The five most important skills for beginners
Article written by Master Wang Hai Jun
Many people spend many years studying Taijiquan but for most of them learning Taijiquan skills is slow. This is likely due to insufficient practice, and a significant element is the lack of understanding of the basic skills that a beginner needs to learn. It is not possible to start learning and training Taijiquan from its highest level. Using conventional learning as an analogy: it would be like starting at the level of a PhD. In reality, first there is elementary school, then middle and high school, after university study, etc. This also applies to Taijiquan. Without a good physical and mental understanding of the basic skills that make up the foundation of Taijiquan, you will not be able to develop the skills to higher levels. This is not magic, but the result of constant and adequate training performed correctly.
When asked what are the five skills that I consider most important for a beginner student in Taijiquan, I would categorize them as:
Fang Song - Relieve tensions in the body to relax the joints
Peng Jin - Outward support force, the basic skill of Taijiquan
Ding Jin - Straight and upright
Chen - Rooting
Chan Si Jin - The skill of "wrapping the silk thread"
These five basic skills should be considered the first steps in learning Taijiquan. If these basic skills were not internalized along with the changes that result from this process, a student would be left out of true Taijiquan. They are learned through exercise and through the process of understanding and training the basic sequence of Taijiquan.
All these concepts are difficult to describe in words. In a recent article in the 2010 summer edition of this magazine I covered the traditional Five Stages of Learning Chen Style Taijiquan. At the request of my students, in this three-part article, I have provided some beginner's knowledge on what to focus on to make progress in Taijiquan. This article introduces these concepts and takes a closer look at the first of them. The second article deals with the second and third skills and the final article deals with the fourth and fifth and offers a final summary.
These elementary skills are complementary to each other and are gradually acquired with persevering exercise. Their understanding is not immediate. In the beginning, with the help of the teacher, the mind understands a part of the concept. Later, through a considerable amount of practice, the body also comes to understanding, and only after much more practice does it become part of the person. It is not the light switch that is on or off, however part of learning these skills may seem to go this way. Only when the body understands at a certain level can the mind understand what is beyond that level. As stated by many teachers, it is not possible to jump directly to total understanding. It is not a mental trick, or something to be understood with the intellect or with a high level of intelligence. It is a process that has many possible detours and no shortcuts.
These five basic skills are not learned one after the other. The student does not fully understand fang song before starting to understand peng jin , but rather they are learned as a whole, the progress of one skill aids the progress of another. You learn a little here and a little there. Perseverance in exercise provides the opportunity to progress. The more you practice these skills, the more progress you get.
Initially I had thought of positioning as before, the peng jin skill as it is the central one of Taijiquan. However, without fang song , it is not possible to develop peng jin so I will start talking about fang song.
1. Fang Song - Release body tension
The first of these skills is fang song, sometimes abbreviated song. Song is frequently translated as "relaxation". While this is true, it does not actually fully describe the process. The joints must be free, as a result other parts of the body have to work hard, especially the legs. Releasing joint tension is probably a better translation. The result should not be that of a body similar to a bowl of cooked spaghetti: rather it should be like a solid piece of rubber, strong but not rigid. The term fang has two meanings: The first implies something that remains under control, in connection with both the mind and the body (i.e., in this case, not being limp). The second is to drop something, away from you. The combination of these two meanings guarantees the necessary understanding.
ie and wrists.
For most people who study Taijiquan, s ong appears early in their studies. Unfortunately, most adults (and many children) are more rigid than they can realize. We do not understand where we are stiff, nor the degree of stiffness we normally maintain in the joints. In Taijiquan, song represents the requirement for loosening the joints, releasing their tension, getting used to holding them without stiffness, and then moving smoothly shoulders and hips, elbows and knees, spine, and especially pelvis, ankles and wrists.
When a joint is free, it can pivot or turn without hindrance or resistance. This is the skill required by Taijiquan. The classic Taijiquan texts say that even the slightest pressure of a feather or fly causes movement, just like a finely balanced and oiled ball bearing, where even the slightest touch causes it to rotate.
