loose swinging & pivot warmup

Something I do daily before & after doing the taiji forms.
Over the years I have combined the 'sink & relax' training that I learned from various teachers into 'walking' improvisation using both sides of patterns from taiji, bagua, xingyi & kalari, tanglang & choylitfut.
Various movements too that I've seen people use when playing racquet sports, cricket, swimming, riding... I've played piano for about 60 years too & know about keeping the spine erect & head balanced, arms & hands loose. I also played cello & bassoon. When I was in high school our hockey team played in the Agrade mens competition. I was left half. So I learned about stick work then. I worked in the NZ railway mopping carriages in 1968 .. stick work with a wet mop on the end. I used hay forks & shovels on farms & on construction sites - more stick work. 

letters from Shanghai

2010 - Michael has been in Shanghai for 6 months. His teacher in Qingdao asked for him to be in the recent festival there. The Sailing events were in Qingdao during the Olympics. Michael & Matthew taught English in Qingdao 1998-2000. My family & I went to see them in 2000 & we met Bi Shifu. In 2005 a group - Matthew, Michael & Jing, Dave, Noel & I went to Qingdao where we stayed with BiShifu & his father in a traditional village. Bi Shifu arranged for his kungfu sister Pan Laoshi to teach us Tui Shou. Michael & Matthew continued learning routines with Bi Shifu too. This is a recent email from Michael. Hi Lindsay, Hope your demo went well. Just got back from Qingdao. It was a really good trip. Bi Shifu is looking well. I also had the chance to meet up with most of my old friends there as well including Meng Jia and Lu Jian. The tournament side of things was very successful. It was a very big competition. I was lucky enough to win all 3 of my events, empty hand, Tang Lang Jian and Traditional long weapons. I did Da Mo Jian and Tang Lang Staff. There were a lot of Tang Lang practitioners there, as well as other traditional styles and a little bit of modern Wushu. One of the three areas (mats) was dedicated to tai ji for the whole day. I didn't get to see much of the tai ji though. Not much in the way of other internal styles there. Will send some photos through when I can. Hope everyone is well. Best regards, Michael.
July 3, 2010 at 10:40 AM Edit Delete Flag Quote & Reply
Lindsay Smith Site Owner Posts: 8	an earlier letter from Michael - My training here is going well. I have memorised the Wudang 13, 38 and tai chi sword and am working on getting them right. It feels like a luxury having time to work on the forms. Usually on trips to China everything is so rushed and there is only just enough time to learn all of the moves, then work on them back in Australia. I have also started the Wudang five elements form. It looks like tai chi but isn't, apparently. I have finished learning the spear, which I really enjoyed, and have now started on double broadswords which is a nice form too. Bi Shi Fu called and asked me if I wanted to participate in a tournament on the 20th of June. He has put me down for three events, empty hand, da mo jian and pole. Its a Qingdao city tournament as opposed to the international one they have every couple of years. I'm looking at it as more of a chance to show the other praying mantis people in town what Bi shifu has taught us rather than the competition side of things(which I think is Bi's aim too, judging by the forms he suggested). Of course I still want to do them the best I can. Preparation for this is difficult while I am learning so much other new stuff ..

early morning training

morning training

My day starts with morning exercise in the park beside the Fitzroy River @ 6am to honour all the people who have contributed to my skills & knowledge over the years & to collect the fresh Qi from the rising sun & circulate. Ah Keng, my taiji father often spoke of the importance of collecting the fresh Qi & his elder brother Mr Chua Joo Ban in Singapore also told me to be out there training as the sun was coming up. Mr Chua taught me jian - sword in 1988. Michael & Matthew when they returned from Qingdao in 2000 began teaching Dave & I the taiji sword forms that they'd learned in the park there. We now do 32, 42 & wudang taiji forms as part of our routine.

Tian took this photo @ St Christophers Chapel near Rocky in 2010.

Training the Five Circles by John P. Painter

Simply doing constant repetitions of the Five Circles or any other exercise for that matter or will only be beneficial if the true keys to the exercise and in this case the five Circles are used to unlock the underlying principles and these principles become second nature. This must be done before beginning any repetitive practice if one wants to truly benefit and plumb the depths of this simple but not easy method.

1. learn to stand in Ma-bu correctly.

2. learn to shift from side to side by pushing with one leg and releasing with
the other.

3. learn to turn the torso (Yao) waist (shoulder & Hips) simultaneously.

4. learn to turn the Yao without allowing the thigh / Femur to twist in or outduring shifting so the knees point directly ahead.

5. learn to make these movements as a continual ellipse not a start and stop action.

6. Become aware of the beginning, middle and ending point of each shift.

7. start the shift with circle over note where according to Cross the Great River principle the energy (jin) begins for this move during the shift at the midpoint.

8. Complete the shift note where the Jin changes from pushing to pulling for the palm up to the return mid point. When you can feel the build up and dissipation of energy in the circle over palm according to Cross the Great River principle at the appropriate points listed above on both the right and left circle over you can train the circle under in the same way.

9. Next do circle across and again notice the Jin transition points from start to finish. That is from moving left to right and back again. When you learn to feel the build up and dissipation of energy in the circle across palm at the
appropriate points of beginning middle and end as outlined in Crossing The Great River move to the next circle and continue in this way with each circle trained individually.

10. Now and only now start combining the circles into one continuous flow. You must be aware of each circle when it starts and when it ends and how it relates to the circle preceding and following it in accord with Cross the Great River principle.

11. Now practice of 30days and 100 repetitions can begin so long as awareness is fully maintained during the training.

12   After one has the awareness of each point of Jin building and fading in eachcircle is it possible to really benefit from doing the moves with "no movement"as a standing Wuji exercise. Once this is known and can be felt internally youare training correctly. However you must have more than just a feeling ofmovement. You must be able to sense the moves as if you were physicallyperforming them in real motion and time. This is very difficult. It is suggestedyou start with each individual circle and shifting feeling to achieve thisability. Take each step one at a time to develop true knowledge and skill.

I met John @ Jou Tsung Hwa's Taiji Farm in 1992 & stayed with John in Arlington Tx in 2002 where I did a week intensive with John & many of his senior students.

body mind & spirit

There is a saying, 'stand like a mountain & flow like a river.' But a mountain is just a heap of earth & huge stones & ice with trees & other vegetation on the lowers slopes perhaps & ice melting & forming streams. I prefer the idea of 'stand like a tree' because trees have their roots sunk deep into the earth & they suck up moisture from below. Bamboo is a tall grass that stands very well & is flexible in the wind. Bamboo is hardy & hard to kill.

