Thank you for enjoying the content all the way from Australia! One time someone from Australia contacted me for in person classes. That's when I learned that Australia has a Phoenix Mountain 😅

Thank you! I think you'll really enjoy the practices we've been having!

Yes good point about subtle spirals and redirection. By keeping your awareness on the spirals on your and their surface, we prevent their force from seeping inside us to our bones, joints and center. This frees you from the limitations of your unconscious tension. And when you are free, your energy can go wherever you want, can it not? 🙏☯️

Thank you!

Thank you! 🙏

Some people are indeed less reactive to energetics, where the response is more muted, but still present. I consider fascia control to be a physical skill. And I've found it to be effective on everyone. That's part of why I teach fascia mastery first so you have a dependable tool that can help you evolve towards the more subtle aspects of internal skill.

@@phoenixmountaintaichi Thanks for clarifying. It makes a lot of sense. Have a nice day!

When you affect their fascia, apply just enough tension to press past their skin, to be able to glide their skin and fascia along their body. Too deep and the forces will begin to clash. Too light and it's hard to connect. Once you are connected, you can feel an awareness for the connections in their body. You can watch our other videos about Tingjin and silk reeling to find out more about this aspect. Once you have the connection and awareness, create the Quality you wish to have. In this video it's floating or sinking, light or heavy. I think in our KZfaq Shorts there are some simple exercises that open the door to this. Regarding sinking the hip, you don't have to be lower than them although that is generally advantageous physically. What I was doing is that I usually am a little more tense than usual when I let my partner lock me or push pull me to make it easy to get me. And when I demonstrate the response I relax and return to the proper relaxed Tai Chi body and show what to do. In live situation, you'd want to stay relaxed through your hips like that all the time. Regarding countering them when I don't have the leverage, it works because I have control of their energy Quality. It's like how, maybe one day you play sports and you have a clear shot at the basket or goal. But you are depressed or not confident, so your body doesn't do the right thing and you miss. My demo partner has the shot, but I control his energy quality and he floats or sinks and basically is unable to organize his body to make use of the leverage available to him. Does that make sense? I will make more videos of this some time. 😃

Hi Greg, in Seattle you might contact Steve Smith of the Little Dojo. He has a very high level of skill especially regarding the subtle skills and understanding of Intent and Qi. He also has tremendous experience in applying his martial art in critical real world environments. It's not exactly the same as what's shown here but overlaps substantially and if you like this topic you'll probably enjoy Steve's teachings too! www.seattlencgf.com/steve-smith

Thank you for your response. I am little familiar with Steve Smith. He studied with Fook Yeung and I learned his qigong from Steve Gray. Currently I am studying Prana Dynamics with Howard Wang. He teaches the essence of the internal martial arts which has been amazing. Taught myself the yang style 24 form. I very much enjoy your videos, thank you for sharing them with all of us. I am amazed how many schools that teach Tai Chi but don't teach the internals.

Yes Master Wang and his prana dynamics are excellent. And you clearly have an appreciation for the value of internal training. Back in the day, the Yang family was very secretive regarding the transmission of important internal practices. But beyond the combative advantages of internal practice, it is tremendously beneficial as a healing practice and as an enlightenment or self actualization practice. So let's practice internal arts today and realize all of these wonderful benefits! 🙌

Hi Greg, I just completed Howard's Prana Dynamics course. Just saying hello!

@@InternalTaiChi Wonderful! I am Three years in now and still loving it.

Oh very good question. I actually gave the example of how sometimes we can have the opportunity, like in sports a shot at the goal but fail due to confidence, as an example of why their joint lock and leverage doesn't succeed. But your question points out a flaw in that example in that it gives the impression that this is psychological, when it's not! I know it's not a psychological effect because I will sometimes do this to my son who is too young to consider confidence, or who is always overconfident in his ability to push me over ha ha. If you do this purely by distorting their fascia tension, and you can, and some popular Tai Chi demonstration online is pretty much that. That would be more like a neuromuscular effect. Our body uses fascia to measure how much tension we're placed under and how hard our muscles are working. If you disrupt that we'll move in unintended ways. This method though is a little slower than affecting their energy. There really is such a thing as energy. And it functions in how our consciousness and spirit interact with our body. If you consider that your body is physical and your spirit is not physical, then there is naturally something interfacing between that bridges physical and non physical. Through the fascia and silk reeling meridians you connect into them, and you give the energy a vibe, in this video usually floating or sinking. Giving a vibe is almost like an emotional sharing. Like when you want to tell a joke and your funny mood infects them, or when you want a friend to feel better and you hug them with warm intentions. It's not quite psychological but it's like emotional-spiritual. Does that make any sense? And just like we have to stay calm to do our best, in like bowling or darts or some sports task, as you disrupt the vibe, and the fascia neuromuscular tension, you can begin to have a huge and immediate effect on them. Thank you for asking the question and hopefully my long winded response is of help to you! I'm really glad you asked this question though so that I don't unintentionally mislead people. Thanks! 🙏

@@phoenixmountaintaichi I so much appreciate your detailed explanations. I suspect that in the original Chinese language, Tai Chi terms probably make more sense then when translated into English, the result being everything seems mysterious making it more difficult to learn. The western student never knows exactly what the goal of an exercise should be. I have always wondered about "Chi energy," whether it is an objectively real energy or just a subjective way of experiencing something physiological. But, I will say that I have discovered if I hold my hands as though I were holding a 6 inch ball (very relaxed) and move my hands back and forth as if rotating the ball, my hands will warm up, blood flow will increase and I feel what feels like a real energy and can even sting my palms a little. I tried putting a compass by my hands to see if it was magnetic but nothing happened.

