Tu-Ky Lam's Taijiquan and Yiquan site Tu-Ky Lam's Taijiquan and Yiquan site Zhan-zhuang and whole

body force By Tu-Ky Lam Believe it or not, young children now how to use whole body force from birth. I f you have ever let a toddler hold your finger, and try to sha e off his grip, y ou will find it not easy, because he is holding you with the force of his whole body. As we grow older, our muscles get bigger and stronger, we can just use our hands or arms to do everything in our daily life, and no long need to use the force o f the whole body. We end up losing this instinct. Internal martial artists want to revive this inborn talent so that they can be s tronger and so improve their s ill. Taijiquan, Xingyi quan, Yiquan, and Bagua zh ang all try to achieve this goal differently: by doing the routines, by stepping , and by zhan-zhuang (standing practice). Of all these methods, the most effecti ve one is zhan-zhuang because it can quic ly build up a structure (posture) in o ur body, from which the whole body force can be produced and released. Physical and mental changes The main reason is that zhan-zhuang can ma e our bones, tendons, ligaments and m uscles wor together so that our strength can easily move from our feet through our legs, torso, arms, hands and released. Our mind and bodies will undergo a lo t of changes through doing zhan-zhuang and so we become fitter and stronger. Our thin ing will be clearer and we are more confident. Here I will explain to you how this happens. Let's start with our s eleton, which is the support of our body. Our s eleton is mainly made up of bones. If our bones are big, hard and heavy, we will have eno rmous strength. If they are small and light, we will have much less strength. Zh an-zhuang is a process that ma es our bones hardened and heavier to produce more force. Those who practice zhan-zhuang can feel this happen in their body. Our ligaments join our bones together in our s eleton. Our ligaments can contrac t or stretch a little bit when we run, jump, release power, etc. When we jump do wn from a four feet height and not hurt ourselves, this is because our ligaments wor as a shoc absorbent which absorbs the shoc . If our ligaments are strong and tough, we will have more strength, and so can ru n faster, jump higher, and release more strength. Zhan-zhuang helps to ma e our ligaments become bigger and tougher. Other tissues in our body that perform similar role to our ligaments are our ten dons, which connect our muscles to our bones. Zhan-zhuang can ma e our tendons a nd muscles tougher, bigger and stronger in the same way as they do to our ligame nts. People who spend a lot of time doing zhan-zhuang grow bul ier and stronger, and their mind is much clearer. The coordination between the mind and the body is better as well. Peng energy It is quite easy to feel your tendons tense up to produce strength. During zhanzhuang, ma e sure your fingers are slightly bent with a gap between them, and ma e sure you remember to bend your thumbs for about forty degrees. (Imagining you

r hands are grabbing a ball is helpful if you do not feel the peng energy. My st udents say they feel their hands are li e the claws of an eagle, which is quite true.) Then you can feel very quic ly that your thumbs and tendons (on your arms ) are bringing a lot of strength to your fingers and palm ma ing them very stron g. Please note that the bending of your thumbs does not require a lot of force, but surprisingly, it can bring a lot of strength to your hands and ma e your arms s trong li e a bow. Your arms are full of "peng" energy, but you are not using a l ot of force. With this peng energy you can attac or ward off an incoming force quite easily. You are relaxed and yet powerful. This is Peng energy at wor . Peng energy is indispensable in push-hands as without peng you cannot do push-ha nds properly and improve. When teachers teach push-hands, most of them just tell their students to relax and not to use force. When students do as they are told , they always get pushed off balance. So they start to use force to prevent from being pushed. They are using force against force. To use force in push-hands is wrong but not to use force is also wrong. You need to have the peng energy when doing push-hands. The trouble is that most people do not now what peng energy is. If these students spend time doing zhan-zhuang every day, and bend their thumbs and fingers as described above to produce the p eng energy, their problem will be fixed instantly. They will not get pushed easi ly and they can push their opponent more easily. Their push-hands s ill will ta e off. Peng energy is bought about by doing zhan-zhuang. It is a sign that your whole body begins to connect together as a unit. Gathering and releasing of power With constant zhan-zhuang practice, our body weight and "Jin" (spelled as jing i n Chinese pinyin, meaning internal strength) will be able to sin to our feet. W e can feel that our feet are li ed being planted in the ground. Our internal str ength starts to develop and gets stronger with our practice (of zhan-zhuang). From our feet, our jin can be released through the pushing of our feet into the ground. How do we do this? Generally spea ing, in the "Embrace-a-Tree" posture, our bac leg (hip, nee and foot) pushes towards the front leg and at the same t ime our front leg pushes down into the ground to bra e (stop the forward movemen t of the bac leg). The two forces from our legs will merge to send jin up to ou r hands and out. But an advanced practitioner will now that the process is much more complicated than this. Before the release of power, there is a short brief gathering of ene rgy or jin. We will need to sit properly on our legs, lift the top of our head u p (unfortunately not many people can do this properly), and let our energy and j in sin to to bottom of our feet. Then we ma e our real hip move bac slightly a nd we sit slightly more on the rear leg. (When we sit bac , our nees move away from each other front nee goes slightly forwards and bac nee bac wards. Our le gs are li e holding a balloon in the shape of a rugby ball which is expanding. O ur bac leg pushes into the ground while our front legs, with the nee moving ou t and heel lifting up, pushes upwards and bac wards to send jin slightly bac war ds.) This is the gathering of our energy. When we release power, our nees and hips move closer to each other (our front h eel will move down to the ground, which will in turn bring our front nee bac a t the same time our bac nee moves forwards. Our hips will move in accordance w ith our nees) and our bac leg pushes toward the front leg which will pushes in to the ground. This is how our legs wor when releasing power. In our upper body, our torso has to move forward to push our arms forwards to re lease power. Many masters li e to describe the movement li e this. The forearms

are li e a nail and the torso a sledgehammer which stri es hard at the nail. Thi s is an example of releasing power to the front. Releasing power to the bac is the reverse of this movement while releasing power to the left or right is only a variation of this. Practice the power discharge exercises in four directions w ill help perfect this s ill. Conclusion Zhan-zhuang trains on our bones, ligaments, tendons, and muscles to ma e them wo r harmoniously to produce whole body force. It builds up a good structure in ou r body to ma e the strength of our whole body wor together as a unit all the st rength in our legs, torso, and arms will be directed to our opponent very quic l y. Our opponent can feel the coming of the enormous strength from us but cannot do anything about it. Zhan-zhuang is the foundation of all internal martial arts and can ma e us healt hy and strong. Without zhan-zhuang, all our training will be a waste of time. Although this article mainly mentions the training of bones, tendons, ligaments, and muscles, we should not forget the important role of our mind which coordina tes the very small movement in our body during zhan-zhuang. Copyright Tu-Ky Lam All rights reserved Home Last modified 17 May 2008

Thunderous Roars of Tigers and Leopards By Tu-Ky Lam Yelling technique (shi sheng) is one of the seven components of Yiquan. To my su rprise, I recently found out this technique has its origin in Xing Yiquan called thunderous roars of tigers and leopards. This technique is only taught to senior students. Li Zhong-xuan, a late Xing Yiquan master, recalled in his recent boo titled Shi Qu De Wu Lin how he learned this technique from his teachers. Master Li learned Xing Yiquan from three grand masters Tang Wei-lu, Shang Yun-xiang, and Xue Dian . He as ed Tang Wei-lu if the yelling is only for the purpose of frightening our o pponents. The reply was no. Yelling helps to discharge more power. When Li as ed T ang to teach him the roars of tigers and leopards (hu bao lei yin), Tang did not do so immediately. Then one day, Tang too Li to a temple. When Tang found nobo dy was inside, he gently hit the temple bell and as ed Li to put his hand on the bell to feel it. This was how Tang taught Li the yelling technique. Li could no t understand it and as ed Tang. Tang said, This is how my teacher (Li Cun-yi) tau ght me. I have not hidden anything. I was clever enough to learn it. You cannot learn because you are stupid.