Indian yogis say 'a real 'man' breathes from his feet. Of course women who do yoga can do that too. There is the saying that 'the singer's belly is full of Qi.' But breathing with the feet goes further down than the belly, the dantian, the hara, than abominal breathing - all the same thing really but with different slants & implications.

My singing teacher in the late 50s, early 60s instructed me to focus on the light switch, over the heads of the audience near the entrance. 'Eyes on there & beam your voice so that it bounces off all the walls & revererates around the theatre.' I watched a visiting singer, a bass come on stage before a concert & hum a note, very powerful sound. He walked around the stage & found 'the spot' that he was going to stand & marked it with chalk on the floor. Classical singers often stand as if holding a ball of energy too.

In Chinese Medicine the kidney meridian begins @ KI in the balls of the feet. Kidney is the water. We are around 60% water, H2O - 2 potentially explosive gases & we are constantly feeding on oxygen & probably other trace elements in the air.

In some positions in Tai Chi forms 'peng' is mentioned. Peng meaning a relaxed springy inflation. Some of that inflation comes from the 5 bows - the arms, legs & spine. All the steps in a tai Chi form should have the feeling of peng. Some of that feeling of inflation comes from the Yi, the intention. So the fundamentals, the masterkeys are 'sung' & 'yi' - sink & focus.

Taijiquan training

1971   My first teacher – Taiji father was Teo Ah Keng who taught me the 37 steps of
Cheng Man Ching, student of  Yang Cheng Fu.
Huang Xingxiang was his student.  I learned from Huang’s students in Singapore from 1971 & since. 

This mugshot was taken when I was in Singapore in 1988.

My sister Lenore took this photo of me in the Forbidden City, Beijing 2000. My wife Matilda & son Leon are standing in the background. The hat I'm wearing belonged to dad. Lenore brought it from NZ & gave it to me. She said that dad always wanted to visit China. I wore the hat all the time we were in China & gave it back to Lenore at the end of the trip to take home to NZ.

Teo Ah Keng was a senior student of Grandmaster Sia Mok Tie & Huang’s friend.

1988 Chua Joo Ban 1988  inherited Mr Sia’s sword was my first sword teacher.

1988 Kalaripyattu – South Indian martial art, Eddie Edwards, Singapore  

1989/91 Li Rong Hu exShanghai – I followed Li thru various forms including pole, spear, sword in my backyard. 

1989 Michael & Matthew Corrie learned WuShu with Li Rong Hu from 1989+ & Choy Li Fut from Choy at CQU  & started taiji with me. They  went went to Qingdao, Shandong, China to teach English 1998-2000 & learned Mei Hwa Tang Lang Taiji with Bi Shirfu & Taijiquan jian with another teacher in the park. On their return they taught Dave & me 32, 42 & Wudang sword, Chen 18, Taiji Fan & Da Mo Jian.

I trained with Richard Greene @ the Taiji Farm,  
William Chen NYC 1992
Yang Jwing Ming at Jou Tsung Hwa’s Tai Chi Farm in 1992.

2002 – Baguazhang   Dr John Painter – Arlington Tx  I met John in 1992.

2005 Tui Shou – Pan Laoshi – Qingdao, Bi Shirfu’s kungfu sister.

2006 Wu Taiji – Shi Mei Lin, ex Shanghai – Wellington week intensive  

2008+ Hao 96, Rob Fennell locally

& his teacher Peter Wu, exBeijing in Melbourne- Hao 32 intensive.

pendulum

When we were kids growing up in Auckland NZ we learned how to swing the clubs & we saw an exhibition of club swinging with flames coming out the ends. They put the lights out for that. I have a couple of pickhandles in the shed that I get out & swing around sometimes just to see if I can still do it. The key is to allow the pendulum work for you. The same applies when trying to learn sword & pole routines.

postural alignment, smooth relaxed movements

Taiji & Qigong are traditional Chinese ways to train the body, breathing, mind, Qi & spirit. Training the body requires attention to postural alignment, smooth relaxed movements; & the body weight must be centred. Bending the knees slightly allows the lumbar muscles to relax. Tilting the hips forward slightly also relaxes the lumbar region and opens the Mingmen points. Standing tall lengthens the spine allowing good circulation thru the torso particularly the belt channel - the Du and Chong Mai. Shrug your shoulders to make sure they are relaxed. Image a space in the armpits the size of a table tennis ball to keep the H, Pc & Lu channels open.

Central equilibrium & developing a strong root is about ‘Wuji - a midpoint between the 2 polarities of Yin and Yang. Wuji can be physical as well as the mental. Wuji means - an erect relaxed balanced posture midway between Yin and Yang. This posture is loaded with the potential of moving to either a Yin or Yang position. This pivotal state of balance can become so sensitive that ‘if a butterfly were to alight on the taiji practitioner it would be sufficient to set the body in motion towards either a Yin or Yang.’

The Triple Warmer Channel, the Upper, Middle, and Lower Dantians store the Qi. The Upper Dantian, the third eye has high levels of electrical conductivity. The Lower Dantian - abdomen and pelvis is suspended between GV 4 and CV 7 forming a mass of bioelectric energy that supports the entire Qi apparatus. The Girdle Vessel, also called the belt channel supports and strengthens the immune system. They say, 'a singer's belly is full of Qi.'

The Lower Dantian is rooted internally by CV 1, Huiyin – between the legs which is the meeting point of the 4 Yin vessels supporting and rooting the body - Yin Linking, Yin Heel, Thrusting, Chong Mai, and Conception Vessels. In addition, the 4 vessels of the lower extremity, Yin Heel, Yang Heel, Yin Linking, and Yang Linking Vessels connect at the ankle channeling the Qi stream through KI 1 – Yongquan ‘the bubbling well point, rooting deep into the earth.

