I think I solved taiji.

[everything]

have you ever done this experiment: you have teams with an egg, some straws, strings, popsicle sticks, and perhaps some similar materials. each team engineers and builds a structure around your egg. then you have a contest in which each structure and egg is dropped from a certain height. the winner is the team whose egg does not break.

the key to a good structure is to basically build a sphere around the egg. the sphere takes the impact force and disperses and/or moves that focal point (probably there is some rolling on impact) we are talking about so the egg doesn't take that force and doesn't break. plus it's hard to break the egg because it too has the nice round shape. I don't know the exact physics but I think that's what you're trying to get at, right? I don't know if it's the "solution" but it certainly makes sense.

[shawnsegler]

Today's epiphany is tomorrow's half truth...

For real.

S

[AllanF]

If we talk about theory, this made a lot more sense to me:
http://brennantranslation.wordpress.com ... ji-da-wen/

It is a great site.
Paul Brennan does an amazing job of translating old texts and making them available to the public.

[XiaoXiong]

have you ever done this experiment: you have teams with an egg, some straws, strings, popsicle sticks, and perhaps some similar materials. each team engineers and builds a structure around your egg. then you have a contest in which each structure and egg is dropped from a certain height. the winner is the team whose egg does not break.

the key to a good structure is to basically build a sphere around the egg. the sphere takes the impact force and disperses and/or moves that focal point (probably there is some rolling on impact) we are talking about so the egg doesn't take that force and doesn't break. plus it's hard to break the egg because it too has the nice round shape. I don't know the exact physics but I think that's what you're trying to get at, right? I don't know if it's the "solution" but it certainly makes sense.

Yeah we did that at a gt kids camp back in 6th grade. Its like that in a way I think. Thats not everything I figured out, but it was the thing that was missing. It is energy, or potential energy. I think maybe I still haven't explained it very well, but hey to me this was a breakthrough. If you guys don't that's cool with me. I'm gonna go push tonight and see if it helps my ph any.
Jess

[XiaoXiong]

Ok so I think there is more to the parabola that I didnt explain well. It's also of course a bubble. So you can do all of the bouncing out we see with peng, with wild horse and others. It's also using the empty parts of the round shape sphere the body is not actually present but the mind completes the circle, sphere, spiral etc. and coordinates the posture on that curve appropriately. It is a dynamic sphere, and there are really many many dynamic spheres and circles and spirals, and lines, and triangles. I think I got really excited, and with good reason, but it's not as easy to explain as I hoped. My physics and kinesiology knowledge is only so good. I'm no phd. But I think I do see all of the relationships to curves of all types,and how to use yin and yang, especially in taiji and xingyi. I feel like I really need to completely reexamine bagua before I'll understand everything there. Some taiji skills are like that too. Like Niall's 9 palace stepping reminds me of nian from 4.6 of GAO Houtian bagua. The circular stepping of bagua and some taiji as well adds another level of complexity to the relative dynamics and vastly increases the possibilities. The steps that cross the center set up a lot of circles and emptiness such as stealing step, the crossing swing step, and the crossing advancing or smooth step. Also the off line hook step from seven star step, when used for a tiger throw, or an ao bu palm technique shifting the center along the parabola laterally while turning and switching internally to lead into emptiness.
Jess

[johnwang]

The steps that cross the center set up a lot of circles and emptiness such as stealing step,

The "wheeling step" is used to lead your opponent into the emptiness - to move yourself to be out of your opponent's moving path, so he will have plenty of space to fall. That's the bread and butter for all SC beginners. Why is it "internal"?

[everything]

Don't mean to sound discouraging. Keep going. In for updates.

[johnwang]

It is a dynamic sphere, ... to lead into emptiness.

Principles such as "dynamic sphere", "lead your opponent into the emptiness", and "borrow your opponent's force" were used long before the term "internal" was even invented on this planet. I don't think the "internal" system should have any credit for those principles. Here is a clip that talk about "lead your opponent into the emptiness (if you can understand Chinese). What the instractor said:

- I will need to give enough space for you to fall.
- If I don't move out of your moving path, when you advances, you can push me down.
- If I move, I will take over your space, let you to have my space, so you will have plenty space to fall.
- When you fall, I will stand in your place and you will fall at my original place.
- I'll twist your body counter-clockwise first, when you resist, I'll borrow your resistance force, spin you clockwise along with my leg to block your leg.

If you can understand Chinese, you will find out that you just can't give better explanation to "lead your opponent into the emptiness" than this teacher did.

[Dale Dugas]

excellent video, Wang Shifu

[XiaoXiong]

I totally agree with you on this John. In fact that very same move is the very first thing that clued me in to leading into emptiness. It is done in external and internal arts. Especially sword stuff for instance. The only difference in internal and external is the method and theory gets more into the mind body connection and a certain relaxation and refined understanding of Jing. I think to be honest that the internal and external monakers make very little sense in the end. It's just a different approach to the same subject, but also with different results. It's not important though.
Jess

[mixjourneyman]

keep going!