Shang loved ittens. One day when Li went to learn from Shang, Shang was holding a lovely itten in his bosom. Shang as ed Li to feel the itten with his hand, and said Hu bao lei yin was not a loud sharp noise, but deep dull rumbling noise l i e that in the body of the itten. This explanation was better than the one giv

A few years later, Tang recommended Li to ) for Li to improve his s ill. One day Li iang Hu bao lei yin. Shang as ed Li how tory (hitting the bell). Shang smiled but

Shang Yun-xiang (Tang's fellow student had the opportunity to as Shang Yun-x Tang taught him. Li told Shang the above s said nothing.

en to Li by Tang about

Hu bao lei yin.

Senior Xing Yi quan students who train properly under a master will find that qi and jing will show up in their body, namely muscles, bones and tendons. They be come bigger and stronger. But it is hard for qi and jing to penetrate into their internal organs. With the help of yelling when we release power, Qi can go deep into the internal organs and strengthen them. This is the main purpose of Hu ba o lei yin. The yelling technique in Yiquan is composed of two sounds a short e and a louder yo op It is used when people practice Fa-li (discharge power). The noise is not made from the mouth. When we ma e the e sound, we inhale to gather energy and people c an hear the e sound come from our throat. Then we ma e a quic yoop sound to release power. With the sound yoop , qi goes quic ly down into our dan-tian, just li e thr owing a stone (or a bomb) into the water. The noise is a deep loud sound. Li's story helps us better understand Yiquan's shi sheng. Copyright Tu-Ky Lam All rights reserved Home Last modified 4 January 2008

A comparison between Taijiquan and Yiquan By Tu-Ky Lam Taijiquan, well- nown for its benefits for health, is practiced all over the wor ld. It has beautiful forms and can be useful in self-defense if you have been tr ained properly and long enough under the tutelage of a master. Yiquan is a relatively new style of Chinese martial art, founded by Wang Xiang-z hai in the 1920s by combining the main training techniques and principles of Xin gyi quan, Taijiquan, Bagua Zhang, and other styles of martial arts. Taijiquan and Yiquan have differences but they also have similarities. I will tr y to ma e a comparison of the two systems and find out how they complement each other. Similarities What Yiquan ta es from Taijiquan is Taiji's training principle: use mind and not force and so we see that practitioners of both disciplines practice gently, slo wly and with great concentration. This practice helps to nourish our life energy and improve our health and fitness. In this respect, Yiquan is very similar to Taijiquan and Qigong. They suit people of all ages. Then both Taijiquan and Yiquan have power discharge, which is done in a relaxed manner with power released only at the point of contact instead of using brute f orce. Both systems are good not only for health but also for self-defense. Another thing Yiquan borrows from Taijiquan is push-hands practise, though Yiqua n push-hands is done differently with its own flavour and more emphasis on selfdefense, which is epitomyzed by its strong internal power. Finally, they both belong to the internal systems of Chinese martial arts and re quire that students and practitioners have correct postures to ma e qi flow and develop internal strength. Such requirements as lifting up the top of the head, dropping shoulders and elbows, bending nees, flexing hip joints and sitting pro perly on top of our legs apply to both Taijiquian and Yiquan.

Differences Curriculum The major differences are in the contents or components of the two systems. Taij iquan has beautiful forms or routines, on which students and practitioners spend most of their time when they train. In fact, they spend so much time in the rou tines that they almost forget there are other areas of Taijiquan they need to wo r on. For most students or practitioners, learning Taijiquan is only doing the Taiji routines and push-hands. Yiquan does not have routines, which give practitioners many opportunities to wo r on other aspects of martial arts, rather than the forms. Yiquan students spen d at least half of their training time doing Zhan-zhuang to develop their intern al strength, which they can use in push-hands and fighting. Before they do push-hands, students will need to learn some unbalancing and cont rolling techniques, which are called Shi-li. If they s ip this, they will not be able to use their internal strength developed from zhan-zhuang, and so will not do well in push-hands. Before students can ta e part in sparring, they will need to practice stepping w hich will help them attac and evade attac s of their enemy quic ly and easily. Then they also practice a few punches (only 4 or 5) and ic s (only 3 ic s), wh ich are useful in fighting. After training hard on the basics (zhan-zhuang, shi-li, zou-bu or stepping), stu dents will have laid a good foundation for push-hands and sparring, which are tw o of the few major components of Yiquan training. Judging from the different curriculum of Taijiquan and Yiquan as described above , we can see that Taijiquan emphasizes on the artistic, and health aspects of Ch inese martial arts while Yiquan on the practical and health aspects. Taijiquan i s graceful and is loved by millions of people. Yiquan does not have the beautifu l form but are very good to health and for self-defense. Tactics As Taijiquan is more oriented towards the perfection of their beautiful routines , it emphasizes less on internal strength, so it has a big gap in its teachings of this area. Taijiquan's main tactics in push-hands and sparring relies a lot o n neutralization and ma e use of the opponent's strength and retaliate according ly. The well- nown saying, "To deflect one thousand pounds with four ounces of s trength" describes the Taijiquan tactics quite well. Yiquan emphasizes on power, and states clearly power can only be developed throu gh zhan-zhuang. Yiquan students and practitioners will not hesitate to use their power to attac and overpower their opponents. Neutralization, which is very po pular in Taijiquan, is not used a lot. In stead, they tend to use their power to redirect the incoming force. For more details on this, see my article entitled "The Power of Yiquan Single Push-hands." Complements It can be easily understood that Taijiquan is more li e an upper level of a cons truction while Yiquan the foundation. Each of them is strong in what the other l ac s and so they can complement each other very nicely. It is very obvious that Taijiquan lac s internal strength. Although some teacher s claim to have secret training methods to increase internal strength, they are not really effective. Taiji practitioners should borrow Yiquan's zhan-zhuang to fill the gap lac of internal strength - in their training system. If they can l earn Yiquan push-hands techniques, it will certainly raise their push-hands s il

l to a new high. Taiji teachers should ta e a good loo at the Yiquan curriculum and redesign their one to ma e Taijiquan training system complete. Yiquan is simple and direct, but this can be boring and unconvincing to some peo ple. Another fact is that many laymen do not believe in Yiquan's training method s. In these cases, learning Taijiquan can help. After people have learned the Ta iji routines and push-hands, they will be able to better appreciate the practica l approach of Yiquan. Conclusion Taijiquan and Yiquan complement each very well. For people who have practiced Ta ijiquan for many years without much improvement, they should seriously loo at Y iquan. For people who find Yiquan too simple, they can thin about doing Taijiqu an. We can say Taijiquan is a mansion and Yiquan the foundation. A mansion canno t exist without its foundation, and a foundation will be a waste if we do not bu ild a mansion on it. The following translation, which shares the same conclusion, can help you unders tand the two systems better: The Jing of Taijiquan and Yiquan Touching hands Taijiquan. When a Taiji master "plays" (practices) with you, you can only touch his clothes. He will ma e you feel good and have the hope that you can catch up with him. Yiquan. When a Yiquan master plays with you, he will "nail" you right down to th e ground. (His internal strength will go straight down through your arms to the bottom of your feet.) You will have no idea where his jin comes from. He smiles and at the same time straightens up his fingers, one at a time, and you will fal l into despair. Power discharge Taijiquian. When your arms get in touch with those of a master, his arms will tu rn a small circle. You can see the master stand in front of you, but cannot find a gap to attac . Keep loo ing, and suddenly you find that you have been thrown flying off, and your brain becomes blan . Thin ing bac on this moment, it is li e sipping a cup of good tea. a master, his forearms will mo compressed, but not sure what off balance. You are excited b force. The master beat you wit