Swinging & stepping

I've picked up small details from lots of sources apart from tai chi that have influenced the way I do the movements. Observing how squash & tennis players play their shots, how batsmen bat. How swimmers move, how divers dive. As a musician I know rhythm, the phrasing of movement. The stepping in tai chi should be smooth, very close to natural walking but with more waist turn, deliberate sinking with every step. One of my current students Troy I taught in a different way because his movements were raw but strong, so I showed him a stepping pattern from the form both sides, sent him down to the carpark & back like XingYi. Taiji patterns are usually repeated just a few times but Troy was doing 100 metres more, turning around & returning. Step sink swing, step, sink swing. Know where your centre line is all the time, swing just enough. Allow the arm to fall by its own weight, know the cardinal points. He did the one pattern until he'd nailed it. He kept showing up & doing that, no problem. But he did have a massive anger problem, road rage. He rang me about hypnosis & I told him to come & train with me for nothing, so he did. A year later his short form is relaxed, loose, memorised. He's training to do security work. Better work than night shift @ the saltworks so he shows up when he can. He's been keen to know the applications & has sometimes launched himself @ me without warning which has been good for me, has amused, amazed the others because even though Troy has a lot of strength & focus I was able to divert, was nice to know that my receiving skills are spontaneous & loose. I continue to learn a lot from my students & it keeps my own training relevant.

Variations on the swinging techniques - 1

With the feet together - double weighted as if preparing to do a standing broad jump or bunny hop the leg spring - torso bend - rocking motion is similar to riding a horse @ a canter. These core movements come from using the leg bows & the spine bow. The Chinese often refer to Mah, horse as the stance, feet in the stirrups which is quite different to pedalling a bicyle with a narrow saddle. If from the double weighted stance one turns as a rider on horseback to shoot an arrow to the side or even further, behind especially - it is essential that the stance is sunk & solid. This is all back to basics.

Many people are taught tai chi & a other martial arts by the hands here, step here method - learning stepping long before they have learned to sink into the saddle. As the saying goes, if you can't stand, you can't fight. But more than that if you can't sit in the saddle properly your balance - strength - stability are questionable. Back to the archer in the saddle discharging arrows left - right, a 90% spin around or even more if turning to shoot directly behind, turn 360. The flexibility & stability of the waist is paramount.

Then there is the Yin Yang, the + & - of movement & of the internal flow of Q which is stimulated by sinking the whole foot into the earth.

In 2005 our group walked with Bi Shirfu in the Lao Shan Mountains just outside Qingdao. Before dawn we crammed into the small van & went off on adventure, nothing much said. As I am a good deal older I said I'll go ahead when we got out at the bottom of the track. I walked steadily & after an hour or so found some people selling trinkets & water. I bought a bottle of water & continued. Midmorning I was surprised to meet a young monk in traditional grey with leggings. We bowed, smiled said, 'Ni Hao,' bowed & smiled again. He was as surprised to meet me as I was to meet him.

By midday I came to another water station with a good variety of Daoist & Buddhist items for sale so I bought a couple of things while I waited for the group to catch you. They'd met the monk & Bi Shirfu had had a jovial chat with him. Yes, they said, he was surpised to meet 'white uncle' earlier. They'd stopped to chat & take photos. I asked if we could go into the small Daoist temple nearby. Bi Shirfu asked the gatekeepers. The reply was, 'it's ok to go in if you pray.' So we folllowed Bi Shirfu. I picked up joss & lit them after Bi following his gestures carefully finally placing the burning incense sticks into the sand in the same brass vessel. He turned to me & spoke. Matthew said, 'he's asking what did you wish for?' I said that I had just been following his gestures as carefully as I could. Bi Shirfu spoke again. Matthew translated, ' he says, 'you should have wish for your wife's leg.' I must have told Bi Sirfu earlier that my wife had had the veins of one of her legs 'stripped' & that it had been a hard day's work for the surgeon.

The downhill section in the afternoon was interesting. Many people struggling up steep steps without handrails, some in lighters being carried by porters. Despite the large numbers of pilgrims, very little conversation. The water from mountain stream crashing down the ravine & the clouds swirling entranced the people. Many people were wearing trinkets they'd bought. Talismans to keep the memories alive. Daoism, the love & respect for mother nature is alive & well in modern China. At the exit we went to look thru a newly renovated temple complex. Even tho going there was obviously 'something to do' on a nice day there was a feeling in the air that the ancient traditions of China that were hammered under Mao are being valued again by the government & the people.

Bi Shirfu is Michael & Matthew Corrie's teacher of 'Mei Hwa TangLang Taiji.' They met Bi Shirfu when they were teaching English in Qingdao in the late 1990s & return ever year or so to stay with him personally, with his seniors, or with other people he finds are able available. Matthew & Michael started training in my backyard with Li Rong Hu my friend from Shanghai in 1989 when they were still in high school. While we were staying in the village with Bi Shirfu's father Bi arranged for Pan Laoshur, his kungfu sister come teach us Tui Shou. She came every day for 10 days & demonstrated Bagua forms, sword routines apart from training us. She spoke rapidly in Chinese & slapped us around to fix our postures. I looked a Matthew & he shook his head, the Chinese was far too fast for him. So we just followed & we learned a lot just because we had to watch carefully. Pan began training with her father from the age of 8 & had been a professional 'kungfu' teacher all her life. This morning Dave & I stood on the riverbank with our backs to the sun & did some of the patterns we learned from Pan to finish the session & to absorb some fresh qi.

squat

Singapore 1971 my landlady had a baby & the help, a very large elderly woman squatted effortlessly to do the washing in a large basin on the ground. That really grabbed my attention. I also saw people using the coconut spine brooms in the squat position scampering around easily like spiders. Even more recently in Qingdao 2005 a city of 7 million people it was common to see men especially squatting in groups conversing. Throughout Asia squat toilets are common and women often give birth in the squat position too.

Usually I start beginners off using a tree as support. Back flat against the trunk, feet apart & slide down to a sitting position with the thighs about parallel as if sitting on a stool. Place hands on thighs. Stay there for a while until tired & continue doing periodically during the day for a couple of weeks perhaps. Once they are used to that sinking down further into the squat gradually happens.

Garland pose - sometimes called ‘the frog.’ Stand with your feet approximately shoulder width apart. Open your thighs slightly wider than your torso. Tilt your torso forward slightly, bend your knees and slowly sink your hips down. Keep your heels and the soles of your feet flat and firmly on the ground. Press your elbows against your inner knees and press your inner thighs against the sides of your torso.

