charles wrote:
Having read the Treatise, I watched Mr. Mizner's video two more times. The first time, I watched and listened to what he had to say. I find no fault in what he said or in his approach, particularly. He appears to have skills but I find it impossible to gauge his skill level when the partner has such ridiculous exaggerated responses. What he has shown, if working with a cooperative partner, as he is, isn't particularly difficult to do.
I don't see the responses as "exagerrated" per se. Though they are highlighted via the method. You can see him instruct the student to use good full body connection in order to make sure the body is acting as a unit, not just an isolated limb. If the limb is isolated on contact then all of the movement occurs in one of the joints, not along the whole "ground path". This quality is what makes it uprooting versus just hurting a limb. The classic way of training receiving energy is more explicit and relies less on the pusher doing it right, I admit. You may or may not be familiar with it. But yes, the partner is "giving it" to him, not resisting, not countering the neutralization, not attempting to save himself in any way.
In live non-cooperative push hands, there are two similar looking situations.
Let's say you're joined up and then the partner puts hand on the middle of your chest and pushes on the obvious centerline which they think should be an easy offbalancing.
In one, you root the incoming push and they push themselves away. Root against root, yours is stronger so you win.
The second, you catch the incoming force, route it to the ground and back, and deliver it back to them, possibly with a little or a lot of your own force added.
Point being they may look very similar externally, but there is a huge difference in the feeling inside the body.
It can occur at any point of contact, though. The training situation shown here is just, in my opinion, a way to practice with training wheels to understand and nurture the feeling.
Next then would be full combat and delivering the same jin through a block/deflect/parry or a direct blow.
I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.
The second repeat watching I watched the students behind him. Largely, they were not neutralizing, instead, just copying the choreography.
It's hard to get it right sometimes. They're learning. Background students are not the main focus of instructional material, generally speaking.
Thank you for your reply.