Yiquan. When your arms get in touch with those of ve slightly. You can feel that time and space are is happening. What follows is that you are thrown ecause you are thrown off by real strong internal h his sheer power, not tric s. Movements

Taijiquan. The movements of Taiji practitioners are very light, never too fast n or too slow. When they release power, their body moves slightly and then stop as if not wanting to hurt you. Yiquan. The movements of Yiquan practitioners are very simple, without any delib eration. When they release power, their body does not even move. Only their arms move forward and then straighten up their fingers. Combination

Taijiquan is Yin and Yiquan Yang. This is true and real. Hope they both can wor well together, just as our lips and teeth which depend on each other. Copyright Tu-Ky Lam All rights reserved Home Last modified 17 May 2008

Finer Points of Yiquan Push-Hands By Yao Cheng-rong Translated by Tu-Ky Lam Push-hands, which is a combined application of zhan-zhuang (standing practice), shi-li (testing of energy) zou-bu (stepping) and fa-li (power discharge), is an important part of Yiquan training, aiming to improve the martial arts s ill of p ractitioners and students. Push-hands supplements free sparring very well as it can help practitioners and students to improve their fighting s ill and reduce t he chances of getting injured to a minimum. There are two inds of push-hands: single push-hands (left and right) and double push-hands. If you want to improve your push-hands s ills, you must frequently ta e part in push-hands practice. During your practice, you must pay attention to the followi ng: Spend a lot of time doing zhan-zhuang and shi-li so that you can have some f oundation s ill to rely on. Avoid turning circles without any purposes. Ma e sure that there is "yi" (mi nd/intent) in every one of your moves. You need to stand up and face your oppone nts and should not run away from them. When doing double push-hands, you should use "Hun-yuan-zhuang" (Embrace a tree) posture, with 30% or 40% of your body weight on your front foot and 70% or 60% o f your body weight on your bac foot. Both of your arms should be ept round, li e embracing a big balloon. Your feet should be ept at a comfortable distance f rom each other. Then move your front foot to the center line between your oppone nt's feet (your bac foot has to follow), and ma e your front forearm come in co ntact with that of your opponent, with your front forearm pointing to the center of your opponent's chest. Your bac forearm should be raised and ept round and in contact with your opponent's other forearm. (Your opponent will do the same as you.) The point of contact between your arms and those of your opponent is the focus o f the push-hands battle. Through the spiral and circular movements of our arms w e now, from the point of contact, the energy of our opponent and volume of his strength. Through our forearms, we use the strength of our whole body to threate n our opponent's center-line (chest), trying to unbalance him. Throughout the pu sh-hands practice or contest, our wrist, forearms and upper arms should have spi ral force. In other words, the spiral force comes not only from our arms but als o from our whole body. It is the result of our whole body wor ing together as a unit. The sayings such as "Moving your hands out li e using a steel file, and mo ving it bac li e withdrawing a fishing rod" and "your waist should turn li e a wheel and your legs li e a drill" are examples of spiral force. During push-hands practice, do not use too much force on your arms otherwise you will not be able to now the substantial and insubstantial changes of your oppo nent. During push-hands, you need to find out for yourself how much force to use , how fast to move, and where to move. Once an opportunity arrives, you should m obilize the strength of your whole body and release it. If you use a lot of forc e once your arms contact your opponent's, you will be top heavy and your strengt

h can easily be used by your opponent. Your strength can also be stiff and canno t change. Even if you have an opportunity, your strength cannot reach your hands and so your power cannot be discharged. Of course, if you use too little strength, you will not be able to ward off your opponent. How much strength to use all depends on the strength of your opponent . If your strength can be used by your opponent in a contest, you have made a mi sta e. If you can use your opponent's force and control him, you have got it rig ht. Generally spea ing, just use medium strength when your arms get in touch wit h those of your opponent. Your strength is between substantial and insubstantial and can change easily. In push-hands, people often tal about listening s ill. In my opinion, listening s ill means the s ill or ability to control our opponent. If we do not now the changes of our opponent's strength, we cannot control him. And we often hear pe ople say relaxation and not using force are very important so they dare not use force during push-hands. When we as them why, they say if you use force your wh ole body will be stiff. I thin relaxation does not mean not using force. If we do not use force, we will not be able to contest with our opponent. Relaxation does not mean not to use force, but reduce the degree of force that w e use. Relaxation and tension should interchange. We use more force when we need to, and relax when we do not need to use so much force. Then we should go furth er to ma e sure that in tension there is relaxation and in relaxation there is t ension. If we relax properly, we can produce strong force when we tense up. Push-hands is a test of our training on zhan-zhuang, shi-li, zou-bu and fa-li. T he purpose of doing zhan-zhuang is to develop "hun yuan li" or whole body force. Shi-li is an exercise by which we try to test the internal strength developed t hrough doing zhan-zhuang. When we do any movement, we have to ma e sure that our yi (mind/intent) and li (strength) are always present and not bro en. Zou-bu or stepping mainly prepares us for fighting. If we are good at stepping, we can mo ve fast and can create opportunities for us to discharge power. During stepping training, we must remember that when our legs move, our upper body and arms will have to follow and vice versa. We must try to eep our whole body well coordina ted so that we can feel strong and comfortable when we move forwards, bac wards, left, right, or up and down. Push-hands practice or contest is closely related to Yiquan's basic training. Th e reason why beginners do not now how to use what they learn from the basics (z han-zhuang, shi-li, zou-bu and fa li) is that firstly, they do not understand th e purpose of push-hands, secondly, they care too much about winning and so forge t the principles, thirdly, they try to loo good and lac the power to threaten or destroy their opponents, and fourthly, they have not spent a lot of time doin g shi-li and so they lac the ability to control the opponent. All push-hands techniques are based on Yiquan's basic training. If you want to b e good at push-hands, you need to spend a lot of time practicing shi-li, such as "hoo and Hang" shi li, spinning shi-li, throw a ball shi-lli and "the holy tur tle moves out of the water" shi-li. You need to spend time doing zhan-zhuang and doing zou bu shi-li which is shi-li while stepping. Without training hard on th e basics, it is very hard to improve your push-hands s ills. During push-hands, you must not be nervous and should not care about winning or losing. You must try to feel how your opponent's force is changing and try to co ntrol your opponent. You should also pay attention to the movements of your oppo nent, while maintaining the good coordination of your body. Only when you now y ourself and your opponent well, can you achieve what you want. The speed of push-hands varies. Sometimes it is fast, at other times it is slow.

