Yang Family Tai Chi Discussion Board

Hey, Frank! Push-hands is hard for me to teach because it's such a delicate balance. It's not sparring but you can be put on your tuchus if you're not doing it right. It takes a LOT of explaining and patience and experimentation to find the right "magic words" for each student. Remember al...

If it's any consolation, I find myself referring back to the discussions we've had here when I teach. Not a week goes by when I don't find myself going back to the things we've talked about: o My student asked me a question - what was it Frank said about this? o How did Frank describe such-and-such?...

Hi, Frank! It can be frustrating dealing with people who only have - and want - the most superficial relationship with our art. "There's so much more out there to discover! There are so many more opportunities to learn and grow!" I suspect we sometimes have the same feelings as a French-ta...

Greetings, all!

Just tried the first section of the Traditional Hand Form "going the other way." VERY engaging experience and it's true - shows up errors instantly!

Hope everyone's staying safe and healthy,

gvi

Bob, you can accept it as an article of faith that you're being paid attention to. You've never steered me wrong before, so I have no reason to doubt what you're saying now, either in the theory or in the means by which we discover the theory's validity. Do please carry on - you have in me an attent...

Hey there, Frank! I purposely left out anything "internal" in the discussion; not because I'd ignored it or thought it was unimportant, but because I just reckoned everyone does this. For my part, the mental/emotional aspect of "warmup" qigong depends in large part on what happen...

ancient Chinese secret My husband...some hotshot! Here's his "ancient Chinese secret..." Hey there, Bob! I should explain and expand a bit more. I separate "conditioning," especially that done with 13 Luohan, from my practice of taijiquan. Remember what I'd said a while ago abou...

I wonder how much of that "recovery from a Yang-Jun Educational Beatdown" is the nature of the art itself, and how much is our own conditioning. Because I can imagine one of my intermediate students attending such a session and afterward, me having to pour him or her out of a bucket into t...

The generational grandmaster of Yang family Tai Chi Quan, the third son of the grandmaster of Yang Chengfu, Chinese Wushu 9th Duan, Wu Lin Baijie, member of the first expert committee of the Wushu Academy of the State Sports General Administration, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Internati...

Part of the reason I ask is because I know the question is going to come up as my students improve. It's one thing to say "Each posture contains the potential for each type of energy" and after long enough we will realize that this is so. But they have to have some idea what to look for. M...

Hey, Bob!

Yeah, I did a "warm-up" with Yang Jun in Michigan last year. 50 squats and I-lost-count-at-60-some-odd side squats (like for "single whip low style").

I don't care to put my students through that - I'll stick to Ba Duan Jin for them

gvi

My classes do qigong as a warm up and, it must be admitted, as a sort of "side benefit" for our students to do at home when they're not feeling really up to, or comfortable with their memory of the empty-hand form. I find Qigong "forms" are generally easier to remember, pretty co...

For my part, I do "bodyweight" exercises as well as light cardio. I've had bypass surgery and the strength training/cardio (walking, cycling, elliptical, cross-country skiiing when possible, etc) are specifically recommended for someone like me with a bum ticker. But moreso, I do this all ...

Rending/splitting seems straightforward, and I'm picturing it in postures like Fly Diagonal or Wild Horse Parts Mane. I'm not, however, willing to bet pushups on it.

Grateful for your thoughts!

gvi

Could you please clarify? I'm not sure whether you're on about: a) doing other forms of exercise in addition to tai chi b) doing other forms of exercise in the middle of a tai chi form c) integrating tai chi into a different form of exercise a) is hardly controversial. Tai chi is pretty comprehensiv...