When you are stable you can adjust your feet. Do so slowly and carefully eventually to a parallel position without straining the knees. Gaze ahead and bring your palms together in front of your chest. Press your upper arms against the inside of your knees. Feel the tailbone and spine stretch. With practice your back will be erect as if you are leaning against a tree. There are many health benefits

Hao Taijiquan

Rob taught me the Hao 96 traditional form & we went to Melbourne to Peter's week intensive in January 08 where I learned Peter's abbreviated Hao 32 steps. Rob learned Hong which was developed by Peter's teacher Master Hong in Beijing. Peter knows all the Taiji styles but mostly teaches Chen & Hao. Peter's site has excellent articles & clips.

http://letsgo.com.au/~demunck/master_wu_Frame3.htm

http://www.peterwutaichi.com/

Mei

Shi Mei  Lin teaches Wu Taiji. I went to a week intensive near Wellington to learn from Mei. People came from the USA, Switzerland, Australia & New Zealand.

http://www.wutaichi.org.nz/ShiMeiLin/tabid/56/Default.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shi_Mei_Lin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0q-Nn_gUI4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6h89sx6ftI

Mei doing the Wu long form - slowly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?

Jian, learning sword

The saying is among traditional tai chi people is that 'ten years is a small accomplishment.' Students are not usually taught the sword until they have done 10 years of basic open hand training & no one teaches anything except with the master's permission until they have probably done 30 years or so training. I asked Ah Keng my tai chi father in 1988 if Mr Chua, his senior would allow me to video him doing the sword form which I'd been learning from him. I had to wait a couple of weeks for the reply. Ah Keng said, 'Mr Chua cannot allow you to video him doing the form because his master is still alive.' Mr Huang, their senior master taught in KL & was from Sarawak. I found out later from a conversation with Patrick Carey that Mr Huang had not given anyone permission to teach the sword in Malaysia for 15 years. My wife went to see her sister in Singapore a few years later & Mr Chua came around to visit & brought a video of all the forms he taught demonstrated by his senior students & himself for me. I still sit down once in a while & watch.

Jumperlead

1998 - David met me at the staffroom door & said, “Tim doesn’t look good. Can you press a few of his points for him?” I nodded. Tim was sitting there looking tired & worried. It was his last day with us. In a couple of days he would be off to do a fellowship for 18 months in Japan developing some sort of language curriculum program. It had been a tough year for staff & students with an incompetent principal & a wounded school I thought he’ll be happy to get out of this place.

I went up to Tim seated in his chair & placed my hands on top of his shoulders & pressed the points that my wife’s father always used as point of first contact. Apin, my wife’s father had been a masseur for wrestlers in India & had often done my back neck & shoulders over the years so I’d picked up some of the skill from him. I’d also done Shiatsu courses with Gloria, a Malaysia Chinese lady who had lived in India & studied homeopathy there. She was a Reiki Master & did Acupuncture & had various other skills too. And I’d done a course in Chinese Acupressure. Not too different from the Japanese techniques in many ways & based on the same ideas of the human body being a system of interrelated channels where the Qi flowed.

This training overlapped with the tai chi training I had begun with Teo Ah Keng in Singapore in 1971. So there I was pressing my thumbs firmly down on Tim’s shoulders on the bladder points. I did the Shiatsu method using my thumb on the muscles running down both sides of the spine all the way down to the buttocks. I did the points at the back of the neck, temples & on the cheekbones just under the eyes. And I finished with the hand & elbow points. Tim said, “thanks.” I asked him if he had classes. He replied, “not until after morning tea.” So I said, “You’d better go & see a doctor.”

Tim was over 6’ in height, had good erect posture & red hair. He’d lived in Japan for several years & his Japanese from all accounts was excellent, for a foreigner. He was well versed in correct cultural behaviour which is apparently very important to the Japanese people. He’d told me when he was in public transport & in crowds in Japan he could see above everyone. Tim left & I went to class & didn’t see him all day.

Tim was in the staffroom waiting for me when I had finished the last lesson. He’d already sold his car & had tenants moving into his house as soon he vacated. I said, “well, what did the doctor say?” He said that the doctor had a look at him & gave him something that wasn’t doing any good. He asked, “can I come home with you so Matilda can massage me?” I said. ‘OK.” He’d never met my wife & he’d never been to our place before but that was no problem. My wife wasn’t working that day & as far as I knew she didn’t have any appointments.

My Matilda wife is a Masseur, Natural Therapist, Reflexologist. She originally trained as a hairdresser & beautician in Singapore & has done most of her further training here in Australia. She learned some skills from her father such as the neck cracking that Indian barbers do but she knew how to that skill properly by loosening all the muscles up for 15 minutes at least before doing the maneuver. Now she seldom uses the technique as there are better was to fix wry neck.

So I introduced Tim & Matilda & went off into the den to give my regular vocal student a half hour lesson. Then I went & took a Yoga Nidra class for an hour but didn’t stay to drink tea as I wanted to see how Matilda had got on with Tim.

When I got to the door Matilda was waiting for me. I asked, “how’s? Tim.” She said, “Terrible, I’ve never had anyone like this. He seems to be in pain all over his body. The kids can hear him groaning in the kitchen like he’s a woman in labour. We’re thinking you can do something with hypnosis.” I didn’t have much background in helping with people in chronic pain so I said, “I’ll ask Gloria.” Gloria, my Shiatsu teacher lives in Gladstone just over an hour from Rocky. I told Gloria what the story was & she immediately said, “you do Reiki.” I said, “but I don’t know anything about Reiki.” She said, “yes you do, Qigong.” OK, so I knew vaguely what to do.

Matilda went off the kitchen & I went in to see Tim. He was lying on his back on the bench shivering. I stood at an angle near his right shoulder so that I was in the best position to hold my left palm over the baihui point on the top of the head & I held my right palm over his right hand& said to Tim, “tell me when you feel something.”

When I was in Singapore in 1988 training with Teo Ah Keng, my ‘taiji father’ I also went to train in Mr Chua Joo Ban’s evening classes at the Henderson Tai Chi Club, Bukit Merah View. Both Ah Keng & Mr Chua were students of Mr Sia Mok Tie, Grandmaster Taijiquan & White Crane. While I was there Mr Sia passed on his lineage sword to Mr Chua his senior student. I even had the privilege of holding that sword briefly.

One evening I arrived early to Mr Chua’s class. He was standing with his back to me when I walked up & said, ”ni hao.” He said, “ here you do.” And he put me where he’d been standing with my left palm behind the lady’s shoulder blade & with my right middle finger just touching her middle finger. I was standing there holding that position & Mr Chua took off without any explanation. The woman who I was with was very large. Not obese, just big & strong like an athlete who does field events. Throws shot put or lifts weights.

