YCGF Maryland Wu Taiji Seminar 2008

Last weekend I attended the Wu Taijiquan seminar offered as part of the Maryland chapter of Yin Cheng Gong Fa. Paul Cote hosted his teacher, Zhang Yun, for three days.

The first day was an evening class held at Capital Aikikai, detailing the opening sequence of Grandmaster Wang Peisheng's 37 step Wu Taijiquan form. That evening we worked on examples of using taiji principles in response to various grabs, all drawn from the opening sequence of the form.

Saturday was devoted towards Taiji weapons practice. Master Zhang detailed the second half of the Taiji jian form, and at the end of the morning we went through the form in its entirety. It was a great review. Now I feel as though I have a solid grasp of the sequence and gross movements of the jian. What remains is to work on it for a number of years to fully explore the depth of detail he presented.

Also quite interesting was the instruction in Taiji spear. Taiji does not have a staff practice -- only a spear practice. But its spear practice is one of the highest level approaches to that art. Zhang laoshi stressed that learning the spear form is useless without a firm grasp of spear basics, so instead of detailing movements from the form, we spent the afternoon learning basic thrusting and deflecting practices. It was a grueling workout, but well worth the investment in time and energy. I hope to add spear practice to my weekly practice schedule and gain a better understanding of that quick and elegant weapon.

A related practice is Taiji Sticking Staff (Taiji Zhan Gan), a paired practice that helps develop taiji skill, similar to tuai shou, with the spear. Here is a nice clip on Youtube of the late Grandmaster Wang Pei Sheng. Also on Youtube is footage of Wang practicing Taiji Zhan Gan.

By Sunday I was quite exhausted. That morning we detailed the third quarter of the 37 step taijiquan form, beginning with the kicking series and working through "snake spits out its tongue." I feel that exposure to Zhang laoshi's explanations really helped me get a better handle on the intention and the specific movements associated to each posture in the form. Seeing his demonstrations of hands-on skills were quite illuminating.

Highlights of the third day for me included explanations of bagua theory in taijiquan and the meaning of some acupuncture points described in Lu Sheng Li's book. One nice part of the seminar was Zhang laoshi's ability to relate his understanding back to various classical texts written on martial arts and strategy, so that one came away with a sense of our practice being firmly rooted in tradition and correct transmission.