Notes on Fajin…

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):

-          relaxation/looseness is the foundation of fajin

-          absolute softness  leads to absolute power/strength and is the way to achieve complete release

-          get completely relaxed – rid of any stiff energy released en route

-          all muscles and joints relaxed, stretched and sunk

-          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

-          jin must start from both feet -  if not from rooting  it’s the same as water with no source

-          if there is no resistance force (rebounding energy) from the floor then energy cannot go through and cannot form a complete system

-          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

 

-          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

 

3.       Approach training in a step-by-step manner with the idea of working  from the “least to most”

-      prolonged practice leads to ease of movement 

-      movement that is under one’s own self control

The explosive fajin of GM Chen XiaoxingAdd caption