Stances

Training stances is usually considered a boring practice, and most teachers no longer emphasize it as was traditionally done. Why? Because for a beginner it IS boring! No one can argue that stances are a fun practice for beginners. However I'd like to remind students of the Chinese maxim “Chi Ku” which translates as "Eat Bitter” or "Eating Bitterness". It is a Chinese phrase for enduring hardship to achieve the sweetness of power and/or success. We can't learn to read and write without first learning letters. They are the basic building blocks of written language. Letters let us build words, with words we make sentences, next come paragraphs and then pages of full of text; but without learning letters any attempt to learn to write will be amateurish and flawed (at best). The same applies to martial efforts. That said, it is imperative that students start by practicing breathing, posture and balance. Over millennia Chinese martial arts have found that the most effective exercise for a beginner to train all of these is by doing stance practice, first static then dynamic. Therefore the most fundamental part of my own teachings is stance practice.

I like to begin with Zhan Zhuang or “Standing Post” meditation described in an earlier post. This is about as basic as you can get in Tai Chi Chuan practice. The posture is basically a relaxed or at ease position which is universal to every normal human being on the planet. You stand with feet about shoulder width apart and try to relax; the only minor difference between this and the way every one on the planet regularly stands still is that the arms are kept in front of the body. Honestly it's simplicity itself and sounds like the most idiot-proof thing on the planet for anyone who's ever used an average human body to exist, but ask anyone who's ever done the practice and they'll tell you otherwise. Whenever you begin to train any traditional martial art of any sort the first thing you'll usually hear from senior students are all the horror stories about all the grueling, torturous exercises that are involved. For my Tai Chi Chuan students the first horror stories start from day one with this stance. Though as I and their seniors will gladly tell them there is a justification and a method for this practice; their efforts in the beginning will bear fruits later in their practice, the first of which is learning how to relax.

For many reasons learning to relax, especially when under pressure, is about the most difficult thing to learn for people any and every person who's ever been in a tense situation. Every professional fighter, as well as military and police personal the planet over will attest to this. The conundrum however is that the more relaxed we are in a tense situation the more easily we can act and overcome the threats and challenges before us. To solve this problem training has been created to accustom individuals to stressful situations. Over time the student is trained within ever more difficult and stressful scenarios so that they slowly learn to asses the danger without becoming tense themselves. We train to learn to be the calm eye in even the most terrible storm. Otherwise we tense up, slow down and get taken out.

Standing Post Meditation is the first “baby step” I employ with my students on the long road of exercises designed to accustom them to stop being tense. Essentially you learn how to get relaxed and stay relaxed in while the most comfortable posture possible. Once this first and most basic posture has become a comfortable practice for the student staying relaxed while holding other, more difficult, postures is trained. Which postures are trained will vary depending on the school and the style, but many are standard within the Chinese Martial arts as well as other styles across the globe. As the student begins to master how to correctly hold the postures comfortably the next step is dynamic movement. The students can now learn how to make the transitions from posture to posture quickly and effectively while staying relaxed and balanced. Only after all of this has been trained will students learn the basic forms so that they learn how to coordinate the upper and lower extremities (aka the six harmonies) in movement. This is another huge milestone and the precursor to learning techniques and applications.

I must remind the reader however that posture training is a vital and necessary first step in effective Tai Chi Chuan training; it's what allows the student to learn how to properly apply the techniques. Much like building any structure if you want it to stay up you need a firm base, doubly so if the structure has to sustain vibrations and/or movement. If you've ever tried to apply any technique without proper form all you're doing is opening yourself up to your opponent's counters. Any technique fails without proper form, merely becoming a detriment to the student's safety by leaving them open and distracting them from the actions of their opponent. Therefore I must emphasize the virtue of this most fundamental and basic of all trainings, after all any baby who tries to run before he/she can walk, or worse, stand is doomed to fall and cry; don't be that baby.

-Jon

Here are some links that may be helpful:
How to: Tai Chi Chuan stance training
Gilman Studio On-Line Lessons
In addition take a look at this book:
Tai Chi Chuan 24 & 48 Postures by Master Liang, Shou-Yu and Wu, Wen-Ching. In addition to explaining how to perform both forms it gives detailed instructions on all the poses along with step-by-step pictures. Definetely a good buy.

