Tai Chi's Secret Powers: 8 Combat Energies Explained
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ส.ค. 2023
- You may know Tai Chi as containing a long form of techniques, perhaps as many as 108 techniques. But do you know what they are based on? In the English language there are many thousands of words, but they are all based on the 26 letters. Once we mastered these letters in kindergarten, it was only natural that we will then successfully learn the language. And what are the letters of the Tai Chi Alphabet?
In Tai Chi, all techniques are based on the 8 Primary Energies. They are Ward Off (掤), Roll Back (履), Crowding (擠), Pressing (按), Plucking (採), Splitting (列), Elbow (肘), and Leaning On (靠). These eight techniques amazed the Qing royalty and military and earned Tai Chi its place in martial history.
In this video you will learn the Yi (意), the Intention behind how each of these energies function. With the right Yi and the appropriate energetic quality, you will discover a growing awareness of these 8 essential Energies in all of your Tai Chi. And as you do so, you'll have the alphabet of Tai Chi that lets you grow towards Tai Chi mastery, naturally and completely.
When you begin to experience the magic of Tai Chi's essential Energies, how will it affect your practice? How will it improve your well-being?
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amazing explanations. thank you very much
Thank you for sharing this clear & insightful explanation! :)
Previously I've heard many explanations of why the 8 energies are categorised the way they are,
especially why there's a Primary vs Support dichotomy, but those explanations felt a bit forced.
Watching this video is the first time I'm able to infer a system that makes total sense.
Below is my understanding:
primary, i.e. "general direction" energies:
peng & lv : both drift the opponent in some direction
ji & an : both momentarily compress the opponent
support, i.e. "surface" energies:
cai & lie : both interact with the opponent's surface
zhou & kao : both make use of one's own surface
I think you must be a very smart person because you do a great job of understanding the content and expressing it concisely! I would add that for Zhou and Kao, it is making use of your intention to direct force along your surface. That can be a useful key to help master those skills!
Thanks for the comment and summary!
@phoenixmountaintaichi thank you for your affirmation and further explanation too! ☺️🤝
Your teachings are a treasure 🙏
Thank you! It is everyone's collective interest that makes this possible and so thank you for being a part of this Tai Chi community!
Great explanations! It's great to have different perspective and understanding of the 8 Jin
Thank you and your great point about different perspectives and understanding!
Simplicity at its best! Looking forward to more videos. Structured and easy to follow. Keep up the good work. How about the breathing side of Tai Chi?
Thank you! About breathing, you may have experienced teachers saying to inhale on storing, or inhale on releasing, to expand your belly on exhale, or to compress your belly on exhale. And with the apparent variety of guidance you might wonder which one is right. As you train and experience them you can begin to realize that each one feels right in their own way at different times, and that is because they ARE all correct in their own way at certain times.
The most important, and most consistently true thing about breathing in Tai Chi is that you SHOULD breath, haha. Very rarely do you hold your breath (form a breath lock). And rather than memorizing when to inhale or exhale and to where, we can learn to align our intention, body, and breathing in such a way that our body automatically performs the proper pressurization of the best breath at that moment. This can be accomplished early on in Qigong training that promotes natural and optimal breathing. I'll be posting one in the coming week or two!
Thank you for the feedback and topic suggestion. I'll make a more detailed video about breathing. Stay tuned!
Thank you for sharing very clear and helpful very easy to understand you are a natural teacher looking forward to more of your powerful knowledge 🎯
Thank you for the kind words! Clear and easy to understand is exactly how I want people to experience these concepts. Thank you so much for the wonderful feedback and I look forward to sharing more to help people understand and enjoy Tai Chi! 🙌
@@phoenixmountaintaichi thank you for such a lovely reply i really appreciate it so much and send you strength and full filing day. 🎶💜😊🙏☯️☮️💥
Amazing. This Is exactly how I want to be taught tai chi. It's so easy to learn when taught like this. This Is probably the best instructional video.
I really want to see you make more.
Could you do a video on staying rooted while also doing other actions, such as dashing into striking range to attack? And being rooted while side stepping a punch, to counter the attacker?
I understand rooting while standing still and doing slow movements and know that it's simply how well your connect to the earth and are grounded. Not sure how to stay like that during certain actions, or if there's times where it's better to not be rooted, such as dodging etc.
Thank you for the wonderful feedback and encouragement! You have great insight on the value of being connected to the earth and you'd be right to realize there is more depth and finesse to rooting while movement. Because to move dynamically while being rooted involves also how you direct your center of gravity, such that you are flowing to your destination.