How do we know when a joint is stiff? Well, at first we can't, but as a learning tool it is probably more effective to say that as an adult you are always rigid, usually more than you perceive. As unpleasant as this is, it is a good place to start. A good teacher helps the student to observe where his hardness lies. The student needs to have repeatedly shown where a joint is stiff. This is because the student does not know where the hardness is or how to loosen it. Its habit is to move with its rigidity. With practice, the joints begin to loosen, and a deeper and more structural hardness becomes evident. As the shoulders relax, the arms begin to feel heavier. As soon as the hips loosen, the legs work harder. Therefore, for starters, the heaviness in the arms and hard working legs are good clues that fang song is developing.
The hardness is difficult to recognize, but the effects of it are simple to observe when the joints stiffen and lift. As soon as they become loose, the body, especially the hips and shoulders, sink downwards. It is easy for a beginner to confuse bending the knees with relaxing the hips ( song kua ), and lowering the arms with relaxing the shoulders. One of the many reasons why Taijiquan is called an oral art is that it needs a teacher who knows how to show the way. Most people need to have shown a technique many times before they can understand it mentally, and after being corrected repeatedly before they can understand it with the body. A lot of practice is needed in this process for this path to take hold and make sense. Many people assimilate the basic idea on a mental level but do not practice enough to realize it with the body. There is a method or order of progression. The sequences of Taijiquan are the structure on which the method is based. Through the sequences, each posture offers an opportunity to understand the various levels of body fluency.
Around each joint is the muscle structure. Every joint that rotates, we can say, has an upper, a lower, a rear and an anterior part. Each part needs to be educated to let go before the joint releases properly. For example, we observe fang song in the hips (this process, called song kua - makes the hips free.) In the hips, usually the most noticeable stiffness is in the upper part. As soon as this melts it is the frontal one that is highlighted and can be observed. After that, the attention can be turned to the back of the hip and finally to the lower part. It is necessary to show many times where to relax until the student captures the sense, then practice until the relaxation occurs all over the body without having to pay attention to it.
After gaining this skill in one part, the mind can be used to focus on the next area of hardness. Each student is a little different but the process is the same.
As soon as each part of the joints is loosened, other parts of the body take on the task of supporting it. In the beginning, this is mainly felt in the legs. Loosening the hips just a little adds an extra task to the thighs. Practicing like this makes your legs stronger. When they are strengthened and accustomed to this additional load, a further condition of looseness can follow. There is a saying, to achieve Taiji gong fu , go to bed with tired legs and get up in the morning with tired legs. In other words, to loosen your hips, you have to work your legs so hard that even the next morning they are still tired.
Once the joints are loosened, they will be free to rotate appropriately and to transmit rotation to and from other parts of the body. This is a basic requirement of Taijiquan. Any impediment in the free rotation of the joints involves a reduction in the skills of Taijiquan. The more the joints are not free to rotate, and the greater the resistance in each joint, the less the capabilities of Taijiquan manifest themselves. The more the joints are able to rotate freely, and the lower the resistance of each joint, the more evident will be the ability in Taijiquan.
In the first part of this article, published in the 2010 summer edition, I discussed the first of the five most important Taijiquan skills for beginners, fang song . Now I will discuss the second and third most important beginner skills: peng jin and ding jin .
It is worth repeating that these are difficult concepts to put into words. It is difficult to make them understand. It is difficult to grasp the skill that concerns them. They must be shown. The student must be led to them. They are not skills that lend themselves to intuitively grasped. This is why most people fail to get a good practice of them. Since many teachers do not possess these skills, it is of course not possible for their students to obtain them. Even today, after more than 20 years of advanced level taijiquan practitioners have been taught, the level of these skills is not as high as it should be in relation to the dedication, perseverance and effort of many practitioners in the UK.