When it moves very fast, it is very hard to apply our techniques. In this case you need to stic to Yiquan training principles, later on the good result will s how up. During push-hands, you should be very alert so that you can deal with th e intention of your opponent. When you have good concentration, you will now wh at is happening and can utilize the hidden potential in your body. Do not treat push-hands lightly, thin ing it involves only turning circles, some pushes and p ower discharge. We should treat it li e fighting an enemy who is trying to ill us. Once we get in contact with his arms we should be able to control him, and w e should not be controlled by him. All the techniques in push-hands are executed through using our internal strengt h. We should also learn how to use our shoulders, elbows, nees hips, head, palm s and fists so that they can be useful to us. We must be careful and try to avoi d injury. When facing our enemy during push-hands or sparring, we should adhere to these p rinciples: do not attac if we cannot hit our target, do not attac if our stri e is not heavy enough, and do not attac if we cannot put our opponent out of ac tion completely. We must be so highly alert that our opponent feels intimidated. Every one of our movements should be so powerful that it will destroy our oppon ent, otherwise we cannot defeat our opponent. Copyright Tu-Ky Lam All rights reserved Home Last modified 9 September 2007

By Tu-Ky Lam Hun yuan li is the force of the whole body, produced by all parts of our body - he ad, chest, hips, nees, and feet - wor ing together as a unit. In push-hands, if we apply this force, together with our body weight, we are sure to have an uppe r hand over our opponent. In fighting, this force can help us noc out an oppon ent easily. Hun yuan li is the core of Yiquan training system. All practitioners a nd students train very hard for it. In this article, we will discuss how Hun yuan li wor s in the different areas of Yiquan system. ZHAN-ZHUANG Hun yuan li can only be obtained by doing zhan-zhuang. The reason is because zhanzhuang can quic ly build up a good structure that can help increase our strength . (For more details, see my other article entitled Zhan-zhuang and Whole Body For ce ). Therefore, for zhan-zhuang to have any good result, we must have a correct p osture. (For more details, see Chapter 25: Yiquan s Posture and Movements in my bo o Demystifying Tai Chi Chuan Demystifying Tai Chi Chuan.) During zhan-zhuang we do not stand still. Instead, our body moves slightly forwa rd and bac ward. This is called mo jing meaning feeling or searching for internal strength. Mo jing helps us discover our whole body force, and put it into practice in push-hands and sparring. For more details, please see my article entitled Mojing: In Search of Internal Strength. When I last trained with my teacher in Beijing in June 2008, one day when I was doing Cheng-bao zhuang (the Embrace a Balloon posture with two feet parallel to each other), Master Yao Cheng-rong suddenly gently held my right shoulder with his r ight hand and as ed me to move forwards. If he had done this to me three years a go, I would have not been able to move. Now I just lifted my head up and moved i t forward. At the same time, the ball (inside) of my feet pushes the ground, and

How Does Hun yuan li

Wor s?

my nees move slightly inwards (toward each other). And there I went!

These are the movements that we always do when we practice the Embrace-a-Balloon o r Cheng-bao zhuang posture. Adding pressure by holding someone s shoulder to stop hi m from moving is a good means to test his internal strength. My teacher seemed t o be pleased with my performance as he said nothing. I thought I had passed the test. This test will be easier if we stand in an Embrace-a-Tree (Hun yuan zhuang) postur e where one of our feet is in front while the other at the bac . Here we will ha ve to lift our head up and move it forwards. At the same time, our bac nee mov es toward the front nee, which will in turn moves slightly bac (not forward). Our bac leg pushes forward while our front leg pushes straight into the ground, and our body will move slightly forward. To move bac ward, the previous movement is reverse, with our torso moving slight ly bac to sit more on the bac leg, which pushes into the ground. This time our front leg pushes slightly outward, upward and then bac ward. (The top of our he ad should always be lifted at all time.) In short, when we practice zhan-zhuang, our whole body always moves slightly for ward and bac ward. After practicing zhan-zhuang for two or three year, our whole body force will slowly show up and can be used in push-hands and sparring. How long do we need to stand to see the good result? Master Yao does not give a definite answer. He told me to reserve two thirds of my training time for zhan-z huang, one third for shi-li, stepping, and fa-li. One of my fellow students told me that the master as ed him to stand one hour and a half a day, and another to ld me at least one hour a day. (After two or three years, our Hun yuan li will s tart to show up.) However, I twice heard him say, Doing zhan-zhuang is better tha n not doing it. Spending more time in standing (also training) will certainly br ing better results than spending less time. SHI-LI Shi-li is what Yiquan students will learn after learning zhan-zhuang. Shi-li inc ludes only about ten simple movements that loo li e qi-gong (much simpler than Taiji routine and is equivalent to it). It too me a while to understand what sh i-li is for. More than once I as ed Master Yao how we could improve our push-hands s ill. He always replied, Do shi-li more. I felt perplexed at first because this was not the answer I had anticipated. I had expected him to show me some push-hands techniq ues. After quite a few push-hands sessions, I came to understand that shi-li movement s are actually controlling and unbalancing techniques in push-hands. If we have done shi-li properly and long enough to produce whole body force, we will be abl e to unbalance and control our opponents, instead of being controlled by them. H ere I will tell you why. In double push-hands, we do not just turn circles with our arms, waiting for a g ap or a wea spot in our opponents, and then moving in quic ly to push him off b alance. We usually use different techniques to unbalance or control our opponent s before we push them of balance. For example, we sometimes spin (xuan fa shi li ) our opponents or split (fen-gua shi li) open our opponent s arms to ma e them lo

Then he put his right hand behind my bac , and fted the top of my head and moved it bac ward. de) of my feet pushed bac ward, my nees moved other). That way I moved bac to the starting

as ed me to move bac . Again I li At the same time, the ball (outsi slightly outwards (away from each position.

se their balance first before finishing them off with a push. On other occasions such as when our forearms are on top of those of our opponent , we can push downwards, bac wards and sideways with our forearms to brea open the opponent s defence and then throw him out. This is the application of Fu-an shili (movement is li e grabbing and throwing a ball and then pushing it into the w ater). If our forearms are under those of our opponent, we can sit bac with bot h our forearms opening up and moving bac wards to unbalance the opponent before we give him a push. This is how Gou-gua (Hoo and hang) shi-li is used in push-han ds. Master Yao is so good in using shi-li techniques in push-hands. Four years ago, when I first did push-hands with him, he often spun me around li e a top, which gave me such a fright that my mind was totally blac ed out. In other occasions, after he had unbalanced me, he did not release power to throw me out, but change d shi-li techniques to move me to other directions left, right, front and bac . I was moved around, not able to stand properly, li e a drun en man. No matter ho w hard I tried, I could not get out of his control. I just felt I was suc ed in by his power, and did not now what he did to me. It too me three years to unde rstand what he did, and understand why he said practicing shi-li more can improv e our push-hands s ill. Most students are taught shi-li soon after they have learned zhan-zhuang. They c annot do shi-li properly because they lac gong-li (internal strength) and do al l the movements from their hands without other parts of the body participating i n the movement. This is unavoidable. They will have to eep practicing shi-li, a nd at the same time practice zhan-zhuang to build up their gong-li and pay atten tion to how they can ma e the shi-li movements involve all parts of their body i nto action. How does Hun yuan li wor in shi-li movements? It is very similar to the Mo-jing in zhan-zhuang: the heads leads the movement, the body moves forward (or bac wa rd), the nees move inward (or outward) slightly and the legs (feet) push the gr ound (li e mo-jing movements in zhan-zhuang mentioned in the previous section). Each time we move, we have to ma e the jing (westernized spelling: jin, meaning strength) from our feet move to our hands (by relaxing and by the push of our fe et into the ground). When jing is on its way up from our feet, every part of our body has to wor simultaneously to help increase strength. If we can do this, t his is whole body force. Such shi-li as Gou-gua (Hoo and hang), Fen-gua (splitting), Xuan-fa (spinning), and ng-tui (pushing forward) all end up in a pushing forward movement. People who hav e had some gong-li from doing zhan-zhuang will find it easy to put their whole b ody weight and strength on their opponent and so are able to unbalance their opp onent. But the first part of Gou-gua and Fen-gua shi li where we sit slightly bac w ith our forearms open to brea up the opponent s forearms cannot be executed as ea sily. Most will find, with our body sitting bac , it very hard to put our body w eight on our opponent, which means little whole body force is present. To compen sate for this, we must ma e sure we sit bac (try to ma e use of our body weight to do so) while we do the first part of the two shi-li movement. At the same ti me, we must have our front leg push outward, upwards and bac wards and our bac leg push into the ground. We must also lift the top of our head up, ma ing it go in opposite direction with the front foot. If we do all this at the same time, we will have whole body force and can brea open our opponent s arms and ma e him lose his balance. In Fu-an shi-li (which loo s li e lifting two balls up with our hands, and then pu shing them bac into the water), when our hands push the balls (or flutter board ) into the water, we sit bac in the same manner and let the weight of our body push the balls down. Here, there is some force in the heels of our palms and for

