Holding postures
Posted: Mon May 07, 2012 2:58 pm
A chinese teacher I had spoke about and taught a method of holding postures when practicing a Tai Chi form. Appearantly, this method was common in earlier days. I found a text written by Wu Tu-Nan who writes about his own practice and his years studying with Wu Quan You and Yang Shao-hou. Its translated on http://www.freetao.co.uk/page620.html If you haven't read it, pls do. It's quite entertaining.
Now, my teacher taught that one should hold each posture for 6 minutes. But I have never read about this or similar methods of "Ding Shi" anywhere else. This is actually the first time I read about it.
Some questions comes into my mind. The two that bugs me are: Why doesn't "Ding Shi" seem to be part of any modern Tai Chi practice curriculum? Are there many other training methods who are either lost or kept secret?
What do you think about this?
Well, it's VERY good practice, I can assure you. You should really try playing at least a part of your form this way.
You might ask why I start this thread in The Distillery. ...
EDIT: LOL! Forgot that the disitllery was readable for all. God damn it
(Well, at least I don't need to worry about the trolls)
In traditional Tai Chi training system, there’s one method of training called Ding Shi (performing a form with holding postures). Take ‘Grasp Sparrow’s Tail’ for example. It comes with 6 different moves and each of these has to be held in Ding Shi for six breaths before moving on to the next. So in all “grasp sparrow’s tail” as a sequence would take 36 breaths, roughly two minutes, to complete. Calculated by the average of 18 breaths per minute, the entire form consisting of 268 moves would take how long?! That’s how long you’ve got to hold for in each session! Each training session left me feeling utterly exhausted drenched in sweat. Even in coldest days of winter, I still ended each training session with shoes so soaked that I could shake off sweat drops from them if I took them off.
Now, my teacher taught that one should hold each posture for 6 minutes. But I have never read about this or similar methods of "Ding Shi" anywhere else. This is actually the first time I read about it.
Some questions comes into my mind. The two that bugs me are: Why doesn't "Ding Shi" seem to be part of any modern Tai Chi practice curriculum? Are there many other training methods who are either lost or kept secret?
What do you think about this?
Well, it's VERY good practice, I can assure you. You should really try playing at least a part of your form this way.
You might ask why I start this thread in The Distillery. ...
EDIT: LOL! Forgot that the disitllery was readable for all. God damn it
(Well, at least I don't need to worry about the trolls)