​@@brianvandine1773You have a good point that things get lost in translation. And many of the masters who really understood Tai Chi may not have had the foreign language skill to fully share their understanding to the West. Regarding what is Qi energy, I find it most useful to understand as it a spiritual-emotional energy, rather than a physiological energy. You typically wouldn't be able to affect a compass with it although I see some demonstrations like that on youtube! I do not know how exactly that happens. Emotions however are kind of semi physical in the right way. They arise and affect you in all kinds of way, physiologically, like making your face blush or heart speed up or a heaviness in your chest. They affect your movement and posture, like to stand up tall or to slouch, to move quickly or slowly. They are infectious from person to person. And as much as they affect you physically, they also affect your Qi energy. Does that conceptualization help you? You previously mentioned psychological and there's one part where psychilogical aspect is totally important, and that is, for yourself. It's crucial to maintain a psychological state of ease and indifference, to not be too agitated or excited. That's what's deacribed classically as non duality or wuwei. So we need this optimal psychology, the right balance of relaxed physical state, and a command of our spiritual emotional state, and then we are completely ready to do Tai Chi. Make sense? I have a really simple exercise for experiencing Qi, in our KZfaq shorts. And a few variations that build upon it. Check it out, it may be helpful and enjoyable for you! kzfaq.infoueypN-wjdvI

@@phoenixmountaintaichi Thanks, I'll check it out!

🙏🙌

Totally agree with you! I hope to share with everyone practices, skills, and ways of being that, beyond how we have looked at combat and conflict before, that takes us above that to a harmonious way that can make the world better yet! If you're ever in southern California, you're totally welcome to visit us. We love meeting like minded people who value harmony within and a better future for the world!

@@phoenixmountaintaichi I certainly would love to meet you, train and support your organization! Maybe you could be the first to actually break away from the stigma of true masterful practitioners who for instance can show the excellent reality of internal martial arts to others like Joe Rogan who deems it “fake” and it “wouldn’t work in a real fight”! This soo disheartening to see to this very day, internal martial arts remains highly controversial and obscure, when all it would possibly take is one learned person to show the reality once and for all to a popular skeptic but sadly this never happens. 😳🤦🏻‍♂️🙄/👌✌️🤲☝️🤔

Right?? I've been working with some people who primarily train UFC type MMA or competitive BJJ. Some things are very challenging to deal with. I've been working on dealing with the modern sophisticated leg locks. It's like having to learn to do push hands with my feet! Another point of growth is how in Tai Chi, we assume the opponent is standing. In MMA obviously they may be kneeling or on the ground completely, and that changes how their balance and their Center works. These are all good ways in which Tai Chi can and should grow, and you're right working with UFC fighters would be great to help advance each other's art and skill. I met one person who is a grappling trainer for a local UFC fight team and he was very fascinated by Tai Chi's method of controlling balance and power. It was a lot of fun working with him. Thank you for bringing up an important point! 🙏

A negative comment elicits a positive response from the teacher creating a learning experience for all of us.

​​@@phoenixmountaintaichi I do not mean to disrispect anyone but believe that any Taichi masters stand very little chance against any average MMA fighter in a REAL street or octagon fight. It looks nice but it does not really work all that good in practice. How many Taichi masters do you see fighting in UFC, MMA or any other competition where people fight for real? Not many, of course for obavius reasons. Respect to you brother.

​@@CikaKoleI totally agree with you! MMA is extremely effective because of all the testing and refinement that has occurred in the MMA world from the open competition and availability of information. Most Tai Chi practitioners are quite unprepared to deal with that. And furthermore, in the modern era there is very little testing and evolution, and very little sharing of information in Tai Chi. I would really love to see that change. So part of what I hope to facilitate is to share how Tai Chi works, how internal power works, etc, so that people know its a thing and can begin playing with it, incorporating it, evolving it. In the 1990s, Royce Gracie came to UFC and showed the world that ground fighting is a thing. And it has only improved since. He didnt win perfectly beautifully but it was inspirational and BJJ is even more beautiful now. I would like to see a future where we show the world that Tai Chi skills can be a thing, and then years and decades later, it can be even more than it is today. Maybe it will or won't be as effective as other methods in MMA, but with sharing, testing, evolving, it can be better than it is today, and wouldnt that be nice? Thank you very much for the thoughtful discussion and your respectful comment. Cheers!

There are many masters with whom MMA representatives will have very little chance in a real situation! You don't seem to know that MMA is a martial arts sport, it should not be confused with martial arts. And the truth is that really good Tai Chi masters are not interested in proving anything, much less playing war in the sports ring!))) www.youtube.com/@MartialArtsInstituteG www.youtube.com/@titanpang/videos