What I see when I do my forms.

Things donā€™t need to move in the same range in order to be coordinated, they only need to be activated. Exaggerating the concept into an overtly visible motion does not lend any validity to the concept itself.
Exaggeration is for the beginners. The Baji foot stomp on the ground is a good example. IMO, that Baji foot stomp serves as a drum beat.
 
The way I see it, at least when we do this in karate, it's there to practise the hand motion of the punch in isolation and it's also useful for conditioning. Doing 300 triple punches in horse stance will get you winded and strengthen your legs as a side effect, but when you then add the waist and leg motion in later exercises, you have a functional punch. That's almost all it's there to do.
I had an instructor who would sometimes have us do kata without the arms. Just footwork and body movement. Good trainingšŸ‘.
 
I had an instructor who would sometimes have us do kata without the arms. Just footwork and body movement. Good trainingšŸ‘.

When I first started practicing with my last Taiji teacher's group, realized the importance of not using the arms. This led me to focus on practicing movements without engaging my arms, imagining they were there but intentionally keeping them inactive.

Later on, a little surprised to find the same idea reflected in this teachers writings.

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Wang Yongquan Writings on Yang Style Tai Chi
Chuan

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When advancing or retreating, keep the waist and hips moving horizontally, and the body vertically parallel, similar to the oar on a boat. Do not lower your head or bend your waist, and avoid swaying left or right.

Do not punch halfway, moving only the upper body; the upper and lower parts should follow each other.

During practice, you can lower your arms, not moving the hands, and only move the body; you can also temporarily stop during movement, lower your arms, and check how the body moves, whether it meets the requirements."
 
So I posted this video which takes the first few techniques in Sei Ping Kuen . The context of the video is the application of Jow Ga Kung. So the first thing I did was take the form and then show the movements to be discussion along with short tags of what I see the movements as.

This is Sei Ping Kuen

This is my video. Part of a Training Video I'm developing for beginners who don't know Jow Ga

I made the video to get viewers thinking and you should question what you see. Once the questions come up, then hopefully the exploration will come up. Eventually you'll start seeing where these simple movements show up. Not just in Jow Ga but in a lot of other systems. The picture below is to help that curiosity and exploration along. The hints are in the subtitiles. The picture on the right shows Muay Thai sending the fist past the head, hooking behind the head. The next frame is the fist returning to chamber with the head for a knee to the face. One of the things that I focus on when doing forms is the structure of the movement. The reason why is because I need the correct structure for the application and also because the same movement may be used in other things. Let me know what you think. Does what I show make sense to you are does it raise questions and doubts?

View attachment 32477
Nice video. I see stuff in common with karate for sure. I'm curious about your take on pivoting your feet out into the wide stance ( looks like horse stance or rooted stance to me but not sure )
 
When I first started practicing with my last Taiji teacher's group, realized the importance of not using the arms. This led me to focus on practicing movements without engaging my arms, imagining they were there but intentionally keeping them inactive.

Later on, a little surprised to find the same idea reflected in this teachers writings.

View attachment 32485

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Wang Yongquan Writings on Yang Style Tai Chi
Chuan
I started hitting bags with my shoulder- punching with the body but not the arm.
It's also another good use of the makiwara. Placing a fist or block or whatever on the post and pushing into it using your body. The post pushes back so it really highlights weaknesses in your structure and how you're directing force. Training the body independently of the arms ought to be something everyone practices IMO
 
To stay in horse stance and only punch with your arms is the opposite.
This is true if the person is just extending their arms. It's not true if they are trying to throw a functional punch which is one that would be with force. This is why training for the purpose of function is important. If you look for function the body will move accordingly.

None of these kids know about 6 harmonies. But you can see while they are in horse stance how the body naturally tries to drive power. You can also see where the older kids punch but they aren't trying to drive power. When you don't seek power then there's no need to drive power.




The body will always try to coordinate itself when function is the goal.



This guy does not seek to punch with power. He just extends arms. If I see this when training people, then I will place a pad in front of them and tell them to punch the pad hard. Now they have a function. I could follow everything required to be done by 6 harmonies and still fail at it if I do not have function as a goal, focus, or purpose.
 
I started hitting bags with my shoulder- punching with the body but not the arm.
It's also another good use of the makiwara. Placing a fist or block or whatever on the post and pushing into it using your body. The post pushes back so it really highlights weaknesses in your structure and how you're directing force.

Your post interesting in your mentioning this type of training..
What was outlined is different based, on a different theory...


Training the body independently of the arms ought to be something everyone practices IMO
In our practice, the emphasis is on training the mind intent (ꄏ, yƬ) , harmonizing the six harmonies (六和, liĆ¹ hĆ©).
Itā€™s not primarily structure-based, makes it a little different from other approaches.
.
 
I had an instructor who would sometimes have us do kata without the arms. Just footwork and body movement. Good trainingšŸ‘.
I train my footwork this way. I chamber my fist and only do the footwork. And you are right, it's excellent training. The Jow Ga school up north tried to do the same thing. Even though they know more forms than me, they had trouble just doing the footwork.

It's one of my favorite footwork drills to do. Especially because I still have to drive power even though I'm not using my arms.
 
I'm curious about your take on pivoting your feet out into the wide stance ( looks like horse stance or rooted stance to me but not sure )
This is beginner training to pivot the feet out. It's helps beginners to find the general distance for a good horse stance. I personally don't use it in my forms even when it's part of the opening of a form after the bow. I don't like then tension that it places on my knees. I prefer to step out into horse or to drop into horse.
 
For comparison

yeah he hits stuff. lol. In the video that I posted, the guy tries to make the movements look pretty and noble. In the video that you posted, his movement looks rough in comparison. It even sounds rough in comparison. In the video I posted the guy plays meditation music. But I can see the energy drive through and exit his body.

I don't know how to explain better than that. I'm not talking chi balls or anything. But the body has a different look when it's trying to generate energy to strike hard and it has a different look when that energy exits.
 
I started hitting bags with my shoulder- punching with the body but not the arm.
I do this to explain how to punch using the body. Before I took Kung fu it was how teens used to do pre-school fight. It was also an alpha male thing as well. If you walking towards me on the sidewalk and it didn't look like you want to move over a little, then I would bump into you.

Even though what this guy did was a prank. There's actually a lot of weight that goes into the bump.

 
In the video I posted the guy plays meditation music. But I can see the energy drive through and exit his body.

I don't know how to explain better than that. I'm not talking chi balls or anything. But the body has a different look when it's trying to generate energy to strike hard and it has a different look when that energy exits.

Not judging his practice only noting that his posture seemed broken
Alignment and body twisting, hips and shoulders, not aligned ect...

contrasted with clip posted for comparison.

Vitruvian-Man.webp


This teacher explains the power train.
Touches on the difference's of how some methods do not use the power train.






.
 
Not judging his practice only noting that his posture seemed broken
Alignment and body twisting, hips and shoulders, not aligned ect...
That's because his movements are without function. He's repeating movement that he sees. He's not repeating movement from function.

If I ask you to show me the movement of how you hit a heavy bag. Your movement would be functional because you have hit a heavy bag before. If I asked someone who has never hit a heavy bag before, then their punch will look different. Your movement will calculate the impact that your punch must withstand, and the structure required. As for the other person, they have no reference for that impact and as a result, the punch looks lighter.

Let these kids hit an object and their air punching will greatly improve.

This kids hit things which is why their punches move the way that they do.



Some of these people have actually used upper cuts. Then there's some who clearly have never hit the bags or the pads. For some the most power they ever need to use is for hitting the air.

Form comes from Application
 
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