I asked her, “what’s happening?” She beamed at me & said, “same as Mr Chua.” She spoke in Chinese to the small lady she was chatting to & they both smiled at me & the tiny lady said, “hen hao.” Standing holding my arms in standing qigong postures was quite familiar to me as I’d done that for hours a day for many years but what I was doing that evening puzzled me. The class started & Ah Keng arrived about half way through as he had business commitments.

After class Mr Chua, Ah Keng & I and a few others had a meal & drinks at the nearby stalls as usual. Conversations were interesting as there would be several dialects going most of the time. Cantonese, TeoChew, Hokkien usually. Ah Keng was Hakka, a minority group so he was quite a linguist because he’d had to learn everyone else’s language. When I met Ah Keng in 1971 he was a supervisor on concrete pours & he’d showed up my English conversation class. We became friends. Matilda & I married October 18 & the next year I got the Music job at ANZ High, Changi.

After class Ah Keng always drove me back to Hougang in his truck. I told him about what had happened before class. And I asked about the big lady. He said, “superintendent of Police, Singapore judo champion,” I asked why I was holding my hand in qigong positions close to her he said, “in English we call that ‘jumperlead.’ So I told him that when I asked her what was happening she said, “same as Mr Chua.” Ah Keng was surprised & said “wonderful, so you have very good Qi for healing people.”

I stood waiting for Tim to respond. After a minute or two Tim said, “my hand has gone numb,” so I slowly moved my right hand up his forearm & held it over his elbow. It seemed in a shorter Tim said, “my elbow’s gone numb.” So I moved my palm slowly up to his shoulder & held it there. Soon after Tim said, “my whole arm has gone numb.” Without thinking what I was saying I asked, “which arm?” He said, “the left arm.” I was stunned but thought that acupuncturists put needles on the opposite side of the body sometimes so had to accept his answer.

So I lowered my hands & moved over to do the same technique from his fingers to his shoulder along the left arm. Tim felt my hands as if I was doing his right arm. When both arms were numb I asked “Tim what is happening now. He said, “the numbness is spreading across my chest.” So I went & stood at his feet & held my palms facing the soles of his feet & asked Tim to continue breathing normally & to think of his feet when he was exhaling. I waited a few minutes & noticed that his whole body was calm & very relaxed. I asked him. “what’s happening now?”

He said, “ I can hardly keep my eyes open.” So just close your eyes then. Keep breathing to your feet. I’m going to go & have my tea. I’ll be back soon & I left him there to rest in a deep trance on the bench. As I was walking to the kitchen I reflected on what had happened & had a strange feeling that somehow some part of me had known all along how to use the skill as if it had been passed down to me somehow. I felt like I had been a conduit of some sort.

After the Chicken Curry I went to check on Tim. When I spoke to him he didn’t respond at all so I said, “Tim you are in a deep trance but you can still communicate with me.” Your left hand is yes & your right hand is no. Don you want to come out of trance now?” After a few second his left hand moved a little. I said, “OK but before you come out of trance I want you to go through everything we did here so that you can get into this calm relaxed state any time you want to or need to.” I waited for a few minutes.

Then I asked Tim to signal me when he was ready to return to full awareness. After about a minute or so he responded with a spasm in his left hand. I told him to imagine that he was in a pool & to drop to the bottom. Push off & gently float to the top opening his eyes when he reached the surface. I waited for him do open his eyes. Then I said, “wriggle your fingers & toes, stretch.” It took Tim a couple of minutes to respond & move off the massage bench.

I asked him he’d like some food. He did so we went to the kitchen. He enjoyed the chicken curry & I had a cuppa. During the conversation I said something that Tim thought was funny & he laughed, then grabbed his abdomen & his face fell. I said, “Pain?” He nodded I said, “keep very still. Breathe in & focus on the pain, hold. Now as you breathe out think of your feet.” He kept his eyes on me as I spoke. After he’d exhaled he nodded. “OK you know what to do. Now if you have trouble tonight. You know what to do. You can ring me if you’re in trouble.”

Next day before school I rang Tim & asked him if he was OK. He said that he’d had trouble but he’d done the technique & was OK. I asked if anything else had happened. He said he’d rung his father who had gall bladder trouble. His father said that his brother had had an operation for gall bladder.

I sent Tim to see a KP, Chinese doctor, graduate from Dublin who also does Acupuncture to request every sort of test – which was done. Before Tim left for Japan he rang & said the doctor said all his tests were clear & that he had ‘wandering wind,’ which in Traditional Chinese Medicine means that his qi was moving here & there & not flowing smoothly. In western terms something like ‘phantom pain’ I guess.

I have never seen Tim again in person but we have been in contact with Tim over the years since via email. I asked him if he’d ever taken Zen instruction or learned Aikido but he hasn’t. He says that he uses the technique that I taught him whenever he needs manage ‘the problem.’ He was teaching English at the University of Hokkaido & married a Japanese nurse. They have a son called Tucker.

My brother Stuart rang from New Zealand a few days before I was leaving for Singapore in October 1988. I had planned the trip to train with Ah Keng over my long service leave. He said, “you better go & see your father.” I asked, “How is he?” Stu replied, “John says nobody survives this liver chart.” Our cousin was Head Bacteriologist in Dunedin. I said, “thanks, I’ll ring mum.” So I did & mum answered. I asked what dad looked like & whether he was lying down or sitting up. Mum said, “he looks yellow & he’s walking around.” She put dad on the phone.

I asked dad how he was feeling & I told him about a qigong called ‘standing pole’ that is taught to people in China to help them recover from illness. Dad was interested so I told him to stand erect with his feet shoulder width apart & perfectly parallel. Bend is knees slightly so that he could see his toes in front of his knees if he looked down. I said it’s a bit like sitting high off the saddle & he understood that. Then I said to swing his arms up & hold his palms as if he was holding a party balloon in front of his belly. I said if he got a balloon & blew it half up that would be about the right size. If he stood in front of a mirror he’d be able to check that he was holding the correct posture.

I also suggested that once he was in position that he should keep absolutely still & breathe normally. Of course his body wasn’t absolutely still because his heart was beating & he was breathing & all of that. He passed the phone to mum & I explained the details to her while dad was trying to work how to stand. My father always stood well. Mum & dad were Salvation Army officers.

They had already been retired for many years. I asked mum to check dad’s posture & I asked him to stand for as long as he could manage. No more than 5 minutes at a time. If his whole body started to vibrate he was to conclude then by taking a focused breath & pressing his palms down on the exhale as if in water. I said I send some information including photographs & diagrams about the Qi flow & the meridians. Dad had always been interested in China would have liked to have been a missionary there.

