Yang Family Tai Chi Discussion Board

Mike,
You mentioned 'the famous screwup of "Raise the Back"' I assume that this is from an article by Yang Chen Fu. I hadn't heard of this screw-up, but I always wondered what that meant.
What should it have been instead of, "Raise the Back"?
David

If you think of Tai Chi as a language, then you are learning to say something with your body. If your bones are consonants, your joints are vowels; if you bones are nouns your joints are verbs. In learning how the forms change from one to another, you are learning sentences; your response to any def...

Michael, et al.
Measuring lean, using a protractor, on an image of Yang Chen Fu (Push), and on video tape of Tung Hu Ling and Tung Kai Ying (through the long form) reveals that they are all consistantly leaning about 18 to 20 degrees when their weight is forward in the bow stance.
David

Jerry,
Is the picture of Yang Chen Fu in 1915 from the form that he taught in public or the form that he taught his 'indoor' students?

David

What you are encountering is the beta-endorphine response. Any regular practice, such as Tai Chi, yoga, or distance running produces beta endorphine. Among other things beta endorphine increases the number of connections between the right hemisphere of the brain and the left hemisphere of the brain....

Audi, All in all I can't endorse a straight knee. What you and I do may be very similar. I think it may be a matter of degrees, literally. Are you sure that your knee is completely straight there? This would be so much easier in person. I see you live in New Jersey. I live in California... Recently ...

Steve, You asked, 'What about the two "empty steps": Raise Hands or Fist Under Elbow, and White Crane? I was taught to separate yin/yang by putting all of the weight on the supporting leg and leaving the front leg empty.' I think of those postures as empty steps as well, and I had thought ...

The elbows and knees are always bent. For the knees this is especially important when kicking, for if the knee is allowed to fully straighten the energy of a kick can hyperextend and damage the knee. It is important for the front knee to bend in the bow stance, to lessen the impact of any pressure o...

Audi To show you what I mean about mobility, you might test how mobile you are in the different weight distributions. Suppose you are in one of the stances, and ten (or more) feet away (in any of the 8 directions) there is an alarm clock. When the clock goes off you get to it as quickly as possible ...

Audi, With one exception your questions and ideas dance around the answer. The exception I will deal with in another posting. I hope that what I express to you here is clear enough for you to understand and use. I think that you are right in that the comprehension of why something is done in a parti...

Hi Everybody, When I said 'Never throw the first punch,' I meant "Never start a fight". That is the first rule because Tai Chi is self defense, not self offence. Michael has it right. The idea is not to be aggressive, but to be able to end a violent situation with as little violence and da...

While there have been many posts about the martial applications of many moves, I've seen no mention of the first rule of Tai Chi concerning fighting.

Simply stated: Never throw the first punch.

David

[This message has been edited by DavidJ (edited 03-12-2001).]

May I suggest a forum, maybe called "Body Parts" within which the role of the hand, the foot, the waist, etcetera, may be discussed.
With the understanding that the timing and coordination between various body parts be included, as well.
David