ANNOUNCEMENT

Josephine Anderson, Senior Instructor, level four, and Canadian Representative for the World Taiji Boxing Association, announces her availability to teach the workshops described below for your taiji studio or your other martial arts dojo.  Josephine has been a student of Erle Montague [founder of the World Taiji Boxing Association and student of Master Wong Eog, Master Chu King Hung and Grand-master Chang Yiu-Chun who was one of only two disciples of Yang Shou-hou.] for over 15 years and, before him, of Sean Kelly and Shirley Choi.

Ms. Anderson teaches the Montague system of tai chi which includes the Old Yang Style forms of Yang Lu Chan, the Wudang Hand Weapons forms, the Twelve Wudang Katas of chi disruption and Pau Chui (cannon fist) as well as the modern forms of Yang Cheng Fu, small san shou, large san shou, straight and broad sword, staff and push hands.  She also teaches bagua circular and linear forms.

If you wish to have Ms. Anderson bring one of her workshops to your studio or dojo, please call her at (613) 729-9991 or her senior student, Larry Kearley, at (613) 943-2577 to discuss your needs and her schedule.  The fee per student is $65.00.  A minimum of ten students is preferred, but special arrangements can be discussed.  These workshops are not just of interest to students of tai chi, or of the other internal arts, but also to students of the external styles such as karate and tae kwon do.

Workshops Offered [Thanks to Erle Montague for some of the descriptions below.]

1.                Push Hands

Pushing hands is said to be the gateway for students to understand experientially the martial art aspects of the nei chia or internal style martial arts; leverage, reflex, sensitivity, timing, coordination and positioning. The theory being that there is a limit to the amount of physical conditioning available from performing solo form routines, so pushing hands adds the weight of the training partner's pushes onto the legs of the student, legs already bearing the student's own weight. The student then has to deal with the extra work load effectively from a martial point of view before returning their own pushes to the partner in turn. In that sense pushing hands is a contract between students to train the defensive and offensive movement principles of their martial art; learning to generate, coordinate and deliver power to another and also how to effectively neutralize incoming forces in a relatively safe environment.

In T'ai Chi Ch'üan, pushing hands is used to acquaint students with the principles of what are known as the "Eight Gates and Five Steps," eight different leverage applications in the arms accompanied by footwork in a range of motion which proponents say will eventually allow students to defend themselves calmly and competently if attacked.

The Eight Gates (bā mén):

P'eng (py péng) - An upward circular movement, forward or backward, yielding or offsetting usually with the arms to disrupt the opponent's centre of gravity, often translated as "Ward Off."

Lü (lǜ) - A sideways, circular yielding movement, often translated as "Roll Back."

Chi (jǐ) - A pressing or squeezing offset in a direction away from the body, usually done with the back of the hand or outside edge of the forearm. Chi is often translated as "Press."

An (àn) - To offset with the hand, usually a slight lift up with the fingers then a push down with the palm, which can appear as a strike if done quickly. Often translated as "Push."

Tsai (cǎi) - To pluck or pick downwards with the hand, especially with the fingertips or palm. The word tsai is part of the compound that means to gather, collect or pluck a tea leaf from a branch ( cǎi chá). Often translated "Pluck."

Lieh (liè) - Lieh means to separate, to twist or to offset with a spiral motion, often with the metacarpal and carpal bone area of the thumb as the contact point. Lieh is often translated as "Split."

Chou (zhǒu) - To strike or push with the elbow. Usually translated as "Elbow Strike" or "Elbow Stroke" or just plain "Elbow."

K'ao (kào) - To strike or push with the shoulder or upper back. The word k'ao implies leaning or inclining. Usually translated "Shoulder Strike," "Shoulder Stroke" or "Shoulder."

The Five Steps (wǔ bù):

Chin Pu ( jìn bù) - Forward step.

T'ui Pu (tùi bù) - Backward step.

Tsuo Ku (zǔo gù) - Left step.

You P'an (yòu pàn) - Right step.

Chung Ting (zhōng dìng) - The central position, balance, equilibrium. Not just the physical center, but a condition which is expected to be present at all times in the first four steps as well, associated with the concept of rooting (the stability said to be achieved by a correctly aligned, thoroughly relaxed body as a result of correct T'ai Chi training).

Pushing hands trains these technical principles in ever increasing complexity of patterns. At first students work basic patterns, then patterns with moving steps coordinated in different directions, patterns at differing heights (high, middle, low and combinations) and then finally different styles of "freestyle" push hands, which lead into sparring that combines closing and distancing strategies with long, medium and short range techniques. These exchanges are characterized as "question and answer" sessions between training partners; the person pushing is asking a question, the person receiving the push answers with their response. The answers should be "soft," without resistance or stiffness. The students hope to learn to not fight back when pushed, but rather to allow the direction of the push, the intent of the one asking, to determine their answer. The intent thereby is for the students to condition themselves and their reflexes to the point that they can meet an incoming force in softness, move with it until they determine its intent and then allow it to exhaust itself or redirect it into a harmless direction. The degree to which students maintain their balance while observing these requirements determines the appropriateness of their "answers." The expression used in some T'ai Chi schools to describe this is "Give up oneself to follow another." The eventual goal for self-defence purposes is to achieve meeting the force, determining its direction and effectively redirecting it in as short a time as possible.