earms. We must relax all other parts of our body. When sitting bac , our torso s hould not come down with our hands, but should stay up. Lift the top of our head more and ma e it go in opposite direction with the front foot as described in t he previous paragraph. When we lift the balls up from the water, we should not just use our hands to do the wor . Our whole body should move together with our hands. We should lift up the top of our head and ma e it go forward to lead the momentum. Our torso has to go forward accordingly. Our bac leg pushes forward while our front leg pushe s into the ground. If our hands (moving up and forward to the front of us) are b ac ed up by our whole body li e this, we will have whole body force. FA-LI If we can do shi-li with whole body force, we can move on to the next stage of t raining: fa-li, which means releasing power. Fa-li is similar to shi-li. The dif ference is that when we do fa-li, we speed up shi-li movements with vigorous for ce near the end of the movements. We usually use fa-li to push an opponent away in push-hands or stri e at someone in sparring. It is important that we should use our head to lead our internal strength, which means it must go forward. If it does not, little huan yuan li can be released. There are fa-li movements that stri e to the front, to the sides and downwards. We can also do fa-li with palm stri es, punches, ic s, etc. The most common fali exercise is qian shang fa-li which means releasing power forward and upward. He re we start from Hun yuan zhuang (Embrace-a-Tree posture with one foot in front an d the other at the bac ). The movement is very simple: we just rotate our hands, move them forwards and upwards and ma e our palms facing outwards with our fing ers pointing diagonally up. The movement near the end is fast and strong with th e intention of sending all our energy out. Remember that our head and torso must move forward and our legs must push the ground. After this we move our hands ba c to the starting position (Hun yuan zhuang). When releasing power, it is essen tial that our shoulders and upper arms are very relaxed. When teaching this fa-li exercise, my teacher li es to as his students to hold a T-shirt between their fingers. If they can throw the shirt up and out, this pr oves that they are relaxed and not use brute force. When we do quan-fa (punching movements, which contain mainly four punches: punch f orward, punch upwards, downwards and horizontally which loo s li e a left or rig ht hoo in boxing). When we punch forward, we must remember to bring bac the ha nd that is not punching to power the hand going forwards. We must lift up the to p of our head, turn our bac hip, bac nee and bac foot to help produce more f orce. When we practice palm stri e with fa-li, we do almost the same things as when we practice quan-fa (punches), except that we must ma e our palms go in opposite d irections with each other. STEPPING Mo cha bu (ground rubbing or mud-wal ing) is the foundation of all Yiquan stepping . When doing Mo cha bu, we should not just move our foot forward or bac ward by itself as doing so has no strength. We should use our hips and our legs to move our foot. For example, we start from an Embrace-a-Tree posture with one foot in fr ont and the other at the bac with our body weight more on the bac leg. Then we rotate our palms to ma e them face the ground with our fingers pointing the fro nt. This is Fu-an ji ji zhuang (Hold and Push posture in a fighting stance). Before we lift our bac foot up and move it forward, we have to shift our body w eight to the front foot, and sit properly on our front leg. We lift the top of o

ur head up, ma e our front foot gently push into ground and raise our body sligh tly. That way our bac foot is lifted off the ground. We now have to use our hip s and our legs to move our bac foot closer to our front foot before moving it o ut to the front and form a fighting stance. Now the front foot becomes the bac foot. We will repeat the same process to move the bac foot forward again. This is how mo ca bu should be done. (When we practice Mo cha bu going bac wards, the m ovements are reverse.) In Mo cha bu, the distance between our feet is only the width of our shoulders ( just li e when we stand in the Embrace-a-Tree posture). The distance can be much w idened to become a big stepping exercise (twice as wide). The movements are exac tly the same as in Mo cha bu except that the speed is faster and we move forward with our head leading the move and our bac leg pushes our body forwards. Another useful stepping is that we move our front foot one step forward and our bac foot follows suit. Here we should remember to use our head to lead the move and our bac leg to push our body forwards. With this ind of stepping, we can move in a straight line forward or move diagonally forward in a 45 degree angle. All the stepping should be trained in bac ward movements as well. Stepping is good training to our legs. It complements shi-li movements in which we mainly use our hands. Of course, we also practice shi-li with stepping, which is much harder because we do two at the same time. But if we can do stepping (Z ou bu) and shi-li well respectively, with some effort we can quic ly combine the two. Stepping is useful in push-hands and sparring. Good stepping can confuse o ur opponents and can help us attac more efficiently. It can also help us step o ut of danger quic ly. CONCLUSION After we can do zhan-zhuang, shi-li, fa-li, and zou bu proficiently, we should t a e part in push-hands and sparring to test our hun yuan li and see if it is pow erful and threatening to our opponent. Master Yao often says, If we dare to compe te, we will ma e progress. It is important that we maintain our good posture and not let it collapse during push-hands (and sparring). We should always aim at our opponent s center and prot ect our own center. We need to be relaxed and apply suitable techniques in diffe rent situations. The more we ta e part in push-hands and sparring, the more we w ill improve. All these are the application of huan yuan li. Copyright Tu-Ky Lam All rights reserved Home Last modified 12 December 2003

Mo Jing: In Search of Internal Strength By Tu-Ky Lam Do you now what to do when you practice zhan-zhuang? Many people do not. During zhan-zhuang, we do an exercise called Mo-jing , which means feeling or searching f or internal strength. Once we have found or built up our internal strength, it w ill accumulate and our internal strength will get stronger and stronger. Mo-jing requires that we have a correct posture with good zheng-li (which means opposit e tension), use mind and not force, and move slowly with very small movements. W e will discuss this in greater details in here. ZHENG-LI Top and bottom.