[windwalker]

I totally agree with you on this John. In fact that very same move is the very first thing that clued me in to leading into emptiness. It is done in external and internal arts. Especially sword stuff for instance. The only difference in internal and external is the method and theory gets more into the mind body connection and a certain relaxation and refined understanding of Jing. I think to be honest that the internal and external monakers make very little sense in the end. It's just a different approach to the same subject, but also with different results. It's not important though.
Jess

you dont feel that they only help to note the differences that you've outlined in your other threads?
all CMA, by its nature embody both, depending on style and method they employ them quite differently achieving different results.

marketing, and some instructors trying to sell something,
IMO have caused a lot of the confusion concerning this.

[XiaoXiong]

That they do, that they do. The mind is always there though just like the muscles will always activate when you are standing. There are differences, and I guess they are important, but it's using the theory and the awareness of the whole balance of the energy on a tactile intuitive level that gets us what we want in internal arts. I think that it's hard to say that these things are not there in external arts as well. I think that one can come to the same conclusions, but external is not designed to do this. It's the circle walking, standing, silk reeling, and mindful sparring, push hands, two man drills etc. that got me going the most. Also Sword stuff, and staff stuff.

Last night in order to test what I've been doing I went to push hands with Paul Ramos and the guys at his Tuesday night thing. I made less mistakes, and Paul only got me once or twice where I got him a bunch. Then there is my buddy Aaron. Aaron is a longtime student of Kumar Frantzis and has been working with Mark Rasmus. He is about 6'3" and weighs about 400# and is a taiji teacher. He's big and strong and smart and educated and skilled in taiji. He outweighs me by over 80% of my body weight. So even though I wasn't perfect pushing, I moved Aaron around pretty easily many times, and I think I made it really hard for him to move me, and when he did move me, it was not that I lost my balance or anything, just that I pivoted on the front foot... Until I got tired. But even then with the bigger, taller, stronger more experienced taiji player, I felt very good about the principals and my usage. I was able to take most of his force and drop it, and switch channels or move with him putting all of his weight into his hands, and pushing on me. I made some mistakes, and there are some angles I haven't found the solution for, but I can say that yes, I now understand taiji, and can do it pretty well. I can take more force and get it off my body than I thought possible before. I can play with people who aren't experienced like they are puppets. It's pretty cool.
Jess

[everything]

That sounds pretty great, congrats on this progress.

I'm not following you when you say "switch channels". This isn't a taijiquan or qigong phrase I know. Is it an "energetic" feeling, an intent feeling, biomechanical, all, none, etc.? If you don't mind trying to elaborate more.

[XiaoXiong]

Yeah I think that now is a really good time to get into that topic. So when your bones are all arranged properly, and the muscles are coordinated as in many if not all of things we are training in ima, and the fascia has been strengthened through training properly, as well as the mind, we can start to use specific muscle firing patterns with subtle or gross movement by literally taking the kinetic energy into them. The thing about taking energy into them is that they have to be empty to recieve that energy. If too much of yourwn energy is there then the energy crashes. This is the basis of taiji theory as applied in taijiquan as I understand it. Also we have to relax a lot too keep the channels open. We have to stretch out to the extremes with our intent, and also bring the energy back to the dantian and hold it there like a bowl of water. You don't squeeze the water, unless its intentional, but there has to be enough relaxation at the lower back, glutes, psoas, and spinal column to allow to dan tian to expand three dimensionally evenly and balanced, as well as the right amount of tension in the abs. Thus the ball in the belly we call the dantian, needs to be round, and full. The legs should be ready to open or close go low or high, twist and move in any direction at the hips, like a belly dancer.

So there are myofascial meridians that are different from Chinese medical meridians. Now when you take energy in if you try to just diffuse it into these channels but you may end up giving them your entire body if they have the power to fill in your emptiness and go in with the mind and find your center and hit it. That is the thing that happens with what people think if as overly soft taiji. So in my taiji practice I am working on taking the energy into the dantian from my arms, and into the ground from my dantian. The dantian is like a big round shock absorber that can be like water, air, etc... Channels are pathways that information and energy can be moved through. The thing is they go through all of our connective tissues. So that's where the five elements, the blood, the mind and qi all come in. The muscle and fascia conducts electricity and therefore information, but if you overload it, then the ability to recieve that information or change in response to pressure is diminished. So if we can stay relaxed under pressure, and take force inside ourselves in a consciously directed pattern, we can give them some energy in our legs to hit. So they dove deep into your body and hit the leg. Well you can shift through the mingmen from one side to the other, or from back to front. Then you can control the overall distribution of potential and actual kinetic energy by managing the shape, tensegrity, and spatial relationship of your body. Switching channels is a way to steal the advantage without revealing your intent or center.
Jess