Moving Natural, what stops you?

Sometimes you need to relax and one of the things I like to do, besides sipping tea, is watch “the big bang theory”. Yesterday I came across this great scene in one of the episodes which made me write this blog about moving natural. Here’s the scene.

Actually I already wanted to do this topic for a longer time since it is one of those core principles that everybody thinks different about or hears about in their training (If you didn’t you should’ve).
What does it mean to move natural? Do we move natural? If we don’t, then what the hell have we been doing for all these years?

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How, Tang Ni Bu 趟泥步 or muddy water stepping is a cornerstone for great health.

Tang Ni Bu 趟泥步: muddy water stepping.

In our Bagua-way we focus on walking the circle slowly as opposed to a lot of Bagua styles you see on you tube and the internet. Neither is better, though the aim and benefit of it are different. Everybody is talking about rooting and they’re right to do so. But before a tree can grow strong and have good roots into the ground, there needs to be a seed. Just having a seed is not good enough. Throw a seed on the road and I guarantee you won’t have a tree there next year. You need to create a good environment for something to grow. That environment is slow Tang Ni Bu 趟泥步walking.

I’ll try to explain to the best of my knowledge how something simple as Tang Ni Bu 趟泥步can pave the way for future success in Kungfu and great health.

“allow yourself to make mistakes.”

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Traditionele Chinese Kungfules leren begrijpen

Vandaag, na een geslaagde demonstratie, zat ik met enkele beginnende studenten na te babbelen over onze stijl en hun ervaring met Kungfu. Dat allemaal onder het genot van een Belgisch biertje (dat babbelt ook zo goed weg, he…).

Een van de steeds wederkerende thema’s is het gevechtsaspect van Kungfu. “Wat doe je nou met die beweging?” “Ik begrijp de gevechts-applicaties niet?” Als ik je vertel dat die studenten en jaar trainen zal je als leek waarschijnlijk denken; hun leraar legt het niet uit of hun leraar houdt het geheim of erger het is een slechte leraar.

Aan de grondslag van dit niet begrijpen en onwetendheid ligt een cultuur kloof.

  1. Een doel vs “De weg”:
    Wij Westerlingen zijn gewoon te leren met een duidelijk doel voor handen. Elke cursus of opleiding die je volgt zal zeggen: “Na de opleiding kan je dit of weet je dat.” (of dat zo is laat ik nog even buiten beschouwing).
    Chinees gezien is er een start maar geen einde. Je start zonder doel, geheel Continue Reading →

I believe this is something, Taichi and Bagua master: Tze Yau Pang, said once. Placing these little time-bombs in your mind is something a good master often does.. Once you’re ready to understand it hits you.

I often see students struggling with their form. All together that is not so strange, especially in the beginning, because traditional kungfu has a lot of rules and regulations. These are to ensure that you can keep growing in your practice, because you’ll start with a good foundation. Now the problem is that a lot of students, especially in internal kungfu systems/styles, do not get past this basic level. They focus so much on the internal structure that they don’t express themselves anymore.

You’ll know the feeling that your watching somebody perform but it looks dull, boring and not alive, though (and not even all the time) they have correct form/structure.

This is where master Pang is right. Do not just do the form, you are the form, you are the experience. If you can perform like that, people’ll get a complete different feeling when they themselves experience you (works well in other parts of life as you can imagine). Now of course it is not important what people think of your performance because there are deeper issues at play here. Psychological, mechanical, emotional,… (Maybe good for a future blog)

The thing is once you become an experiencer rather than a forms player, you’re Kungfu will open up to you. You will move as a unit, “Jing, Qi, Shen” as one (also for future blog)