day 63: sunday - chen tai chi (history!!!)

concepts:

• awareness
• imagination
• sequences
• Chen tai chi history
  

forms:

• Chen long form

we began the day discussing what we would cover on Sunday. Sifu opened things up to ask us what we wanted to do. originally, he'd planned on devoting the extra Sunday sessions to Chen tai chi. but he said he also wanted to send us to participate in 2 kung tournaments next year--Tony Yang's tournament in Las Vegas, and then another tournament for jian shu in Florida, and so thought we could prepare for those.

we talked things over for awhile, and then settled on Chen tai chi for the 1st hour, and jian for the 2nd hour. since a few of us had not brought our jian-league swords today, we put off the jian training until next class and devoted today to Chen tai chi.

Sifu began by giving us a description of the version of Chen tai chi he knows. apparently, there are different versions of Chen tai chi, even within the Wutan network. Sifu said he teaches the version taught by Du Yu Ze, a prominent master of Chen tai chi in Taiwan, who in turn learned from Chen Yen Xi (spelling?). from my understanding, this version is known as lao jia (or "old frame"). this is distinguished from the version taught by Chen Yen Xi's son, Chen Fake, which is known as xin jia (or "new frame").

i won't go into too much detail about tai chi history, but there are good summaries (about tai chi in general, and Chen in particular) at the following:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_style_tai_chi_chuan
• http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Philosophy/Taichi/history.html
• http://members.fortunecity.com/chentaiji8/history.html
• http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Philosophy/Taichi/chen.html
• http://formosaneijia.com/2006/taiwan-chen-style/
  

the last one is probably of most relevance to lao jia. i should note that not all the information about tai chi is definitive, and there continues to be debate as to the origins of the various branches of Chen tai chi. as a result, some of the sources above may contradict each other.

Sifu said he was going to teach us the long form, since some of us already knew the short form. he emphasized that Chen had a different flavor than Yang tai chi, with lower stances and more explosive movements relative to Yang. he noted that Chen was older then Yang, and so had more similarities to long fist, which is even older than Chen.

we went through the initial movements in the long form. we focused on the opening, and then on the legwork in the subsequent movements. i don't have a list of the techniques (yet), but i plan to eventually acquire them for more detailed commentary.

for today, Sifu had us concentrate on the feel of the initial postures. he had us hold each one, and then also had us repeat specific sequences to make sure we smoothed over our movements.

after awhile, we broke for a general question-and-answer discussion. at some point, we entered into a debate about applications, partially in relation to Chen, but more in connection to the Yang tai chi from yesterday.

Sifu took the opportunity to add some additional commentary from yesterday regarding applications, particularly in relation to acquiring a "6th sense":

• awareness--when we practice, we are developing awareness. awareness of ourselves (our body, our motion, our thoughts), the opponent (their body, their motion, their thoughts), and our surroundings. this is integral to developing a "6th sense" in terms of being able to read and react to our opponent, since it helps us understand the connections between mind and body. if we understand it within ourselves, we can begin to understand it in others.
• imagination--another aspect of practice is imagination. imagination is important in learning how to apply skills, in that one part of learning how to link techniques together is to apply them against an imaginary opponent. it is also important, in that imagination is an element of creativity, and creativity is paramount in being able to generate a strategy to enter an opponent's outer gate and engage their inner gate...and then make adjustments in response to changing conditions that affect our strategy
  

Sifu reminded us of the maxim "practice as if some is there, fight as if nobody is there." this means that to help develop skills we have to imagine that we are fighting an imaginary opponent (i.e., shadow boxing), and so having to operate in a smooth, quick, continuous manner constantly reacting to someone we visualize responding to our every technique. in a fight, in order to perform techniques correctly and to avoid distractions of our emotions, our opponent, or our surroundings, we have to imagine that the techniques are being applied flawlessly, even though there is a body resisting us.

from there, the conversation turned as to how creativity manifests itself in a fight. Sifu did a demonstration of several tai chi techniques, showing how they can be adjusted depending on the pracitioner's intent and the opponent's action.

we focused in particular on strumming the lute. Sifu noted that if our intent is a joint lock, the technique should be applied in sequence with one hand grabbing the opponent's elbow first, and the other hand then applying the lever action to stress the elbow. Sifu said this was important, since grabbing the wrist first provides a clearer message to the opponent of a danger situation and attempted counter-attack by you, thereby causing the opponent to react faster and resist. in contrast, seizing the elbow first presents the opponent with a number of possible threats, causing them to take an extra moment to decide a course of action--an extra moment for you to attack.

Sifu noted, however, that if our intent is something other then a joint lock, then a different sequence is warranted. he demonstrated a turn into a pull-down. here, grabbing the elbow first doesn't provide as strong a grip to pull the opponent forward and down. more than this, it doesn't take advantage of the opponent's force vector, which is already going forward. instead, seizing the wrist first provides a stronger grip, and a more immediate exploitation of the opponent's forward force, making it easier to enter into a pull-down.

i have to say i found this taste of Chen fascinating. doing just the few movement we did today, i can see--and also feel--how Chen fits in between older styles like chang quan (long fist) and new styles like bagua. it not only lies between them chronologically, but also in movement. Chen holds traces of chang quan in it, and you can sense the aspects of it that provided grounds to develop bagua.

in addition, it is special in that the version of Chen we are learning is apparently rare in the U.S. most of the Chen tai chi being taught in America (including L.A.) is the xin jia from Chen Fake. from what i've found on the internet, this also appears to be the case in Taiwan and most of the rest of the world itself. there certainly is nobody else teaching it in L.A.--trust me, i've looked.

Sifu had confirmed this in some conversations i've had with him. he knows of only 3 instructors teaching lao jia. 2 are in Taiwan. he's the 3rd.

Sifu had originally not planned on teaching Chen in the coming year--again, trust me, i asked. but during the consultation i had with him, he told me he'd been doing some thinking over the September break, and had come to realize the implications of the above situation, and just what it means to have only 3 qualified instructors remaining to teach the particular version of lao jia he knows. seeing how rare it is becoming, he decided that it would be good to pass on the knowledge while there is still opportunity to do so.

which, of course, means that we're learning a version of Chen that not very many people know.

i'm excited. i feel like a part of history! rock and roll!