back like an upside-down cow with all its legs in the air. Meeting this technique, his groans reach to the sky.

Clifford Gyves, 1993 University of Arizona thesis:
The Golden Rooster: stand on one leg and cock the head askew.
Simultaneously position your leg and center your fist.
Turn your back and assume the Reclined Ox stance, and drop both the arm and the leg in tandem from their elevated positions.
Make contact and cry out "ku" unto the heavens.

Looking at these translations, there doesn't seem to be much useable information being passed on. Arms are making generic movements, and the results of the attack just seem materialize out of nowhere.

Now here's my translation, dissected word for word from the original text, trying to keep both the Chinese mindset's "communication style" and the context of a military instruction manual in mind:

金雞獨立, 顛起,
裝腿, 橫拳, 相兼,
搶背, 臥牛雙倒,
遭著, 叫苦連天。
Bronze chicken alone stands, top of head rises up
Pack (fold) leg, horizontal fist, together at same time
Grab the back, crouched ox’s twins (testicles) collapse (crushed)
Encounter manifested, (he) calls out in pain to the sky.

In this translation, I'm using "bronze" instead of "gold" as 金 originally referred to metal in antiquity, and metal/bronze makes more sense in a military context, i.e. it's tough and durable. "On one leg" is also translated as "alone stands" which is a more literal translation of "獨立". This also makes more sense with what's about to happen in the text.

I'd love to debate the motivations for the translations of each line, but for the sake of brevity, I'll leave that for the comments. So moving ahead, this is what I believe the verse is saying...

When performing Rooster, the top of the head rises up while the rising leg "packs in" or folds under the body. (It doesn't strike yet.) Then the rising hand (as seen in the taiji forms) goes both up and forward horizontally to reach over the opponent's shoulder to "grab their back". It's at this point, that the rising knee completes its action, hitting the groin, while the rising hand simultaneously pulls back down to "crouch the ox". At the completion of this combined action is when we see the classic Rooster pose of the forms.

Interestingly, I've seen the proposed rising arm's subtle forward and then down action in some taiji performances, and it falls in line with the taiji principle of rising needing to be balanced with dropping. As the arm pulls down, the knee is also rising up. Furthermore, the overall movement matches the mechanics of what we see in Muay Thai knee strikes.

Why is it a rooster though? When a chicken stands up in its tallest position, it makes a unique movement with its head and neck. Video reference Basically, the neck and head extend up and slightly back. I believe the chicken reference is acting as an indicator of the unique and prescribed movement of the fighter's neck and head. You see the same motion in Muay Thai knees, and it allows the most body leverage to be delivered through the blow.

TL;DR - Based on my translation of Qi Ji Guang's "Boxing Classic", Bronze Chicken Standing Alone appears to be a knee to the groin strike performed as the lead hand pulls the opponent inward and down.

There's so much more that can be discussed and explained here, but I hope that this relatively brief post has been able to convey what I'm seeing with some clarity. Also, I may be wrong.