2.                Small san shou 

Small san-shou is the best method to learn about point strikes, how to strike then, where to strike, the correct direction and the correct pressure etc.  It is a practical street-fighting form.  This session will also include an introduction to dim mak point striking. There are up to four ways to strike at the dim-mak points with 4 different effects. Like draining the energy from the seat of power to cause someone to fall down, not knowing why they have done so.  Erle Montague says that this exercise is one of the best that he knows of for developing what is known as fa-jing, the “motor” of dim-mak. Small san-shou teaches us many of the pre-requisites of any internal martial art such as timing, balance, and power. He notes that the timing allows us to not think about where to strike, it just happens when it needs to happen for any given self defence moment. From this, he says, we get balance both physical as well as internal. Without balance, we would never be able to defend ourselves physically and without internal balance we would never be able to defend ourselves against pathogenic attack. Without real power, we would have to rely upon huge muscles where the strongest physical person wins. With intern power, it does not matter how small one is, as we rely upon an internal power generated from the tantien through the practice of Taijiquan.

3.         Wudang Hand Weapons Forms

Erle Montague notes that all of the internal forms and fighting styles came from the Wudang Shan system's 12 Wudang forms and the two person sets from Taijiquan and Baguazhang come from the 12 Wudang Hand Weapon training sets.

Before push hands, there were the 12 Wudang Hand Weapons. These are the precursors to push hands.   This is the excellent p'eng/hinge, fighting push hands methods of today and the Erle Montague system. 

These 12 two-person training methods teach you everything you need to know in order to turn your fighting into reflexive actions that will just happen automatically when attacked. These will teach you fa-jing and how to use it, instant reactions, never stopping to attack, how to move the body in a flowing, energy saving manner, how to move in accordance with what your opponent is doing to you and how to do the most damage in the least possible time with the least wastage of energy. The hands are used in the manner of the twelve names. So the 'Spear' is used to cut and stab etc.

This is how Erle describes the twelve forms.

Hammer: This two person set makes use of the closed fist using the base of the fist as a hammer. It attacks the CO 10 or 12 points in a devastating 'Point Set Up' strike, ST 9 and 10 (neck), GB 3 (Temple) and again ST 9. Then in retaliation for this last strike, your partner then has a go.

Spear: This one is deadly and caution must be taken when training as the eyes are involved. The points struck are; CO 10, eyes (scraping the finger nails across them), eyes (same in the opposite direction), CV 22 (by spearing it) and ST 10.

Sword: This one is also very dangerous; CO 10 (Set Up), ST 0, ST 10, ST 11, TH 17, Neck in general, GB 3 (Temple) and ST 9 and 10.

Plough: This one is wonderful as it trains your reflex actions to perfection; Neigwan (both hands), 4 Neck points, LU 5, CV 22 (Neck in general).

Axe: This one attacks to; LU 8 (Both sides), Both sides of the neck chopping, chopping down onto either side of the neck covering many deadly points, back into LIV 13 both sides.

The Nun: The 'Nun' is a 3 section Chinese implement for thrashing wheat or rice. It has been  modified in its physical weapon form for fighting. This one attacks mainly the neck and arms using the arms and hand weapons in the typical Bagua type 'Nun' posture so that the arms look like a 3 section staff.
 

Combine Hand: This one combines many aspects of the first six methods and teaches us about instant attack and defense in any given situation.

Dart Hand: This method teaches us about the use of very quick hands in continually striking with different methods. One hand strikes as the other one controls etc., just like the Chinese weapon called the 'dart'.

Drilling Hand: This method teaches us about one of the most important methods of attack using drilling methods.

Shovel or Spade Hand: This one makes use of the flats of the palms for attack and defense as you would if you were using a shovel.

Double Blade Hand: This one uses the palms as if they were two blades in attack and defense. A very devastating method of self-defense also.

Stump Puller Hand: This one has a lot of pushing (jerking) and pulling movements which work upon joints to dislocate them along with the more devastating dim-mak strikes.

Yang Lu Chan -  Old Yang Style of Taijiquan – Up to Single Whip

This is the form that Yang Lu-ch'an was taught and which he modified and “invented.”  It was known in China as the pinnacle of all fighting systems at that time. It is very action-filled with leaps and explosive punches and palm attacks. Every movement is a devastating dim-mak strike. Later generations of the Yang family changed this form to  what is, today, the Yang Cheng-fu Form (Yang's Grandson). Yang Cheng-fu left out all of the fa-jing movements and leaps so that all could learn Taijiquan and become healthy.  This old yang style was taught to Erle Montague by Chang Yiu-chun, one of the main students of Yang Shou-hou, the Brother of Yang Cheng-fu. Shou-hou  did not change his grandfather's style.