It's always a pleasure to return to Poland. As usual Chen Ziqiang's week long series of workshops was ably hosted by Marek Balinski's Chen Taijiquan Academie in the suburbs of Warsaw. A recurring pointer over the different sessions was the need to be patient and to do the right thing. Haste, impatience and the urge to do it quickly- be it the handforms, weapons or push hands - only lead to poor realisation. Ultimately this kind of short-cut thinking kills any chance of developing authentic skill. Conversely, careful repetitive practice allows one to systematically train out any mistakes of structure or timing and coordination. To quote Chen Ziqiang, "Be patient. Do it right. If you do the right things, the right things happen".
We reviewed the spear form over the course of two days going deeper into the essential points of the weapon. Despite it being an experienced group that knew the choreography well, he spent half of the first day working on three core basic drills which combined, trained the "martial flower" pattern. The martial flower synchronises fast and agile footwork with movements of the spear, "as if there were an axle turning two wheels closely on either side of the body". As mentioned in a previous post, people often incorrectly do this movement by turning the spear in front of their body as if paddling a canoe.
Students often get impatient during this kind of basic practice, but that is what gets results. Commenting on one over-zealous student moving furiously up and down the room: "Look at him spinning the spear around as if he knows what he's doing". Superficially the hand movements were OK, but the footwork was completely uncoordinated,
stepping back as if both feet were fixed on tramlines. Chen Ziqiang recalled how he was instructed to train the martial flower for two years before being allowed to begin learning the spear form. And to train the basics of the sabre for five years before learning the form. Training in this way ensured that the essential characteristics became default settings over which it was easy to learn the form correctly. Obviously this time scale might not be practical or possible for a middle-aged practitioner who enjoys Taijiquan as a hobby and trains a couple times a week. However, it does point to the importance of careful mindful practice and the fact that doing it correctly is far more important than doing it quickly.
On a similar theme, during push hands training emphasis was placed on fixing the movement track until it is seamless. For instance, repeatedly training a single qinna with the idea of adding speed in the future when it can be applied instinctively without excessive or telegraphed movement. Going through the dingbu drill, carefully paying attention to the moments when you or your opponent were vulnerable to attack. Being mindful of changes in weight and the points where the opponent became double weighted and unable to take their foot off the ground.
In the beginning learners are naturally anxious to get everything, but at some point there's a need to realise that the best results only come if training is approached in a particular way. Above simply training hard (which is a given), what's needed is the mental capacity to take a step back and undoing mistakes. Adopting a state of relaxed mindfulness, in a sense, not trying too hard and not fixating on any one particular aspect. Many people may misinterpret this as advocating some kind of easygoing less than optimal approach. This is a serious misunderstanding. Relaxed in this sense doesn't mean just sloppily doing what you want, but building slowly from fundamentals and adding to them layer by layer - no matter how long it takes...
We reviewed the spear form over the course of two days going deeper into the essential points of the weapon. Despite it being an experienced group that knew the choreography well, he spent half of the first day working on three core basic drills which combined, trained the "martial flower" pattern. The martial flower synchronises fast and agile footwork with movements of the spear, "as if there were an axle turning two wheels closely on either side of the body". As mentioned in a previous post, people often incorrectly do this movement by turning the spear in front of their body as if paddling a canoe.
Students often get impatient during this kind of basic practice, but that is what gets results. Commenting on one over-zealous student moving furiously up and down the room: "Look at him spinning the spear around as if he knows what he's doing". Superficially the hand movements were OK, but the footwork was completely uncoordinated,
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| Qinna training... |
On a similar theme, during push hands training emphasis was placed on fixing the movement track until it is seamless. For instance, repeatedly training a single qinna with the idea of adding speed in the future when it can be applied instinctively without excessive or telegraphed movement. Going through the dingbu drill, carefully paying attention to the moments when you or your opponent were vulnerable to attack. Being mindful of changes in weight and the points where the opponent became double weighted and unable to take their foot off the ground.
In the beginning learners are naturally anxious to get everything, but at some point there's a need to realise that the best results only come if training is approached in a particular way. Above simply training hard (which is a given), what's needed is the mental capacity to take a step back and undoing mistakes. Adopting a state of relaxed mindfulness, in a sense, not trying too hard and not fixating on any one particular aspect. Many people may misinterpret this as advocating some kind of easygoing less than optimal approach. This is a serious misunderstanding. Relaxed in this sense doesn't mean just sloppily doing what you want, but building slowly from fundamentals and adding to them layer by layer - no matter how long it takes...
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| Warasw spear group |
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