Back
in 1979 after seeing Ernest Rothrock give a T'ai Chi demonstration at his Scranton school,I convinced Rothrock Laoshi to take me on as a t’ai chi student. I was
the only individual studying t’ai chi with him at that time. Class consisted of
a ½ hour lesson once a week.
To
begin there were the warm up exercises to reinforce what you are doing in the
form. Among them:
1.
Holding
the Play Guitar stance (where the hands imitate the position of holding a lute
or guitar. You have to slowly breath while holding the stance working towards 5
minutes right side front, then left side front. When done you will initially
pull a single strand of muscle in the front of your quads, until repetition
gets you used to it. As the minutes go
by you will start to wobble in your stance (holding the play guitar position
becomes more difficult, but it helps you coordinate your breathing with your
strengthening you.
2.
There
is a tai chi stepping practice, using a circular step you step out with your
heel, then when it touches the ground, slowly you lower the rest of your foot
till it is flat on the ground, only then do you begin to step forward with the
other foot. Everything is done with focused times breathing. And when as you
complete a row there is a 180 turn with the same foot procedure to continue
back the other way.
3.
Every
movement (even one of them ) is t’ai chi. You do one you are practicing t’ai
chi. Keeping that in mind, even the opening raising you hands, fingers staying
relaxed pointing to the ground on the way up, then when the hands descend the
fingers flatten on the way down, Then repeat the up and down movement many
times. As you raise your hands slowly inhale then as you lower your hands
slowly exhale. Again repeat over and over, each time trying to go slower and
slower, your breath being used slows too, slower and slower. This drill alone
gets you into true t’ai chi mode, and helps you slow down till you are slow
enough to work on the form.
Most
of my first class were just those drills.
Then he began teaching me the first movement. After that practice for a
week.
Second
class, after showing him how I was doing all of it (and getting corrections) he
then continued and showed me another posture.
That
was how it went for my two years.
The
Yang form we uses contains 3 sections which together use 6 rows of t’ai chi.
At
the end of each of the 3 sections there is the t’ai chi closure.
The
first section has 1 row.
The
second section had 2 rows.
The
third section has 3 rows.
But
each row, each section is a complete t’ai chi practice on its own.
When
I finally got to the end of the first row, only then did I learn I had to
relearn it 2 more times.
The
first time were just the basic motions of
the t’ai chi form.
The
second time I learned to do the form but keeping my eyes (and of course breathing)
on a moving focal point that caused me to rotate my head and neck as I did the
form. That of course caused me to lose my balance and I had to learn how to
internalize my balance as I performed the form.
The
third time I had to focus on a very specific breathing pattern, inhaling on
some movements, followed by exhaling on the following movements. That focus
took away use of your ears which are a component of balance. You had to further
learn to internalize your center of balance inside yourself, as focusing on the
breathing alongside the rolling head/eye movements took out the eyes for
balance too.
Only
then were you ready to learn the rest of the rows. As you had the principles of
eye movement and breathing to use with the new form movements.
After
the 3rd row, I was taught the t’ai chi straight sword form, it was 2 rows long and much of the 1st
row was similar to the first yang row.
The 3nd row was more difficult. It was the hardest thing I have ever
learned. You have to hold the sword in your hand, but drive its power from your
center and the eye focal poing in before the sword tip as you move through the
form.
After
that I learnt the final 3 rows.
Alongside
that there was the 2 person t’ai chi single push hands drill where each partner
was attempting to unbalance their partner. All in slow motion. For all push
hands drills if both partners are of equal level, they will continually
neutralize each other and the drill will form an energy pump for each.
When
Ernest began teaching me, as I was a new black belt in Isshinryu, his working
push hands drills with me must have been like pushing a wet bag of cement
around.
Then
there was the moving single hands pushing drill, the moving and turning single
push hands drill.
Then
the double push hands dril, the stepping double push hands drill and the
stepping and turning double push hands drill.
Those
½ hour classes kept getting complicated.
Then
about 12 years later I was visiting Ernest in Pittsburgh and he told me I had
only learned the first half of the sword form (which was a complete form in
itself. That weekend he taught me the rest of the form. It certainly became
more complicated.
And
at 15 years at a summer camp he took me into a field at 3am and had me do the
form (and this was after 15 years of work) suddenly stopping me in the middle
of the first row, Then he proceeded to show me everything I was doing was
wrong. He went into such detail (I felt as if my effort was worthless)
But
then he showed me how to correct everything, to reinforce what I had originally
been shown was correct. He gave me the procedure/template how to discover what
I was doing wrong and thus how to correct it.
He
told me his instructor did the same to him after 15 years.
And
it was valuable for it worked for karate too. Not only could I make my and my
students technique stronger, it would show me when an opponent making a mistake
would present a place to attack too. Ernest visited me in New Hampshire and
once observed my group outside on my driveway one very frosty Sunday morning.
I
went on to learn the modern Yang 24 competition form and a form for beginners
too. Later he taught me the Wu Teaching form. I had the obligatory 5 lessons to
get the whole thing. Not a joke there were literally 5 lessons. Of course he
gave me a video of his instructor doing the form ( which helped a great deal
between those lessons) and the Wu Teaching Form was related to my Yang form
which helped.
I
remember that initial lesson, once again I pulled a single strand of muscle in
my front quadrecps muscle of my left leg.
I
got what I got. But that Wu form made a great difference in al my t’ai chi palm
strikes too.
But
when those who were training with me chose to discontinue training and I was
again on my own, I discontinued the 24 and the Wu, keeping up my Yang for me.
I
realized I did not really need multiple t’ai chi form for my own study.
Years
later my disabilities hit me hard, I could no longer do the correct t’ai chi
stepping, It took me a year but eventually I worked how to do the Yang form
with less stepping, replacing that movement with swaying.
That
is a short overview about what I experienced.
The other stuff is far deeper.
No comments:
Post a Comment