I was aware of the use of the word CHI since my Temple University days. It was a large part of the independent study I made on Taoism (Daoism) back then, in fact my interest in T’ai Chi began then.
It
was in the fall of 1979, a new Isshinryu black belt and youth instructor at the
Scranton Boys Club, that I discovered Ernest Rothrock was teaching T’ai Chi in
his new Scranton Shaolin School.
Then he began ½
hour private classes with me each week for the following two years. They
consisted of basic drills, the 6 sections of the Yang Long Fist T’ai Chi Chaun
form, the method of breathing, a variety of push hands drills and Yang T’ai Chi
Sword.
But at no time
did he ever discuss CHI with me at any time over
our years together. Our discussions were wide ranging, especially after I began
studying various Chinese forms. Yet the subject of CHI never came up.
I had probably
been studying T’ai Chi for about 3 or 4 months when Charlie Murray returned to
Scranton on a vacation with to visit his wife’s family and almost as soon as he
got there he came to visit with me.
[Note on those visits back to Scranton he never had much
free time over the years. So out time together was always very short, mere
fractions of time so we always made the most of them.]
So as we talked
in my front room, our discussion got around to my T’ai Chi studies. Then he asked to see what I knew. It was
only a portion of the first row of my Yang form. I stood and began the portion
of the form I knew.
Close to the
beginning there is a section of where the hands/arms separate and while flowing
in opposite directions. When I got through that section Charles stopped me. He
had an interesting look on his face. He asked “Victor, could you do that form
again for me.”
And I began
again and once more he stopped me at the same section of the form when I
completed it.
Then he said,
“Victor that was so weird. For each time you did that section of the form it
felt like a wave of energy swept across me.”
I accepted what
he said but had no idea what I had done to do that.
Charles began
discussions how at his Florida AF Base he had been working on he Chinkuchi
training he had been shown by Shinso Shimabuku
when he was on Okinawa. While he had discussed this with me in detail, he never
had the time to begin that training with me after I became a black belt.
He wondered if
his Chinkuchi training had increased his sensitivity to my motions.
Sadly we never
continued that discussion, for his wife called and he had to go.
We never got
around to discussing that later too.
So my lessons
continued for 2 years. Finally I completed the form and then I continued to
practice it is his schools.
One day he asked
me if I wanted to practice T’ai Chi with him down at the Wilkes-Barre school on
New Years Day. We would be alone in that practice.
I agreed than on
New Years Day I traveled down to his school for that practice.
He explained for
our practice, we would first focus on our initial slowing down breathing
exercises. Standing in Play Guitar, the Stepping Drill, etc. The idea to slow
ourselves down to enter the Yang form.
We did so then
together, myself behind him, we began the Yang Long Fist T’ai Chi form. As we
began to perform the form I remember it was the only time we really did the
whole form together. Then as we began to move from the 1st row to
the 2nd row suddenly a strange sensation came over me. It felt like
waves of energy were bouncing off the walls and over us as we continued.
We did not
discuss it, I just know what I experienced that day.
Whatever it was
I do not know, perhaps I was sensitized to experience the CHI he used in his
form. Perhaps it was something else.
Afterwards I
continued my practice almost daily and at his Scranton and Wilkes-Barre school.
Then he relocated to his new school in Pittsburgh. I continued to perform my form. Occasionally visited him in
Pittsburgh and practiced out there. But it was more the other Chinese forms we
worked on.
Then I moved to
Derry NH, and my practice was on my own, and I did practice. I began a youth
program at the Derry Boys and Girls Club almost immediately. After about 6
months I expanded my program to include adults separately. A number of years
later, my small adult program was chugging along.
Adult classes
were Tuesday after the Youth class, and Saturday morning at the Club early in
the day. When the adults showed up they often saw me practicing my T’ai Chi.
But T’ai Chi was never part of my Isshinryu program.
A few of them
approached me about could they study T’ai Chi. I thought about it for a while
and finally hit on a solution. I informed them I only had so much free time. I
was teaching karate on Tuesday evening, Thursday Evening and Saturday morning.
The only time I really could be was to offer a Sunday morning class at 8am on
my drive way outside my house. The class would be outside, but then in China
Tai Chi was practiced by groups outside all year long, In all seasons Spring,
Summer, Fall and Winter and they had hotter summers and colder winters. I was
not going to do less that what they did in China.
I am sure they
felt I was crazy but they agreed and my T’ai Chi program began.
I had a surgeon
join one of those early classes on a snowy Janyary. When he got out of his car
he was worried about his hands getting cold. I just told him we have a special
practice to save his hands, ii was called. “We use gloves when it is cold.
That group
lasted over 15 years. Some members came and went but most stayed the course.
