The Spring ILC Workshop

Last weekend, I went to an ILC workshop given by Sam Chin at Stillness in Motion in Oakland. Sifu Chin visits every six months to give a workshop and this is the third one I've been to - though the first one I've been to since I started practicing ILC seriously.

The workshop started on Friday (5/18) with a short evening session (6-9) for ILC members. At the beginning of every session, Sifu gives a lecture that addresses the concepts that we're going to be working on. In previous workshops, I found it difficult to make sense of the lectures much less make the connections with the subsequent exercises but, this time, I got a more out of the lectures - as part of my training, I've been studying the ILC principles and doing so added the context I had been missing. Friday evening's exercises really focused on the basic strategies - from the inside, open out and from the outside, close in.  The main takeaway I had from that session was how to move your arm in the frontal plane to neutralize a force coming in on the perpendicular - if you are neutral to begin with, instead of fighting that force, you can neutralize it either by closing (i.e. in and down) or opening (i.e. out and up) in the two dimensions of movement in the frontal plane.

On Saturday the workshop started at 10:30 and was scheduled to end at 6:00 but ended up going on until 9:30.  The main focus of this session was how to use the 3 planes of movement - horizontal, frontal, and sagittal - in order to neutralize external forces. It was an extension of the concepts we had gone over on Friday but with more depth. The particular exercise that I recall was using the horizontal circles to neutralize a force coming from the south - you really have to get all of the body mechanics correct for it to be effective but it gives you a clear idea of the way the horizontal circles work.

Finally, Sunday also started at 10:30 and was scheduled to end at 6:00 but I didn't leave until 7:30 and other folks were still going on with spinning hands practice. On that day, we practiced qin na - joint locking.  We spent a lot of the time going over the 8 different grabs that lead into the actual joint locks.  These grabs follow the basic circle and occur at the primary points (north/south/east/west) - you can grab such that you absorb with the yin muscles (yin grab) or such that you project with the yang muscles (yang grab). Qin na is a more advanced topic and I didn't get as much out of it as I did the first two days but the advanced students seemed to get a lot out of it.

It was a long weekend and I was pretty exhausted afterwards but it was worthwhile.  Just seeing someone of Sifu Chin's skill is inspiring - the first workshop I went to, he spun hands with me for a short time and I felt like I was in an earthquake. My skills have improved since then but, when I touched hands with him again on Saturday, it was still like being in an earthquake - though I am now more aware of where the forces are coming from (even if I can't do anything about them).

The Art of Standing on One Leg

In recent weeks in my Taiji class, we've been going through the second section of the Slow Form, progressing from 'High Pat on Horse' through to 'Twin Mountain Peaks Smash Ears'. I hadn't really noticed before but this section contains a lot of sub-postures that involve standing on one leg - e.g. 'high pat on horse', 'separate foot' and a variety kicks.

As we went through 'high pat on horse', I found that I was still popping-up as I made the transition into the posture. The transition for this particular posture starts from 'single whip' (with your torso facing the south-west corner) and continues by shifting your weight onto the right leg as you twist to the left so that you square off (with your torso facing west). At that point, your left-leg is unweighted and resting lightly on the floor (or just above it) such that you're able to move it easily. As I was twisting left, I was bending at the waist to the right, essentially using my upper body as a counter-balance to force my left foot to come off the ground - this resulted in my left hip being higher than my right and my balance being off - i.e. 'popping-up'.

To do the transition without popping-up, what you need to do is, as you twist left, not to think about lifting the foot off the ground but rather focus on raising the left thigh as you sinking on top of the right leg. This change in focus helps keep the hips even - as you lift the left thigh, your lower back tucks under and the left foot slowly peels off of the ground from the heel to the toes - and, in the end, you are balanced because you're solidly centered over the right foot.

As we continued on in the sequence of postures, I noticed that this general principle applies to all of the kicks in the sequence. In particular, when you kick, you don't think about picking up the foot but rather letting the lower back tuck-under to raise the thigh, with the effect of the foot slowly coming off the ground from heel to toe.

I have subsequently realized that this same principle not only applies to kicking but also any time you have to pick up one leg in order to move it - e.g. ward left, ward right, brush thigh, circle foot to carry the hammer forward, single whip, and almost everything else. I am now working on recalibrating my balance to incorporate this refinement, which means I'm losing my balance all over the place in the form. Again.

Internal Arts Training

I've been visiting New York City for the week and took the opportunity to drop in at Internal Arts Training (IAT), an ILC school in Union Square run by Joshua Craig. I visited them once before when I was in NYC last fall and got a lot out of it, so I thought it would be worthwhile to stop by again.

