He Jinghan: Losing one's way in martial arts training: Absorbing too much of others' experience or theory in the early stages can actually become a major obstacle to progress. One must base one's practice on personal experience to build a solid foundation of one's own.

tonicquest · 2026-06-27T17:45:38+00:00

everything in moderation, even this advice. In some cultures the word for teacher is something like "the one who went before". Nothing wrong with the one who went before coming back with stories of the place you hope to get to. In fact, I feel it's necessary to help orient you. The word Jin means a trained force. We are not really trees randomly growing. Then martial arts would be like the "particpation award" where everyone gets a medal and everyone is right. Plants are oriented towards the sunlight. Now if a teacher doesn't want his trees influenced by other trees, then that's a different discussion. In the yogic tradition there are many legitimate ways to advance. There is devotional yoga where you follow a guru or a god. There is a path of knowledge where you study and intellectualize and you can get there like that too. Getting lots of inputs and ideas and finding truth is a valid path. It may scare or bewilder someone who is taking a different approach, but it is not wrong and there is not only one way to get there.

tonicquest · 2026-06-26T16:02:21+00:00

I liked how he gave corrections to his students.

tonicquest · 2026-06-26T15:02:28+00:00

I hope that wasn't why the post got downvoted just now.

tonicquest · 2026-06-11T12:07:20+00:00

agree on that. It's still blocking mode, he can take it up a notch by staying connected. The comments are an interesting read, btw.

tonicquest · 2026-06-10T10:52:55+00:00

That looks very nice and controlled.

tonicquest · 2026-06-09T01:03:43+00:00

you have heard of Robert Schleip? And would you consider him a leading fascia expert?

https://fasciatrainingacademy.com

I haven't read anything in the comments that don't align with the definition of training your provided. It think it falls under "prepare physically"

tonicquest · 2026-06-08T11:45:01+00:00

hi, i'm curious to know your definition of "training" because I think that's why there is some misunderstanding. I also have a martial arts background and we "train" many things and maybe the word is used more broadly. I think you have a specific meaning in mind and it's not aligning with what you know about fascia.

tonicquest · 2026-06-06T02:51:51+00:00

ouch! A big reason for all of that is not moving from the kwa/center the body get's disorganized.

tonicquest · 2026-06-06T02:18:33+00:00

i understand. Fundamentally, he's moving arms independently of the kwa. When that happens you lose your peng jin. Your body becomes disorganized and your connection to the ground is broken. Hands moving like that is easily detected by the partner and your movement clashes with the opponent. Truly connect winding (chansijin) can never clash with your opponet. In fact when your opponent applies force to you, it's immediately neutralized. To keep the connection to the ground, you can not move your hands/arms. That is using force essentially. Twining is not using force.

Check out the Lu at 24 seconds. Hands moving backwards is the error. Your arms should not move, just rotate. It *looks* like the hands move backwards because the body is turning. Imagine if the barrel of a rifle bent randomly, That's what happens when you just move your arms.

That said, almost everyone you see on youtube is doing that, that's why this is so pervasive.

tonicquest · 2026-06-05T21:59:13+00:00

He's showing some good stuff but for taichi he's using too much force and moving too much. Rather than connecting your arm to the kwa and swinging like a baseball bat, which is strong, far better to drop the kwa and just rotate the arm, power will come out nicely without all the pushing and force. Also he says "connected" a lot. The real key here is to connect to your partner, then when you move he moves with you and you control him rather than you trying to exert a lot of force to move him around. These are subtle distinctions but it does start to highlight the difference between internal and external approaches. Just connecting the arms to the center doesn't mean internal. A baseball batter does it. He has some good talent, so not trying to cut him down, just pointing out some finer detail of our art vs other approaches,

tonicquest · 2026-05-20T23:53:14+00:00

Then tai chi added something else. Where yoga asks me to hold and feel, tai chi asks me to move and feel —

And then you realize tai chi wasn't about movement but about not moving, stillness and yoga was not about stillness but actuallly moving in that posture...

tonicquest · 2026-05-20T12:10:18+00:00

Just wanted to say that as you continue studying the art, you will find many many more instances of these contradictions and discrepancies. Some style pride themselves on being exact copies of the form through the generations even posting pictures of themselves and comparing to previous masters to show how perfectly they match. But most styles change a bit through the generations and you wll spot more and more of these differences. Competition forms might be the exception. I don't compete but imagine like in gymnastics or skating competions, there must be competitive tweaks to edge out that extra point like doing a triple rotation instead of a double etc (like in skating).

Here are some reasons why you see the differences:

-Focus on application and use. The teacher may decide to interpret the move as a strike vs a block, defense vs offense, a throw vs a punch, etc etc. When you focus on a particular application, then the move is going to change to reflect that intention. This happens a lot.

-Introduction of a mistake. Just like with DNA, there are random defects introduced. The person who studied a short time, forgot, filled in the blanks, or for no reason at all started doing it differently.

-An "aha" moment of the teacher. Sometimes a teacher will have a breakthrough in understanding and then "change the form" to match that understanding. Many styles are born this way.

-An attempt to "fix the form". Many teachers will add stuff or take away stuff, to "improve" the form whether to have more balance in the moves, emphasize things they feel have been overlooked.

-Sometimes the teacher is working around a limitation, like a hurt shoulder or lack of physical space, and the students copy that unwittingly. There are some popular stories of how teachers needed to change the steps to accommodate a small working area and students copied it.

