Part 1 – Greeted with Tai Chi Principals

The seminar began with a broad topic, rather than broadsword being the topic.

While greeting Grandmaster Chen over coffee, he noticed a peculiar movement in one of the students. He used it as a teachable moment stating that the movements must be separate and distinct. It is necessary to only have one part move at a time. When done correctly the movement will look like be like a series of unmoving pictures not a continuous movement. When the movements are done correctly, the opponent will see movement and not be able to understand it.

To illustrate this Grandmaster Chen grabbed a snow shovel and got the student to hold it approximately in the middle while one end was touching the ground and Grandmaster Chen was holding the top. Grandmaster Chen said that only by making sure one part does not move will you be able to have an effortless effect on the opponent. He illustrated this by showing that if the end of the shovel which was on the ground moved there would be no effect on the student who was holding the middle. If, however the force was focused into the point on the ground through the shovel you will be able to move the opponent (which he demonstrated).

After moving to the main training area, Grandmaster Chen then demonstrated the topic on each of the students present at the time. During this time as we tried to reproduce the movements that Grandmaster Chen was showing, he told me that I needed my movements to be parallel to the floor (which I could not do). This led into an expansion on the topic of a position and direction. (This was also related to my inability to create a pivot while using the broadsword, but that will be discussed further in the broadsword correction section.)

Grandmaster Chen started out by stating, “There are two things a position and a direction”. There are two cardinal directions, gravity (which works vertically along the y axis), and second gravity (which on the horizontal plane). The position is real, and the direction is not-real. The real must be not-real on the body, and the not-real must be real on the body. The shape can be random, but the force is fixed. Grandmaster Chen emphasized that he teaches a fixed model, but when it is used everything must change, but that change can not cause a change.

I will do my best to explain the meaning of this statement. If there is a shape, and the energy is moving in a horizontal direction (in line with second gravity), that shape can change, but that change of shape (or position of the body) must not cause a change in the direction. (Thus, the real/not-real.)

This was followed up by more push hands demonstrations of the concept. At this point, another student arrived, and we were quizzed on what we were just taught through being told to repeat what Grandmaster Chen had told us.

End of Part 1.

On Sun, Dec 22, 2019 at 12:53 PM 实用拳法陈中华 <1684987990@qq.com> wrote:

Pls send yr notes to me. Thanks.

Chen Zhonghua

发自我的iPhone