Yang Family Tai Chi Discussion Board

In the earlier years while working on lowering the stance the breathing can be heavier on account of the exertion. The breath can also be heavy if one is overexerting oneself from being a little out of shape, recovering from illness, or practicing too soon after eating. But generally, I understand t...

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2"><B> My teacher makes a point of including the backflexing of the wrist at the last point of the neutralisation. This is to ensure that the opponent's hand do...

Hi Audi, I'll take a stab at this one, but you might have a look at Master Yang's DVD if you can get ahold of one as I am not 100% sure. For those unfamiliar with this style, we generally follow the principle of having the eyes looking in the direction of the active arm and toward the opponent. Howe...

Hi Audi, There've been some interesting posts here. It's pretty easy to get into a kind of swaying rhythm with the form, where I could count cadence in 4/4 time. The "end point" of each forward or back motion is a beat... HOWEVER, I don't think this is what's meant by even speed. I suspect...

Welcome back Michael!

I've never seen a perfectly round circle like the bagua "walking the circle" steps in the tai chi footwork I've learned thus far. Nor have I ever seen bagua people doing two person training so I can't compare that. But I have seen footwork in da lu (big rollback) and another kind in moving...

Hi Bob, Yes, I read it a few years ago and agree that it would be useful to re-read repeatedly. I have the Ralph Sawyer translation...but on account of moving recently, it's buried in a box. Until I get around to my own archeological dig I think I'm better off hunting down the Ames version. Louis, T...

Thank you Cheefatt, Anderzander, and Louis for your posts. The translation of the excerpt from Zheng Manqing's 13 chapters was very useful. I feel like I'm getting a better handle now on this business of awareness/giving up intent/following the nature of things. I am very happy with your explanation...

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2"><B>...for some reason I started to think of the passage by Sun Tzu, in Art of War... Or maybe my mind just works in weird, inexplainable ways. </B></font><HR...

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2"><B> Rather you should be unknowable in the sense that the surface of Mars is unknowable by a child with a magnifying glass. </B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I ag...

Hi Cheefatt, Thanks for your answers. I am still training my sensitivity and ability to be song but I do understand that they are very important. <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2"><B> Fangson...

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2"><B> When you have no intention there can be no conflict of interests, when intention is removed from the body the chi is not stagnent and their is no point t...

I want to be unknown by my opponent and therefore unstoppable. I want my opponent to be unable to measure my potential and thus unable to gauge anything. I want to be able to say and do things like that but choose not to say anything. But obviously, from the lip-flapping above, I have quite a ways t...

You guys are great! Thanks for all your responses. I've been thinking on my own about this a lot and am coming to similar conclusions. Apparently (ha!), I am a wide open book (to some). My teacher started the whole thing by telling me, "When you push, it's like this..." (Here he demonstrat...

Hmm... how ?