Chen.quest.ion

Three years ago almost to this day, I took a chance on a $30 book called Combat Conditioning by Matt Furey.  Recently after setting up my blogroll I decided I should include Mr. Furey’s website.  Checking up on his site, I see that one can still get this unusual book on special for $30.  Some practitioners of “internal martial arts” are opposed to standard-style exercises, seeing them either as training time poorly spent, or worse yet as a detriment to Internal accomplishment.  If we’re talking about pumping foreign objects to develop swollen muscles and degraded joints, one would have to agree.  But there’s another approach, thank God.  Anyway I won’t give up strength training…

I just want to be strong and healthy, I’ve never been a “gym rat” (though I’ve spent plenty on membership); never used supplements (maybe a protein shake); never hung out with muscleheads (really, there is more to life…).

I quit the gym a decade ago to save money, never went back, slowly developed my home workout routines and exercises… it turned out the possibilities were endless.  If anyone is currently looking into these things, my two-cents advice is: those stretchy rubber tubes can really be effective, they’re not just girlie gear (figure of speech… I’m a feminist); and, if you want to buy a home gym, don’t fail to check out the “Total Gym” bodyweight system (you may have seen the infomercials with Chuck Norris.  This is outstanding equipment).

Anyway: I haven’t pumped iron, either freeweights or Nautilus, for years, yet I’m in better shape now (I mean, first class shape, no lie) and without the overtraining injuries.  This is thanks in part to… Matt Furey.  Also: after 4o+ years of “perfect knees”, I finally messed up one knee real good through abuse at work and bad taichi at home.  (I’ve fixed a lot of the bad taichi since then.)  I mean, for like 6 months my right knee was a “time bomb” going off frequently without warning… I gave up taichi… I was afraid to lift up my son… we’re talking bad news here folks.  But today my knees are fine, really strong, and I believe I’ll never again have more than a twinge even with all that I do everyday.  Who fixed my knee?  Matt Furey, solely due to the “Hindu Squats” exercise in his book!

Matt Furey tends to be a controversial figure.  He likes to make money, he’s up-front about it, he uses the money to grow his business, and his business includes making Chinese and other Asian health secrets available to anyone.  In addition to being a former wrestling champ, he won top honors in China at Chinese kungfu wrestling, he practices tai chi, chi kung; he’s extremely outspoken; some internet posts claim he’s Bad News.

If you check out his website and your reaction is, Oh man, I don’t know about this guy… IMO you’ll be doing yourself a favor if you maybe take a second look.  What brought me to him was a picture of this guy who looked like Hercules who said he doesn’t weight-train anymore.  Now I don’t weight-train anymore, and I look like Hercules Jr.  Which is a dubious accomplishment, I’m more concerned these days with my internal workings.  Good news, Matt Furey takes the same attitude, so I’m sticking with his program.  

Just realized I shouldn’t let the year end without writing about something that led to so many good things for me, taiji-wise, in 2006.  Ever since I got interested in taijiquan and begin researching basic information, one thing quickly became a primary focus of interest: the KUA.

Funny thing is, there wasn’t a whole lot of info to be had on this topic.  It was clear, when it got mentioned at all, the the kua (hips kua that is) was of prime importance.  But unlike Dantian, you can’t find scores of articles on the kua.  There are a few, and what there is, is pretty good.  But hardly complete, just hints and indications.  Still I was very glad to have those tidbits about the Grand Junction.

(Wait, isn’t Dantian the grand junction?  No – it’s the Centre.  And it is supported, carried around, en-circled by, the Kua.)

I kept on searching though, and this summer struck gold through a new blog by a student of Chen master Chen Zhonghua.  That would be the InternalArtsIA blog.  And the lengthy, fascinating, invaluable discussion of the KUA at:

http://internalartsia.wordpress.com/2006/07/20/function-and-usage-of-the-kua/

Been musing on uprooting, fa-jin, peng-jin, and mind-intent.  Or should I say “mind, intent”.

Thinking about how the great masters can – for lack of a better phrase – “send an opponent’s attack back at the opponent”.  Like a wall made of hard rubber.  Only, people aren’t made of hard rubber.  So – ?

