Pearls of Wisdom

Training for Life

by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

Inside Kung Fu Sept 2005

Tai Chi’s Tui Shou or pushing hands is well known in the martial art world. There are similar techniques in other systems as well. In the Choy Li Fut system, it is called Nor Kiu or rubbing bridge hands. In Wing Chun they have Chi Sau or sticky hands. Some other systems have Pan Shou or coiling hands. Most of the internal systems like Yi Chuan, Bagua and Hsing I call it Tui Shou or pushing hands.

There are single pushing hands and double pushing hands methods. The single pushing hands training is good for fighting because it teaches the student how to redirect the opponent’s front hand to unbalance him and then use the free hand to strike him. The double pushing hands play is useful for training the student to use both hands to control the opponent, unbalance him and then push him away without striking him. From the double pushing hands training, you will develop the neutralization sensation which allows you to avoid the opponent grabbing or wrestling you with both arms.

The main Tai Chi pushing hands principle is bu diao bu ding (no leaving and no forcing) which means: do not withdraw your hands (or leave) without the opponent pushing you away and do not use your own force against the incoming force from your opponent. The bu diao bu ding has the same meaning as Choy Li Fut’s nor kiu saying: gung kei yeok sieh kei keung (attacking the weak and neutralizing the strong). In the Chi Sau of Wing Chun, they say: lai woi hui sung lat sau jik chung , that means: following the coming and going hands, once the hands disconnect you must thrust the punch forward. All of the above sayings are the same if you are truly understand the meanings. If you don’t, then lessons from a pushing hands master will give you understanding.

Many instructors have difficulty teaching pushing hands to women. Some say that they do not want to do training with women because it is not convenient to limit the physical contact. I have no problem teaching nor practicing pushing hands with female students at all. I am sure most of the well trained pushing hands masters and sifus are also having no problems. Only some Tai Chi instructors who are not well accomplished at pushing hands use this excuse to avoid practicing with an expert female player by saying “its not convenient to push with her.”

I have been teaching kung fu since 1968 and with 37 years of experience training instructors, I have always gotten the same complaints and problems from the instructors about pushing hands with women. Now I would like to share some tips for anyone who is having problems practicing with women: Firstly, you must not have any evil thoughts. If you have bad thoughts, you will get yourself into lots of legal trouble for sexual misconduct. You must truely want to train and practice the art of pushing hands. Secondly, you must understand and be able to perform the techniques in keeping with the tai chi pushing hands principles, that is “bu diao bu ding” or “no leaving and no forcing”. During the pushing hand attack, you must not push to the female opponent’s chest. You may push her arms into her mid section to push her off balance. If she is forcing, just by pushing her arm she will be thrown off balance without her arm touching her body anyway. You can also redirect her arm by turning her body sideways and the other hand can push her shoulder or the upper part of her arm to unbalance her.

There are many ways to unbalance an opponent (man or woman) without any contact to their chest or private parts. You simply have to practice more and learn how to relax your body. Most women are naturally relaxed and more sensative to touch than men, therefore sometimes its difficult to push them off balance and easy for them to push you. How can you relax? You must practice your Tai Chi form correctly. The forms teach you to know about yourself. The form teaches you to know that your energies are connected or disconnected, tense or relaxed and your footwork is empty or full. Pushing hands teaches you to know about your opponent and to feel whether your opponent is leaving or forcing, this way you will develop a high level of skill in pushing hand and you will have no problem practicing with or teaching women students anymore.

Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong is a columnist for Inside Kung Fu Magazine.

To learn more about Tai Chi or Push Hands in San Diego Visit White Dragon Martial Arts

Training for Life

Inside Kung Fu July 2000

by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

Just knowing how to do qigong meditations and exercises isn’t enough to make your qigong practice worthwhile and beneficial. You must also know and employ certain physical and mental practices before you can control your qi (chi) energy’s direction and flow throughout your body. No matter what qigong style you practice, you must first understand a few basic principles of correct qigong practice.

Here are five rules that apply to most qigong styles.

1. Don’t expect too much too soon. This is one of the easiest mistakes for beginners to make. When people start studying qigong they are always eager and enthusiastic. However, not everyone learns at the same rate. Sometimes students don’t learn as fast as they would like and become impatient, comparing themselves to others and trying to force things to happen that need more time.

Sometimes people set up schedules for themselves, such as, “Today I want to make my dan tien (pressure point located three fingers’ distance below the navel) warm, tomorrow I want to get my qi flowing through the tailbone cavity,” or by such and such a day I want to complete the small circulation. This is the wrong way to go about it.

