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Checking Training Progress
Any insights lately? This is a question commonly asked by masters of their students. The reason for asking is to check if the student has been practicing. A student who has been practicing regularly and has put in the hours will have questions and insights. The questions and insights indicate to the teacher whether the practice is in the right direction and how far along it has progressed.…
Guidelines to Mastering the Yang 22-Form
The 22-form can be mastered by anybody willing to have a real go at it. Here’s some brief guidelines on how to go about it successfully :- 1) You have to learn it from someone willing to teach, explain clearly and help you to keep refining your movements and understanding as you move forward in your journey. 2) You have to be willing to practice, like really practice every day, for at least 2…
Opening the Chest 2
In the first post I talked about opening the chest. To reiterate :- The first thing you do is to touch your neck to the collar. Once the collar thing is done, you next imagine a stone sitting at the top of your chest. The weight of the stone causes the swing doors supporting it to open downwards. As the swing doors open, your shoulders will relax and open up sidewards. This also causes your…
Opening the Chest
In Yang-22 we do not concave the chest, convex the back i.e. slightly sink in the chest while raising the back. Instead, we open the chest. You might think that this is the same as sinking the chest, raise the back, however, it is not. Opening the chest is the second step after touching the back of the neck to the collar. Opening the chest allows the internal energy to flow freely. If you open…
The Elbow-Waist Connection
When we play the 22-form the movement of the arms must be coordinated with the movement of the body. You do this by imagining that the elbow is dropping downwards to connect to the Waist Chi Ring. Then when you move, whether by moving the elbow first or the Waist Chi Ring first the movement of the arm will be coordinated with that of the waist, and hence the entire body. This applies whether…
Empty Armpits
In Yang-22 we relax the shoulders and sink the elbows. However, we need to be aware of over-sinking the elbows and end up looking like a Southern Shaolin practitioner. Similarly, we want to avoid under-sinking the elbows and end up with stiff, resisting arms as a result of opening the elbows too widely. This can cause us to have a propensity to resist. To achieve the correct elbow placement we…
The Eyes
In Yang-22 we train our eyes to see without seeing. This is achieved through the practice of looking inward even as you are seeing the outside. As you do so, you relax your eyes by practicing Song, San. In practice this means that the bottom part of your eyes look out even as the top part looks inward. At the same time both sides of the eye relaxes sideways. In the beginning the practice of…
Strength Source
Related to the principles of Elongated Wrist, Small Chi Sphere and Opening-Closing is that of Strength Source. In Yang-22 there are two Strength Source which I shall term as Strength Source (Back) and Strength Source (Palm). Beginners learn to use the Strength Source (Back) until such time when their proficiency in the control of the Small Chi Sphere enables them to use the Strength Source…
9 Bend Pearls
The 9 Bend Pearls is a principle that is taught after one is able to perform the other principles that come before it. In particular, the practitioner must have achieved the requirements of Song, San, Tong, Kong. These four keys are taught on the first day so one must assiduously cultivate them over the years until a breakthrough is achieved. At this stage you will then have a physical…
Carrying a Scepter
In Yang-22 our hand holds a Small Chi Sphere. To add to the difficulty of practice, we also must cradle a Chinese scepter (aka ruyi) in our arm. We learn to carry the scepter in the 2nd technique of the 22-form, Wild Horse Parts Mane. Even though this is the only technique where this principle is taught, we carry over this practice to the other techniques as well. Carrying a scepter is…
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Elongated Wrist 2
Place a long hose on the ground. The hose is curled. Next, connect the long hose to a tap. Now turn on the tap a little. The water comes out through the hose which is still curled. If you turn on the tap to the maximum, the water will surge out strongly, straightening the hose. This is basically what the training of the Elongated Wrist does. It turns on the energy from your body out through the…
Small Chi Sphere
In Yang-22 we use three hand shapes namely the open palm, fist and hook. What the three hand shapes have in common is the Small Chi Sphere. This is an imaginary nebulous sphere conjured by our intent. At the most basic level, we use the Small Chi Sphere to help form the shape of the open palm, fist and hook. For example, when our hand is opened up it is as if we are holding an imaginary sphere…
Elongated Wrist
On the surface, the Elongated Wrist resembles the well known Fair Maiden’s Hand of the Cheng Man Ching Tai Chi style. However, our Elongated Wrist has a lot more within its practice than the Fair Maiden’s Hand. I had learned the Cheng Man Ching style more than a decade before I started with Yang-22. I do not remember my teacher ever teaching anything more to the Fair Maiden’s Hand. On the other…
Chest Cross
Ancient Bell Body Part 3
In Part 2 I mentioned the second part of the vertical line configuration as part of the alignment of the vertical line that is also known as the Bell Clapper Line. This configuration of the vertical line has an interesting skill attached to it. Basically, in order to allow the stone to descend you have to open up a shaft so that the stone can pass through. If you practice this shaft opening…
Ancient Bell Body Part 2
The vertical line running from the top of your head to your tailbone enables you to turn easily provided the vertical line is configured properly. In the Commencement Movement the first part of the vertical line configuration is at the neck. In Grandmaster Wei Shuren’s book on the 22-form it is said that we should touch the back of our neck to the collar. When you do this your chin will come…
Ancient Bell Body
The 2/4 Dots, 3 Passes, 3 Chi Rings and 5 Bows are put into practice through the Ancient Bell Body. In Yang-22 we use the analogy of the body as akin to an ancient Chinese bell. The Ancient Bell Body is actualized through the use of the intent to flesh out what is not real into something that can be felt but not seen. Your mind dictates the command to create the Ancient Bell Body and your mind…