Giles wrote:
If I meet someone who is able to push me out of my stance/structure, be it often or just occasionally, then if I stay relaxed and accepting at that moment, take it with good grace, I can sense more of what he is doing at that moment and also what's happening in my own body and mind.
windwalker wrote:
Once one starts to understand there really is no structure to maintain
it will help them go a long way in their development in understanding "change" and "neutralization"
At one time taiji was known as "touch boxing"
origami_itto wrote:Jeff from Atlanta who said he was good friends with Bruce Reiter and Dmitri and Bill Miller was in attendance and he was very good as well. I couldn't do much of anything to get his center.
Giles wrote:The big guy with skill you describe could well be Lee Scheele.
origami_itto wrote:"Lee" offers to push with me
Giles wrote:windwalker wrote:
Once one starts to understand there really is no structure to maintain
it will help them go a long way in their development in understanding "change" and "neutralization"
At one time taiji was known as "touch boxing"
Language is always imprecise and often open to different interpretations. When I write/say 'structure' in the tai chi context, I mean organizing one's own body to constantly channel shifting physical forces through the body into the ground, and simultaneously back again into the environment (also into another human body). The one force constantly to be channelled is gravity; to this are added the forces generated by one's own body and by other bodies in contact with you. This has nothing to do with taking a big/deep stance, making oneself rigid or indeed 'strong' in the way most people think of it. The old gentleman in the video (some very nice stuff there, but I only sampled it here and there because it's quite long) is full of 'structure', has excellent 'structure', in the sense I mean. He's constantly organizing/reorganizing his body in response to changes in and around him: chiefly along the vertical heaven-earth axis (despite his overly rounded back), but in more ways besides. If one doesn't maintain good 'structure' as I mean it, then when one's body comes under pressure (and when you want to issue force) one will either be too stiff/immobile/brittle or too floppy/collapsed/weak. Or will oscillate between them without any good result. Good structure is the basis for being able to respond to pressure, to change sensitively and swiftly and precisely, again and again. Good structure is able to swiftly and dynamically respond, is subtle. The better it is, the harder it is to see from outside and the more sudden and surprising its effects on other bodies.
So perhaps we're not so far apart on this issue. Or whatever.
CheapBastid wrote:origami_itto wrote:"Lee" offers to push with me
I see Lee Scheele on a monthly basis (at his OC Push Hands Practice Group). He let me know he (and Misha - the tough Russian acrobat) had a wonderful time at the Jamboree. He wanted to clarify that in no way was he hinting at an 'I guess' regarding Patrick Kelly: "...got a very important idea from him. It just took a couple of years of thinking about it and Tony Ho's confirmation for me to really get it."
windwalker wrote:
My meaning was that it never gets channeled to the ground.
origami_itto wrote:windwalker wrote:
My meaning was that it never gets channeled to the ground.
That took a while to get. It's not soaking the energy up into your structure so much as it's making it slide off the surface like water on a waxed balloon.
Form is no other than emptiness,
Emptiness no other than form.
Form is only emptiness,
Emptiness only form.
Kelley Graham wrote:Directing, into the ground, or anywhere else, is the opposite of neutralizing and transforming. The mental and physical work needed is quite arduous. Few want to work so long and intensely. IMO worth it though.
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