soaring crane

or a Wushu acrobat :-)

He has schools dotted around Europe, two in Germany, and he visits them once a year to see how they're doing. I was lucky to be able to attend last year; being an outsider, I wouldn't ordinarily even be informed of his visit. But being the only native English speaker in the group, he actually spent a lot of time talking with me directly, it was quite an experience. He mainly talked about women and politics, lol. We'd be standing there in the water position for twenty minutes while he walked around rattling off one anecdote after the next. Then he'd say, ok, fire position ... and on it went. He also revealed a lot of energy work, though. It was a good mix

Hello Adrien, and welcome to the forums! Glad you found your way to us :-) Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, SC and the TDB team

swept into her void her empty carriage wheel hub her spokes make it roll

He's wonderful, yes. I spent three intensive days with him last October and got the invitation to attend again this year. I'm not sure if it'll work out with the timing but if it does, I'll be there. He doesn't just stand, as most people erroneously believe. He's a master of the martial arts, mind-boggling to observe. The workshop last year was structured with a lot of standing in diferent postures on Friday and Saturday, and then on Sunday we applied the work to Pushing Hands.

I only half made it up. I have no idea what the Shaolin monks do or why they do it. But during a Bagua workshop, we practiced the teacups in wide horse stance (with the teacups, you can bend backward as your hand goes past your face) and the instructor explained that this isn't a position you want to spend all day in but it'll help you out in your next limbo competition, or sword fight. Duck, whoosh .... I was mainly making the point that bu doesn't mean "stance". Clearly the classic arm position is meant to generate qi flow, they hands aren''t usually in a fist, they're very often holding sword fingers, or forward-facing palm. Many variations on the theme. But there is always a dynamic behind the static. Or in front of it?

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pique (it's my job)

Don't ride the horse. Be the horse, lol That's pretty impressive experience you have there.

Let aliens come In their golden chariots To build

A lot of room for improvement here:

Because bu doesn't mean stance, it means stride or step. The "standing" practices are always understood as a slice of time. The wide horse stance can be applied quickly when a sword is coming at your head, for example. But if you duck like that, you better be able to punch and get up again quickly. The correct way to make the posture "easier" is to simply turn the feet outward somewhat. That eliminates the structure, but adds flexibility, and eases the tension on the thighs dramatically. It's "easy" (and a part of our fanhuangong practice). The best exercise I know of to help grow into the wider horse stance is to find your width by starting in wuji, then turn the forefeet outward roughly 45°; then pivot on the balls of the feet to turn the heels outward 45°; then turn on the heels once more; finally, turn on the balls, bringing the heels directly behind the toes, making the feel parallel. This is the jumping off point. Next, place the palms together, fingers up, and sink with as straight a back as you can, to the 90° knee bend, and place the elbows between the knees. This is where you have to adjust the width of your stance a little. The elbows should be pushing the knees outward, it should be a snug fit, but not tight. The chest should remain open. Keep the eyes to the front, head up, back as straight as you can get it. Don't do the tailbone tuck in this stance, not for a long while. Don't let the butt drop below the knees or the knees to travel past the toes. To make it more manageable, turn the forefeet outward a bit. Overtime, lot's of time, you can gradually do it with the forefeet more and more to the front. Then you can do it with the arms out stretched (or holding a medicine ball). You can do it with a backpack full of rocks, and a whole bunch of fun variations ... but you have to grow into these things or you're just bullshitting yourself. Start by learning and mastering wuji! Hoppy Easter :-)

that's a good way to test the condition of your knees, and about the worst possible advice anyone could give regarding ma bu. Don't let the butt sink below knee level. Anyone can go into a wide-stance, butt on the ground posture and stay there all day. Aside from stretching the groin, it provides no benefit, physically or energetically. Keeping the butt at knee level, or above, provides an automatic limiter to the exercise; it's virtually impossible to overdo because your thighs will give out long before your knees are in the danger zone. If you then compensate by allowing the butt to sink, you'll acheive the illusion of perfoming the exercise on a higher level than you really are, and your knees won't take much of that. If this link works you'll a bunch of thumbnails of images of horse stance. There are a lot of variations but you won't see any butts below the knees.

Lam says to stand in the living room and watch the evening news lol.

Yeah ok, overdoing anything is always bad (but it's necessary to sometimes go to the limit just to know where the limits are), and it's certainly possible to overdo ZZ, and to do it incorrectly. But that's no justification for your earlier comment, not the way you phrased it imo.

"saw" and"heard" are the important words then?

Keeping the butt up is one of the challenges yes

Can you do those exercises? That's wushu, baby. I have never seen a good "beginner" video for wide horse stance, possibly because it isn't a beginner practice?

Hello TaoOat, and welcome to the forums! Happy to have you here :-) Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, SC and the TDB team

Hello Aussie, and welcome to the forums! Glad you found your way to us :-) Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, SC and the TDB team

????

ok, back... The book I recommend, at the top of my list ahead of Sifu Lam's books, is this one: http://www.standingdynamics.com/literatuur/page1.html you can read a good amount of it here: http://www.thedynamicsofstandingstill.com/the_proof_of_the_pudding.html Even the images are inspirational. I actually showed this book to Lam last year and he was highly impressed. Peter den Dekker is a long-time direct student of Lam's. Because of the super high quality printing and full color images, the book isn't cheap, but it's a great investment. Do you have any specific questions? Problems? Goals other than the obvious as stated in your original post?

There's tons of info right on this website. I'll check back in later

Hello C0NPAQ, and welcome to the forums! Happy to have you here :-) Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, SC and the TDB team

Yes, I don't think there's any doubt about that anymore.