Chen Xiaoxing – “Know the rules, but be flexible in their application”!

Chen Xiaoxing - "The direction depends upon where your opponent is"

During one session at GM Chen Xiaoxing's recent seminar in Warsaw somebody asked him about the exact direction of the fist in the "Punch to the Ground’ posture. Chen Xiaoxing shook his head and answered "mei guanxi" ( "it's not important").  The group consisted of students who have completed the form and with several years’ experience.  He explained that the direction depends on where your opponent is.  What is important is to be structurally correct, to be rooted, to be able to move in complete unison and to be able to adapt to a changing situation. These are the skills that should be developed.  Variations of this question come up frequently - what is the EXACT position of the hand, the foot, etc.  As students are more frequently exposed to different teachers and to different ways of doing the same form, their confidence and certainty are often being replaced with confusion and uncertainty. New students obviously need a clear map when they are first learning the form, but over time the form should act as a template rather than a shackle. Instead of focusing on the differences, focus on the things that are the same - Is the structure correct and the energy unbroken? Are we alternating opening and closing correctly? And with no unnecessary or additional movements to telegraph the intention?

Poland 2014

The key point of this seminar is:  learn the rules, but be flexible in their application. Chen Xiaoxing illustrated this point with a joke about two groups of soldiers - one Japanese, the other Chinese. Both were ordered to march. After a time the path was blocked by a river where, without a moment’s hesitation, the Japanese soldiers marched straight into the river and were washed away and drowned.  The Chinese soldiers, however, on arriving at the river, halted but continued marching on the spot. The moral of the story - you must obey the rules, but you must also have the presence of mind to change according to the situation in front of you.

Brain mapping research - subject Chen Xiaoxing

In July this year I reported on the ongoing brain mapping research being conducted by Polish scientists from Biomed Neurtechnology. On that occasion Chen Ziqiang was the subject. This time the researcher was happy to find  his father Chen Xiaoxing in town. The results have not been analysed yet, but the preliminary impressions of researcher Greg Wlodarczyk were very interesting. During the first measurement stage when Chen Xiaoxing was asked to sit with his eyes open and keep his mind free (i.e. not in any kind of quiet or meditative state), the frequency of his normal brain waves appeared to be more like those of a person in his 30s.  Wlodarczyk explained that a person in his early 60s would typically show much less frequency. During the final stage Chen Xiaoxing was asked to close his eyes and to consciously quieten his mind.  Like the test with his son there was an obvious and strong connection between the frontal and rear parts of the brain. We'll include a full report of the findings from both Chen Xiaoxing and Chen Ziqiang in our next book (yes, it’s a plug!!!).