Single Whip Applications

[origami_itto]

Ray Hayward is starting to post more application clips online. We should encourage this with views and subscriptions!

Single Whip Application
One idea for the first part of the posture

Single Whip Applications, part 2
There are so many applications for Single Whip, but I like to keep it simple with LOTS of repetitions.

[wayne hansen]

Just silly the only good application he uses is slanted flying not SW
He would have to use so much strength from an awkward position to get that whip hand in

[origami_itto]

Just mash that subscribe button. As I understand it he needs about 75 more to get advanced analytics on his channel so help a brotha out.

[Shinobi]

I've been subscribed to Ray for a long time Seems he has renewed enthusiasm for posting.

One thing I've wondered for a while, was there some kind of rift between some of Liang's students, particularly Stuart Olson against some of the others? Even Liang's daughter doesn't seem to have liked Stuart much, making it clear that only Ray Hayward and Paul Abdella were his father's disciples 'no matter what others might say' and criticising Stuart on a Facebook post of a photo where Stuart is giving Liang hell bank notes.

Maybe some jealousy involved? Liang once wrote that Stuart and Jonathan were his favourite students.

[origami_itto]

He's got a patreon page too, now. I signed up for that too. Good stuff. https://www.patreon.com/rayhayward

I couldn't comment on the rift between he and Stuart just that he never spoke of it while I spent time with him in person but I got the impression there was some of the usual hurt feelings and what not concerning that. I believe Stuart said some unkind things in his books about Ray, but you wouldn't know it unless you knew them. That sort of thing.

Ray is a top notch martial artist and teacher and that's the important thing to take away from it.

Oh and he has some books too: https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/Ray_Hayward

Lessons with Liang in particular is excellent.

[Shinobi]

Ah, that must be the 'Never Make A Direct Hit' story. I did wonder who it referred to.

I have Lessons with Master Liang. Very good

[origami_itto]

Again, I have no direct knowledge of anything so it's all just hearsay and speculation.

The part that I'm referring to is the certificates. Sifu Ray is very proud of his calligraphy from Master Liang. He and Sifu Paul were the only people to receive such certificates stating that they were the inheritors of Liang's art. In Stuart's book, he says that Liang gave two young westerners a certificate because that was the quickest way to get rid of an American, give them a certificate saying they learned everything.

Ray will tell anyone who will listen how much his relationship with Liang meant and he's built his life largely around what he learned from him. I imagine reading that would sting.

[GrahamB]

I don't want to spoil the party, but I'm with Wayne, this looks like a lot of fuss over not very much?

[origami_itto]

I'm just glad Ray's putting out content and hope maybe I can get him a few more subscriptions by sharing the links to encourage him to post more content.

[origami_itto]

His presentation doesn't have that "martial flavor" that some people look for. Generally he's just demonstrating for the purposes of educating others, not showing off. There's a depth and breadth of knowledge being shared without mysticism or ego getting in the way. I honestly can't say enough good things about the guy. The stuff he teaches works very well and is presented practically. I'm very excited that he's caught up to the remote teaching age and started figuring out how to work it.

Here's a basic drill built on "withdraw and push" filled with great information

[wayne hansen]

On one level I look on pushing hands as a Zen Koan
Just as your answer to a Zen Koan shows your level of development so does how you push
This is just taking it as spiritual development let alone as martial training
There are so many holes in his way of doing these exercises it makes me wonder about TT
At present there are many claiming to uphold the banners of martial lineages
Most reflect poorly on their teachers
Either their teachers had strayed from the path,They had not learned well or they are tardy in their practice
We can all do better
If this is a pinnacle it is not the art I wish to follow
This is a call to arms,shape up or just play in a frivolous manner
The choice is yours

[origami_itto]

Pinnacle? No just an honest and humble teacher making an honest and humble living keeping the tradition alive.

[Quigga]

Who lives in a pinnacle under the sea? You all know the origin story of Bikini Bottom? Was one of my most liked shows as a kid, along with Dragonball Z.

[origami_itto]

In the fullness of contemplation I feel there are some specific things being said here that should be addressed.

I'm not being compensated by Ray in any way I just cannot express how much I respect and esteem the man and his teaching.

First, on T. T. Liang's legacy, I never met Master Liang, I spoke with someone in his family shortly before his death as I was seeking out quality Tai Chi Chuan in the Twin Cities and they sent me to Ray.

From what I understand of his legacy, from speaking to his students, reading his student's writing, and reading his own writing, his art was the reformation of his own character and health, and he encapsulated it in his 10 guiding principles. https://neigong.net/2006/07/22/the-10-g ... -tt-liang/

After he tossed Huang Sheng Shyan on his ass he put his arm out and welcomed him as a kung fu brother and I imagine shared his art and his friendship openly, leading to yet another innovator in the Yang tradition.

And he learned from what, 15 teachers? It's hard to say because the number kept going up because he kept learning.

Me, personally. I'm a bad student. I try to embrace his principles and work on embodying them as best I can but the discipline can be rigorous and sometimes beyond my ability. I am my most devious and challenging opponent, no matter who I can master externally I still have myself to contend with and I can be a real son of a bitch.