Chen style, Yang style, and others have differences in the details, approach, and such.  But I suspect that besides sensitivity, awareness, looseness, qi, all the factors we might name… something I generally call “speed control” plays a major part.  Thus one aspect of intention is that you’re always in control of your speed (even if you’re “only” following your opponent’s moves) and furthermore your control is virtually unlimited.  You can stop (that is, change direction) on a dime.  You can accelerate like a Ferrari.  You can move at a crawl without loss of continuity. Your top speed has never been determined.

“If my opponent does not move, I do not move.  If he moves, only then do I move yet I arrive before him.”

Thinking about mirrors.  What is it about a mirror?  It reflects, but not only that; it reflects instantaneously. 

Some parts of taiji we might refer to as “mime-movement”.  They have an aspect of mimicry.  And yet the movements, slippery and baffling though they may be, still occur at a discernable speed.

Fa-jin is so fast (thanks to sung) that it resembles teleportation.  One instant my body part is where the opponent perceived it to be.  The next, it’s impacting his body.  It did not move like a body part, but like a mechanical stamping press punching through a sheet of metal.  Ka-WHAM.  It accelerated like a rocket ship in a vacuum.  (I call this quantum acceleration.  More on that later.)

I don’t want to just ramble on about all this.  Here’s a little experiment I just performed in my hallway (minus the actual full-force punch of course).

I stand in front of a mirror.  I’m 12 inches from it.  There appears to be a guy 24 inches in front of me; taiji fighting distance.  I know I can throw a very fast snap punch to his jaw; as if I was “catching a buzzing fly” in front of his face (same general movement to accomplish either action). 

But he surprises me.  He’s not two feet from me, he’s one foot away!  My attack is all wrong for the actual situation!  Instead of knocking him down, it’s I who am knocked right off my feet!  And yet I struck him squarely.  He was not where I thought he was.

I left the door ajar; and my opponent strolled in.

I locked it; and he burst through regardless.

When I nailed it shut, he smashed his way in.

My swinging door did not confuse him;

My trapdoor, he avoided;

My revolving door, he outlasted.

My substance only seemed to give him strength.

I only got rid of him when I put up a mirror.

Just a funny story really.  I could say that I have “Chen Style Taiji” in common with Master Ren, but that would be sheer braggadocio.  RGY has put in untold hours – years – ultimate effort – training with the greatest, and also training himself to maybe be the greatest one day.  I do Chen Taiji as a hobby – a very serious hobby, mind you – and so far I’m just “teaching myself”, which basically breaks Rule One of the martial arts. 

Although: how did the ancients learn?  Was there always “a teacher” in the village available for lessons?  Even at the earliest origins of a style?  And: writings and visuals from a variety of teachers, experts, and masters are nothing to sneeze at.  So, we’ll see where it all leads.  For sure you can’t teach yourself brain surgery or Olympic-level figure skating, and Chen Taiji is somewhere in that general realm.  But one has to start somewhere.

Where was I?  Oh yeah – the kitchen!  I just bought the latest Inside Kung-Fu magazine; a guilty pleasure I can’t resist when they have a Chen article.  Legendary rocker Lou Reed – Master Ren Guang Yi – an incredible new DVD.  (Reed’s been RGY’s student for years.) Compact forms.  The interviewer asked Lou Reed about YouTube videos of RGY’s “Compact Cannon Fist”.  I have seen the on-stage one, I really liked the way he swung his leg out at the very start of the form, and tried to get some of this into my own Opening movement.

Another compact routine, it turns out, was filmed in RGY’s kitchen!  In my previous post “Internal?” I mentioned my “5 Minute Kitchen Form”.  I’ve always had space problems practicing at home.  This wasn’t all bad: I couldn’t do linked forms too well – kept running into walls and furniture – so I had to work on form segments a lot; and also on creative transitions!  It took years before I had a couple of dozen forms, and still no continuous routine.  Then this summer, in frustration, I tried practicing in my kitchen, which is small and L-shaped.  Lo and behold, the “compactness” worked in my favor; with less space to “go wrong”, suddenly everything seemed more focused and control-able.  This took place last August.

 By early September (after years of trial and error) I had a 24-form routine that I could do anywhere.  A great moment for me was doing ”my” Chen set on a large flat rock next to a lake at sunset, while on a family camping trip.  It was a dream come true.