13 Yang Style Spear

Yang style is know for its high, wide postures and its long, slow, flowing movements. This is also true of its weapons forms. Yang style has three traditional weapons: sword (jian), saber (dao), and spear (qiang). As with most Tai Chi Chuan styles the sword is the most popular and best known of the three. The saber is somewhat less common, but as another short weapon it shares several movements with the sword and is usually an easy transition for most students. The spear however is different.

The spear is the only long weapon trained in traditional Yang style (although today the Yang family now trains the spear form as a staff form*). It has always struck me as curious that being derived from Chen style, which like most Chinese martial arts includes a wide range of weapons, Yang style has limited itself to so few weapons. Even stranger, the spear, which was reportedly the weapon favored by Yang Lu Chan (the style's founder) is the least popular and recognized of all its forms.

The reasons as to why this happened are not wholly documented, though if I had to venture a guess I could point to several reasons as to why this happened. First it is important to remember that the style Lu Chan developed was famously created to teach nobles. As such it would be logical that they would focus on the sword, a weapon long associated with nobles, academics, philosophers, sages, and the highest ranking military officers. The saber and spear were mostly associated with foot soldiers and peasants.

A second possible reason for why the spear fell out of practice would be practicality. A spear is a long weapon and requires a larger space in order for practice, more space for storage and is more difficult to transport (those of us who've bought and shipped long weapons can attest to the increased cost incurred). Also it was nearly impossible to smuggle and practice during times when weapons were banned (you can't really conceal a six foot stick with a foot-long metal tip).

Lastly for Tai Chi Chuan practice it is a significantly more difficult weapon. Initially, as a long weapon it requires adjusting to two handed wielding (which is alien to Yang stylists since double weapons are not practiced). Another difficulty is the fact that being wielded at one end the spear (like all long weapons) weights more heavily on the arms of the practitioner. Long weapons will tire the practitioner much more quickly since there is no counter weight to help the student balance, forcing him/her to focus much more. Finally weapons in Tai Chi are tools we use to help us focus and project our energy and intent. The longer the weapon the more difficult it becomes to control it, and the harder it is to let our energy flow into it fully.

Despite all of these difficulties however I feel that it's important students keep the practice of the spear alive. The very challenges it poses for practice are the same reasons why I encourage it. It forces students to improve their posture and stances while relaxing their muscles (lest they become very sore and possibly fall over). It also forces them to increase their focus much farther than they otherwise would, this makes it the best tool I know of to help students learning to project their energy. In addition it helps students condition both arms evenly, which is an ongoing problem for all practitioners who use single short weapons. Lastly the spear is very different and (because it's so uncommon) special. For all of these reasons, and many more, I strongly encourage students to practice this weapon, especially those of you who focus exclusively on Yang style; it's a whole other world you don't know about and trust me, you won't regret it.

The Yang family usually refers to it as a 13 movement form, though I've usually seen it called a 16 or 18 movement form. Outside of the name, though the differences are minimal. Different stylists add more flair or flow to their movements by making wider or smaller circles with their spears. These moves are designed to block and redirect an opponent's weapons so I usually try to let that mindset lead my own practice, but if you choose to try and lose yourself in the smooth, uninterrupted flow of the movements that's certainly fine also. One other minor difference is the opening sequence, I've seen some stylists grip their spear by the butt and lift it straight up above in a sort of salute. This is very reminiscent of the Chen style spear form. I haven't found any reason behind this movement (neither as an application or as a meditative movement) and I was trained to begin without it so I do without, though I'd be pleased if someone who performs it could write me or leave a comment explaining it. I won't go into a detailed explanation of the form because words fail to effectively convey any martial movement, however I've linked a video with the form below. It's a great performance with a focus on simple refined movements and is an ideal starting point for beginners.

Lastly I'd like to give one final word of encouragement to those of you who would reject the spear in favor of shorter weapons. I can understand that the spear presents many new and different challenges, but remember that these are growth opportunities for your practice. Also I can tell you from personal experience that an hour spent on spear practice is not an hour taken away from short weapons practice; my sword form improves dramatically every time I take a break from it and focus on the spear. Besides, the spear form is very short and it gives your mind a break from what might otherwise turn into a somewhat single minded practice; the short burst of diversity in your practice will feel like a refreshing breeze of fresh air, so enjoy it!

*The Yang family still teaches the traditional spear form, however they now practice it as a staff form (they've made no other modifications to the form). I personally think this takes away from the practice and still train it in the original. For more on the Yang family visit their website at: http://www.yangfamilytaichi.com

-Jon

Check out this video from the wonderful people at:
www.Taiji.de