I never met him.

I've tried to meet as many others as possible, trying to meet even more as time goes on.

So far, hands down, the single most skilled individual I have put hands upon is Alex Dong. He just said do whatever you want and then he just absorbed it and ate it and when he got bored I guess he just moved a little and I'm doing the shuffle step trying to get my feet back under my center till I ran into the other people practicing 20 feet away and they set me straight.

I studied under Ray for a few years I honestly don't know how many, time is kind of slippery for me, I think that's a condition of my own particular mental illness, which is relevant here. Anyhow I was very close with Ray for a time (before the particular symptoms of that mental illness caused me to burn down a bunch of relationships and flee the state, but that's a tale for another time) and he showed a little bit more, and to this day I haven't had anyone replicate it or anything close to it. He called me over to work with somebody and gave me a high five on my left hand that made me pick up and stomp my left foot. Crazy stuff. Has had me mystified for years but if I asked him he'd probably have no idea what I'm talking about or maybe not.

It would be inaccurate to say that I learned everything I know from him, I've got plenty of bad ideas and information I'm working with too, here, but it is not inaccurate to say that I know everything I know regarding martial arts due to the quality of his fundamental instruction that is not just rote memorization of choreography, but a fundamental deconstruction of the principles of movement.

So applications are part of that fundamental skill set, as he teaches them they are just ideas to use when practicing the form to help the student guide their intention and energy appropriately. As you practice what is sometimes classically referred to as tai chi shadow boxing, you imagine an opponent to meet and motivate your movements. This practice of applications is putting a living body in that space so the student has a frame of reference. The initial neurons have been connected, so then the student can strengthen them appropriately. Understanding that the details of the application are like leaves scattered on the river, just there to help you see the river flow, but they are not the river and they are not the flow.

At least that's what I learned from what he taught, I can't say that I understand perfectly.

I also spent more time with him collecting weapons forms than working on push hands, which I now definitely regret. We traded books on western hermetecism and military history and I can say from personal experience he is deeply versed in all manner of hidden knowledge from the occident and the orient and he did take a part in initiating me into some of those traditions.

While studying with him I did at some point quit my tech job and start working as a bouncer and event security professional at stadiums and night clubs and I did regularly test and use the skills I learned from Ray to do that job. Again you should remember that at the time I was also working with an undiagnosed mental illness.

One memorable occasion I helped another event security guy detain this teenager, at least 16 to get in the show but maybe 18? I dunno the kid was wiry and wild and giving my co-worker a hell of a time, probably freaking out on drugs, so I jumped in to help and just did the Taijiquan thing, showed him how bad his bad ideas were and how good it was to go where I wanted him to go and I lead him straight to two cops and handed him over. Five seconds later he's kicked one of the cops in the head and knocked him on his ass and two more had to jump in to get him under control.

All the jibba jabba and talk online about this that and the other, when it comes down to it, I know my shit works. It works with some amped up teenager on drugs, it works when 2000 gangster rap fans decide to tear the club down because the main act didn't show up, it works when some dude suckered me with a beer bottle to the face when I was drunk, it works when some punk kid wants to threaten my family. Time and again I've pulled out what I learned from him and it's worked. Is it the pinnacle? Don't know. Was it helpful? Definitely. Could I do it before I met Ray and learned what I could from him? Not a chance.

The stuff I got from him that I reference even more regularly has nothing to do with that, though. It's about those 10 guiding points. I look at the hundreds, if not thousands of students whose lives he's improved with his teaching and the fact that not a single man who knows him has a word to say against him that the light of honesty wouldn't show was rooted in envy tells me that he is indeed a well qualified representative of Master Liang's legacy.

I've been to a few tai chi classes and seminars now and Sifu Alex has the most similar feel as far as in class instruction goes. You do the exercises and don't get too bogged down in concepts. Though Ray will regularly recommend books on physiology and western medicine and research and usually spent a part of the class at the whiteboard communicating information. About an hour to hour and a half into it, usually, if memory serves me.

So whether any of that carries over in a given YouTube video, I don't know. Ray is known among many folks on RSF and emptyflower and doesn't need any nobody like me to trump up his bonafides and contribution to the arts. If you know him you know I'm not fluffing the pillow here, the man deserves whatever accolade I have to give and more. If you can meet up with him in Minnesota by all means seek him out and have a lesson. If the best you can do is online then check out his patreon, he's got some great private material from Master Wai Lun Choi and Master Liang and the subscription gets you into various zoom classes depending on the level.

His online presence doesn't have the polish of Adam Mizner or any of the dozens of other online schools that have popped up, but it's honest and humble and a goldmine and a great line of teaching to support with your extra pocket cash if you've got it.

[origami_itto]

And my offer still stands, Wayne, to sponsor your trip to the tampa push hands meet up on the 26th of March, no strings attached. Travel and accommodations at plant city's finest lodging on me and if you feel so inclined to push with me and show me a thing or two I would definitely consider it an honor but otherwise I would love to watch your skills at play with some of the other folks there assembled. DM me if interested.... XOXOXO