We must place our torso properly on the top of our legs, which can ma e our weig ht and energy sin to our feet, thus ma ing us firmly planted on the ground. The n we must lift the top of our head up. So our head and our feet are going in opp osite directions one up and the other down, and create some tension from the top of head down to our feet. This top-and-bottom zheng-li gives us strength to per form all the tas s we are required to do and so it is the most important opposit e tension or zheng-li in our body. Sitting properly on our legs and lift the top of our head up is also the most important requirement for a correct posture. In zhan-zuang, the top and bottom zheng-li mainly applies in our head and our fe et, of which the opposite tension stretches our body to ma e it longer, and also produces strength. (In shi-li, it may apply between the hands, such as in chang fa meaning palm stri es where one hand is up and the other down.) Left and right. Left and right zheng-li applies mainly in our arms. In Cheng bao zhuang (Embrace-a -Balloon) or Hunyuan zhuang (Embrace-a-Tree) posture, we need to extend our elbows to ma e them go in opposite directions left elbow to the left and right elbow t o the right, and we also need to imagine that between the thumbs and fingers of our hands there are five elastics tying them together (thumb to thumb, index fin ger to index finger, etc.). At the same time we move our elbows away from each o ther, we do the same to our thumbs and fingers (imaging our thumbs and fingers a re pulling the elastics to stretch them) to produce the left and right zheng-li. We also move our elbows and hands to the front a little bit to eep them away fr om our shoulders to produce the front and bac zheng-li. This move can ma e us f eel that our bac is round, and jing from our feet can easily come out to our hand s. Front and bac . Front and bac zheng-li mainly applies to our legs. (But it also applies to our hands or elbows li e in the above situation) When we practice Hunyuan zhuang (Embr ace-a-tree posture) with one foot in front and the other at the bac , we sit mor e on our bac leg (70%). We ma e our bac hip moves slightly bac wards and our f ront nee move slightly forwards to produce the front and bac zheng-li. These three different inds of zheng-li stretch our whole body in six different directions, and ma e us feel that our body is round li e a ball. We should alway s maintain all these inds of zheng-li during our practice. They ma e our energy flow and our internal strength increase. MO-JING MOVEMENTS During zhan-zhuang, we always imagine that we are holding a balloon, embracing a tree, or standing in a swimming pool holding a flutter board, etc. In the case of holding a balloon or a tree, we imagine we want to move the balloon or push t he tree forwards, and then we want to move them bac . Our body moves slightly (a bout a quarter of an inch or 2 mm) forwards and bac wards with our visualization . How do we ma e our body move during zhan-zhuang? In Cheng-bao zhuang (Embrace-a-Ba lloon) and other standing postures, where our feet are parallel to each other, o ur head has to lead the move. When we imagine that we are moving a balloon forwa rds, our head (which lifts up all the time during training) has to move slightly forwards (2 mm) at the same time the ball of our feet must push the ground and our nees move inwards (toward each other) for 1 mili-meter to send our body for ward. Our hands moves slightly inwards, downwards and forwards (also about 2 mm) . When we want to move the balloon bac to the starting position, the process is r

eversed. Our head moves bac wards, and the ball of our feet pushes bac wards. Ou r nees move outwards (away from each other) for 1 mili-meter, and our hands mov e outwards, upwards and bac wards for about 2 mili-meters. When we stand in the fighting stance where one foot is at the front and the othe r at the bac , we must remember that our bac hip has to sit bac (which will br ing our bac nee bac wards) and our front nee moves slightly forwards to produ ce zheng-li. When we want to push a tree (or anything else in your imagination) forwards, our head will move forwards to lead the move. Our front foot must push straight into the ground and our front nee must not move forwards. In fact, ou r front nee moves slightly bac wards, but we do not feel it. Our bac leg (main ly the ball of our bac foot) has to push the ground to send our body forwards ( 2 mm). This way, our nee moves closer to each other. When we want to pull the tree bac , our front nee must not move bac wards. Inst ead, it has to move slightly forwards, upwards and push bac wards (with the help of the ball of our front foot) to help send our torso bac to the starting posi tion before we push the tree. At the same time, our head moves bac and our hip must sit bac to bring bac our body for about 2 mili-meters. our hands move out wards, upwards, and bac wards slightly (2mm) and we are bac to the starting pos ition again. Mo jing movements will go li e this during zhan-zhuang. USE MIND AND NOT FORCE The above section shows how our body moves slightly forwards and bac wards durin g zhan-zhuang. The movements are very small and totally under the control of our mind and we have to relax and should not use force. This is very difficult for beginners who tend to use force to move forwards and bac wards and their movemen t is usually big because they cannot do it small. Beginners cannot avoid doing the movement big. But they should try to do it smal l later on. For example, as soon as we push the tree forwards, we pull it bac i mmediately, and then push it forwards and pull it immediately bac again. It jus t goes on li e this. Slowly we will find that we move very little or hardly move at all. (Doing so gives us no time to tense up and use force and so helps us to relax.) Wang Xiang-zhai, Yiquan founder, said, Big movement is not so good as small movem ent, and small movement is not so good as no movement When we do a big move, our e nergy will tend to disperse and lac strength. Therefore, small movement is stro nger than big movement. No movement in zhan-zhuang does not mean absolutely motionless. It is mo-jing at its highest level where the movement is so tiny and not noticeable. Here our in ternal strength is placed at the best optimal position, ready for us to pounce a t the enemy. That is why no movement is better than small movements. WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN MO-JING By doing mo-jing what do we try to find? We want to find internal strength, but we will not find it directly and straight away. For people who have practiced zh an-zhuang an hour a day, they will gradually find that there is a big lump in thei r body which moves forwards and bac wards at the same time they move their body forward and bac ward. This big lump from our head down to our feet - feels li e ou r body weight. When we have better control of it being able to move it forwards and bac wards at will - we can apply it to our opponent. This is the first sign of our internal strength. To find this lump and to be able to use it, force which can ma e our whole body tense up, tainly help if we try to feel our body weight ring zhan-zhuang. We usually feel the outer we have to be very relaxed. If we use we will never find it. It will cer shifting forwards and bac wards du body weight which will slowly move ins

ide our body to give us the feeling of a big lump. Our internal strength is this big lump plus the movement of the whole body as desc ribed in the section Mo-jing movements . As for how internal strength wor s, see my article How Does Hunyuanli Wor s? also posted on this website. CONCLUSION Our internal strength is this big lump plus the movement of the whole body as desc ribed in the section Mo-jing movements . As for how internal strength wor s, see my article How Does Hunyuanli Wor s? also posted on this website. Copyright Tu-Ky Lam All rights reserved Home Last modified 20 February 2007