Qigong is not like an ordinary exercise or task you set for yourself. You cannot make a progress schedule for qigong. Qigong benefits depend on your initial health, mental state, ability to relax and other factors. Therefore, everything happens in qigong when it is time for it to happen. If you attempt to force it, it will never happen.

2. Don’t dwell on attachments and sensations. When you practice, do not place your attention on the various phenomena or sensations that may occur. You should always be aware of what is happening, but keep your mind centered on what it is supposed to be for the exercise you are doing. If you let your mind dwell on something you feel is interesting or new, your qi follows your mind and interferes with your body’s natural tendency to rebalance itself.

Do not expect anything to happen, and don’t let your mind wander around looking for the various phenomena. Furthermore, don’t start evaluating or judging the phenomena, such as asking, “Is my dan tien warmer today than it was yesterday?”

Don’t ask yourself, “Just where is my qi now?” When your mind dwells on your qi, your yi (intention) is with your mind. This stagnant yi will not guide the qi toward its destination. My qigong teacher, professor Peng Si Yu, always emphasized, “Be aware of what is happening, but do not pay attention to it.” If you feel something during one meditation session and expect it to happen the next time, not only will it probably not happen, but also you will have blocked beneficial qi flow with your conscious attempt to make something happen.

3. Avoid conscious thoughts that distract you from your purpose. The mind is strong, with every idea still strongly connected to its origin. If you cannot cut the ideas off at their source, your mind is not calm and empty and you cannot regulate your qi.

You may also find that even though you have stopped the flow of random thoughts going through your mind, new ideas are generated during practice. For example, when you discover your dan tien is warm, your mind immediately recalls where this is mentioned in a book, or how the master described it, and you start to compare your experience with this. Or you may start wondering what the next step is. These thoughts lead you away from peace and calm, and your mind ends up in what ancient qigong practitioners referred to as the domain of the devil. Then your mind is confused, scattered and very often scared. You will tire quickly and may not want to continue with your qigong practice.

4. Shen (spirit) should not follow the external scenery. This is also a problem of regulating the mind. When your conscious mind and emotions are not controlled, any external distraction leads your thoughts away from your body (qigong practice) and toward the distraction. You must train yourself that noises, smells, conversations and other distractions do not disturb your concentration. It is alright to be aware of what is happening, but your mind must remain calm, peaceful and steady on your qi cultivation.

5. Physical considerations are also important. Don’t be too warm or too cold during your practice sessions. The temperature of the room in which you are training should not too hot or too cold. You should practice in a comfortable environment that does not disturb your mind and cultivation.

Don’t wear tight clothes or tight belt. Always wear loose clothes during practice because this helps you feel comfortable and allows your qi to flow naturally. Keep your belt loose. The abdomen is the most important area of qigong practice. You must be careful not to limit the movement and comfort of this area. Don’t practice when hungry of full. When you are hungry it is hard to concentrate, and when you are full your practice affects your digestion.

These are only five of a long list of rules passed down by generations of qigong masters. They are based on much study and experience and should be carefully observed if you want positive results from your qigong practice.

Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong is a columnist for Inside Kung Fu.

To learn more about Tai Chi or Qigong visit: whitedragonmartialarts.com

Training for Life

Inside Kung Fu May 2001

by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

So often nowadays, we see Yang taiji quan stylists launching into forms that are partly slow, precise taiji movements and partly fast, powerful fighting movements. Many people want to add jing (power) to their forms without first understanding the practical applications and intentions of the Yang family when it originally designed the forms.

What we now call the Yang long form (108 movements) was originally referred to as the large frame form, named after the large, circular movements that characterize it. The Yang family masters taught the long form first to students because they noticed that most people, including other martial artists were tense and stiff with their movements. The applications of most taiji movements are pressure-point strikes and require loose, relaxed power that starts relaxed, becomes tense at impact, and then relaxes again. The tense power they observed with many other martial arts was almost a push power that hit the opponent and knocked him away. Pressure-point strikes require power that extends into the opponent and jars him internally, rather than damaging him on the outside and pushing him away.

By teaching the slow, soft, circular, large-frame taiji form first, Yang masters were able to both teach relaxed movements and instill permanent habits within their taiji students. These were habits, such as correct body posture and footwork - all things that are difficult to learn when you move too fast.

