Curb Their Enthusiasm

[Marsha Larts]

In the research and development of our school's Taiji Fast Wrestling set (groundfighting and submission floor-hugging), it was important to maintain the integrity of Taijiquan's principles and methods insofar as their congruency with traditional skills-development practices were concerned. That is, the non-contentious and cooperative, symbiotic nature of 2-person interaction as each person explores the energetics and internal aspects of their own development while providing honest and intelligent feedback for their partner as exploration and evolution progresses toward a practical, realistic understanding of how to fight on the ground, and most importantly, how to get back to standing against intelligent and realistic resistance. The fact that there aren't really any techniques or applications in taiji, as those things are regarded in the normal sense, there's no drilling or repetitive step-by-step method of the art's practical application - it arises organically as each person finds their own ways of navigating pressure much the same way that push-hands proper imparts that skill. That was the primary focus of the training anyway.

Our fighty groups attracted lots of young and eager participants who had lots of natural aggression and athleticism. How to curb all that enthusiasm while meeting the criteria outlined above? One of the most effective strategies in solving that problem was to incorporate different intermediary objects into the martial play that would remove the other person from the equation, allowing for that internal exploration of movement, Six Harmonies/intent, and Neutrality Principle.

Neutrality Principle is preserved via de-emphasizing the notion of contending with or competition against external forces/resistance/another person. While each of the exercises represent differing levels of physical interaction between trainees, the same idea of 'holding center' is being explored and applied in a very direct manner. The objectives are the same but the means of exploring them couldn't be further apart in terms of their formatting and physical engagement.


Long story longer, there a few exercises that make use of a small-ish heavybag or medicine ball. Here's a simple, fun exercise that uses a heavybag:

Each of the two people hug or grab a 30lb heavybag on opposite sides of the bag to start, and then they fight over it. No fixing grips or grabbing any part of the other person's body or their own body. They may swim, pummel or wedge in with their hands and arms against the other person's arms and torso. They may use legs against each other only on the ground. No spinning, throwing or other rotational force while standing. The only instruction is; "all you gotta do is separate the heavy bag from your partner who's trying to do the same thing to you - this is your heavybag and you need to protect it while securing it without hurting the other person"

In taiji, the idea of holding the center is one of the most important applications of skill while managing and navigating pressure in 2-person training. It's something that's first explored and developed in the solo training, and it's something that needs to be tested early and often in a beginner's training.

The trainees are working at holding the center just as they learned to do in the solo work, but are also beginning to play with the idea of moving through the center while someone else is preventing them from doing that by holding their own center - equilibrium

It's hilarious to watch and youngsters love it.

 

[windwalker099114 145]

The trainees are working at holding the center just as they learned to do in the solo work, but are also beginning to play with the idea of moving through the center while someone else is preventing them from doing that by holding their own center - equilibrium

Another way to look at it...make the other's "center" ones own...
In that way, there’s no “preventing.” They’re joined and connected, the one with the greater awareness of that connection can take advantage of it.

A good example of this can be seen in the work of Kyuzo Mifune (三船久蔵), often called “The God of Judo.”
In the video below, he doesn’t defend his space — he inhabits the connection, making the opponent’s center his own.

 

[Marsha Larts]

Another way to look at it...make the other's "center" ones own...
In that way, there’s no “preventing.” They’re joined and connected, the one with the greater awareness of that connection can take advantage of it.

A good example of this can be seen in the work of Kyuzo Mifune (三船久蔵), often called “The God of Judo.”
In the video below, he doesn’t defend his space — he inhabits the connection, making the opponent’s center his own.

Yes, sharing the center. That is the limit of my own understanding, and I only know how to explore and practice it in stillness - without moving. That in itself is interesting enough that I can't imagine it ever becoming a bore.

There's the beginner's stage of holding the center while not moving (solo), and then slowly developing the ability to move while holding center. That can take several months to a year or more to really get a grip on depending on an individual's intuition and time spent outside of training playing with the ideas.

Then there's moving through the center which can be trained and developed at the same time as learning to hold center as long as the 2-person work is properly structured as in the heavybag and medicine ball exercises (and others), and as long as one's understanding of holding center is their only focus as they work through the interactive stuff. That work involves lots of failure and small breakthroughs.

Sharing center is a whole different ball of hair and not something I know how to explore in the fighty formats. Not hard to really understand it and 'do' it after some time spent in 2-person training, though.

Moving center is another thing altogether and not something I know anything about. I only know of six people in the last 20 years who have/had that skill.

The exercise with the heavybag or ball is great in and of itself as a way to redirect aggression while developing some solid basic grappling and transitioning skills along with good cardio, endurance and strength.

 

[windwalker099114 145]

Sharing center is a whole different ball of hair and not something I know how to explore in the fighty formats. Not hard to really understand it and 'do' it after some time spent in 2-person training, though.