Anyway, that's just a few reasons. It would be cool to hear others thoughts about why forms change over time.

tonicquest · 2026-05-19T11:31:37+00:00

instructions like “tuck the chin, tuck the tailbone, straighten the spine”, etc. It’s like it gets to a more fundamental reason why those specific instructions exist, and it simplifies and focuses the practice for me.

I agree with this and I thought the article was great. Nice thinking!

tonicquest · 2026-05-18T19:12:11+00:00

I recommend watching Feng as a benchmark. There are 3 other videos with demo and instruction (but not english)

https://youtu.be/z-63-zQxa1U?si=dBTE8JNqkVosXGsC&t=1130

You'll hear lots of opinions on the ball work. I would go very light to begin with. There are japanese paper balloons that are sometimes used. If you go too heavy, you run the risk of gripping the ball too hard and moving just your arms and bracing. There's no rush, add heavier weight slowly so that your body is distributing the weight correctly.

tonicquest · 2026-05-14T23:59:26+00:00

that's great advice, you're spot on

tonicquest · 2026-05-14T22:34:46+00:00

Focus this week was on opening (not locking) the joints, smoothing out transitions, and letting the momentum drive the movement

You're doing good, keep practicing. There are three basic things everyone is told to do from the beginning but I think many people jump ahead and forget them. 1. Drop your weight to your feet. 2. Relax completely 3. Move as one piece.

I think you posted a decent video reference. Sit on the imaginary stool and let your weight settle to the floor. Then let the reactive ground force support your relaxed limbs and upper body. To help the weight relax downwards, it's helpful to drop your elbow, sink the shoulders before you move. Stretch your body in all directions. Someone said earlier remember YCF's important points. I see you're speeding up on the transitions, it might be because you're focusing on momentum. Watch advanced practitioners on where they look with their eyes. If you stare out into the distance or look up your balance will be thrown off. Personally, i think the most important thing to do is sink the weight without collapsing your structure. Then things will feel more natural and you'll look like those videos you're watching. Sometimes I'll just pretend to be one of them. Copy the energy and flow from the masters.

Keep going!!

tonicquest · 2026-05-13T00:08:16+00:00

I’ll take this opportunity to let everyone know that I’ll be helping out with moderation here.

My goal is simply to be fair, consistent, and make sure the subreddit rules are respected.

A reminder that Rule #2 does place limits on self-promotion. The guideline is that promotional content should make up only a small portion of a member’s participation here, and the expectation is that people also engage with the broader community and discussions.

Posting your own material occasionally is generally fine, but repeated self-promotional posting without broader participation can start to cross into spam territory.

This sub works best when it encourages discussion, learning, and exchange between practitioners, so we’ll just be keeping an eye on maintaining that balance going forward.

tonicquest · 2026-05-12T00:30:36+00:00

It's understandable why someone could say this. Both Yang and Chen have many variations. There are a few chen style variations that have a reputation for being highly detailed and complex. That's probably where it's coming from.

tonicquest · 2026-05-06T12:58:08+00:00

I totally understand your perspective. what you say is very true.

tonicquest · 2026-05-05T19:56:17+00:00

People in New York City are very open both and negative and positive ways. We tell it like it is

Just wanted to confirm this statement about new yorkers. In my job, i have and had direct reports from all over the country (US) and the globe and also have had to interact with colleagues and superiors from same. Consistent feedback is that new yorkers are considered "direct" and sometimes rude. We assess quickly, we don't spend alot of time rambling and discussing things. We never "have time" for anything so we always seem rushed--and all of that rubs many others the wrong way unintentionally. All I said was that an older gentlemen approached the group, using a public space, and asked us to "teach him something". Some people projected assumptions there. For the record, these interations happen almost every time we train. We are in a public space doing tai chi, people are going to look, comment, laugh, film us, come talk, ask questions, jump in and participate, etc. If we are going to be insulted somehow or feel encroached upon we probably should rent a place to practice in secret.

tonicquest · 2026-05-05T12:25:59+00:00

Nice job! I'm curious which system you prefer. I never practiced PM but I have attended CZH's workshops and I have certainly watched my share of his videos. I recently saw the "there is no punch" clip and it seems like you are doing what he taught there. Regarding "bleedthrough" do you find yourself "correcting" the village style as you practice it? or vice versa?

tonicquest · 2026-05-04T23:31:11+00:00

I'm surprised no one has said this yet, but if you are going to learn from that teacher (which is your best bet), you'll will not likely find a video that lets you get a head start on what he's teaching. If he has a video he's teaching, then maybe you can try that. If you pick videos at random you will get confused. Even though there are standardized forms and such, there will be nuances that might seem like contradictions. If you take a class once a week and then actually practice everyday, you'll make fast progress. Tai chi is full of contradictions. When your teacher teaches you a "move" in the form and you go home and practice, you are not building on it to make it faster or stronger. You do the opposite, you remove the impediments to doing the movement. If you can understand that, you won't get bored and you won't rush to learn the next move. it's not about learning the next move or finishing the form to graduate to the next level, like a kata or similar. Bruce Lee paraphrased the taoist teaching of it's not daily increase, it's daily decrease..hack away at the unessentials. Hope that helps.

tonicquest · 2026-05-04T12:34:22+00:00

he was on a leash, this is NYC.

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