2. Peng Jin - An outward support force: the basic skill of taijiquan
The peng jin (sometimes simply peng) is the central skill of Taijiquan. All other skills in Taijiquan are based on it. They come from loosening body tensions ( fang song ) and stretching. Essentially "relaxation but not hardening" of the joints. Peng is not a natural or instinctive skill. It is obtained after a long period of correct exercise. Without a good understanding of peng and considerable training to turn that understanding into a skill of any part of the body, it will not emerge. Peng is not obtained by accident. It is systematically trained in the body over time.
While I was researching for the writing of this article, I thought I would count peng jin as the first and most important skill in Taijiquan. However, while peng should be considered the most important skill, it depends on the looseness of the body ( fang song ). It is true to say that Taijiquan is peng jin chuan because without peng there is no Taijiquan. It is the essential skill of Taijiquan. Peng is always used when moving, neutralizing, hitting, coiling, etc. All other Taijiquan skills can be expressed through peng.
The term peng jin has been a source of some confusion. The two characters ( peng and jin) have more than one meaning in Chinese, and specific meanings in the context of Taijiquan. The jin itself is not simply translated into Italian. There is no word that can be used to translate it effectively. It is translated in various ways such as skill, strength and energy; the term incorporates all these meanings. Peng is even more difficult to translate. It has frequently been translated as "divert energy". I prefer, as a translation, the expression "support force turned outward".
Chen Fake taught us that there are two types of peng jin . The first is the fundamental skill or strength of Taijiquan. The second is one of the eight jins (forces) commonly recognized in Taijiquan ( peng, lu, ji, an, cai, lieh, zhou and kao ). The first type of peng is the central element and foundation of the above eight commonly recognized skills. It is probably best to consider it in Italian as a different term than peng considered as one of the eight skills. All eight jins have their basis in peng which is the fundamental ability. From the outside the peng has different aspects and for this reason it is sometimes inserted between the eight gates (consequent to the eight directions), but the center of everything is always the peng, the fundamental ability. This core skill or strength is what I refer to when talking about beginner skills. There has been a lot of discussion about peng in the past decade. A student cannot simply manifest and use peng just because he wants to. It requires the training of the outer posture along with the training of the inner jin to be able to express it correctly. If you don't have peng then you don't have Taijiquan jin and consequently you don't even have l u, ji, an etc ...
The fundamental peng skill is accomplished when the limbs and body stretch and stretch while maintaining the release of tensions, i.e. the fang song. Without the slack ( fang song ) the body is stiff and the peng is lost. Similarly, peng is lost if the body is too loose or limp. Without loosening, the body is not properly connected and the peng disperses. If the limbs and body are hyper extended then they become stiff and the peng is lost. From this it is quite simple to observe that in order to obtain peng a balance must be maintained between these elements. If a part of the body does not have peng , it is a mistake and must be properly corrected. Many shape corrections involve maintaining peng in various parts of the body, and frequently affect the knees and elbows. Usually peng is lost or dulled because the body has stiffened or is not relaxed enough; this occurs more frequently in the hips and shoulders.
For those who do not understand peng , it can barely be detected in the more superficial surface aspect of the sequences. For those who understand peng its absence is clearly visible. In many ways, the basic hand forms of Taijiquan specifically serve as the training arena for peng jin.
I ll Peng jin is not an on / off ability. While it is very common not to own it, once you understand its quality it can be improved. As in learning a new language, it is possible not to understand anything at first. While learning there are many levels of improvement or quality that can be sought. Starting from this awareness, it is quite simple to see not only the importance of relaxation ( fang song ) as an integral prerequisite of peng - a fundamental ability of Taijiquan - but also, that by improving the correct fluidity of the body, the quality or level of ability is improved. peng.
