Yang Family Tai Chi Discussion Board

Hi Geoff, Bamboo Leaf and Chee Fatt TC have given you some excellent advice! Too much energy in the arm without turning force aside is resisting. Too little in the arm collapses it into your chest and if you don't turn you are still resisting even though the arms have barely anything in them because...

Hi Jeff, That's a very interesting technique. I explored it for a little while--riling people up and then using their reactions to unbalance them, but discovered I'm not skilled enough yet to maintain my calm, so I went back to pushing more slowly so I could work on calmness. I found I was often fas...

Hi TWB and everyone, I too want to be really cautious about stereotyping men and women. And I completely agree that just because one woman or man behaves or pushes in a certain way doesn’t mean that all women are soft or all men are competitive. All people have yin and yang to various degrees. I am ...

Hi Yuri, <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2"><B> I envy women that they need not to compete in push hands practice, at least with men http://www.yangfamilytaichi.com/ubb/smile.gif and they may ...

Hi everyone, Thanks for all your thoughts on the subject. It certainly is a lot to think about. Sorry I haven’t been more clear about the reasons for my interest in the topic. I wanted to open the field for discussion before planting it, as it were. First, for those who may not have noticed, I am a ...

Hi Rakyat, I’m still trying to get a handle on the idea myself, but I can give you something of an answer. Motion in stillness sometimes refers to the internal movement of chi while outside the body seems still. For example, during nei gung (internal practice) a practitioner might be standing or sit...

Hi WB, <font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2"> If you 'have your centre' are you therefore rooted? </font> IMO they’re not the same thing. One can have a center without being rooted, the way a ball has a center and is always balanced over it, but is not rooted. One can still have a...

Hi Yuri, Thanks for translating! From the passage you quoted, though, I’m not sure we can make a simple distinction between form as yang and qi as yin. For example, qi is likened to fire. Fire and rising are traditionally described as yang elements or characteristics. And sinking, receptivity, and w...

Hi Yuri, Interesting! I will have to see what I can find of his writing. Does anyone have suggestions on where to start? I've never heard that direct correlation either between yin/qi and yang/form, but it does resonate with some things I've been working on lately. Although I am able to "listen...

I’m sorry Chris, I don’t think I explained myself well in the post you reference above, so let me try again. You said: <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2"><B> Trembling hands are no more an ind...

Hi Everyone, Audi—thanks for your response—you can thank YJ for the bit about points of contact! I had some more general ideas about push hands that I’ve written out below. Audi wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Ari...

Thanks Bob, I didn't think anything of the sort--I just thought you were getting the basics out of the way. Thanks for posting the Wikipedia article. I'm very interested in peoples' experiences of yin energy, both their personal experiences and what they've observed--in tai chi and outside of tai ch...

What is yin? What are the characteristics of yin? What aspects of tai chi chuan are yin in nature? What is the manifestation of yin? What does yin feel like? How does yin apply to the body? What are the yin aspects of consciousness? What is the spirit of yin? Just some things I've been wondering abo...

Wonderful! Now I have a reason to look forward to my 60th birthday.

Kal

Hi Audi, You've hit the nail on the head. When we are training and it gets a little rough, Master Yang always requires us to slow down. Although he's concerned about our physical welfare and always steps in if the situation might be getting out of hand, his intervention is always followed by an expl...