Hsingyi Santi - weight distributions

[D_Glenn]

you don't seem to understand that it's not "double-weighted". a much better translation is "double heavy"
and in 50-50 you are not necessarily double heavy.

I don't speak-a the chinese, so I have to go by the translations of more advanced scholars. I paraphrase, "having the weight evenly distributed between the feet duplicates the center of gravity and is known as double-weighting, it is an error". Again, these are taiji writings, so have to be thought of from that perspective. It is expounded upon several times in that aspect, as well as others, a few of which I've mentioned. When I mention double-weighting, it is as I've described above, as I've never encountered it specifically within the scope of Hsing-I. Probably because I haven't spent nearly as much time studying the Hsing-I classics.

Perhaps double-heavy is a better translation for the concept as you're understanding it, but double-weighting is the best possible description of what I'm discussing. Duplicating the center of gravity or "ground path" in other senses.

This discussion is only really interesting to me in that it helps show how a different body method fuels strategy in a different way, I doubt anyone is going to change their stepping or standing methods based on it. But food for thought is always appreciated.

Maybe you should hit those classics a little harder, you can't be double weighted when you are just standing there by yourself, there has to be an opponent there who has your upper body tied up in a manner where you've become double weighted and the only option is to fall. You could be double-weighted even if you were 100/0 if the opponent has your unweighted leg tied up.


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The very short time I studied with Brinkman he taught 100/0 santi but with the front foot firmly on the ground so that to the outside observer it looked 60/40 or 50/50 which leads to a serious misjudgment of distance on the opponent's part because from the 100/0 he could leap a good 6 foot and strike.

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[TaoJoannes]

Maybe you should hit those classics a little harder, you can't be double weighted when you are just standing there by yourself, there has to be an opponent there who has your upper body tied up in a manner where you've become double weighted and the only option is to fall. You could be double-weighted even if you were 100/0 if the opponent has your unweighted leg tied up.

Sure, there are at least four things that are "double weighting", weight divided evenly between the legs, weight on the same leg as the lead hand, applying pressure with both hands simultaneously, and leaning on your opponent. I don't think it's necessary to be "tied up" though. If I were home, I could cite pages and quotes, but alas, I am not.

[bailewen]

I have to wait until after midnight to install some Chinese IME on this linux box I am working from. (Satellite service restrictions prohibit excessive downloads during the day) and then I can site some stuff to back you up, Tao.

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In it's simplest form, "double weighting" does indeed refer to standing with your weight evenly distributed across both feet.

That's one of the simplest, most direct explanations. The inability to move freely is not a definition, it is the reason why you are supposed to avoid this mysterious "sickness" called "double weight".

That being said, it is certainly possible to stand with a 50-50 weight distribution and not be double weighted but that would be despite your weight distribution. Internally there has to be some change going on. Standing with your feet shoulders width apart in the "wuji" posture, technically you are double weighted. The important question is: What happens when you receive force. How do you react to it?

If you try to plant your feet and oppose the incoming force with the earth energy borrowed through both feet, you are double weighted. If you try to yield and simply do not "root" at all, then you are "double light" (shuang qing as opposed to shuang zhong). What you want is to have a clear and instantaneous transformation of your structure that moves the force around. It receives here and expresses there. From a Taiji perspective, it is vastly easier to accomplish this if you "clearly distinguish between full and empty". At the instant of contact, physical or simply "intentional", your body must divide into full and empty. The easiest way to do this is to shift the weight onto one leg or the other. This shift from 50-50 to one leg or the other only happens once... right at the beginning. Once the waters have been disturbed, if you are truly reacting in an honest way to the changes then the chances of naturally returning to a 50-50 stance are about the same as the chances of accidentally solving a rubik's cube; therefore, Yang taiji (as I learned it) is the art of fighting while standing on one leg.

Thank you to John Wang for his posts which helped me open my eyes to the vital importance of single leg balance.

[affa]

word.

btw, omar... PM sent.

[C.J.Wang]

Yang taiji (as I learned it) is the art of fighting while standing on one leg.

So is Bagua, but don't tell anyone I said it.