I left for Singapore a few days later & while I was there I learned a lot more about Qigong. During the 1980s for several years I had been doing a lot of Standing Pole training. The Chinese say it strengthens your root. The idea is that the Qi flows from the ‘bubbling well point’ kidney 1 in the balls of the feet & up to the ming men points in the small of the back & from there throughout the meridians/channels throughout the body. Acupuncturists insert needles at various points to reduce or increase Qi flow. I used to stand at the peak of my training this particular type of Qigong in double horse with the ‘balloon’ at chest height for one & a half hours & slide straight into standing 30 mins or the left leg & 30 minutes on the right leg, a total of two & a half hours. I stood on our timber floor usually in wool sox.

After several months training with Ah Keng & Mr Chua in Singapore, in 1988 I flew back to Brisbane & met the kids & we went to Dunedin to stay with my parents. My father looked well. Yes he had done the standing training that I'd suggested. One Sunday morning I returned with a local tai chi teacher from the park to find my cousin John, my brother & his wife - a nurse who announced that is the work of the devil, my sister - also a nurse who was curious & her husband. Big discussion! John wanted to know what I'd told dad to do & why. I just said that standing pole was routinely taught in China to people recovering from illnesses to stimulate Qi flow & strengthen the body, spirit & mind. Finally John asked my father what he thought. Dad said, 'If I didn't do the exercise Lindsay told me to do I'd be dead.' Dad lived another 9 years after that & died at the age of 86, the same as both his parents.

early days

I met Teo Ah Keng in 1971. He was a student in my conversational English class. I taught in a hotel room set up for less than 10 students at a time. Usually I taught groups of several students at a time. Sometimes we read from texts, newspapers, magazines but more often we just chatted. I got married in October & in 1972 I was lucky enough to land the Music job @ the ANZ High School, Changi. When I told my English conversation students that I was quitting Ah Keng asked, 'can I come to you house to learn English?' I said, 'ok.' Ah Keng asked, 'how much money you want?' I said, 'no money.' You can teach me taichi.'

So Ah Keng came several times a week to 361 Changi Road in 1972/3 & often he brought prawns from his cousin's factory. We chatted, he demonstrated & I tried to get a supple body which was very hard to do & we ate prawns that my wife & sometimes her father cooked. Ah Keng told me that we were doing 'Young style' which he told me was the family name. Many years later when books started coming out in English I found that there was a 'Yeung style' & a Yang style. Most Westerners pronounced 'Yang' so it rimed with sang so I was no the wiser. But it didn't matter because I just kept doing the patterns that Ah Keng had taught me anyhow.

TAIJIQUAN  -  Learning the swinging exercise - 1972  Changi Road, Singapore

When I started trying to do this exercise I was very stiff tho I didn't realise how much. In 1971 I learned KunTao which was body conditioning against sandbags to make the limbs numbed to pain. We soaked in herbal medicine which stayed on all night. The paired training routines were about learning to strike with power. Some of the patterns I now know were from Eagle claw. 

In 1971 when I was learning KunTao I asked my training partner, a garage mechanic with basic English if he could ask * *Xiansheng, * polite form of 'mister' - like calling your teacher 'sir' I guess.  I asked our teacher what training I should do during the day when I had some spare time. My training partner translated. The answer – “brisk walking.”  So since then I have taken that answer very seriously when doing forms & movement generally. We walk without thinking about what we are doing much at all. It is something we do from childhood all our lives. We shift the weight from one foot to the other & allow the rest of the body to swing naturally. Even more so when we walk briskly.

Kuntao' is a Southeast Asian martial arts of Chinese origin from the Hokkien  words for 'fist'  kun,  and way, tao. kun tao, literally translated as 'fist way' but really an idiomatic generic meaning 'martial arts'.  Kun Tao  is roughly equivalent to Guoyeu, 'wushu', 'kuoshu' and 'chuan fa'.  Tao, Dao now - meaning Way, philosophy or doctrine, is not the same as Fa, meaning rule or method. 

Chinese Martial Arts in SE Asia have diverged from their Chinese origins far enough to be considered distinct arts in their own right.   The relationship between Kuntao and the indigenous Indo-Malay martial arts found in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the western Philippines is far from clear.  The the term 'kuntao' is used in the Indo-Malay and Philippines and depends heavily upon context. for instance as a loan word into Indonesian Bahasa, kuntao bali.

Hakka Kuntao or Hakka Kuen, is a generic term for all the martial arts systems created and developed by the Hakka people, mostly in the southern Chinese provinces of Fujian and Guangdong.  Hakka are one of the ethnic Han groups that migrated from Henan, Central China to the south.. Hakka were soldiers in the past & always been famous for their fighting skills.
Many famous Hakka were heros, warriors and leaders - Guan Yu, Yao Fei, Lin Biao, Hong Xiuquan leader of the Taiping rebellion, Sun Yatsen, Deng Xiaoping, Li Peng &  Lee Kwan yew, former prime minister of Singapore .  Yip Man who was Bruce Lee's mentor was the first Wing Chun master to teach non-Hakkas.   Hakka style characteristics  close range, elbows stay inside, the back is rounded, the chest is empty, the Hakka phoenix eye fist.

Ah Keng, who was hakka - taught me a swinging exercise which he called 'sung' meaning sink - relax. It was really walking on the spot with the soles of the feet parallel, firmly planted, knees slightly bent. As in walking - or riding a bicycle weight is transferred from one foot to the other.

Arms swing naturally as in walking. The hips are seated as if in a saddle, like riding a horse or bike. Often in tai chi moving from position to the next people talk about 'sitting' on one leg or the other. Swinging the arms tests the stability of your stance of course.  Ah Keng often said, '500 times a day.' Repetition results in progress. It allows the body to loosen up. It is a good idea to stand in front of a full length mirror once in a while to see what you are actually doing. I always begin my daily training @ 6am with the sung exercises.

Ah Keng taught me to walk on the spot but with my feet apart in a high ma, horse stance - about shoulder width apart. If you look down you should be able to see your toes. Arms swing naturally higher as the weight is sunk into the feet alternatively. Hips & kness must be stable. Rotation with the turning of the hips allows the arms to swing up & back. With time the idea is to make the swing quite precise so that the heavy relaxed arm's arc flows up so that the first finger tips line up with the nosetip & drop down with the rotation.