It is very difficult to convey the concept of peng jin without correcting. The student needs to be guided towards it after reaching an initial level of fluency. It is not a kind of process where "Phase one leads to phase two". Rather it is an immersion process that leads to understanding. Frequent correction of the body is necessary. A generic understanding of the concept does not necessarily translate into a total understanding of the body. It is a process. Rambling can happen and it does happen often. As an old saying from the Chen village puts it: “What is needed is: a good teacher, a good understanding and a good practice. Without all three, gong fu is unattainable. A teacher is required who understands and sees the priority of the corrections necessary to make it possible for the student to peng in the body and without distractions and confusions.
When peng is present, any pressure is transferred to the ground from inside the body (rooting). The stretching process connects the body in such a way that this happens without additional effort. This can be described as a flexible structure within the body. Consequently when peng is present the body becomes a bit like an object similar to solid rubber. It is not rigid, but loose and flexible and the pressure in any of its parts is easily transmitted through the entire structure.
Touching someone else's peng can be described as a hearing ability because, not only does it allow you to perceive an opponent's finer movements (as if this happens through the sense of hearing), but also allows you to determine their structural weaknesses. . When one touches a person using the peng , it becomes possible to understand what is the best direction to attack him, similarly one is able to understand what the other person is doing and even what he intends to do. The ability to listen ( ting jin ) is developed through peng jin.
In Taijiquan the emphasis of the peng is on guiding and neutralizing an impending force. When peng jin is present there is the potential for rotation. With the joints relaxed the body becomes mobile and through stretching becomes connected. Thus any pressure on the body causes a rotation or movement. The peng is the heart of "wrapping the silk thread" as we will see in the last article of this series.
The peng is also the ability that allows and supports the attack. It allows a quick response for a quick attack and a slow response for a slow defense. In the practice of pushing hands ( tui shou ), a student is said to have learned the technique only when he has learned peng jin and its meaning. Beginners often take years to achieve this. During the exercise, a Taijiquan practitioner should maintain this external support or protective force not only in the hands and arms but also in any part of the body that can come into contact with the other person.
In this way, using peng , a skilled practitioner can not only understand what an opponent is doing, but can neutralize it, recognize the direction of vulnerability and attack through it. When this understanding is achieved it is easy to see why it is considered the core skill of Taijiquan. When the joints are not free, the peng is lost. When the limbs are soft and not stretched out, the peng is lost. So peng jin manifests itself in the body starting from the relaxation of tensions and stretching without becoming rigid. Initially this happens at the beginning and at the end of each position, then it happens continuously during the whole movement process.
3. Ding - Straight and Upright
The meaning and understanding of the ding is not difficult to grasp, however its exercise takes much longer. Ding means straight or upright and ding jin means the ability to push up, strength or power.
When you begin to learn Taijiquan, loosening the body involves freeing the spine. If the body is not erect, there is an excess of muscle activity leading to stiffness. Most people don't know what standing upright is. They have a habit of locking their knees, causing a tilt in the pelvic area, which causes their body to lean forward. This creates significant stiffness in the spine and lower mid-torso and hips.
When the body is erect ( ding ) it becomes possible to free the spine, the pelvis and then the hips. If the ding is not present then, most likely, none of these conditions are achievable. When the student understands and holds the ding and steadily stretches without stiffening, enough to produce peng in his body and movements, then he can feel the circulation of qi. Like all things in Taijiquan, this is a process, which produces results through long and consistent exercise.
More importantly, this upward stretch without stiffness produces the effect of removing excess stress in the various parts of the spine allowing the latter to move freely, just as through traction in the hospital it is possible to free the back from inappropriate pressures and stresses by returning to move freely. A further result is the improvement of circulation to the head through the neck. Consequently, the movement of qi in the body becomes more evident. A famous saying from Taijiquan states xu ling ding jin (which can be literally translated "the void conducts the energy upward"). The most commonly used translation is “the skullcap / crown of the head is pushed upwards as if held suspended by a thread”. Chen Xin's explanation uses the image of a thread pulling the bai hui acupuncture point upward (at the back of the skullcap). When the head is as if suspended or pulled up, the resulting position of the head enables free rotation of the head and helps balance the body.
