rojcewiczj wrote:If your Peng is sufficient, then even if you are stopped, your opponent will have to receive your force.
I don't know what that means, practically.
You seem to be suggesting that peng is related to transferring force? If we stick with the inflated-ball image of peng, if I accelerate that ball towards an opponent, and upon colliding with the opponent, the ball compresses at the point of contact. Think of an automobile air bag. The point of the air bag is to expand, then compress absorbing the force/momentum. The purpose is to NOT transfer force (to the driver/passenger). If the air bag does not fully deflate, it will transfer more force. If the bag does not deflate at all - expands and stays rigid - it will transfer all of the force. As far as force transmission goes, where does peng fit into this sliding-scale analogy? Maximum "delivery" of force occurs with the collision of two rigid bodies. Does peng make the body rigid?
If we instead model peng as a spring colliding with a rigid object, we have a very different behavior, but the "boundary conditions" are also very different.
It is my job is to train my body until every move I make can and will effect my opponent.
Seems reasonable, though I'm not sure that is a distinguishing characteristic unique to Taijiquan.
For instance, when stepping forward with peng, one leg pushes off the ground and the entire movement of the body correspondence purely to this push off the ground. The entire body becomes a 1 to 1 between strength and movement, force and movement, muscle and movement. Does this mean you need to have bigger and bigger muscles?
Uh oh, the word "strength". People have filled pages with the meaning of the word, particularly when used with the "i" word, "internal".
1:1 is zero mechanical advantage. How does that jibe with "four ounces deflects 1000 lb"? Or with using "no strength"?
the Taiji I love tells you quite simply that your not strong enough!
"Taijiquan reverses the axioms of nature that the strong beat the weak, the fast beat the slow and the young beat the old."
The mystery is not where does the force come from, the mystery is strength itself. What rules strength follows, how is it expressed through movement. Particularity this question, how do we move with strength? Movement itself is a sort of weakness, a softness that must rap itself around iron. Iron by itself is dead and must be concealed within the folds of movement.
I don't know how to interpret what you've written.
Folks seem to like the idea that peng is like water floating a boat. Water is soft and water is hard. When you apply a force to it, it conforms, it moves and does not break. When it rebounds, it is hard, like a tsunami. "Be like water."
Jesus, I'm starting to sound like a fortune cookie.