In this workshop given by Mark Langweiler, we explored both the theory and practice of joint locking. Working progressively from locks on the fingers and hands, through wrist , elbow and shoulder locks.

Mark covered the principles behind the Chin Na and related the locks practiced in isolation in the workshops to those found in the 108 movements of Wu's style Tai Chi Chuan.

The top photo shows the effect effect of a thumb lock where the recipient is led to the floor by progressive use of the lock and stepping. The second two show the effect of an elbow lock, combined with a bend at the waist and a strike to knee to floor the recipient.

This move is graced with the name "two children bow to Buddha".

The Video clip gives a flavour of Jae's teaching at the workshop which covered many aspects of Push Hands either in a fixed feet or moving style. The workshops are very much hands on with members able to switch between different training partners to get a feel of how different people are when pushing hands. Jae always gives plenty of individual attention during the workshops, as well as some tuition as set pieces for the group, as can be seen in this clip.

   

The Instructor's workshop are a regular feature of the Academy training.

They are not so much didactic set pieces as much as peer review and mutual support groups. Instructors and would be instructors come together with Don Spargo acting as the facilitator to discuss the teaching particularly of the forms and The Form. 

This particular workshop focussed on teaching the eight week beginner course, what it entailed, how to approach it, what and how to teach for the course.

The deeper purpose of the workshop is to ensure instructors are all teaching the same thing and that the teaching is uniform, but not a robotic repetition of a script. This way we endeavour to keep up the standard of the teaching and at the same time share our problems and concerns in an open forum that is free of ego, argument or rancour.

Assistant Instructor Neville taking Steve and John through the form "Grasp Bird's Tail", viewed from both sides. On one side Mal and Roy are observing,on the other side Richard and Sangeeta observing. Feedback and criticism is given afterwards by the observers and people receiving the tuition. We can use the video projection facilities to consult the 108 Form DVD of Master Wu playing the form to see if our teaching method and style measures up to his rendition of the form and the way he teaches.

Wu style 54 Form (Competition Form) 16 February 2008

The workshop was given by Don Spargo primarily to teach the 54 form or competition form to the group. In the event most people had had some experience of practising the form so it was for some refinement rather than a new experience.

Don began by talking about the history of the form and how it had been designed by Grandmaster Wu Kong Yu and senior members of the Hong Kong Academy between 2000 and 2002. The form is a subset of the 108 movements of the Wu style Fast Form. This however does not mean it is just like the 108 movement form but speeded up. The competition form has its own particular characteristics of smoothness or continuity of movement and a larger frame than the standard form. All the Forms are recognisably similar to the 108 standard form, but different. There are also a few changes in the sequence of the forms from that in the standard Form.

The aim of creating a competiton form was so that in competitions judges would have a single form for comparison, irrespective of where the competitor hails from. Don said the further aim of the workshop therefore was to introduce the students to the form so they could practise it should they want to go in for competition. However the form is a beautiful form to play and is worth learning in its own right as an enjoyable series of movements, and will extend or expand the students experience of Wu's style Tai Chi Chuan

The presentation consisted of single form exercises so that the students could undertand the ethos of the form, and how it differs from the 108 form they had already learned. There are two pitfalls when learning and playing the competition Form. Firstly that the movements revert to the less circular standard 108 form, or that the student thinks that by merely doing it faster that continuity of movement is achieved, thereby forgetting the essential style of the forms.

After the single form exercises the class worked through the sequence of the Forms from beginning to end going through each one in some detail. There were recaps of sequences of forms so that the whole form was gradually built up into the whole sequence. It was also useful to have big screen projection facilities available so we could see how the Forms were presented on the tutorial DVD and compare the classes attempts with those of Master Wu Kwong Yu.

The class ended with the whole class going through the entire 54 form in a slightly longer time than is normally recommended for competition(5 - 6 minutes) however for a first time for some it was a notable achievment.

37 Forms workshop by Peter Gravett 20th Jan 2008,

The intensive was entitled the 37 forms, this being the sum of the individual forms that comprise the 108 movements of Wu’s style Tai Chi Chuan. Peter had the group practise the forms individually rather than in the contiguous sequence of the 108 movements, but observing the order in which the forms first appear in the 108 movements. So for instance the form “Punch” was practised before the form “wave hands like clouds” because that is the order they appear in the form, rather than group them say by stance.

The individual forms as exercises were played, where appropriate, both left and right, or forward and backward. This produced some interesting results and quite a few laughs as participants struggled to co-ordinate the form on ‘the wrong side’. It proved as challenging mentally, just visualising the exercise as it was physically.

Some forms like Brush knee and repulse monkey complement one another providing both forward and backward stepping and left and right upper body and hand movements. Others, however, like grasp birds tail done starting on the right rather than left or wave hands like cloud proved a might trickier to perform the other way round.

Peter often referred to the forms by their original mandarin names and gave the various translations, illustrating how the name of the form had relevance to its shape or action. In some cases he alluded to cultural references such as the form “Needle at Sea bottom”, which could have been derived from the classic tale of the Chinese Immortal – Monkey, and the tale of his Journey to the West, where Monkey managed to retrieve a magic needle (which could turn into a long pole) from the river bed, after his fight with the river king.

A further illustration of the ‘all round’ style of Peter’s teaching was illustrated when he was talking about the form “Strike opponents ears with Fist ”. This is in fact directed at the acupuncture point Tai Yang, which is on the temple between the corner of the eye and the top of the external ear. If struck hard it will cause unconsciousness. This led during the break to a lively discussion about acupuncture points and strikes.

Some of the form exercises were done as stepping sequences e.g. “parting wild horse’s mane” or “Brush knee” and one set of forms was combined as a sequence referred to as the “beautiful kicks”. This was a series of kick forms which can be strung together to give a continuous practise set.

When asked about the number of repetitions for the forms as exercises Peter replied that the traditional view was that it should be in multiples of 3 for all male class, multiples of 2 for all female class, so 6,12, 18,24 repetitions are all good for mixed classes. However he was at pains to emphasise that the number of repetitions should not be so many that the muscles and joints end up getting strained and Chi getting blocked.

Workshops with Grand Master Wu - June 2007

The workshops were held over three days, June 16th, 17th & 18th,beginning at 09:30 and ending about at 17:30 with an hour and a half for lunch. Sifu paced the six hours of training very well, and each day had its own theme.

The first day was essentially an all levels day with the emphasis on basic posture, and form correction. This focussed on basic training for practicing Tai Chi Chuan, and how attention to detail and basics pays benefits when practicing the form.

The second day was devoted entirely to pushing hands training. This moved from single hand push hands through four corners, five centres, two hand push hands to the more complex stepping push hands such as 9 Palaces push hands. The training was interspersed with demonstrations of applications of forms relating the style of push hands.

The last day was given over to power generation and form applications, and the more martial side of tai chi chuan generally.