When students mastered the correct balance and movement principles and had learned to be relaxed, they were taught the use of various kinds of jing, the most popular being fa jing (explosive energy).  Obviously, no one fights at the speed the long form is practiced. Fighting is fast and sudden, making the use of fa jing essential.

It is a common misunderstanding that the small circle form or Yang fast form always follows the large frame form. While certain members of the Yang family used one or both of these forms to teach fa jing, others had a different way to instruct students. Yang, Cheng Fu (grandson of Yang, Lu Chan, the founder of Yang taiji) often taught his students fa jing on a movement-by-movement basis. For example, they might work on just one technique, such as brush knee, until they had mastered it, rather than work on it within a form.

Other Yang masters made their reputations by teaching the small circle form, which contains fast and slow movements, the fast containing fa jing, and the slow movements, the same as the large frame form. These were often masters who had little patience with the slow-moving large frame form and wanted to get into the fighting aspect sooner with their students.

I agree with teachers such as Yang, Cheng Fu, who maintained that students cannot learn to use fa jing properly without first learning and understanding the benefits of the large frame taiji form. If you start using fa jing too soon, before you are relaxed and know how to emit fa jing, your power will still be tense and inefficient.

Doc Fai Wong writes a bi-monthly column for Inside Kung-Fu.

To learn more about Tai Chi visit:  whitedragonmartialarts.com

Training for Life

Inside Kung Fu Sept 2000

By Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

Why do we study and practice Qigong?  The standard answers are that qigong strengthens our immune system, helps develop internal energy (qi) for martial arts and generally improves our health and stamina.

In 1981 I started studying with professor Peng Si Yu, who came to the United States from Shanghai, China. A full professor oat the University of Shanghai’s medical school, Yu was also renown throughout china as a great qigong teacher. He came to the United States as a participant in a research project at Stanford University, where students wanted to study his remarkable ability to project his qi (chi) energy over a distance, affecting other people without touching them. As I became a close student of professor Yu and his wife, Min Ou-Yang, I discovered that he was diabetic and had controlled his illness throughout his 80-plus years with proper diet and qigong practice alone. Unfortunately, in 1983 professor Yu died from complications from a blood clot within his brain, not diagnosed by our Western doctors, who thought that, with the heart and circulatory system of a 25-year-old, he had only an inner ear infection.

I continued my studies with his wife, who after 60 years of marriage to professor Yu, was almost the level of her famous husband.  Peng Si Yu’s qigong style was yiquan, sometimes known as daquan, qigong It was originally a form of xingyu (hsing-I), developed by his own teacher, Wang, Xian Zhai. Wang who was one of the most famous qigong master in China’s recent history, lived for a time with his top student in Shanghai – professor Yu.

Professor Yu combined the extensive information about yiquan, learned from Wang, with his own medical background and broadened yiquan into a healing qigong, as awell as a potent martial arts complement, He is directly responsible for teaching many of the doctors at the Shanghai Qigong Hospital.

There are two facets of yiquan qigong, One is the standing medication (zhang zhuan) and the other is the many qigong exercises that characterize yiquan. Standing meditation is the backbone of yiquan practice. It teaches you to relax your mind and muscles, allowing qi energy to flow uninhibited throughout your body. It also develops deep, even breathing patterns, letting more oxygen reach all parts of the body.

Peng Si Yu compared qi energy to being very close to the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood. That’s why breathing patterns play an important role. However, that extra oxygen can go nowhere if your muscles are tense and prohibit smooth, even blood flow. Simply put, standing mediation develops more qi energy and promotes better health by removing qi blockages and poor circulation caused by stressed and tensed muscles.

Qigong exercises have a different purpose. They are designed to teach students how to move all of this qi anywhere they want in their bodies. For instance, knowing how to collect and move your qi into your hands and out through your fingertips may be very useful for healing someone else’s illness or injury. Knowing how to move it into the lumbar region of your own back can help heal low back illness, such as arthritis or disk problems. You can also facilitate quicker healing of connective tissue injuries, such as strained or sprained muscles, with qigong healing practices.

Combine the two with a balanced regimen of standing meditation and qigong exercises, and you have the recipe for a healthy life.

Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong is a columnist for Inside Kung Fu.

To discover the many benefits of Tai Chi and Qigong visit:  whitedragonmartialarts.com

Training for Life

Inside Kung Fu March 2001

by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

There’s more to qigong (chi kung) than what you do. Whether or not your qigong practice improves your health and well-being also depends on where you practice. Your qigong environment is critical to the success of your qigong practice.

