{"id":241,"date":"2011-02-15T13:40:59","date_gmt":"2011-02-15T18:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/?p=241"},"modified":"2011-11-18T23:53:24","modified_gmt":"2011-11-19T04:53:24","slug":"the-tai-chi-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/?p=241","title":{"rendered":"The Tai Chi Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Potentially Famous 2010 Laojia Training Experiments<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Violet Li<\/strong><\/p>\n

Michael Chritton<\/a> of Swanee, Kansas, is a Chen Village (Chenjiajou)<\/a> certified Taiji instructor. In mid October, he posted a status on Facebook (FB) and \u201cwhined\u201d about his grueling training with his wife Master Chen Huixian<\/a>. Michael normally uses 20 minutes to complete one set of Chen Style Old Frame Routine One (Lao Jia Yi Lu). <\/a>For a training experiment, Michael made his movements slow and completed it in 30 minutes. Right away, he got lots of feedback. Others posted similar experiences when they practiced a form very slowly. This gave Kimberly Ivy<\/a>, a 20th<\/sup> generation disciple of Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang<\/a> and founder of Embrace The Moon<\/a> in Seattle, Washington, a fun idea. She started a FB group named The potentially famous 2010 Laojia Training Experiment<\/em><\/span> and invited some of her Facebook friends to join the experiment in which the participants will do Lao Jia Yi Lu at a slow pace for a week and at a fast pace for a week and compare the results.<\/span><\/p>\n

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World Taiji & Qigong Day in Central Park, NYC<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/span>Kim wanted to provide an open \u201csafe\u201d place for friends to exchange ideas and personal experience so she made the group private but group members can invite friends to join. The FB group was created in late October. The experiment started on Nov. 14 and ended on Nov. 28. At the highest, there were 77 members.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Chen Style Lao Jia Yi Lu is the foundation of all modern Taiji styles. Its extended form is practiced with a high\/medium stance and some advanced practitioners prefer it to be low. According to Master Chen Huixian, for an advanced practitioner, a normal pace is about 12 to 18 minutes long. Anything beyond 18 minutes is considered slow and a fast pace practice is about 10 minutes or less, though some did it in 7 or 8 minutes. Of course, beginners find it hard to do the form longer than 10 minutes simply because their leg muscles are not strong enough to sustain a longer practice without missing too many details.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of the Experiment members are advanced Chen Style practitioners; many are Taiji instructors; a few also practice Yang Style Taiji, Bagua<\/a> or external\/internal martial arts. They are located in different parts of the U.S.; a few joined the group from Brazil: one person was from the Great Britain, Malaysia, and China. Over two dozen members shared their experimental results. Some brought the experiment to their own Taiji classes and tried it out. In general, the experiment turned out to be a success for many reasons. <\/span><\/p>\n

Most practitioners noticed that practicing the form slowly allowed (or forced) them to care for more details. Lao Jia Yi Lu is extremely sophisticated. As the practice goes deeper, practitioners discover rich details, either in external movements (i.e. hand twining, Kao shifting, knee positioning), or internal exercise (i.e. breathing properly, Qi circulation, Dan Tian rotation), and also in spiritual enlightenment (Shen). The general consensus about practicing slow are: <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n