Yang Family Tai Chi Discussion Board

I had knee problems when I began learning taiji. In one of Yang Zhenduo's seminars he showed how the front leg pushes back (as if resisting someone pulling you forward) at the same time the rear leg pushes forward. Practicing like that cured my knee problems. You can find some discussion of this pri...

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One of the things he did talk about which is shown in the videos is having a fist and extending the index finger. It creates some sort of structure in the arm which is very powerful. He warned me, however, that if an opponent knew any qin-na this wouldn't work!

On your channel, why do you mention "Internal Strength Qi Energy applied in self defense fighting"? For many months I went to Xie's house once a week to push hands and he never once mentioned Qi. He talked about posture, structures, spirals, and the basic principles of taiji. I have had mo...

Extra holiday bonus form!

Yang Zhenduo calling out Taiji Dao Form, Aug 11, 1996

Hey there Association members! Here for your enjoyment is a recording of Yang Zhenduo calling out the names of the long form which I recorded August 10, 1996. In those days, at the end of the long form seminar the group would practice the entire form together with Yang Zhenduo calling out the names ...

To generalize this a little bit further, we must avoid the temptation to devise a sort of permanent scaffolding which we use to support and explain what the actual teachers in the lineage are giving us. There is a reason why they have kept their teaching quite spare and rely on a few general princip...

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Audi: <B> -snip- I think we are also dancing around the relationship between Qi, Yi, and Shen, and so let me express more directly what ...

Match Up Inner and Outer What we are practicing in taiji depends on the spirit, hence the saying: "The spirit is the general, the body his troops". If you can raise your spirit, your movements will naturally be light and nimble, the form nothing more than empty and full, open and closed. W...

Andy Lee had a dinner party at a restaurant years ago and Yang Zhenduo and several students were there. Susanna DeRosa (hope I spelled that right) asked Yang Zhenduo to explain a bit more about 'matching up inner and outer'. Chris Pei was translating for Yang Zhenduo then but he was away from the ta...

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Because by losing those "reference points" I had always slavishly followed I have begun to move beyond thinking only in terms of "should my fo...

OK so here is my suggestion when you have an issue such as Audi brought up above: <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2"> I thought of another example doing my practice a few days ago. While I was...

Consciousness is like this: 0 Everything outside of a narrow circle is excluded. To focus is to exclude. But if your focus in this circle jumps from reference point to check my feet to is my waist working, etc. etc this is all far away from striking, kicking, advancing, turning. In order to focus on...

I don't know, Audi, sounds to me like you have it backwards. The idea is where the yi goes, the qi goes. So we are not trying to produce qi, but rather qi follows our intention. By the way the qi sticking to spine idea comes from hanxiong babei. If you do those, the qi will stick, not the other way ...

Here's an example. At seminars Yang Zhenduo used to do a horse stance, then pivot on a heel so one toe faced out 45 degrees. He would then drag the other foot straight forward into a bow stance. All this to show the correct spacing between the feet. Now after seeing this we would all check the spaci...