Yang Family Tai Chi Discussion Board

Taiji ruler and taiji Ball are two appartus that some schools use in taii training. the taiji ruler (stimulates and connects laogong point in palms) was for health and yang chen fu supposedly taught using this. Yang pan hou lineage was known to do taiji ball training for internal power.

does anyone have any more info on this subject or any other taiji training devices?

The only reply I can make about his is that I've read some chapters in Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming's books about them. He gives an overview of them and some beginning instructions on how to use them.
Beyond that, I've never used either of these devices, or seen them used.
That doesn't mean anything much, though.
Always been fascinated by the concepts myself, but never had anyone who used them to learn from that I know of.
Hopefully others will have more insight.

I have done a little ball training that my teacher got from William Chen's school. Where you pass the ball with the waist. And I have done some that came down through my Kuang Ping line where two people more or less do a form of moving "push hands" with a ball. The intial object to keep the ball in "play",..... ONe also can use the ball on a tall post, going up and down and around. One usually starts on a wall however. Use a large ball to begin. There can be all kinds of things one can do with a ball--but you have to use the principles.

Greetings Matt,

I hadn’t heard before that Yang Chengfu used the taiji ruler. Do you have any more information on that point?

I do know a high-level master, Fong Ha, who endorses the taiji ruler as a training supplement. He studied with both Dong Yingjie and Yang Shouzhong, but I can’t recall him saying where he learned the taiji ruler.

I’ve never really experimented with it. I think I’ve always gravitated towards “apparatus-free” training, but that’s just my own sensibility.

Take care,
Louis

Yang Jun once mentioned to me that the family never had any training with ball that he knew of.

I'm told that "rulers" were sometimes used by the families in the old days, but mostly for stimulating acupoints for health purposes, not for forms training. My teachers say weapons do a better job at teaching the geometry of T'ai Chi anyway. Although, there are drills that we do using everyday objects such as pens, keys, shoes, etc., exploring spatial relationships and leverages that probably resemble the "ruler" trainings that some people do. My Sifu has said, when asked, that our best "apparatus" for training is our training partner's arms, legs, head and torso. He asks us to consider how much money it would cost to build a training dummy as unpredictable and obnoxious as the average T'ai Chi student...

Cheers,
P.

[This message has been edited by Polaris (edited 07-22-2004).]

Polaris,

"My Sifu has said, when asked, that our best "apparatus" for training is our training partner's arms, legs, head and torso. He asks us to consider how much money it would cost to build a training dummy as unpredictable and obnoxious as the average T'ai Chi student..." Polaris

Have to love it. Thanks Polaris

Louis,

A few years ago Saihung Kwan, the 'wandering taoist' was doing seminars around the country. He was teaching a taiji ruler exercises he claims he learned from Yang Chen fu.

matt

mis_72,

Don't know about the "ruler", but was Kwan Saihung still walking around with a guy hanging off his back,his legs around his neck? He has to be pretty old by now.

[This message has been edited by Michael (edited 08-02-2004).]