Moving center is another thing altogether and not something I know anything about. I only know of six people in the last 20 years who have/had that skill.

Reading your posts for a long time…

From what you’ve shared and the teachers you’ve trained with, your work is alreadyi nternal basd —
How it's expressed depends on context.

Understanding, in my view, comes through doing — which is why I sometimes ask for videos of what people describe, to better sense what they feel they’re doing (or not).

In most internal practices, the gauge of “understanding” is revealed through interaction — through what others feel when engaged with.

As shown here between a Chen Taiji practitioner and a well-known grappler:

“The Taiji guy loses the ability to control Marcelo when he loses tactile sensitivity ”

Interesting, because it shows a quality that should be developed through push hands — yet it’s expressed by someone who doesn't train it.

The commentator talks about level of the practitioner's, the grappler being well known and yet open to trying different formats.
the taiji guy unknown, also open to exploring different formats...both good examples of people engaging and exploring different methods, testing principles, at their core are very similar.

Fajin in use by the taiji guy, described as whipping movements by the commentator...

 

[Marsha Larts]

Reading your posts for a long time…

From what you’ve shared and the teachers you’ve trained with, your work is alreadyi nternal basd —
How it's expressed depends on context.

Understanding, in my view, comes through doing — which is why I sometimes ask for videos of what people describe, to better sense what they feel they’re doing (or not).

In most internal practices, the gauge of “understanding” is revealed through interaction — through what others feel when engaged with.

As shown here between a Chen Taiji practitioner and a well-known grappler:

Interesting, because it shows a quality that should be developed through push hands — yet it’s expressed by someone who doesn't train it.

The commentator talks about level of the practitioner's, the grappler being well known and yet open to trying different formats.
the taiji guy unknown, also open to exploring different formats...both good examples of people engaging and exploring different methods, testing principles, at their core are very similar.

Fajin in use by the taiji guy, described as whipping movements by the commentator...

I'm glad you brought up fajin and posted the video. Fajin and Fali are what I was wanting to address next, but the particular exercises which are geared toward their development are fairly specialized in their formatting and wouldn't appear, at first, to be germane to this sub-forum. Totally germane to the bigger picture of learning to apply taiji boxing to groundfighting.

I started this thread after reading some of the comments in the Push hands and knife fighting thread because there seems to be a misconception of what push hands is addressing and how it's structured. As mentioned in that thread, there's as much going on internally with one's awareness being as equally focused on 'listening' to their own applied force/energy/jin as the other person's - what's going on outside of the practitioner isn't as important as what's going on inside in terms of how they respond to the action as it plays out.

Anyway, the intermediary object in the exploration and development of fajin and fali involves a six-foot length of 3/4" diameter rope that serves as a gauge and go-between which allows each of the 2 people to fully express their fali and fajin without the risk of injuring their partner while allowing their partner to feel its full effect.


Each person stands facing their partner with one of their feet positioned in line with their partner's centerline - in this example, they both have their right foot pointing between the feet of their partner and the feet are about shoulder-width. Their hands are likewise positioned and each person's right palm is facing up, their left palm facing down - kinda like holding a shovel handle. Their right hands are positioned in the center of each other's midline. Each person holds their hands about shoulder-width apart. In this case, their right hands are the inside hands and their left hands are the outside hands. Standing up straight and suspended from the crown, shoulders and elbows sunk with the weight focused downward between the hips.

One at a time, they each take turns working a basic fali pattern toward the outside. They begin by shifting their weight onto the inside leg and lifting the left/outside foot about six inches off the floor by 'pulling', with intent, the outside foot with the inside/right shoulder. In doing so, the awareness of weight is focused on the bottom of the left/outside foot and is thrown (not pushed) into the floor from the inside/right shoulder - kinda like shiko. As the weight transfers, they simultaneously 'whip' (first with the elbows and then the hands) the rope to the outside. A soft but stable grip is maintained on the rope so that there's no sliding of the hands as the whip is applied. A tight gripping of the rope is to be expected in the beginning, but as everything begins to connect and unify, the grip will become lighter and more relaxed - kinda like soft gripping on an opponent's gi.

The rope is kept 'taught' between the hands at all times, again, with a soft yet stable grip. The exercise is done both left and right for symmetry's sake, and to figure out which side is more natural for each individual.



There are a number of different exercises and games that can be applied to building a taiji body using the rope while the trainees fight over it starting from standing and from the knees. Starting with different gripping configurations, the games include the ideas of pulling, pushing, wrapping, encircling and other types of control.

 

[Marsha Larts]

Forget to include a couple of important details in the description of the basic 'whip' exercise having to do with fajin...

The palms are reversed in addition to switching sides for a total of 4 variations, so that the inside palms are facing down and the outside palms are facing up. In switching palm orientation, the 'whip' is kinda like flicking or snapping the end of a wet towel or rag at a target with the loose end of the rope that each person has hanging free of their outside hand - as much as the six feet of rope allows.