Many times people push off their feet to propel themselves, and you can appreciate how that is powerful and fast, until you stop and realize that in pushing into the ground you weaken your connection with the ground, because you are now opposing it, fighting against it.
And because of that, Tai Chi has a unique way of directing our center of mass that preserves connection and the capacity for instantaneous change (Zhong Ding).
We will be exploring this topic in depth in the discussion about the 5 directional movement energies: advancing forward, retreating back, tend left, tend right, and Zhong Ding. I may make a short video to illustrate your questions about dashing in and about side stepping before that though! Thanks again for the comment and enjoy your training!
THANK YOU excellent
Nice demo and explanation, thank you
Thank you!
Very clear expectations.
🙏
perfect explanation !!!
Thank you! Glad you find it helpful!
So very well explained and your skills are superb. Thank you for sharing your knowledge as well as your excellent teaching skills! Finally, someone who can decode this information in a way I can understand and begin to apply it!
It's so great to read your comment and hear your experience with beginning to apply it! I've always believed that these skills can be taught and transmitted in a surprisingly and pleasantly short time, and your success is proof that this is possible. Thank you!
@@phoenixmountaintaichi You are correct. Part of it is the demystifying of all the terminology and mystery. You do a great job at explaining things clearly for easy learning.
Watched countless videos on push hands demonstrated by great masters. But this one hits nail on the head. I have been practising CMC taichi form and I am familiar with these terms like 'roll back, press, ward-off' etc. But in applied push-hand they acquire a different dimension altogether while practising with a partner. If you happen to be in India, do let me know. Thanks.
Thank you for your comment! You're right about how a whole dimension exists beyond the form practice and how wonderful it can be to explore it. And if I ever get the opportunity to explore India, I would love that and will definitely reach out to you! 🙏
Thank you for your explanations and demonstrations of the 8 energies. It will provide a good focus for me in my practice and partner work.
I do wish for some clarification from your knowledge and experience. You teach An as "press" and Ji as 'crowding'. What I have been exposed to teaches Ji is press and An is push. In our Yang style long form, in the grasp sparrow tail sequence, push is done in a forward direction (we do it as upward split and push in the form), but there was one instructor I encountered who insisted everyone was doing it wrong, it was push down, which I've never seen anyone do before.
I did see you do that in demonstrating An as a sinking energy in that way, although I do realize that was not you demonstrating a posture from the form, but showing an application of the energy. Can you help me understand the difference from what I have read in from multiple sources that the first four energies are ward off, roll back, press, and push? Can An be understood as sinking, while pushing forward, or other directions
I very much am looking forward to your further videos explaining these in greater detail. You're a very good teacher.
Great question! In grasp bird's tail, Ji is the 3rd movement where your palms are facing each other, and An is the last movement where both palms face forward.
As to the translation, I think there's no perfect way to translate these Chinese characters to English, and there are multiple ways of translating it, just as in English, the word "Bat" can be a wooden stick to hit things or a flying animal.
The word Ji can mean "to squeeze" as you would to a toothpaste, or it can be "to crush" which is similar in linguistic to the press you learned , or it can be "to crowd" as in crowding someone's personal space or getting into a crowded bus. Because it is often used when in close range, when you don't have space to yield or avoid, I chose "crowding" as the translation.
For "An" it can be validly translated as both "push" or "press" as you'll see in Google Translate. They imply both a directionality, and also a sense of pressure such as "pushing the issue" or "pressing the point".
You're right that I wasn't showing it as the form. In the form, you are also right that An is still fairly forward directed. And your idea that An is forwardly directed with a sinking quality is very good. As you develop your Zhong Ding, central equilibrium, you'll notice more and more that it is your opponent that sinks, not yourself.
I hope this guides you with a little more clarity! I'm happy that you find the video helpful for your own training. You will surely experience more and more, the true nature of Tai Chi energy that goes beyond what words can convey, but is so much fun and so beneficial for us to practice!
Taichi is even more effective and deadly when a fighter is also trained in Wing Chun.
You have a good point! I imagine many more people have fallen to the Wing Chun blades than people have fallen to the Tai Chi sword! How have you found these two arts to complement each other?
@@phoenixmountaintaichi yes sir, and i practice and study them both. I am practicing Taichi since around past 15 years and Wing Chun since past few years. Both are great and vast beautiful science of martial arts. 🙏🙏
Wonderful, aand really, as you put it Master, Things do not happen in isolation.
In my humble opinion, beginners could be advised to watch the direction of the opponent´s force to make best use of the presentation.
Anoother, maybe hidden, aspect is the magnitude of force which calls for tactical thinking: If stronger, withdrawal or redirection is in place. when smaller, withholding , bouncing or redirectingis the solution. However, when equal force is met redirecting by using body rotation plus elbow could be the recommended.