My own qigong teacher, professor Peng Si Yu , emphasized the importance of practice in the right environment. He believed that where and how you practice is as important as your practice technique. Here are a few tips toward better qigong practice.

Do not practice either meditation or qigong exercises in a room that contains mirrors or large metal objects, such as a furnace. Your qi (chi) energy can bounce back to you from a mirror or metal object, causing a disruption in your body’s energy flow. This may cause energy blockages that can make you dizzy, disoriented or even ill. Do not stand directly in front of a mirror or metal object. Instead face something non-reflective, such as a regular wall.

Do not practice deep meditation outside or in a drafty room. When you are in a deep meditation your pores open. Open pores can absorb drafts, causing you to become ill. If you sweat when you practice standing meditation, change to a clean, dry shirt immediately after standing.

For those who like to practice outside, only do qigong moving exercises or exercises that require your eyes be open. Moving exercises absorb yang energy produced by the many plants outside. Since qigong moving exercises are designed to teach you to move your qi within or outside your body, extra yang energy helps keep qi flowing smoothly.

The best direction to face when practicing qigong is south. Other directions, except north, are acceptable, however south is best. Because north represents a strong magnetic force, it pulls body cells just enough out of their correct alignment to disturb qi flow. South, being the opposite of north, allows the body to relax and qi flow to move smoothly throughout the body.

Do not practice qigong, especially meditation, with either a full or empry stomach. If your stomach is either too full or too empty it draws blood from the skin to the abdominal area. When you practice qigong you need to have a balanced blood flow throughout your body, providing even qi flow.

When you practice standing meditation take your shoes off to let your feet spread naturally. Then stand on thick, soft carpet to prevent the feet from getting cold. If any part of your body is too cold, your muscles will contract and restrict qi flow to that part of your body.

Do not wear any restrictive or tight clothing for qigong practice. This includes a tight belt or jewelry, especially an elastic band watch. Tight clothing or jewelry restricts qi flow.

If you pay attention to these practice tips you’ll find your qigong practice noticeably improved and your qi development accelerated.

Doc Fai Wong writes a bi-monthly column for Inside Kung-Fu.

To learn more about the many benefits of Tai Chi and Qigong visit:  whitedragonmartialarts.com

Training for Life

Inside Kung Fu March 1993

by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

Within Chinese martial arts, every school and teacher has their way of teaching etiquette. Some are more traditional and others more casual.

If you visit another school, you should know a few things that will not offend the other instructor. If the other school has an altar honoring the system’s past masters, make sure you bow or salute toward the altar as a sign of respect for those who led that style. Do not touch or handle another school’s weapons or training equipment without permission from the instructor or senior students.

When observing a class or workout, do not carry on a conversation with someone sitting next to you. Although you might have something to talk about that doesn’t related to the class, people who don’t know you may ting you are making joke or criticizing them. So, talk later. Remember, those people working out have no idea what you are saying and may react defensively to your laugh or smile.

Now, what about your own school? If your entire school has a dinner out, with more than one table, arrange with the waiter to serve food to the instructor or VIP table first. Since they usually sit at round tables, Chinese table manners dictate that you don’t have to pass the food around by picking up plates. Most large round tables in Chinese restaurants have lazy Susan turning wheels. Just rotate the wheel to bring food to you. Again, make sure your teacher or seniors get first choice as you rotate the Susan. If the table doesn’t have a lazy Susan and there are three or four courses on the table, it’s all right to stand up and reach over to the other side of the table to get the food. If someone reaches for the same plate, don’t clash chopsticks; let the other person go first.

When eating in a Chinese restaurant, it’s appropriate to hold the bowl in one hand and the chopsticks in the other hand. Scooping the rice directly from bowl to mouth with the chopsticks is also acceptable. Use the serving spoon to pick up food from its plate and place it directly into your bowl only one course at a time. The plate in front of you normally is used only for bones and leftovers. It is not good Chinese table manners to take a little of everything to put on a plate in advance, Western style.

When taking pictures with instructors and senior students, always let the master sit down in the front row, with you standing behind. If the occasion is a big get-together, always invite you teacher or the highest seniority person to sit in the middle of the front row. Other VIPs with high seniority can sit on either side of the middle.

Although you might be the event’s host, you should still stand in the second row in the middle, behind your teacher. Even if there are celebrities or movie stars present, if they are very young or lower seniority martial artists than your teacher and other instructors, invite them to stand next to you in the second row-not sit in the front row.

Never sit in the front row with your teacher for photos, unless your teacher wants you to. If that happens, your teacher should be directly in the center, with you at his side. Never let your teacher or someone higher ranked than you stand behind the front row.

