Silk Reeling Demo (A)

[Xue Sheng]

We've hit on something that I consider a big missing part of many Kung fu schools. Maybe this is one of modern Tai Chis "missing links".

When I first starting learning, first sifu kept a whole closet of exotic training devices. Iron palm bags, sand jars, a lot of different things with rope. When I learned Tai Chi, same thing. Lots of neat little training gadgets, sticks, balls, and more rope.

So I can't really imagine what it's like to train any kung fu style with just my own body, and whenever I check out classic kung fu cinema (which is a really good source for a lot of styles) you see it all the time. Sure lots of empty hand fist sets, but often a lot of training devices too. 36th Chamber..has literally 35 rooms of such things.

We talked about plum flower poles a while ago. You can do stancework in your living room, gym, or the street pretty easy, and get great. Then try it on an elevated platform and fall on your butt fast.

Somewhere, long ago, I was reading some research on how Tai Chi was shown to help people live longer simply through balance training (and then avoiding falls, broken hips, etc).

That was when I started training Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg and similar Crane technique with a kettlebell on my foot. Very effective.

Early days of training with my Yang Shifu we would hold postures, any posture (including rooster and kicks), for long periods of time...while he walked around the room, checking and adjusting everyone posture

 

[Xue Sheng]

Consider this:

When training "intent," the focus should be on feeling one's center of balance and disrupting the opponent's. However, using weights or objects like bricks can inadvertently shift the focus away from this central goal.

In Taiwan, a teacher I knew used to have his students put toothpicks in the fold between the elbow and forearm to maintain a slight fold during push hands training. While this helped with the physical aspect, it unintentionally hindered their intent, as the focus shifted to keeping the toothpick in place, just as using any type of weight held during the solo practice would...

Silk reeling and pulling have specific purposes within Taiji communities and should be done with these goals in mind.

I think proper use of intent, or not using intent, is a problem in taijiquan these days. But you can use intent with ankle weights and wrist waits..... just not as a beginner.

 

[Teapot]

Just to add my two cents here, Silk Reeling Jin or Chansijin (as I understand it) in the context of Chen Taijiquan has a lot to do with the twisting of the body.

But there is a big difference between twisting and turning.

For example, in the image below, the practitioner on the left swings his knee along with the body. The turning of the body is dragging the knee along with it. Meanwhile, the practitioner on the right is preventing his knees from moving as the upper body is twisting against the anchored leg. This creates a twist in the torso - the ribs and back.

When you rotate the upper segment of a spring clockwise and simultaneously rotate its lower segment in the same direction, you haven't truly twisted the spring. Rather, you have merely revolved it as a whole.

Twisting can only happen when there's opposition in the movement such as anchoring the bottom segment of the spring firmly in place and only rotating the top segment clockwise - you create a genuine twist. It is this oppositional between the two ends that defines the act of twisting.

A lot of Tai Chi (Wushu Performance being the easiest example to reference) do not have twisting. They have turning. And I suspect that genuine twisting would be an ideological clash for a lot of Tai Chi practitioners who worships the word "Song" (to loosen - but some mistakes it to mean 'relax') to such a degree that they hate any kind of tension whatsoever.

Because a genuine twist of a spring creates tension (potential energy). This twist refers back to the 'spirals' that people talk about.

This twist creates a wind-up. And this wind-up is "Internal" in the sense that it's not obvious. If someone pulls back their fist to wind up for a punch, that is very obvious and telegraphed. If someone is creating a twist in their ribs and back while their legs are very stable, that's much harder to see.

And for grappling, it's a bad idea to be swinging the knees left and right while under the influence of the opponent's pressure. That's a reciple to get thrown because the leg foundation is unstable.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

A lot of Tai Chi (Wushu Performance being the easiest example to reference) do not have twisting. They have turning. And I suspect that genuine twisting would be an ideological clash for a lot of Tai Chi practitioners who worships the word "Song" (to loosen - but some mistakes it to mean 'relax') to such a degree that they hate any kind of tension whatsoever.

Taiji doesn't have foot sweep that your upper body and lower body twist into the opposite directions.

 

[Teapot]

Taiji doesn't have foot sweep that your upper body and lower body twist into the opposite directions.

Talking about foot sweeps is a bit random of a transition, but alright then...

Granted, the following is a sweep in the rear direction, but sweeping to the side is ubiquitous in this particular style. The concept of manipulating the opponent's upper body in one direction while sweeping their foot in the opposite direction is super common in at least this kind of Chen Taijiquan.

https://imgur.com/a/CZjB0vb

Another example that leads to Chen Taijiquan's Zhong Pan.

https://imgur.com/a/3ps0d47

But, this very much depends on which style and lineage of Taijiquan you're referring to. A lot of lineages aren't that developed in foot sweeps in general.