To summarize, the ding can be considered the principle that allows the upward stretching of the spine to understand and maintain balance, reduce stiffness to understand and improve both peng and fang song. This basic skill is most frequently first understood in posture exercises such as zhan zhuang. The lack of movement allows the student to focus more easily on acquiring the correct balance and looseness of the body.
4. Chen - Rooting
Chen has two meanings in Taijiquan. The first is related to how the body must sink to connect to the ground. The second is related to how the qi must be trained in order to always be sunk down. These two meanings refer to two distinct but closely related abilities.
The ability to sink the body depends on the fang song ability. The joints must remain free from tension but, at the same time, coordinated with each other. The body is allowed to press, either through the force of gravity or through a force applied by another person. This pressure must be conducted from the body down through the legs without causing stiffness.
Training the qi to stay sunk down is very difficult to describe. Referring to qi is difficult for many people to understand, and asking to do something with qi is even more difficult. First of all, the dantian (or sea of qi ) must be able to move freely. The qi moves naturally in the beginning. Afterwards, as qi rises, he must be kept sunk and not allowed to get out of control, for example fidgeting or becoming emotional. It must be sunk in order to slide through the legs and reach the ground. These actions can be clearly and unambiguously perceived, in the body and legs, when the body and legs have been adequately and sufficiently trained.
The combination of these two abilities in turn produces an incredible ability, whereby a significantly larger and stronger person is unable to push a smaller and weaker person; whereas someone on his rear leg can simply push backwards someone who is in opposition on his front leg. However it is a basic skill that can be understood and developed with proper teaching and a lot of practice.
Through the chen skill, impending forces are directed through the legs towards the ground and conversely, outward forces are generally drawn from the ground. This requires some mobility in the hips and pelvis which is difficult to describe and is achieved by a long and hard workout done correctly. The student must be led by a teacher who not only has skills but also has the ability to teach it. For the force to be connected to the ground it must first sink towards the ground. In this case the chen is closely related to the peng . Without a well developed peng jin , which includes dan tian mobility, it will not be possible to develop chen or grounding.
The outward force taken from the ground is not something mystical but the result of careful training and coordination of peng jin , a certain type of strength and control of the legs and body. The body acts as a highly specialized and controlled spring. When compressed, the pressure goes towards the ground and when released it pushes away from the ground. Good grounding is essential to effectively neutralize and release strength through the use of the Chen style Taijiquan internal method.
Understanding and developing grounding is initially trained through the standing exercise ( zhan zhuang ). The peng jin and ding jin, along with balance and understanding of qi, are developed through the proper exercise of the stand. Training the body and qi to sink and remain sunk under pressure is one of the major goals of Taijiquan sequences. At first, measured and slow movements lead to the fastest way to understand and increase skill. Closing the body while practicing the form, the elbows towards the knees and the shoulders towards the hips, helps to increase the understanding of the chen . Sinking at the beginning and end of each movement is part of the chen development process.
Practicing lower and longer positions by relaxing the hips and upper body develops the strength in the legs that is needed to achieve strong grounding. Even more important is to release the tensions of the body ( fang song ), especially the hips, so that the qi naturally sinks towards the legs and feet, in order to help the development of grounding. The intensity of the practice and the necessary strength increase significantly as the qi sinks further towards the legs, increasing the rooting of the person. After understanding the skills of fang song, peng and ding in the body and mind, specific grounding exercises can be used to help develop chen .
When grounded and under pressure, the feeling is that the joints redirect that pressure downward and the joint itself may move down slightly. This should not be confused with squatting or simply bending the joints. Squatting low usually provides better mechanical leverage and requires more strength in the legs. The mistake of lowering the body is frequently confused with sinking. A lower position will strengthen the legs but will not necessarily develop grounding. Initially the chen skill is trained with higher positions as more skill is required in being short and grounded rather than tall and grounded.