Best regards, look forward to further presentations. Paul, 68, retired instructor of Karate.
Thank you for the thoughtful comment that really adds to the overview of the presentation! You're absolutely right and beyond that, I'm sure you helped some viewers to put these concepts into a useful context. We will explore each of these energies in greater detail in the future!
Yeah sure. Thats why its do successful in Muay Thai in Thailand.
Great explanation! Thanks for this clip. Is it correct to say, that peng energy is opposite to An energy, and that, Lu energy is opposite to Ji energy?
You would be correct to say that the direction of Peng and An are opposite, and that the direction of Lu and Ji can be opposite. And that idea can help you to distinguish the energies and learn them more quickly until you gain more familiarity and begin to make use of the more subtle characteristics, because you can understand that these combat energies are used together in skillful, strategic, and synergistic ways.
An has both a forward and downward component, but favors the downward, expansive expression. Lu is backwards and also to the side. Ji is forward and primarily a firm, bouncing characteristic.
As with other skills you've learned, once you have the skill you will begin to look at the strategy of using them. Peng is an ongoing, passive quality that both supports you and threatens the opponent's equilibrium. Lu is also an ongoing, passive effect that is looking for an opportunity to tug on the opponent's center. Ji and An are most useful when yielding is not immediately accessible.
Speaking to their synergy, the movements of the Tai Chi form often uses several energies in sequence or simultaneously. For example, Brush Knee Twist Step has a Lu in the initial block, transitioning to a Lie in the brushing, while the rear hand rises with Peng, and finally presses with An which occurs concurrently with the other hand's Lie. I'll put up a video about energy combinations and synergies in Tai Chi applications to illustrate this.
Thanks for the great question and I hope this answer helps your training!
@@phoenixmountaintaichi Thank you very much! Actually, your clip and this explanation gave me my first grasp of what it is all about with Tai Chi! And it made me wanna practice those moves! So thank you, and looking forward to see your next lessons :)
What is feng shou kung-fu fu
May be Kao is No. Seven??? And Nop. Eighjt, ? Sorry I do not speak Chineese. Paul.68
The woman dressed in black is not a real fighter if she is easily blown away by a breeze
what is a real fighter?
@@songninja yes!
no I'm asking you@@TheShavedleggs what is a real fighter?
@@songninja Is it someone who is good at hitting? Or is it someone good at blocking? Is it someone with empathy? Or is it someone psychopathic? Is it someone who has killed already? Or is it someone who never harmed anyone? Is it someone who believes in hell? Or ist it someone who is connected with the creator? Is it someone who gives away with love? Or ist it someone who takes out of greediness? The answer is within you, you already know.
@@TheShavedleggs Thank you for the mind opening questions. You have a valuable perspective for the discussion. And as we reflect on these questions of what is a fighter, what is fighting, it does bring forward certain thoughts about what are we really training? And why?
Long ago, Chen family Tai Chi was influenced by the experience of retired Imperial Generals. I wonder what they experienced and what they felt. When people practice Tai Chi and find these answers, do you think they will find peace? Harmony? And do you think becoming more skilled at fighting will help that process?
Thank you for the questions and the thoughts!
I’m a fan of this excersise. I just hate when they try to show it for combat. It doesn’t work against any real fighter.
Great point! I think people whose primary goals are combative are often better served training in one of the styles that is fully dedicated to developing that skill as quickly and directly as possible. Tai Chi history is deeply involved in the Chinese martial art world but today what my students love is how they are able to enjoy a martial practice that is healing, empowering, and self affirming. Thank you for your open minded comment!
@@phoenixmountaintaichi
Your comment proves you are legit.
When becoming aware of the mechanisms behind Taijiquan it is eye opening to see the actual force arising internally. For me, I did not really understand the energy behind the body mechanics until practicing Qigong for a long time. Until, I got in touch with the Chi inside my body was I able to become sensitive to others . Push hand applications take a certain level of awareness and understanding to really know these energies I.e. the simultaneous interaction between internal and external forces. Be prepared for years of training and regular refined practice to truly enjoy Taijiquan as practiced by the ancestors.
Dont call it martial art then :)
And it works for combat just need to practice REAL like in dachengquan
Is “combat” only a boxing match or UFC fight? Sometimes a fight is someone shoving you in a crowd or trying to knock you over and take your backpack. Combat could be a drunk person trying to get you angry or a dementia patient acting out of control. You don’t knock these people out. You use skills like the 8 energies if you have the skill.
Really funny !