It's always feels a bit awkward to me dropping in on a school where you really don't know the folks all that well but Joshua and the students were great to work with. I had intended to go for the first hour and maybe stay for part of the second but ended up staying all three hours. If you're ever in the New York metro area, I recommend attending a session at IAT - it will be well worth your time.

The evening I went, one of Sam Chin's advanced students - Jeff - was visiting class and he led us through the 15 basic exercises. He and Joshua worked with me during this time to help refine my form, focusing primarily on:

• Horizontal Plane - My horizontal circles don't stay horizontal - it's a problem Mike has pointed out to me previously and I've worked to improve them but they still aren't right. Joshua suggested placing my arms lightly on a flat surface (e.g. a table or counter top) and to get a feel for doing the circles. Once the circle starts feeling more natural, I can then practice with my arms about 1/2 an inch above that flat surface, which should allow me to develop a feel for the cycle such that I can transition to the basic exercises.
  
  
• The Loop - The transition from concave to convex has always been a bit of a mystery to me. After teaching the 15 basic exercises, Jeff worked with me to demonstrate how this transition works in the sagittal plane.  He explained it by starting with the arm above and the hand in a convex position.  As the arm pivots down, the hand moves into the neutral position at the point that the arm is parallel to the floor - this is where the problem arises - you need to transition from the neutral position to the arm moving down with the hand in a concave position but if you simply try pushing down, it doesn't work. What you need to do is press down while simultaneously pivoting around the point of contact and getting the hand into the convex position - this movement forms a loop. I still don't fully understand the technique but I did get a feel for it while working with Jeff and want to work with Mike and Keith to get a better understanding of it.

After the basic exercises, I did some spinning hands with Rich, one of the other students. We focused primarily on the first circle and particularly on the transitions from south to east (and south to west). Joshua came by frequently, initially explaining the move and subsequently refining it with us. While doing this exercise, I was struck by a number of things:

• Initial Engagement - At IAT they stress engaging your opponent from the initial moment of contact. I have a tendency to let my guard down at this initial point and my fellow students at TToPA are nice enough to me that I get away with it but it's a bad habit that I need to break.
  
  
• Long Stance - At IAT, they take a much wider stance then I typically practice in and the students stand much further apart from each other. This felt awkward at first but I got more used to it over time. The longer stance has the advantage of being more stable but it is harder to hold for long periods of time. Since the students stand further apart, I found myself leaning forward to engage them so I had to adjust my stance and alignment to stop.
  
  
• South-to-East/West - In the transition from South-to-East/West, you need to keep the energy focused on your opponent throughout the movement. Joshua described the transition in the following steps:
  
  
• equalize the point of contact - in the south position, this is on the yin side of your lower arm. He broke the contact point into four quadrants and said to make sure the energy was equal in all for.
• for the actual transition - when first learning - you can think of the inner two quadrants as a hinge the you're pivoting around, rather then spinning your arm around the contact point, you are closing the hinge.
• closing the hinge is a lot like using a screwdriver to tighten a screw - you can't just use rotational force you must also use some forward force otherwise the screwdriver slips out of the slot.

over time, this transition became smoother and it feels more effective then what I've been doing.

Finally, I worked with a different student - Jeffrey - and we continued to practice the first circle but spun a little more freely. Jeffrey was working with me on balancing the energy at both points of contact - basically training my listening skills. He was able to show me at the four basic points how to recognize where I had gaps and how to go about adjusting to re-balance the energy - we worked to together on this for about an hour and, again, it became smoother over the time we worked together and felt noticeably.
 

Refining the Wrecking Ball

Previously, I discussed the pendulum effect that comes about when turning the torso by opening and closing the hips. Since becoming aware of this effect, I've continued to recognize it in more places - most notably in circle palms, single whip, brush knee, and divert & draw - and I've been working to refine my use of it.

First, I'd like to clarify that I called this the 'wrecking ball' not because it's so devastating but rather because I had to completely relax my ab muscles in order to relax my hips enough so that they would open/close easily, without torquing my knees. And with my abs completely relaxed, my belly looks more like a wrecking ball then a pendulum.

Second, in subsequent discussions with Mike and Keith, both note that as the pendulum swings towards an extreme - i.e. a leg - you need to sink that leg down towards the center to absorb the energy/weight shift. If you don't, your weight floats upward and you are easily uprooted. Metaphorically speaking, while it's good fun, it's not really a good idea to go swinging from vine to vine ala Tarzan.

