What is Silk Reeling?

[SPJ]

Good posts.

In Tai Ji, you think small and fine movements. You punch me. I punch you back. That is the gross response. In Tai Ji, you punch me; I pull you. You pull me; I press or punch you. (the opposite)

True. Yin and Yang happen at the same instant.

In push hands, you contact, listen and understand the direction and amplitude of the opponent's Jin. How do you stick or follow? You have to anticipate his moves. Right before his Jin changes direction, you have to sense and know. When the opponent starts to go in the other direction, you follow and add to it.

Sort of you are in contact, you sense, you know, you follow when he goes.

Yin Jin Luo Kong. (To guide and empty his force)

When you try to hit or push or pull the Tai Ji'er, you feel your force is emptied out. Because TJ'er use Chan Si to contact and merge into your force and guide it further beyond the limits of full stretch of your arms.

[twocircles]

It seems simpistic to say where he is Yin, I am Yang - like reducing boxing to "when he throws a punch, I punch him back"

Well, the concept is simplistic, but it not easy to execute.

The chansi movements gives you a myiad of options for responding to any attack. Because the circle has both yin and yang, there will be an appropriate response available.


Richard Johnson

[Kaitain(UK)]

not only is it not easy to execute - it isn't always true. There should be a list of Caveats:

except when you feel it appropriate to be harder than your opponent's hard
softer than your opponent's soft

Anyway, 'tis just semantics

[SPJ]

It is not about harder than hard or softer than soft.

They are not semantics. It is how it works.

Never oppose and never lose contact. (Bu Dew Bu Ding).

Rule number one.

The opponent is hard (Yang). You yield (Yin).

The opponent is soft (Yin). You control (Yang).

Chan Si is soft when meets and merges into opponent's Jin. (Not opposing)

Chan Si main Jin is still going in circle. The main Jin is hard or consistent and ongoing.

Once you are in control of the opponent's forearm, you direct with your own Jin.

Chan Si may become circularly upward, downward, forward, or backward or laterally to the left or right. 4 Zhen corners. or 4 Yu crosscorners.

Your positioning of steps have to be ready first.

You may push forward, pull sideways or pull toward you. It is easy. Your position has to be there first.

Plus Chan Si to contact and do the same above. May not be so easy at first. Practice. Think of a circle. Doing a circle. But still end at the same 4 general directions.

Think of swinging a base ball bat. The baseball goes where or in what direction?

[Kaitain(UK)]

For me it is about being harder than their hard - this is what I mean about semantics. Someone may come at me with hard force - but actually they are tense and therefore more Yin than Yang, therefore by using Yang I am in accordance with the concept. I can cut through their attack with ease because

Likewise, they may appear to be soft but with rigidity beneath it, rather than sung - therefore it could be said that they were Yang and so using Yin is appropriate.

I would hope that you would agree with this? By defining the incoming force differently, I can justifiy a different response.

I constantly strive to find the straight line in the circle (more semantics!) - I am not a complete novice Thank you for the baseball bat analogy though.

As I said, it is semantics - the study of the meaning of words and phrases. I was not dismissing the subject, as much as making the point that what we all understand by a phrase may well be the same, but how we explain it to one another can seem wildly variant.

We could then move on to how Yin and Yang are present in the same arm at the point of contact - soft energy that is redirecting an incoming force and sticking, whilst a hard projecting energy is attacking through to the centre...

I'm now trying to work out if the Yin and Yang energy is supplied by different legs - say with peng on the inside of a straight punch, maybe my lead leg is provding the energy to redirect, and the rear leg is providing the yang energy for the attack. I shall have to explore

[TaiChiBob]

Greetings..

Intercept, stick and listen (maybe only in a fraction of a second), but necessary to sense the opponents intentions, to find their lines of resistance.. feel the speed, direction and force.. then, set your angle of deflection and apply only enough force to deflect (too much force alerts the opponent of your own intentions).. while deflecting/yielding in one direction apply yang to either, (1) enhance the deflection into the emptiness, waist turns right, right hand leads deflects, left hand pushes/adds force to the same deflecting direction.. or, (2) right hand leads while left hand slips under and applies yang to add to the resisting force of the opponent, suddenly reversing the deflecting direction (parting the wild horses mane)..

Try pushing a beach-ball under water.. somehow it maintains a Peng energy and simply finds the place you are not attending to and slips back to the surface.. it doesn't worry about hard/soft, you supply the force, it goes around it.. Peng is the air in the ball, the buoyancy of water is your frame and spirit.. Good practice to stand in waist to chest deep water and push downward on a 12-20 inch beach-ball.. the dang things are pretty good at finding your openings/weaknesses..

I suggest that we don't over-intectuallize Taiji.. my experience suggests it is much more about doing than thinking.. in practice the answers are felt, not thought.. the mind will always interfere with pure action.. hard vs. hard is fighting.. soft vs soft is .. well, that's another story.. Taiji is control, balance with a touch of finesse in your favor.. and, at the moment of opportunity, a decisive conclusion to conflict.. For myself, Taiji is like dancing with an opponent.. i simply take the lead.. rhythm and harmony and practice determine how well we dance..

Be well..

[SPJ]

Good points, K;

There is hardness in conducting gentleness. There is gentleness in conducting hardness. It is indeed very difficult to phrase.

(Kong Zhuong You Ruo. Ruo Zhuong You Kong)

Yin and Yang compliment each other. They never go alone without the other. Thus the name is Tai Ji.

(Yin Yang Xian Ji)

Good insights as always, TCB;

The round surface of the ball dissipates your linear direction of force in all directions.

Chan Si movements make your Jin go in all directions in the circle. That is why when you contact the opponent's forearm, you have a Jin going the same direction as that of the opponent, (that is how and why you merge with ease, Yin/softness); at the same time you have a Jin going circularly somewhere else (Yang).

Cool posts.

[XeeBee]

Here are some animated clips of silk reeling (See the links entitled "....Chen Style Chan Si Gong"
http://balin.hit.bg/en/video_clips.html

Here are a couple of articles:
http://www.bkjassn.com/Styles/tai_chi/whj_training.html
http://www.chineseboxing.com/pages/A.../soloexer.html

And here are a bunch of links related to silk reeling
http://www.egreenway.com/taichichuan/silkreel.htm

[SPJ]

Cool.

Excellent links.

Cheers.