Yiquan's "Opposite Tension" and "Reaction" Training By Yao Cheng-rong Translated by Tu-Ky Lam We all now that internal strength is different from our inborn strength or mech anical force. Internal strength can be acquired only through intensified trainin g under special conditions. In Yiquan, we use standing practice with the help of our mind/intent to develop internal force. There is a saying which goes, "If yo u want to learn the essence of martial arts, you must start from doing zhan-zhua ng". The essence of martial arts refers to the internal strength. The strength d eveloped from doing zhan-zhuang is called "Hun-yuan li", which means the strengt h of the whole body. The ey to gaining hun-yuan li is through our mind/intent. We use our visualization to develop contradictory strength or opposite tension b y ma ing parts of our body go in opposite directions. We also imagine that there is some connection between our body and our environment (e.g. pushing a tree, p ulling a spring, etc.). By doing so, we will be able to ma e the whole body move together at the same time. Opposite Tension Meaning of opposite tension. What we call opposite tension (zheng-li) is the springy strength, (produced from our mind/intent), which goes in opposite directions top, bottom, left, righ t, front and bac . Opposite tension is useful because it can help produce strong whole body force, especially after we train hard on shi-li (test of strength), zou-bu (stepping) and fa-li (power discharge). When practicing zheng-li, we should start from the simple one (which is one dimension such as top and bottom). Later on, we can practice the whole body thre e dimensional zheng-li. The best way to train on zheng-li simple or whole body s to practice "Hun-yuan zhuang", which is the "Embrace-a-Tree" posture. Zheng-li training We train on zheng-li by using one of the fighting postures, for example, "Hu n-yuan zhuang" or Embrace-a-Tree posture. We imagine that two springs are tying our wrists to a wall in front of us, and we want to pull the springs towards us. With our nec leading the movement, our body sits slightly bac to help our han ds do the job. We should try to feel the two contradictory strengths - one is th at we want to pull the springs, and the other the springs pull bac . The contrad ictory strength ma es us feel that there is a strong force that obstructs our mo

vement and we can hardly move. In our imagination, we will eep pulling the spri ngs, relaxing, and then pulling and relaxing again and again during training. Alternatively, we can imagine that our arms are holding a big ball. With our head leading the movement, we try to squeeze the ball and then prise it open. A fter constant practice, we will be able to feel the contradictory strength creat ed by tension and relaxation interchanging with each other. This is also the str ength produced by our mind/intent. Whole body zheng-li training After practicing the simple zheng-li drill (as mentioned above) for a while, we can move on to train on the whole body zheng-li. When we stand on a "hun-yua n zhuang" or embrace-a-tree posture, we imagine that there is a spring or elasti c connecting our head to one point on the ground between our feet. We imagine th at there are also springs connecting our head to our front foot and our bac foo t. Our head should move up while our feet stay down to create opposite tension. Our right hip should go in opposite direction to our left nee to create contrad ictory strength. So should our left hip and right nee. Our hands should have op posite tension with our feet and so should our shoulders with our hips. In short , our whole body from top to bottom, left to right and bac to front should have opposite tension at the same time, which is called whole body opposite tension. We must remember that the top and bottom opposite tension is the most important of all. During zhan-zhuang, our posture is round or circular, but we should be able to feel that our strength can go straight out from any direction, and that all o ur hair is raised. Our body does not move but there appears that there is moveme nt all over our body. Ma e sure that our mind/intent is always present during zh an-zhuang. Reaction training This is the training of our nervous system so that it can react quic ly and figh t off our opponents. There are two inds of reaction training. If we have practiced zhan-zhuang and shi-li long enough and have developed t he whole body opposite tension, which means we feel there are strings connecting different parts of our whole body together, and we also feel our whole body its elf is li e a spring, we imagine that someone is pushing some part of our body. Upon thin ing of this, our mind tenses up a bit and our strength will be release d from the center of our body and out to counteract with the invading force. Aft er training li e this for some time, we can go further and imagine that some one is attac ing us so that our body can generate strength to deal with this situat ion. Our visualization should not show up in our body. We will just do it in our mind and let the mind generate strength, not our movement. Remember this saying : "The mind is strength, and mind and strength are almost indistinguishable". Imagine we are standing on a bamboo raft in the stormy sea. The raft is very unstable, roc ing from side to side and bac to front. If the front part of the raft is lifted up by water, our body weight should move slightly to the front. If the bac of the raft goes up, our weight should move to the bac . If the raft is moving from side to side, our body weight should follow. When we feel the ra ft is going up with the rising water, our body weight should sin . If it goes do wn, then our body weight should go up. We should use our mind to perform these t as s and our movements should be so small that they are hardly noticeable. Our m ovements should not be executed from our legs, but from the whole body. At the b eginning, you can follow a pattern: moving up, down, left, right, bac or front. Later on the movements should be at random. At the beginning, the raft can move slowly. Later on, it moves very fast with the stormy seas. This exercise will p rovide us with good training on our reaction and help us ma e quic adjustment t

o cope with different situations. Note When we train on zheng-li, we must pay attention to the following: When we practice zhan-zhuang, we imagine that we are embracing a tree not on ly with our arms, but with our chest, our belly, and our legs. The tree and ours elves become one. We imagine that we are pushing, pulling, lifting, plunging, sq ueezing or prising open the tree. But this should be done in our mind rather tha n from our body. It is mainly to train on the reaction of our nervous system, ma ing our body react properly. Gradually, when our mind is there, our strength wi ll be there. During training, we should not concentrate too much on our body, but should thin of our environment instead because thin ing of our body can ma e us tense. We should eep calm even if the mountain collapses in front of us. Our movement should be closely connected with our mind. Zheng-li does not me an only pulling bac . When we pull bac (e.g. a spring), there is another force (from the spring) that is going in opposite direction. The main point is to ma e the movement contain two opposite forces. During zheng-li practice, our mind an d our body should be in the state of getting ready for a race, and should be rea dy to move at any moment. Copyright Tu-Ky Lam All rights reserved 9 September 2007 Home Last modified

Power Discharge in Yiquan By Yao Cheng-Rong Translated by Tu-Ky Lam An overview of power discharge People who practice martial arts must have heard of the term "jing" which means strength, or power. When we hit an opponent or throw him away with force, we dis charge our power, which is called "Fa li" in Chinese. If we want to release powe r, we must ma e sure that we have already had the power at our disposal. In orde r to build up our power, we must train hard on zhan-zhuang (standing practice), shi li (testing of strength), and zou bu (stepping). Only after we have develope d strong internal strength through doing the three stages of Yiquan training can we start to learn how to discharge power because power discharge is an explosiv e expression of the three. It is not easy to discharge power. You need to wor hard on the basics first. In the above-mentioned foundation training, zhan-zhuang helps to develop "Hun yuan li" which is whole body force. Shi li intensifies the strength developed from z han-zhuang. It is a means to test our strength to see if it is still strong when we do a move. Shi li is, in effect, a bigger movement of zhan-zhuang. Zou bu, w hich means stepping, helps us ma e our whole body arms, torso and legs - move in unison when we step forwards or bac wards, and is very useful in fighting. Afte r we have spent considerable time in the basics, we can start to learn power dis charge. Power discharge and opposite tension

When we practice power discharge, we must now how to gather our strength first. To gather strength is to adjust our body so that our energy can gather together ready to be discharged. To achieve this, we should have total concentration dur ing standing practice, all our joints should remain bent all the time, and our e nergy should go inwards. When stepping forwards or bac wards, we have to pay att ention to these points as well. Also, our mind should be in control of the whole body, our posture should not collapse, and the force of the whole body should b e united so that it is ready to be used. Our mind and body should ma e us ready for defence or attac at any time. Power discharge is very important in all martial arts systems. We should be able to discharge power with our hands or any weapons. Power discharge requires that we should be able to release explosive force from small movements. Our power sh ould be released as though dynamite explodes. This force is called explosive for ce. When we practice power discharge, our whole body is under the guidance of our mi nd, which helps our body to produce more force with visualization. When our mind wants to release power, our bones, our tendons and our muscles will move with o ur mind to discharge strong force. Power discharge should be relaxed and natural so that power can be sent out of our body on to our opponent. Before we release power, we should use our mind to ma e our force move to opposi te direction first. This is called "Zhen-li" meaning opposite tension. For examp le, if we want to release power to the front, we should move one part of our bod y slightly bac wards first, and vice versa. If we want to discharge power upward s (or downwards), we move one part of our body slightly downwards (upwards) firs t. The same principle applies to discharging power to the left and the right. Wh en parts of our body go in opposite directions, they create tension/strength, wh ich will help us generate the force of the whole body moving towards our opponen t. The opposite tension stretches our joints and tendons, and can ma e us feel t hat we have a lot of strength. All our strength should come out from our center. We stri e hard only at the point of contact. After power discharge, we move bac to our normal posture again. Power discharge exercise

