# When changes are wrong???



## charyuop (Mar 1, 2007)

I say immediately that due to my poor English it will be hard for me to say what I mean in this thread. But let me try to explain how it works for me.
Fluent and smooth form!
I am not gonna mention Chi factor, but marely what I consider fluent. When I say fluent I don't mean for the person looking at me doing the form to see no interruption of any sort. I have always felt that in a form (that is 24, 108 or whatever) there might be some points where you have, even if just a % of a second, a pause to go to the next posture.
When I mention fluent it is more an inner feeling. A feeling that tells me if I stop now it will break my form. As I said it is not a matter of Chi, but a matter of feeling inside of me the need not to stop in that moment to keep feeling the form smooth and fluent.
Now, assuming that my confusing discussion made sense to you, here's my question.

There are certain transiction parts that I was taught in a certain way, but if I do the way I was taught I feel a break in my form, I feel like it stop the fluency of my form. Just to make an example, in the 24 form I was taught at a ceratin point there is a Grasp the Sparrow's Tail on the left side followed by one on the right side. My Sifu taught me that in the transiction between the 2 I am supposed to withdarw my right leg, placing in the floor and go on to the next Grasp... That placing the foot down inside me creates a pause that breaks my inner fluency, so I tend to just withdraw the leg and instead of placing the foot down I go ahead stepping outside immediately.
Another example is the form in this webpage ( http://www.gilmanstudio.com/OnLine_Class/Lesson08.htm in the video is more clear, but I don't have it online sorry). After the push movement the transiction turns and come to a centered position to then open in the signle whip. Even in point I think that centering breaks the fluent motion inside me, so I tend to open to the single whip after the turning movement instead of coming to a full central position.

These are only a couple of example, but when is changing a transiction wrong for the form?


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## Xue Sheng (Mar 1, 2007)

Technically I suppose it could be said that a form or posture kind a sorta does stop in order to change direction but it is not noticeable, but even with that stop the internal flow should not stop. 

But if you do the forms correctly it can be said that it really does not stop due to this flow. Forms are not linear as they are in say Xingyi which can have a definite stop. In Taiji even when you are pressing forward it is also upward and it is a circle. Each form/posture should flow into the next.

24 form and grasp the sparrows tail. If I were to do 24 form as I was originally trained to I would probably feel it was rather choppy. However he last time I did 24 it was more like traditional it did not feel choppy at all. But it looks less like 24 and more like a traditional short form.

Grasp the sparrows tail should not really stop and I am trying to do this from memory, since it has been a few months since I have done 24 and I am currently sitting in my office, which is not conducive to standing up and doing Taiji. But I am having a hard time remembering it. If no one answers this before I get home tonight I will try and remember the exact form and get back to you.

Every time I run through this in my head I end up switching to traditional.


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## grydth (Mar 1, 2007)

charyuop said:


> I say immediately that due to my poor English it will be hard for me to say what I mean in this thread. But let me try to explain how it works for me.
> Fluent and smooth form!
> I am not gonna mention Chi factor, but marely what I consider fluent. When I say fluent I don't mean for the person looking at me doing the form to see no interruption of any sort. I have always felt that in a form (that is 24, 108 or whatever) there might be some points where you have, even if just a % of a second, a pause to go to the next posture.
> When I mention fluent it is more an inner feeling. A feeling that tells me if I stop now it will break my form. As I said it is not a matter of Chi, but a matter of feeling inside of me the need not to stop in that moment to keep feeling the form smooth and fluent.
> ...



First, you need never apologize for your English! I know what it is like to have to use a second language after having lived in Germany for almost 4 years........ German legal terms, German Police terms, shooting words, chess words, postal terms......... and never was I good enough to even think of being on a German Martial Arts Forum!

I find my body tells me if I am doing poor Tai Chi before my brain does. The body knows the right flow of movement and energy, and it senses a mistake right away, well before I can consciously think," You are doing something wrong."

When you suspect a mistake. the first step is always sifu. My sifu would note if a student had trouble with a posture or transition, especially this would be true of those who had been hurt/injured - he would suggest another way they could do this move. Or he would watch very closely for a mistake and say," There! You should instead try it this way."

Books and Internet sites can help, but asking a teacher is best.


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## East Winds (Mar 2, 2007)

charyuop,

This is an excellent post and a situation we all wrestle with at one time or another. There is a concept (at least in Traditional Yang Family Taijiquan) of "stopping without stopping". We need to dinstinguish clearly where one posture finishes and the next begins. In other words the transition from Yang to Yin and Yin to Yang.  Much of the problems we encounter in performing our Taiji form is caused by "monkey brain". We are "not in the moment". We are thinking ahead, we are thinking about the next move before we have really fully completed the move we are on!!!!! We are already thinking that for instance when transitioning from "press" in Grasp Birds Tail to "Single Whip", we begin to lean our bodies forward in anticipation of the Single Whip. We are always in a rush to get to the ending posture. We begin to lean forward to reach the Single Whip and therefore unbalance our bodies. The transitions are every bit, if not more, important than the ending postures. In Traditonal Yang we say "In all transitions, the body must be upright". We must be aware of the Yin aspect (generally the transition) of every posture every bit as much as the Yang aspect. I'm afraid the only solution is practise, practise, practise.

Very best wishes


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