Master Wei-Chung Lin, a disciple of the Yizungyue School and the Chief Instructor of the Chinese Taoist Martial Arts Association in Skokie Illinois, demonstrate Yang style Tai Chi fajin exercises based on Shian Tian Jin Fa (or The Pre-Heaven Power Method). Section One of the Yang style Tai Chi Chuan traditional form follows.
When you watch Part 1, please note that what is shown in the video are training exercises, not fighting scenarios!!! The practitioner is supposed to learn something from practicing these exercises with a certain amount of cooperation from the partners.
The major objective of these exercises is to measure the quality and power of the fajin movements after standing-stake training. Therefore, in most situations, the partner is requested to stay rigid and not try to yield. In other words, the person being thrown is live weight, much like a heavy punching bag. Following this protocol, the reaction of the partner faithfully reflects the efficiency of the fajin movement. If you are interested in examples of applications on resisting opponents, please watch our videos on Bagua and Xingyi in this forum.
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"....if you're ever attacked by someone armed with a banana, your first thought has got to be to eat that banana. Thus leaving him unarmed and defenseless." - ace
Impossible to say. It's a typical thing of true core fajin that you only see the result or feel it yourself. Outside, it looks "fake". You don't need to exaggerate the movements like Chen Xiao Wang does in that clip, and it's also a training tool to put strain on the body, especiaylly arms and shoulders, to get it used to the impact. Fajin does not need to be inside a jerky movement, it is a bump over a short moment and can sit ontop or inside every other movement. A shoulder kao fajin or such a lifting one can have very few motion, it would never appear jerky like a long distant motion like a punch. The Yang video looks less fake than many others I saw, so it either isn't one, or it's a really good fake, which I don't think.
__________________ "Fawning, but proud!" - (at least sometimes, in rare cases) "Killing them all didn't make it any better..." - "Are you a freak or something ???" - Max Payne "Theft is a crime, even in Iraq." - Me.
It's a typical thing of true core fajin that you only see the result or feel it yourself. Outside, it looks "fake". You don't need to exaggerate the movements like Chen Xiao Wang does in that clip
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Finally, someone says what I've been thinking. Thank you, Nik. I've seen that clip of Chen Xiao Wang do laps around the Internet, and I have been amazed at how many people view it as a good demonstration of fajing.
What I meant is not that the CXW thing is not a good fajin, but that it might NOT be fajin AT ALL. Just a fajin exercise, which is what he shows. The exercise does the things that work on the core without too much fa in it, otherwise your arms fly out the sockets if you connect nothing and have to pull them back with another fajin. His exercise is good, and he probably has a strong fajin too, but this jerk is NOT the fajin (per se). It is a jerk that helps to train on fajin components, but the final thing might be very small in comparision, when the jin is put in all out.
__________________ "Fawning, but proud!" - (at least sometimes, in rare cases) "Killing them all didn't make it any better..." - "Are you a freak or something ???" - Max Payne "Theft is a crime, even in Iraq." - Me.
Watching people trying to be the right kind of training partner in that first video got me thinking about how that in and of itself takes time and skill to develop. I mean, you don't start off knowing how to be a good training partner usually. How to know how much resistance to give to help them develop isn't always easy.
In training drills in push hands, it is easy to give away too easily or resist too much in a drill, not allowing your partner to develop at optimum level. I think about how some people have trouble telling the difference between a practice drill and treating it like a match they have to win! (I almost got my shoulder ripped by one guy like this. He joint locked me in a drill and used a LOT of force. I managed to go limp and fall with the force of his lock and walked away only slightly hurt.) Or how some students don't give enough resistance for you to get a true feel for it- like some of those students who seemed to jump back on their own.
I think back to the really advanced students who drilled with me as a beginner. Now that I know a little something, I can look back and see how their skill level and ability to read me and provide the perfect amount of resistance in drills has helped me learn and develop.
And sometimes, as an intermediate student now, I don't realize I have learned something about this too! That is, until I drill with a beginner and I see I am starting to develop this ability to have enough control and sensitivity to help my classmate in this way.
-just a thought
aaradia
__________________ I must not fear.Fear is the mind-killer.Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.I will face my fear.I will permit it to pass over me & through me.& when it has gone I will turn to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.Only I will remain.F.Herbert
I thought the first clip was a good demonstration of the problems with training and developing fajing.
How many partners are prepared to resist enough for you to blast them onto their back just to prove you can? Over and over again? Me, I'm going to ride the push and step back smoothly and I won't care if it means some one on the internet can't see the push. How do you control it? If you go flat out when you're first starting to develop you can do some impressive stuff that might look great on youtube but it's completely unreliable, it might disapear the minute you set up your camera to show off. If you start trying to make it impressive and going all out you can do yourself some unpleasant damage burning out. If you decide to "test" it sparring before you control it you can either injure your training partner for no good reason or find it abandons you and leaves you using pure "external" strength.
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Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you
High mountains are a feeling
I don't need to sell my soul, he's already in me
training it against one of those big hanging punchy kick bags is good
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"....if you're ever attacked by someone armed with a banana, your first thought has got to be to eat that banana. Thus leaving him unarmed and defenseless." - ace
That's what my teacher keeps saying. I have to confess I'm doing the training and taking him on trust at the minute and have been for some time.
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Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you
High mountains are a feeling
I don't need to sell my soul, he's already in me
We practice fajin a number of different ways. One way is to practice against a hand held pad. Have your partner hold it. Rest your fingertips lightly against the pad, sensing. Use your energy to hit the pad with the palm of your hand without removing your fingertips from the pad. Keep your fingertips in contact with the pad during the strike.
How much power can you put through the target? This is a good indication of the strength of your fajin. It's a variation on the one inch punch. Resting your fingertips against the pad and leaving them there prevents one from drawing back further from the target and using force instead of fajin. The power should be a pop not a push. The energy should come from your whole body, like a whip. Fast!
There are other ways we practice, but that's a pretty good one. You can use nearly anything for this practice: post, heavy bag, wall mounted bag, etc.
Practice hard,
David
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"The power of a punch is controlled by the depth of the will behind that punch" - Hsing-Yi Manual
-- Dharma-Zen Tai Chi Studio
Last edited by true; November 10th, 2007 at 11:09 AM.
I could think of a million better things to do in Japan for a month besides jumping off of picnic tables. - x893