At times Ernest
would visit for a weekend. Offer a kung fu clinic for my karate students. One
very cold Sunday he stayed warm in my kitchen and watched my group out my
window, only to come out at the end of the class and offer suggestions. He only
taught t’ai chi ih his schools.
At times he
shared the Yang 24 at one clinic, but as
my Yang was a version of the 108 it felt to short for me and I did not keep it
up.
Then at a summer
camp Ernest took me into a field at the
campground at 3 am. He had me perform my Yang form for him. Suddenly in the first
row he had me stop, and proceeded to tear apart what seemed like hundreds of
mistakes I was making. I remember feeling so small and after 15 years of work.
Then
he proceeded to explain what I was doing wrong, explaining how incorrect energy
point alignment was the cause. He then
lightly touched my chest and I fell over.
Next he showed me how to correct every problem, by aligning my energy
points correctly. Nothing magic, just small errors that were creating openings
in my technique. In effect showing why I was originally shown the correct way
to do the form.
It was real eye
opening. Something beyond value.
He explained his original instructor had done the same thing to him.
I went home and
worked out what it meant. It was showing how to make my technique stronger and
at the same time how to see openings my opponent created in his technique.
I
worked out the same thing applied to karate. So I went into the next class and
had Young Lee do a very good Seisan kata. Then as he did so had him stop seeing
an incorrect alignment in his form. And lightly I touched that point, and he
was off balanced as to fall. A great realization that worked in each art.
No more at
tournaments if I had to judge someone doing a form that I did not know, was I
handicapped by lack of knowledge of what they were doing. If I observed
technique misalignment I had a way to consider what score to give.
The
stance or technique did not matter. It worked for any technique, showed flaws
in the power they developed, as well as showing where they were open to attack.
Assuming they were misaligned.
Another time he
came and began instruction on the Wu T’ai Chi Teaching form (a Wu variation of
the Yang 108. I remember as he was teaching me the moves once again I pulled a
single strand of muscle in my quadriceps muscle just as I had when first I
studied Yang. Between his visits to me, and my visits to him he gave me 5
lessons covering the entire form. He also gave me a video of Shum demonstrating
the entire form (which was extremely helpful). Yep 5 sessions, it did help that
the form was close to the Yang I knew.
Ernie focused on
the Wu Fast form, which used smaller circles in its movements (my personal
observation).
Then for years I
was practicing the Yang and the Wu forms, though I only taught my group the
Yang. One benefit from that study is that I really finally got my palm right in
both forms from that practice.
Unfortunately
one of my most dedicated t’ai chi students fell disabled, among those
disabilities was he could no longer stand erect without falling.
So I began to
make visits to him on Sundays and showed him how we could practice his t’ai chi
still. Unfortunately in about a year or so is time was up, but we kept doing
t’ai chi until his end.
His death, and
the death of Sherman Harrill occurred about a month apart. Most of my students
re-evaluated what most important to their own lives and decided to end their
karate and t’ai chi training. For a year there were two in my karate group
remaining and for t’ai chi I was again alone.
As time passed I
worked out that I had been doing Yang longer and discontinued my Wu practice.
Even though I had gained lasting benefits from the Wu study. Most importantly I realized my t’ai chi palm. Each Sunday morning sunny or snowy, -20f to
+115f I continued my practice alone. I never again had t’ai chi students’
I could never
give my t’ai chi up.
Then a double
whammy, I found out I had Type 2 diabetes and then Colon Cancer.
Of course not
following my doctors orders I immediately took a long trip.
I drove down to
Hazleton to have lunch with Tristan Sutrisno and Charlie Murray. Then I drove
across Pennsylvania to spend a weekend with Ernest Rothrock, Next I drove to
West Virginia to visit Tom Lewis. Finally I drove to Red Lion to visit my
family then returned home to Derry. Continually I a drove I practiced my tai
chi as best I could.
I began taking
daily walks, build them to longer and longer walks, I changed what I ate. Then
Cancer surgery followed.And after years of walking and changed eating (and of course continual karate and t’ai chi
practice, things got better. My cancer went into remission as did my type 2
diabetes.
But new
challenges awaited me. An entire series of disabilities began, I was much
weaker, I became much unstable. The muscle weakness included my facial muscles
making much clear speech impossible. It vastly affected what karate I could do,
but I had developed instructors who took over much of my programs. I oversaw
what was happening, even though I could do less and less.
The greatest
horror is that I could no longer do my T’ai Chi. For one thing the instability
made my t’ai chi walking mostly impossible.
It took me a
year to work out what I could actually do with my T’ai Chi. Instead of most of
the walking movement I started to use a form of t’ai chi swaying to perform my
form. There were other adoptions too, but I retained a way to continue my t’ai
chi practice.
Then moving to Arizona
meant more alone time, I continued my walking, practice what karate katas I could
and of course my T’ai Chi.
Personally my journey
is far from over, but what is Chi remains a question for me.
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