Some instructors might like you to call them by their first name; in that case you may do it in the school, but outside the school address your teacher and other instructors by their title and last name only. Remember, not all teachers want to be called by the first name. In general, most Chinese do not like to be called by their first name, unless you are the same generation, level or ranking - and then still not in public.

I see people at tournaments, not knowing correct martial art etiquette, salute with the right fist while their left hand holds a weapon. The correct salute is with the right hand in a palm position, rather than a fist. Although the normal bow is left palm over a right fist, since in this case the left hand is holding something (the weapon), there is nothing to cover your fist. The fist is covered only because it is the punching weapon.

Remember these etiquette tips and you won’t offend your own or a visiting instructor.

Doc Fai Wong is a columnist for Inside Kung Fu.

To learn more about Kung Fu and Tai Chi visit:  whitedragonmartialarts.com

Training for Life

Inside Kung Fu 1982

by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

Today’s Kung-Fu is not like 10 or 20 years ago. Now more people understand Chinese martial arts. Although there are plenty of unqualified teachers around, Americans try their best to learn real Kung-Fu and promote and promote their systems.

If Chinese martial arts have a failing in the Untied States, it’s because we need more qualified instructors, teaching full-time as professionals. So far pure Kung-Fu schools are few and far between. When you open Yellow Pages, you don’t find too many kung-fu schools. There are plenty of schools that advertise Kung-Fu, along with Karate, Ninjitsu, and anything else that you want to learn. Those are what we call “chop-suey” martial arts, taught by people who have mixed everything together, trying to sell whatever they think the public wants. They aren’t pure Kung-Fu systems.

There is a problem with these mixed-up styles. Many of the instructors learned a little here and a little there, but not enough for a full understanding of what they are trying to teach. They may teach fancy movements without knowing the applications, leaving their students seriously compromised in real fighting situations. They may also cause their students internal and external injuries through incorrect training practices, such as improper breathing methods, or dangerous techniques.

There are also a lot of Chinese teaching kung-fu from Hong Kong or Taiwan who once learned a little Kung-Fu. Then they come to this country maybe as a restaurant cook and tart teaching kung-fu or tai chi as a sideline business after working hours. Later, because these instructors were only part-time students, then part-time teachers, their schools close, leaving many students without a teacher. Unable to find a good instructor those students try learning from a book or a videotape, and the quality of their Kung-Fu drops even lower.

However, Americans have a great appetite for Kung-Fu. A large number of non-Chinese instructors make frequent trips to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China to learn directly from the Chinese martial arts experts. They do it because they know that we have a need for qualified teachers here. They can recognize the difference between true traditional Chinese martial arts and the “chop-suey” systems.

I don’t believe that today’s Kung-Fu has reached maturity. The few good teachers are located mostly on the East and West coasts, leaving the nation’s Midwest Kung-Fu starved. Many of this nation’s “chop-suey” schools spring up in areas where there are few good teachers.

There are more and more Chinese teachers coming here for temporary visits, teaching and spreading their martial arts. Many of them are Wushu (China’s new acrobatic martial art) coaches from Mainland China who teach only Wushu gymnastic exercises.

Occasionally traditional Kung-Fu experts from China visit the United States for short periods of time, teaching only pure tai chi or Kung-Fu. The only problem with visiting instructors or with the people that make only one trip abroad for a few weeks or a month is that there‘s not enough time to learn. It’s long enough to learn a Wushu form, but not enough to understand higher training levels like fighting applications or internal strengths. Only those Americans who stay in Asia for a long period or make frequent serious study trips should be called qualified Kung-Fu teachers.

In another ten years, things here will have changed. More Americans will have learned good Chinese martial arts from instructors here and abroad. Their knowledge will be at a higher level. At this moment, the quality of American Kung-Fu depends on us, American-based instructors, both Chinese and non-Chinese. We have to develop future experts from our own students. Our responsibility is to give them our best knowledge and help them become teachers. If our best students don’t become teachers, we won’t have enough people to promote our traditional systems.

The future starts now. I want to pass on my kung-fu and tai chi systems, not only to Chinese, but to anyone who wants to study and promote the martial arts they way they were intended to be practiced..

Americans are human beings like everybody else. Some people may say they aren’t built right physically, or they don’t understand Chinese philosophies, but the Chinese even say that about other Chinese. Northerners say that Southern Chinese aren’t built right for northern kung-fu. I see a lot of Southern Chinese do Northern Kung-Fu as well as Northern people, so why would Americans not be as good as Chinese? I have also seen Caucasian and Black Wushu stylists who do their forms just as well as Wushu people from Mainland China.

