Constant Pressure, Free Movement

[windwalker]

wow many different views...

There was a book I read long ago that mentioned, something the Zheng Man-ching with I believe it was Robert Smith's wife....
Where she noted a "wave" that had passed through her before being up rooted as shown in some of the clips...

Teacher Zheng, is said to have said " yes, you'll feel this, if you are relaxed enough. It is the intention that precedes the movement."
For those not, they will simply be uprooted and thrown out...not possible for them to counter something they can't feel...


The constent pressure being referred to is much like.




just enough to keep contact...in this case acting as a conduit..

What is being moved? It's not the physical body but the others center of gravity.. what has to be joined with, is not the others body but their sense of body space...
Change this, and their body will follow...many clips showing this....

[Doc Stier]

wow many different views...

There was a book I read long ago that mentioned, something the Zheng Man-ching with I believe it was Robert Smith's wife....
Where she noted a "wave" that had passed through her before being up rooted as shown in some of the clips...

Teacher Zheng, is said to have said " yes, you'll feel this, if you are relaxed enough. It is the intention that precedes the movement."
For those not, they will simply be uprooted and thrown out...not possible for them to counter something they can't feel...


The constent pressure being referred to is much like.




just enough to keep contact...in this case acting as a conduit..

What is being moved? It's not the physical body but the others center of gravity.. what has to be joined with, is not the others body but their sense of body space...
Change this, and their body will follow...many clips showing this....

Excellent points! Good post.

[Trip]

I might be nowhere near what you’re trying to describe...

But, it sounds like you're describing the constant light contact
that is required to keep contact with your opponent

The contact, yes. The amount of pressure can be light or heavy. In this I'm saying any touch is pressure. 4oz or 1000lbs.

I think this means I was somewhere near what you are pointing out.
Yay!

Too Light or Too Heavy is an Error

I think the more experience you get,
the more relaxed you get.
The relaxed you get, you start to notice nuances.
Constant pressure is a nuance.

Masters, and others, have always said my touch is light.
So, I’m on 4oz side of things.

Those less experienced say they can’t feel me and I give them nothing,
Yet I sense all of their power
And take advantage of them

But, I have met masters and others whose touch vary from light, to heavy,
somewhere in the middle

The Masters with a heavier touch
were still able to read the intent of their opponents.

To me, another thing they seem to do
is to use their heaviness as a lure
A lure that induces a reaction.
And, once they draw the opponent’s energy in
they take advantage of that reaction.

If you don’t do anything about their heaviness
They just collapse your structure and do what they will.

[charlie_cambridge]

Yes this is our 4th loosening (when hanging down, the hands should try not to move/fingertips still point while scapula makes biggest circles possible. Also when bicycling/alternating the scapula I tell my students try not to let the fingertips bicycle (so internally stretching etc so that fingertips still and even with each other while scapulas bicycling).

Standing version is cup or bowl (I recommend plastic) filled with water on back of your hand and do same thing (big circles with shoulder blades while keeping hand still so water does not spill)

And yes that is an element of our form (notably absent in most public videos of old masters but very clearly taught and demo'd within the school). Besides the reasons you mentioned about the still point, this also trains an internal elasticity when done with right intention (and big internal changes when body moves toward or away from a still point), and that elasticity is the foundation of the issuing Jin (for Fa Jin, ti fang, issuing, etc whatever you call it, we call it issuing).

also keeping the hand/foot (in kicks) as the still point (until the unstretch/issue phase) also helps/goes with keeping more intention up and down the central axis (related to your MCO comment on the other thread)

So there's a thing we do that is never really spoken of explicitly that I'm aware of and that I am curious what you think of.

"One part moves, all parts move" or something like that, right? Except it isn't.

I mean, if you step back far enough you are never at rest. You are always moving because you are stuck to the skin of a big spinning rock.

Miles above us are satellites that are moving exactly the same speed so that they appear to be stationary from our perspective. There is stillness in that movement, as the two bodies, ourselves and the satellites do not move in relation to each other, but there is movement, obviously, relative to the rest of the universe. Within the bodies themselves, automatic processes move continuously. The heart beats, the blood moves, the lungs expand and contract, the ENS sends pulses to move food through the intestines.

The point being stillness and motion are relative, and we're instructed to seek the stillness in movement and the motion in the stillness, but what does it even mean?

So in some forms (sequence of movements such as push, press, withdraw and push, etc) the hand will stay in the same point in space relative to the earth, while the rest of the player's body moves. It always seems to me a little bit like a mime pretending their hat is anchored in space and they just can't move it.

But even though the hand is still relative to the earth, it's connected to what's moving, so it is moving in relation to the rest of the body and the joint of the wrist has to be open and free to allow the arm to move.

Intellectualization, sure, but this is the useful bit.

If you put that still point in space up against another object, then it is possible to maintain a constant pressure between your hand and that object as the rest of your body moves in space around it.

The martial application should be immediately obvious.

If we are in contact with an opponent who wants to interpret our movements and counter or prevent them, then this does two things.
1) Allows us to reposition our bodies to obtain a more favorable position for applying force to our opponent's vulnerabilities. - Position before submission, as they say.
2) Impairs our opponent's ability to gather information about those movements

Maintaining "4oz of pressure" during push hands drills is a way to work on this idea, being aware of and seeking to maintain that consistent pressure while moving not only your body, but the point of contact itself.

I don't know what it's called, but you can combine it with listening and the storing-moving-releasing skills and you've got a good bit of taijiquan in my humble opinion.

If you've got a heavy bag you can play with this solo, push it just enough to get the bag off center slightly, just the lightest possible pressure against the back of your hand. Now move the rest of your body around that point freely, maybe even switch hands without changing the pressure. Do it all without making the bag move. Start working on increasing how far out you can push the bag off the centerline while maintaining the other qualities.

I also play with it on my refrigerator water dispenser. Put the coffee pot against the lever and while it's filling up, move around the point in space while maintaining consistent pressure. An inflatable ball or balloon against a wall. A weighted medicine ball or tai chi sphere. There are many ways to examine this concept and its usefulness.