A partner is useful @ this stage. If the partner holds her hand chest high about a foot from the centre of her chest, palm down then you should be able to tap on her palm with the top of your hand as it swings thru. At all times your arm should be as if broken, without strength - like a wet rope. This training should be quiet & precise. The aim is to develop accuracy without using any external strength. When you are doing forms the arms should move in a similar fashion as you step into each position.

Think mostly of sinking your weight with each static step so that eventually you are mostly aware of the connection of the soles of the feet & the palms. Notice that the belly moves L & R about 45 from the front as you turn. Standing in front of a full length mirror & monitoring what you are actually doing is a good idea. How long to do this training? Ah Keng routinely said, '500 times a day for the rest of your life.' By counting the mind gets focused.

This morning I went thru some stepping with Craig - his 3rd training session with me. Step & swing your arm up to shake hands. You know how to shake hands of course. If a person offers a firm grip that's ok. If not that's ok too. The purpose of the swing up to a handshake when doing tai chi is to relax! If some one is presenting a fist instead of a handshake the best tai chi probably is to swing up under the opponent's fist & loop the hand up into the push hands position with the back of the hand/wrist against the opponent's wrist & go from there.

Back to the walking. This morning Craig & I did -

1 step with LF - swing RH up to 'shake hand.'
2 *pivot the LF 45.
3 Swing LH up & step with RF --- repeat

Changing directions -  Pivot, swing in various directions bring hands together one cupping the other as a double fist. * pivot, swivel keeping the heel on the ground.

sinking exercise #2

Begin with high horse stance with feet parallel as #1. Raise hands up as if 'heaven position' in bagua & drop as you sink your weight into the R foot & turn L. If your arms are completely relaxed & heavy the R hand should swing up to your L shoulder covering the points Lung 1 & 2 & your L hand should swing up into the small of your back. Sink into the L foot & turn the waist 180+ swinging the hands up & & then down so that the L hand covers the R shoulder Lungpoints & the R hand ends up in the small of the back. The palm covers the lungpoints & the palm in the small of the back naturally faces out. Avoid bouncing up & down, just sink - check in a full length mirror or ask your partner to give you feedback as your height should remain constant.

sinking exercise #3 -

same basic stance - high horse, feet shoulder width apart & you should be easily be able to see your toes in front of your knees if your look down. Begin as #1 & do a few repetitions to get your rhythm up. Then, increase the turn & allow your arm to rotate further as if doing a looping backhand on each side. More like how you play a backhand in squash. After the backhand loop your hand & forearm should be horizontal, more or less as it crosses your chest. If your elbow is up you're using shoulders instead of hips to drive the movements. Relax & swing, think pendulums.

When I was a child our family learned 'swinging clubs.' A while back I tried to find something on the net about that. Signalling was done with flags before the invention of the morse code. I learned some of that in the scouts. Swinging clubs was popular in Scandinavia but I found out that being able to wield & rotate very heavy clubs was once a highly developed skill in Ancient Persia. As to where Ah Keng got the exercises from I think it may have been thru his 'White Crane' lineage as I have not seen this kind of training done in other tai chi styles.

From  - Baguazhang Blog  - “ You talk of how my grandfather trains me and my brother in Sichuan so long  ago. Shifu Painter talk of his teacher doing same to him in his early day.  Laozi say, "less talk, less thought, hold fast to center." I remember Shifu  at Tai Chi farms says he learn much from teacher Li, Longdao but not know  much about what is to work in practical ways except when he go off to be  bodyguard and find out what is working and what is not. Experience is best real teacher I know this, you also so many other I think are not knowing this very  well.”    Desmont T. Chang

'Mind your centre' applies to so many things. I train every morning in the park at dawn so only serious people show up to train with me as 'it is not a user friendly time' & I expect people to really focus. I quit teaching night classes 20 years ago. Yesterday I said at the end of the session to Craig who has been with me for a few weeks to think of the belly as a rotating ball & the arms & legs following that motion. So the ball swings right then left & the left foot sinks & the right palm follows & so on.
 
 

I also pointed out again today that the body already has a lot of natural memory. How to walk to begin with. And how do people learn to walk? Not from formal instruction. They just copy people around them. They copy so well that families & localities have a particular style of walking that is embedded for life. To unlearn a walking style takes a lot of concentration. After walking people learn to dancing, do sport, work & so on. A while back I wrote about the 'dao of mopping floors,' which is really a version of 'polish on polish off - as in Karate Kid.'
 
 I asked Vinn years ago, 'what do you do all day Vinn?' He gestured that he stands in front of a wok digging & stirring. I said that if anyone gives him a hard time that he should step in & go straight for the ribcage. Vinn arrived in Australia as a boat refuge, 14 years of age. Now 2 of his daughters are engineers. Vinn remembers having kungfu instruction from his grandfather in Vietnam.
 
 I am a retired teacher. I found out that making working environments is the best way to educate kids. Give them tasks & let them go for it. If the want to work alone, that's fine. If they want to work in a group, that's fine. If they need to refer back to the teacher because they are stuck that's ok too.  Towards the end of my career I used to take a class of under achieving mostly boys for English. I got them to discuss some cartoons & comic strips, then draw & label their own & discuss that they'd done. Then we'd go on to writing up sports events, trips, & etc. Sketch first, do a caption, discuss in groups, write a sentence or two, write query letters, replies & so on.

Then there were the - 'good copy books' - that I kept in the cupboard. I'd call for a student & discuss items to keep for assessment & the corrections. That done I ask the student to get his good copy book & bring it to me. Then I'd say, 'now look straight into my eyes & say, 'the best work I ever did.' Then I say, 'ok take it slow, I don't care how long it takes.' The scripts improved immediately & were all 'copybook' by the end of the year. I used to show the work to the lady English teachers who would say, 'how did you get this work from Him!?'

Lindsay....thanks for that great post....the learning to swim story was so true.  I have taught hundreds of adults to swim and it is hard for them to pick up all the aspects of buoyancy, hydrodynamics of movement, stroke mechanics and breath control etc .Like Bagua training....it requires practice and more practice....all one needs is just enough info to take the next step....one may try to break it all down intellectually and put it together in doing but that is extremely hard to do...better to just practice fundamentals and let the learning curve be guided by intent and doing.  

