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| Chenjiagou street art... |
I came across an old notebook filled
over the course of a training camp in China’s Hebei province during one of our early trips to China in the 1990s . The camp lasted ten days with training focused on
Xinjia Yilu and Tuishou. One evening a number of coaches gave presentations on different aspects of Chen Taijiquan
that included contest push hands, the health benefits of Taijiquan, TCM and Taijiquan
and understanding Taiji philosophy and culture. One young Chinese coach gave a
short presentation of his research into Chen Taijiquan’s fajin method. Below are some notes I took during his talk.
“If you want powerful fajin the most important thing is the
development of Chen Taijiquan’s “shaking elastic force””
There are three keys to developing fajin:
1.
Practise with the aim of getting rid of stiff
energy (fang song):
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relaxation/looseness is the foundation of fajin
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absolute softness leads to absolute power/strength and is the
way to achieve complete release
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get completely relaxed – rid of any stiff energy
released en route
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all muscles and joints relaxed, stretched and
sunk
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limiting/resisting muscle that prevents energy
release should be reduced
-
by shortening the resistance of muscles speed
and power is greatly increased
2.
Energy route is transmitted from feet – legs – waist - extremities - this is a fundamental requirement
-
Intent and consciousness most important in fajin
– use spirit and consciousness to manage qi and qi to manage body. This cannot
be over-emphasised – to get to a high level you must rely on intent
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jin must start from both feet - if not from rooting it’s the same as water with no source
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if there is no resistance force (rebounding
energy) from the floor then energy cannot go through and cannot form a complete
system
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waist and dang must be coordinated in a rapid
shaking/thrusting movement leading to elastic force
-
aim is to concentrate all the body’s energy onto
a single point
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penetrating force - energy is focused on the
contact point and when releasing energy maximum power should be concentrated at
the end point before instantly relaxing
-
if you have the energy and thrust without a
focused contact/end point it is useless so the target point must be exact.
-
Shaking energy ceases at the point of contact –
shaking the body without this focused endpoint is worthless nonsense!
To summarise:
i.
energy starts from both feet
ii.
waist and hips shake and spiral
iii.
must have an exact target point and direct
energy to it
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prolonged practice leads to ease of
movement
-
movement that is under one’s own self control
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| The explosive fajin of GM Chen XiaoxingAdd caption |