You start from "Hun yuan zhuang" or the "Embrace-a-Tree" standing posture, with your fingers clenched to ma e fists. Your palms still face your body, and your " tiger's mouths" face up. When discharging power, imagine that your opponent is s tri ing fast and hard at your front forearm, you counteract by ma ing your front forearm moving slightly downwards and then forwards with the bac forearm movin g in accordance. The distance between your fists is about two-fist's length. Whe n your fists move to almost above your front toes, and your palms are facing the ground. Now imagine that your fingertips have touched your opponent's chest or your target position. Also imagine that your torso is li e a slash hammer, your forearms (from hands to elbow) are li e big nails, but your upper arms and shoul ders do not exist. Your torso (li e a hammer) moves slightly bac wards and then quic ly forward to stri e at your elbows (li e nails). At this moment, you relea se your fists and your fingers tips are pointing upwards. Imagine that your stre ngth is going through your opponent's bac and afar. Once you have released powe r, you have to move bac quic ly, just li e you have touched a piece of burning iron. You move not only your hands bac , not also your internal energy. When pra cticing power discharge, you need to concentrate, and mobilize the force of your whole body, and you feel your fingers are li e ten upright spears. Things to remember When discharging power, your head moves quic ly forwards and upwards. You im agine that you are holding a thin metal plate between your teeth, and you want t o bite the plate into pieces. (But do not bite too hard.) Your tongue moves slig htly bac .

Your shoulders and elbows should extend left and right and your chest slight ly draws in. Use "shi sheng" or yelling technique and quic ly eject a small soun d to ma e qi sin to your lower abdomen. Before discharging power, the palm of your front foot should be slightly emp ty or relaxed. When releasing power, the palm of your front foot has to push har d into the ground and at the same time your bac leg pushes forwards. Dischargin g power is li e suddenly bra ing your car. Your head stri es forwards, your legs push hard and your hands release power. You release power at the point of conta ct and then stop immediately. When you move bac to your starting position, your nees move outwards and your bac hip sits slightly bac . Copyright Tu-Ky Lam All rights reserved 20 February 2007 Home Last modified

The Strength of Yiquan Single Push-Hands By Tu-Ky Lam Yiquan Push-hands originates from Taijiquan. But it has been modified so much th at it has its own characters and flavours. It is much more martial arts orientat ed and so more practical as it is useful in fighting and helps students move smo othly to free sparring. The posture in Yiquan single push-hands practice is exactly li e the posture of E mbrace-a-Tree , with each participant moving their right (or left) hand and right (or left) foot forwards. They ma e the bac of their right (or left) forearms in touch with that of the opponent, while their other hand, held in the Embrace-a-T ree posture, will protect them from an elbow stri e or prepare them to move forwa rd to push the opponent. In Yiquan single push-hands, we are allowed to use both hands to push. At the start of push-hands, one of the participants will rotate his arm to ma e his palm face diagonally to the ground and the chest of the opponent, and move h is body slightly forwards to push (towards the centreline of the chest). The oth er participant will try to eep his arm round, sits bac and turn right slightly to ward off the push (with his palm still facing himself as in the start-up pos ture). Then he will rotate his right arm (to ma e his palm face the opponent), m ove slightly forwards to push his opponent in the same manner as the first parti cipant, who will need to ward off. So the two will push each other in turn, and their forearms move in circles, which loo li e a Taiji pushhands. But Yiquan push-hands circles are very small, compared to those of Taijiquan (le ss than half the size). The main reason is that the participants can ma e their arms always stay close to and so protect their center-line. Another benefit is t hat the peng energy in the arms is very strong. (If you turn big circles, a lot of your peng energy will disperse, and so the strength in your arms will be greatly reduced.) Please note in Yiquan push-hands, we usually push our opponent s forearm(s) with o ur forearm(s), not with our palms, (for the purpose of controlling and destabili zing him before pushing him off balance) and when we push, our palms face the gr ound and the opponent (with our wrists extended). Pushing li e this can easily u proot our opponent as our force goes right down to the bottom of his feet, and h e can be destabilized. When this happens, he is under our control and mercy. There is a good reason for using our forearms to control our opponent because th ey are almost three times bigger than our hands and are closer to our torso and

so can produce much more power. (It is obvious that using our palms to push our opponent s forearms, which Taiji practitioners often do, is ineffective.) When we ward off, we will eep our arms round with the palms facing our chest li e in the Embrace-a-Tree posture. This practice gives us more peng energy to ward of f the opponent s push. We should never let our arms bend to smaller than 90 degree s, which is considered collapsed form , and can result in getting thrown off balanc e. There are several ways of using our forearms to control our opponents before pus hing them off balance. The simplest one is to use our right (or left) forearm to push downwards, forwards and from the side (left or right) on the opponent s fore arm. The three directional push will ma e him hard to ward off. If his arm colla pses, our palm(s) will immediately reach his chest and push him off balance (wit h one or both hands). If our opponent s forearm is very strong and we cannot push forwards, then we push bac wards, downwards and sideways with our right forearm. This move will unbala nce him, ma ing him stumble forwards. We can now easily move our hands forwards to push him off balance. If the opponent s forearm is high up and very strong, we will push his forearm up and then push bac wards and downwards, which will upset his balance. We can now push him off balance with (our palms) easily. Another commonly used technique is spinning. When we push forwards and find our opponent resist our push, we can then push sideways in a half circle to spin our opponent so that his bac is turned facing us. We can now push him off balance with both hands. The above are the attac ing techniques in Yiquan push-hands. To counter these, t he major defending technique is the one called Spiralling downwards , which is used to redirect the downward and forward push of the opponent. Following the move o f the opponent is also used though not as obvious as in Taijiquan. For example, when we are spinned, our arm(s) has to go loose. In short, in Yiquan push-hands, whoever has the stronger internal strength and better techniques will win the p ush-hands battle. Where does the strength of Yiquan practitioners come from? Firstly, from doing z han-zhuang (standing practice). The longer we stand, the stronger our internal s trength will be. Shi-li (testing of energy) is also important as the shi-li move ments are the moves used in push-hands. The two, together with zou-bu (stepping) are the foundation of Yiquan which we should spend a lot of time practicing. Secondly, we now how to use our forearms to good effect. For example, we use th e upper part of our forearm, which is bigger, to push at our opponent s lower fore arm, which is smaller. We bend our wrists in different directions to produce mor e power. We extend our wrists when pushing, and flex our wrists when warding off . There is a special of training to increase the strength in the arms, which is ca ll Not yielding an inch. Here when the opponent pushes hard, our arm will turn a s maller than usual circle and then push bac . Both participants will do the same. This is using force against force, which in this case is a means to help develo p strong arms. In short, Yiquan push-hands is executed differently from that of Taijiquan. With their small circles, Yiquan push-hands is fast and powerful compared to Taijiqu an. Copyright Tu-Ky Lam

All rights reserved 4 January 2008

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