 

Some years ago I asked Adrian Wu, a friend from Ipoh, Malaysia,  'you learn kungfu when you were a boy Adrian.' He said, 'yes.'  I asked 'what did you learn?'  He said, 'this,' & stood in traditional ma bu with his clenched fists stuck to his hips. I asked, 'how long did you do this?  He said, '4 years.'  Then he went on to explain that all the boys who wanted to learn stood in ma bu at the training ground & watched the men train. Once in a while a senior would wander over & shove. The old saying is 'can't stand, can't fight.' When a boy was able to stick to the ground he was taken aside to learn basic stepping. Adrian said that as they'd been standing watching the training most could follow along quite well immediately.

I learned various things in Singapore from Chinese teachers in the early 1970s. There was very little discussion or explanation, not that I would have understood anyhow as at that time I had no Hokkein. At tea breaks & meals after training a few things were translated for me such as what 'the Dao' is, which is that it is mysterious & can't be explained which was quite a condundrum for me at the time. As I was teaching in schools & playing in the Singapore Teacher's Band I did have opportunities to ask about a few things with people who were fluent in English & I found out that the Dao is just the natural rhythm of nature, the flow of the seasons & all that.

'Westerners' in general ask far too many questions & don't do the training. It's not question of knowing about how to do a skill it is the doing & finding out for yourself what doesn't work. If you don't get in the pool you'll not learn how to swim. If you don't get in the pool regularly you'll not learn to swim properly. If you don't train every day you'll not become a good swimmer. If you train every day for 4 hours or more from childhood you may become a competitive swimmer - if you have a good coach, keen parents, eat & sleep well & so on. There isn't much talk when you are swimming. You just swim.  Cheers & Good Luck Lindsay

Shizi Carstoniu: Re-reading your post this morning reminds me of something else. When my first daughter was five, I taught her to ride a bike. It killed my back as I bent over and ran with the bike repeatedly, for days. With my second daughter, I knew I was not going to do that. So, I told her nothing, but gave her a game. I had her walk a small bike from the garage to the street on a slight incline. I made a game where she counted her steps and rewarded her verbally if the next time she used less steps. Within an hour she was riding down the driveway with zero steps. It took 15 minutes for me to get her feet on the pedal and pedal.

After this I taught a lot of my relatives and friend's kids to ride on the bet that I could have them riding within an hour. I didn't always make an hour, but Never went to an hour and 30 minutes. I told one person about this technique and it was in the paper the next week. I've always wondered what that guy did for a living (journalist?). I just saw him trying to teach his son with training wheels in a public park. He didn't seem to listen to what I said, but the article did appear the next week. When teaching my daughter, I told her NOTHING about the mechanics. When I think about it, I could have explained the mechanics all day long and she could never have ridden.  I'm guessing you and I might learn things that require mind and body to be coordinated the same way.

One other point.  It wasn't until I was teaching my daughters how to ride I bike that I even thought about the mechanics of what I was doing when I rode, like you turn the wheel ever so slightly towards the direction your balance is off. But, had I known that at age 7 when I learned to ride my 26 inch I don't think it would have helped much (yeah, my parents said I was only going to get only one bike so it had to be full sized - tough on the genitals on downstroke of the peddle and rendered the seat useless).

So, it appears, at least with a bike, the learning cycle is; (1) learn how to ride, (2) observe what you learned, (3) figure out how it works, (4) teach one person wrong, (5) teach multiple people right. :-) Kim Cooper

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My grandfather born in emei mountain china and was Ba Gua man he has good  idea of emei Ba Gua and I learn first from him, many year later I move to  South America then come to USA meeding Shirfu Painter at Tai Chi Farm of master  Jou's and I learn that Shirfu Painter have old Ba Gua knowledge not in  modern ideas of same. So I follow him and see how he take old idea and put in  new science to understanding the methods. I think I know lot when I first come
to Jiu Long family, over time I find I am better to be student and learn  insteads of compare all with past knowing. Perhaps please learn more about Jiu  Long Bagua as student then you able to talk more with convictions about how  this art is generate power of jin.  Thanking you,  Desmond T. Chang

Marcus came to see me this year for a few days & could still do the form that he learned with me over a couple of years about 15 years ago - which is saying something. He has plugged in to various teachers over the years. I told him that he doesn't have a root & that he should do standing training. Most people don't bother doing the standing & that's exactly like the musicians who don't bother to play scales & technical exercises every day. Some don't bother at all. Marcus did a workshop with William Chen in Holland a few years ago so he fancies learning how to do 'the one inch punch,' need an excellent root & a lot of Qi development for that. On the alignment - this morning @ training I discussed that point with Dave, surveyor - training with me 10 years & Craig - a few months, diesel mechanic & very keen.

Marcus on Tony Ward’s training

The Sydney training was excellent, bit hard to say distinctly what I got out though. I'll give it a go but hey it's an approximation;- -Never turn without keeping the hip/shoulder alignment, if you do, there is a twist and somebody is just going to motor in and spoil your day. Be really, really sure which leg you're on. Completely put your weight on it and leave the other one.  When moving from leg to leg, no forcing, not even a  little. When moving from leg to leg, no turning, wait until you’re  on the substantial leg then turn.

Standing is just great stuff.  Tony uses an interesting assortment of stances each having unique advantages.  Standing with arms up for an hour. Not easy but great after a week or two. Mr Huang's loosening exercises are bloody complicated, each having things ya gotta do or not, but I only got to find out a bit.  Alignment, alignment, alignment.

A few stories about what Huang did and didn't do. Amazing guy. Tony does this spiral stuff which is awesome, but hard to describe, bloody practical though. Only started with that, it's very difficult to get learn fast, maybe next time. I've just reread it but that's not really it, but something. The greatest thing was just practicing, the standing, loosening exercises, spiral stuff, form and pushing every day with guys and chicks who've been doing it for ages. Relax, relax, relax, no force, no force, you got the picture.

Craig go the point when he said, 'I could never bowl the cricket ball straight, so that's why.' I asked if anybody have ever told him to point his toe & is hand in the same direction. Craig mentioned that he walks with his toes pointed out. Then there was discussion about wing chun - standing on the spot doing chee sau & all of that. I had a student who knew wingchun so while he was around we all had a go at that. 

Tony, Mr Huang's student said that the old man only teaches the 37 steps, qigong & tuis shou as far as I know - that's all that Huang taught in his later years.  Doing weapons soon sorts out the alignment issues - but mopping floors, playing cricket & hockey are good for that too.  

NB  Some of the above is a compilation of conversations I have had with various people including some on Dr John Painter's site. I met John @ Jou Tung Hwa's Taiji Farm in 1992 & we did our first trip to NYC together in the back of David's van. David took us to William Chen's Tui Shou class.