Foundations class

Get one thing right

  • Figure out one thing and do it right. As an anchor point for further learning. Can’t say you are walking up stairs but never found the stairs.
  • Once you have the method, then you can repeat the same until the method exhausts you.

Fetching water

Sven

Bar and rod - T bar

  • T bar: rod is vertical, bar is horizontal. When rod rotates, the bar is not rotating. The bar is unable to rotate (along its axis).
  • Rear foot should have stretch to front elbow.
  • Front hand to rear shoulder is a bar.
  • Elbow to back foot is a rod.
  • Rod is not strong enough, the bar is wobbly.
  • Crookedness in the elbow accentuates the rotation size. Curvature of the bar determines the side of the circle.
  • Arm is too straight = stiff. Too crooked = hand movement. Curved, but not too much. Needs to be the proper mixture. Everything comes to 15 (lo shu magic square) – waist is 5 (circle / area).

Six sealing four closing

Raymond

Two key points

  • On the hand: middle finger has to lead on a line. Front hand has to go forward.
  • Both hands together, split on the same line.
  1. Has to have the line.
  2. Two hands finish 50/50. (More specifically, according to a proportion).
  • Static posture (finishing posture) - Stretched out / front finger to rear elbow must be in line. Movements must be proportional.

Rotating too much

  • Everyone is rotating too much. Rear shoulder rotating too much.

Tomek

Walls

  • Fingers touching a wall, rear elbow touching a wall. Shoulder needs to open up so that elbow stays on line. Otherwise the elbow starts to rotate (arc).

Sunk

  • For the shoulder, stretch the chest a little. This move is called “to sink”. The mistake is called up and down (everything going up and down). That little bit. Adjustment puts you in the sunk position. Need to add it to all your moves. Applies to every part of your body.

Positive circle

Fung Chern Hwei

Turn over

  • Number three (out with hand) did not turn over. Turn over means you go over the hill. Put other hand on chest, fingers on the armpit. Out with hand without this part following. Needs to fill up all of 2 dimensions.
  • In six sealing four closing: Where the front hand stops going back but the rear hand continues - this is a circle. It goes over a threshold.
  • Body has to go over (something has to be left behind).
  • One separate into two. Every move must express this.

Q&A

Sergey

  • When you go upstairs can we use this same principle in stretching the kua instead of the knee? This is using the kua, not training the kua.
  • (Missed taking notes on this, so this is from memory): Rotate the kua so that everything is on one leg. Place the other foot, top of the head doesn’t move. Rotate so that everything is on the other leg. Place the first leg, top of the head doesn’t move again.

Yuxin

  • Peak, going over demarcation is where the curve meets the straight line. Today the demarcation is the peak of the curve. Peak / demarcation / threshold / line - each word has an orientation. (It’s a general concept of having a boundary over which things change). Overall its a rule / restriction. Wu duo bu ji. Don’t go over, don’t be deficient.

Negative circle

Elbow pulls the hand

  • On the way in you are pulling the elbow, on the way out, lead with the hand. The elbow is leading upwards, the hand is leading downwards to create the circle.
  • Can’t coordinate the circle with the rotation. Rotation and the circle must be coordinated. They aren’t matching. The arm is like rope, when you pick up one end off the ground, the other end stays down until the rope pulls it up. It has to start coming in from the torso (not the hand). It has to start going out with the hand (not the torso).