5. Chan Si Jin - Ability to wrap silk thread
The type of movement required in Taijiquan is called "winding the silk thread" or chan si jin . Although I have enumerated it as the fifth most important beginner skill to pay attention to, without chan si jin there can be no Taijiquan. The chan si jin shows how the body must move to move the qi, maintain the peng jin and coordinate the constant opening ( kai ) and closing ( he ) from the outside to the inside of the body of which Taijiquan is composed.
It is not easy to describe or understand this entirely because it has to be understood both by the body and by the mind. The body, in order to understand, must be able to approximate the chan si jin movement continuously and repetitively until it is fully understood.
This is achieved through continuous and repetitive practice, initially with silk thread wrapping exercises (chan si gong) and then, more importantly, with sequences ( tao lu ).
For the beginner, chan si gong can be considered the initial training of taiji shen fa (body mechanics) in movement. Following the relatively simple choreography, in a progression from simple to more difficult, (first with one hand and then with both, first in a static position and then with steps) the practitioner will discover how the body moves in circles and spirals. For the beginner, the internal movement is not important. It is enough for the student to pay attention to the inward ( shun chan ) and outward ( ni chan ), front ( zheng mian ), side ( ce mian ) circles; in the normal direction ( zheng ) and in the reverse direction (fan). Try to move smoothly and without stiffness. Gain fang song skill by removing blockages caused by stiffness in the joints. Get all parts of the body to move in a circle and spiral.
This form of spiral movement not only appears on the surface of the skin, but also appears internally throughout the body; this causes every joint and limb to experience movement. Through the repetition of wrapping and stretching in the training for an extended time, the body naturally achieves the resilient and elastic force ( peng jin ) discussed in point 2; this means being relaxed and strong at the same time. Chan si jin is the method the body uses both to move and to maintain peng jin .
In the mid-1980s, some teachers from the Chen village, notably Chen Xiao Wang, and Chen Zheng Lei, as well as others, created the "wrapping the silk thread" ( chan si gong ) exercises. These exercises result from important movements in the training sequences to aid in the development of chan si jin . They quickly became the fundamental means of teaching the basic knowledge of Chen style Taijiquan to large groups, particularly helpful for those without a regular opportunity to receive direction and corrections from a good teacher and for those whose practice time is too short. to progress in immediate understanding through traditional sequences. Although these sets of exercises may seem different from teacher to teacher, they all aim to train the same set of principles.
(For those interested there is a DVD of exercises on how to wrap the floss that I recommend for beginners on my website ( www.wanghaijun.com ). There is also a long article made by me in which I provide to beginners a support in the training of the exercises of wrapping the silk thread).
In summary, in these articles I have described the five most important beginner skills that form the foundation of Taijiquan. My hope is that those who wish to understand and gain Taijiquan skills will be helped by these descriptions. It is said that in the Chen style, there are three requirements for attaining gongfu : a good teacher, a good understanding, and a good practice. History shows us that those who achieved high levels of skill possessed them all. These articles aim to help the understanding of what Taijiquan is and what its skills are. Gongfu can be translated as skill, but the idea of time spent is a more useful translation.
In Chen Style Taijiquan the yilu (first sequence) is the fundamental path taken by all those who have reached the third level. Although erlu , weapon sequences, and tui shou (hand thrust) are an integral part of training, all too often students arrive at these before basic skills have been integrated. Without developing the basic skills of fang song , peng jin , ding jin, chen and chan si jin , progress will be limited.
In my personal training with master Chen Zhenglei , these concepts were not explained to me theoretically, but came after a long exercise with regular corrections and with experience.
These were not ideas that we first discussed, but principles that emerged from my practice and from repeated corrections by my teacher. It is important that the student understands this and does not neglect the practice. In the beginning, training Taijiquan is like paddling against the current: as soon as you stop paddling, you will come back. So train constantly and without interruption with a good teacher and you will make progress.