Actually, Americans have the potential to be better than Chinese at kung-fu and Tai Chi. They have more leisure time, more expense money and better nutrition. Americans consider martial arts a treasure, so they put more effort into learning and understanding Kung-Fu than do many people in the Orient. Americans have more time for diligent practice. They have more money and freedom to travel to whatever teacher they choose. For example, the average Chinese from Guangzhou can’t go to Beijing to learn from a high-level, because they don’t have they don’t have the time or money for travel and study. Even if they did have the resources, what would they do with it? They can’t make a living teaching martial arts in China today. At least here, people can use what they learn as a profession, giving them more incentive to research and study every facet of their martial arts, rather than just give it up after a few years. There’s no reason American martial artists can’t be better than their Asian cousins.

Doc Fai Wong is a columnist for Inside Kung Fu.

To learn more about martial arts training in San Diego visit:  whitedragonmartialarts.com

Training For Life

Inside Kung Fu February 1987

by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

Yang style Tai Chi chuan is the most popular internal form practiced in the world. Although the current rage in China and the United States is Chen Tai Chi, recently organized as the origin of today’s tai chi styles. Yang style still remains the leader among internal styles.

Why is that? Yang Tai Chi is popular with its slow even tempo and can be practiced by everyone. However, the Chen style, which bases it’s form on hard and soft and fast and slow movements combined with low balanced stances is strictly for more limber, athletic people.

Many Chen stylists believe Yang Tai Chi Chuan is no longer a fighting style. They say it’s too soft, contains no “ging” (external power) and its good only for exercise. However, there are knowledgeable masters of the Yang style who develop ging through special exercises and practice the tai chi form in a martial manner.

People in China today practice a form of Yang Tai Chi called the short form, which consist of 24 movements and takes four to six minutes to complete. The short form is not a part of original Yang Tai Chi. The one legitimate form of Yang Tai Chi Chuan has over 100 movements and is referred to as the long form.

Today, there is confusion over how much time it should take to complete the long form. Accounts of Yang Tai Chi legendary master, Yang Cheng Fu talk of a long form taking about 15 minutes to complete. Other stories return to forms lasting more than an hour.

Who is right? Both are right and wrong. As a martial art (the primary reason it was practiced by its originators), tai chi is an exciting style that requires pinpoint timing and the complete connection of the practitioner’s body into a unit of relaxed power. The only way to achieve those goals is to practice the form slowly and carefully, making sure all body movements fit together into a fluid pattern of soft power.

However, the form is practiced with intention and focus. Remember that tai chi chuan was originally designed as a martial art. Even as a health form it is more beneficial to promoting good health if some focus and intention are added to each movement.

For all indications, tai chi’s greatest masters took up to an hour to complete their forms. However, this way was not an hour of slow, even movement: it was 60 minutes of moving into one position checking and correcting the form, moving at regular speed into another position and repeating the procedure. The old masters also needed practice time to correct themselves.

The idea that the form should be slowed to last an hour is wrong. Performing the movements that slow will break the timing and natural flow of energy so necessary to tai chi chuan. When the Yang Long Form is practiced in this manner, it looses its martial art aspect.

In days past, practitioners were ready to move on to the martial form of Yang tai chi chuan only after spending years on the Long Form. As a rule, no matter how forceful or soft a fighter’s techniques are, they will all exhale after each strike. Their breathing patterns will naturally adjust to a one-breath, one-move rhythm, both to emit maximum power and conserve energy. Tai chi chuan is no different.

The Yang Long Form fits well into a pattern of one-breath, one-move actions, collecting and releasing strong connected power from relaxed movements. Remember, although this one-breath, one-move concept sounds easy, it will just be a jumble of unconnected, powerless moves without years of slow and smooth practice.

Yang style Tai Chi Chuan’s only form should first be practiced slowly to develop timing and coordination. At the higher level, the same form, with the same connected movements is blended with breath control to produce a ten-minute fighting form.

I have been discussing tai chi chuan as a martial art. There are many who are only interested in its health benefits. There is nothing wrong with that, but as long as you intend to derive its health benefits, why not, at the same time, receive everything tai chi chuan has to offer.

Doc Fai Wong is a columnist for Inside Kung Fu.

To learn more about Tai Chi Chuan visit:  whitedragonmartialarts.com