Silk Reeling?

[GrandTrinity]

This dude Yang Yang is supposed to be one of the most highly respected tai chi teachers today according to my friend at the qigong research institute. Yang Yang works with the Chen style, silk reel and push hands, and of course qi gong. He is a lawyer and also is working on a PhD in western kinesiology at a University. His book, "Taijiquan - The Art of Nurturing, The Science of Power" got rave reviews (from Ken Cohen among others) and should be rather enlightening...I am interested to know more about this "silk reeling" and if those $54 tapes might be worth checking out or perhaps his tai chi video.

 

http://www.centerfortaiji.com

[thaddeus]

This dude Yang Yang is supposed to be one of the most highly respected tai chi teachers today according to my friend at the qigong research institute. Yang Yang works with the Chen style, silk reel and push hands, and of course qi gong. He is a lawyer and also is working on a PhD in western kinesiology at a University. His book, "Taijiquan - The Art of Nurturing, The Science of Power" got rave reviews (from Ken Cohen among others) and should be rather enlightening...I am interested to know more about this "silk reeling" and if those $54 tapes might be worth checking out or perhaps his tai chi video.

 

http://www.centerfortaiji.com

The tape does say 'demonstration'. In the description it says he describes what it is, but there really isn't alot to say about it.

Very crudely, silk reeling is twisting..hold a towel at both ends, twist one and the other end twists..that is Silk reeling power. The twisting and untwisting is the 'secret' behind neutralizing and attacking, in other words, storing and releasing. The twisting combined with an expansive body connected to the ground is what gives the opponent the feeling they are falling off you. Some will say Silk Reeling is the defining energy of chen style taichichuan, however, on closer examination, there is no other way to move if your body is not holding any joints steady with tension.

For example, many know cloud hands. One popular version is where your palm is facing you at the beginning of the movement and is still facing you at the end. Some will say this is 'yang style', others more correctly will say the person held the hand still and didn't allow it to twist naturally. If you don't hold any joints steady, the palm will change directions (i.e. coil = silk reel). If the palm doesn't change direction, or twist, then it is a flat movement. You can not neutralize a force properly with a flat movement. The secret is in the twisting, spiraling movement. The hard part is using the whole body against the ground, so that the twist is felt from the big toe to the middle finger.

Take any piece of the form and turn it into a circle and you have silk reeling exercise. I wasted alot of money on silk reeling tapes. Since silk reeling is basically taichi (as per chen xin according to the tape's description) you can't learn it from a tape.

Hope this helps..questions?

T

[GrandTrinity]

Wow that is a very profound answer. I just did some twisting and some cloud hands, I feel very good. It seems that twisting is a key part of energy skills. Grandmaster Yuanming Zhang, who I have recenetly watched many of his videos, does twisting all the time, very much so with the hands, torso and arms, even legs, (bagua zhang is the most twisty perhaps?) same with Zhongxian Wu, who recently released the "Shamanic Tiger Qigong" through dragon-door. Spiral, coil, twist, reel, whatever you call it, I gotta keep learning this stuff!

 

I think this is perhaps a major distinction between Rmax stuff and internal arts, internal uses physical twisting like this while Rmax stuff just kind of works the gross range of motion. I think I see this both positively and negatively.

Edited February 7, 2006 by GrandTrinity

[freeform]

.

Edited October 23, 2019 by freeform

[thaddeus]

Wow that is a very profound answer. I just did some twisting and some cloud hands, I feel very good. It seems that twisting is a key part of energy skills. Grandmaster Yuanming Zhang, who I have recenetly watched many of his videos, does twisting all the time, very much so with the hands, torso and arms, even legs, (bagua zhang is the most twisty perhaps?) same with Zhongxian Wu, who recently released the "Shamanic Tiger Qigong" through dragon-door. Spiral, coil, twist, reel, whatever you call it, I gotta keep learning this stuff!

 

I think this is perhaps a major distinction between Rmax stuff and internal arts, internal uses physical twisting like this while Rmax stuff just kind of works the gross range of motion. I think I see this both positively and negatively.

I also feel twisting is the best way to stimulate all the meridians. With a flat movement, you can't really activate the whole meridian. For example, in the cloud hands you did, the heart meridian runs along the arm to the pinky (i think), with twisting, you can feel it activate. Do cloud hands keeping the arm still, like alot of people do it, and you feel nothing.

In the form, you should be feeling your toes activate in a rolling fashion too, stimulating all those organs as well.

BP Chan called it a 'Do Re Mi' movement..

T

[allan-in-china]

With this sort of thing, I think the only real way to learn is directly with a teacher, who can look at you and see you have really understood. People can tell me, or show me something 100 times and I won't necessarily understand it, but working directly with a good teacher, he can check your posture, and move your arms the way you should move them, and keep doing it until you get it.

 

My tai chi teacher has told me about my hips close to a million times, and I keep thinking I am doing it correctly, right until he pushes me down into the correct position again...

 

And the silk spinning stuff like Thaddeus was saying pretty much comes from correct practice of the form. Though there are exercises to work on it directly.

 

Allan

[Jeremiah]

I studied qigong healing here in asheville with genie hardee and she would have us charge our hands by "pulling silk". she has a lengthly form for it that is very powerfull. don't know where she got it. wow, my hands get charged here even thinking of it....

 

:-)