Another good thing: Mr. Reed mentioned in the article that one could take the compact form and multiply it, thus if you know 20 forms you can also do 40, 60, etc.  Seems obvious, but I had never taken this idea to its logical conclusion.  In my first post on Chen.quest.ion, I mentioned problems with “closing” my open-ended routine.  Now I have a better problem to work with.  After a little exploration, I’ve decided that instead of doing Cloud Hands and then High Pat on Horse, I can simply begin Cloud Hands, then transition to Buddha’s Warrior while I’m in bow stance, before the cross-stepping begins.  The Chen Competition Form version of Cloud Hands is perfect for this, in that it resembles “Small Catch and Hit”; both hands are at one side of the torso, as they need to be for the arm-bar in Buddha’s Warrior. 

Lest I give the impression that I’m merely cobbling together the external elements of forms in the most superficial possible way…. all I can say is, I’m not.  I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t take me several weeks to get most of the bugs out of what I’ve been describing here.  I don’t want to practice hollow taichi, though doubtless I have at times; altering the routines without maintaining a certain standard, makes even less sense!  Which leads me back to being grateful that even Masters may practice short forms, and compact forms.

A rope is one of mankind’s most ancient tools.  You can do a great deal of work, a great number of different tasks, with a rope.  Catch an animal (we need to remember that this was once a task of supreme importance).  Build a dwelling place (metal fasteners are a recent, precious invention).  Cross a river.  You name it.

A rope is a straight line that can curve into any shape, follow any surface.  It can work for its whole length, or a portion can be used.  It can curve back on itself.  It can be coiled for easy storage and transportation.  Its ends can whip.  Its middle can catch-and-hold.

Now let’s consider personal combat.  While a straight jab can be a very dangerous weapon in the “hands” of an expert boxer, not many people are experts.  The average slugger will get more power with a roundhouse blow.  That’s an easier punch to block; but if it lands, watch out!  The circle gives us power that’s harder to find in a straight line.

However, it’s been oft said that you’ll never get anywhere just “arm-punching” someone.  So put your body into it.  Draw a line from your back foot to your front hand.  Now you have all the body parts in-between, that can be called upon to help your work.  But it would be nice to retain the circle, not just stretch out like old-fashioned fireplace tongs.

So take the coil of rope into your body.  One end is your rear foot, the other end is your front hand.  Instead of a straight line, there are now COILS of line running up your legs, your torso, through your arms out to your hands.  The illustrious Chen Xin (1849-1929) in his famous book actually outlined the invisible rope for future generations to study.

What effect does the rope – assuming we put in the hard work needed to fashion it – have on an opponent?  Moving outward, the rope is a powerful spring that can keep-at-bay, or send away.  Moving inward, the rope acts like a vortex; our opponent finds himself “circling the drain”.  Into emptiness, as the Classics say.

One particular thing about a rope: it’s not the same as a string or Tarzan’s swinging vine.  A rope is made of twisted strands.  Webster’s New College Dictionary, 1977 ed. says: “…consisting of things united by or as if by braiding, twining, or threading”.  Any comments on this twisted thread are welcome.  I plan do some more thinking about silk reeling.  But for the new year I really need to just get to work on my Chen Zhonghua introductory study materials.  Hoping to get some old kinks out little by little!

Might as well prepare!  The following quote is from the late, renowned educator Helen Keller.

“I long to accomplish great and noble tasks; but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble.  The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”

“Is my mind on the one point?”

This is the key principle – or Ki principle – of Aikido master Koichi Tohei.  No time to write more now.  But I’m trying to remember this one thing.

Yielding decreases, and then ceases;

Issuing increases, and then ceases.

Both cease by following the circular track;

Siamese twins fighting back to back.

I don’t want to overdo the habit of posting links to articles that I like.  Though I suppose there’s nothing wrong with it – a compliment is a compliment.  (And far better to just say “check this out!” rather than to plagiarize… either deliberately or even by accident.)

Been thinking about push-hands (FYI, I’ve never done push-hands) and just found… yeah… some good writing at http://www.poagao.org/taiji/tjournal.htm.  How can you resist a title like “MONKEY LEARNS TO PUSH”?  Anyway I want to study this person’s blog some more so why not just put the link where I can find it easily.  Looks like really good stuff and there were no comments yet.  Maybe I or someone else will have a question for this writer soon.

Oops, hold the phone!  It finally penetrated my brain that I could be using my “blogroll” to do what I was just discussing (not push-hands, but linking to some of these groovy discoveries as well as oft-visited favorite bloggers).  Told you I wasn’t a quick study!