Thinking on this issue has led me to refine this move such that, as I turn from one leg towards the other, the leg I'm turning towards relaxes the hamstring muscle and sinks down into the center of my foot while the leg I'm turning away from lengthens to keep the center that foot connected to the ground. In both cases, of course, I have to focus on keeping the knees properly aligned and on keeping my hips at a level height. Even though I try to keep the leg movements subtle, it does involve more muscle movement - i.e. shortening/lengthening the hamstrings/quads - which makes the overall form more challenging and my legs are pretty sore these days.

On a final note - sometimes, when I'm working on this refinement, I find myself falling back to my original approach of trying to force the torso around with my legs and I get myself confused. When this happens, I find it best to start back with relaxing everything and just opening/closing the hip and then slowly adding on the sinking/extending (absorb/project).

Anniversary - 4 Years

Today marks 4 years since I took my first Taiji class. It's been a great time so far and I'd like to thank my instructors - Alex, Master Chen, Mike, Keith, and Walter - as well as my fellow students - Anna, Lincoln, Chao-Hsin, Daniel, Matt, Ken, Stefan, and Ed - for all of the help along the way.

What the Tuck

One of the primary tenets of both Taiji and ILC is that you need to keep your center of gravity (i.e. the dantian) on the line that connects the centers of your feet (i.e. the bubbling well) - doing this keeps your weight in the center of your feet and keeps you balanced. As you shift your weight from one foot to the other, the dantian moves along that line and, at the extremes, your weight is on one foot with the dantian over the bubbling well.

The issue of the tuck comes up as you sink down or rise up. This issue showed up once again in my last ILC class as we were going over one of the basic exercises - absorb/project. In this exercise, you stand in either the Horse stance or the Archer stance and, without shifting your weight, sink down (absorb) and then rise up (project).

Without getting too detailed, you absorb by relaxing the yin muscles - the back of the legs (i.e. hamstrings) and the front of the torso - which causes you to sink down. As you sink down you need to keep your body aligned such that your dantian is still on the line between the centers of your feet and this is where problems come up. It's easy to keep your weight in the center of your feet while letting your hips move backwards so that your butt is sticking out, in which case your dantian is no where near between the centers of your feet.

To keep the proper alignment, you need to tuck the tailbone, which simply means relaxing your lower back and allowing the hips to roll under the torso and is often described as the same move as 'sitting on a tall bench'. When I sit on a tall bench, I can feel the effect but it's been difficult for me to actually do this while absorbing in the Archer stance. Over time, I've come to realize that I've been trying to push my tailbone into place with my glutes, which actually tightens up the lower back and prevents me from doing the move properly. I've further realized that instead of pushing from behind I needed to pull from the front, essentially drawing my crotch upwards using my ab muscles, and that's done the trick. In ILC terms, I was trying to use the yang muscles (glutes) in a move that's based on the yin muscles (abs).

I still need to figure out when my dantian is actually on the center line, which requires a level of awareness that I don't have but it feels like it's a step in the right direction.

Getting Serious about I Liq Chuan

In mid-February, I added practicing the first five ILC basic exercises to my morning Taiji practice. Up to that point, my only ILC practice was in our Monday class and, while I had made some progress, much of my improvement in ILC had come via the work I had done in Taiji, both in the form and the four energy pattern (i.e. push hands).

The current training system for ILC is relatively new and still being refined and I had been hesitant to add the ILC basic exercises to my routine because I wasn't sure that I wanted to get up a half hour earlier every day to practice something that might not be of any benefit, particularly when I could spend that time practicing Taiji, which I knew would give me benefit. In the end, I decided to give it a try for a couple of months and then evaluate my progress and their utility.

The first couple of weeks of practice sessions were pretty rough. I really didn't know what I was doing so practice was both frustrating, because I couldn't do the exercises well, and boring, because it was just a repetition of the same thing over and over (and over ...).  When I started, I focused primarily on absorb/project and, over the last several weeks, have been working my way thorough the exercises of the horizontal plane.  Working through the exercises raised a lot of questions that Mike and Keith - and Sam's video - have helped me work through. I have improved, albeit slowly, and actually come to find practice more interesting.

At this point, I can't say that practicing the first five basic exercises has actually improved my push-hands or spinning-hands ability. Still, it was practicing these exercises that gave me the insights into the 'wrecking ball', which has noticeably improved my Taiji and, as I've started focusing on the frontal plane, I have gotten some insights on the four energy pattern. With this in mind, I have decided to continue my morning practice of the exercises and expand them over time to include the first ten basic exercises. In November, I plan to take the ILC student level 1 test at which point I will revisit the utility of daily ILC practice. For the curious, I have laid out a schedule of practice leading up to the test and added it as a page on this site.