Juice: Radical Taiji Energetics

[Green Tiger]

Scott's training video is finally available on Amazon, either as DVD or instant download. Tai Chi Peng: Surfing the Soft Wave.

 

 

 

"This tutorial video demonstrates and teaches the core energy training methods that allow realization of the experiences described in the book: JUICE Radical Taiji Energetics by Scott Meredith. The method is based on Zheng Manqing style Taijiquan but the tutorial assumes no prior knowledge of this system." Instant download is $9.99, DVD $12.95. He's certainly made it accessible!

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_13?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=tai+chi+peng+surfing+the+soft+wave&sprefix=Tai+Chi+Peng+%2Caps%2C2140&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Atai+chi+peng+surfing+the+soft+wave

 

Awesome! Thanks for letting us know!

[cheya]

For those who appreciated Scott's book Juice, his video clarifies some important points and demonstrates methods for developing sensitivity to the energy, now identified as Peng energy, carefully—and convincingly—differentiated from the Peng stance (or stance strategy maybe) in tai chi. These methods are not covered in the book, and demonstration is much more helpful than reading.

His goal is to show you how to practice in order to get the peng energy palpably (and deliciously) interpenetrating the entire body, filling from feet to head to hands.

 

That said, be prepared that this is a bare bones presentation, very to-the-point.

The video itself is okay, lots of quick cuts that can be distracting, some audio distortion on my copy, but nonetheless, covers his points directly and succinctly with no frills. Totally his style.

 

I especially appreciated the way he used his own translations of old texts to illustrate and validate his points.. (And startling in a fun way to hear that Chinese coming out of his mouth!)

 

The DVD was inexpensive and definitely worth it to me.

 

His next book, the Juice sequel, is due out in March.

Tai Chi Peng: Root Power Rising appears to cover much the same material as the DVD, with a few additions, and more depth. http://cattanga.typepad.com/tabby_cat_gamespace/2014/02/juice-sequel-book-march-15-on-amazon.html

 

Even if it's largely the same material, seeing (and hearing) it offers a good balance to just reading.

 

[soaring crane]

 

Scott's training video is finally available on Amazon, either as DVD or instant download. Tai Chi Peng: Surfing the Soft Wave....

 

Note: the runtime on both versions is 2 hours 14 minutes.

 

waaaaaaaa! US-only download

[Green Tiger]

I watched the video once (well, actually, I watched about 20 mins of it, fell asleep, then watched the 7 poses).

 

My first impression was that Scott seems nervous at the start of the video. His voice sounds higher (and he is not a bass to begin with) and his body language is saying "I feel really uncomfortable in front of a camera."

 

Not that it really matters, probably, but I thought that was odd.

 

From what I've seen so far, the content is great! Like Cheya said, he explains some of the concepts from the book in more detail and shows 7 tai chi postures that he does in the cheng man ching style, but they are really universal tai chi poses that any tai chi practitioner should be familiar with.

 

Looking forward to watching it and practicing with it. Also looking forward to the next book.

Edited February 26, 2014 by Green Tiger

[cheya]

Hey SC,

Scott noted on his blog that the video will be available later for Europe and Japan markets.

Whatever "later" means, but it is on the way...

[soaring crane]

okie dokie! :-)

[soaring crane]

I have the book, by the way, after someone who shall remain nameless sent me the pdf (thank you very much) and I bought the Kindle version. I don't do Taiji, and haven't read the book in detail, but I have picked out a large number of thought-nuggets and just small bits of information that have worked their way into my own practice.

[Tung]

I'm reading the book now, its really good I think, brings clarity to allot of muddy and misinterpreted concepts of taichi.

 

Video sounds good, thanks for the reviews, looks like I'm going to pick it up when it gets available here.

[Green Tiger]

Scott is not your typical Tai Chi instructor. When he talks about the purpose of practicing Tai Chi, he says that its really all about getting a powerful natural high. Sure, you could get some health benefits and learn some self defense techniques, but really it's all about getting high.

 

I'm paraphrasing, but he did a great job of motivating me to practice more.

[cheya]

That "powerful natural high" thing was one of the first things that really got my attention when I started reading Juice. I had already come across that feeling in my Tai Chi Ruler practice, and was surprised nobody seemed to be talking much about it.

 

There's a famous picture of Grandmaster Wang Xiang Zhai standing Zhan Zhuang with this incredibly blissful expression on his face. Couldn't figure out how to post it, but you can see it here: http://www.chi-kung.org/en/tradition.html

 

Yeah, THAT!

[Sunman]

I had to purchase the DVD from Amazon.com as its not available in the UK.Postage was bit expensive but the low price of the DVD off-set that.

 

Its a very good presentation and has certainly helped to clarify some of the concepts presented in Juice.Just a word of warning.Scott's standing method is seriously hardcore,in fact physically harder than Yiquan's combat post and Xingyiquan's san ti shi.I practiced Yiquan for many years and the "expanding post" presented in the book is completely different to the Yao lineage combat post.One of the problems with the Yao combat post is that it is far too easy to drift into a state of permanent tension as the method does produce feelings of power but probably not the kind of power that Wang Xiangzhai had.Somewhere in its transmission it turned into a pure isometric/dynamic tension practice.

 

I have only attempted the expanding post a few times but its not that difficult to get the hang of.Once your weighting is correct and you remain fully relaxed the power will start to surge up as you expand.The feelings in the arms are almost indentical to those felt during the Edwardian flop exercise presented in Juice but greatly amplified.

 

One thing that did leave me a bit perplexed was Scott's comment about a master being hit by a cart and the cart bouncing off him.I thought peng acted as a trigger force for the opponent's tension but how can a cart be triggered? Only a small thing but certainly food for thought.

 

All in all a good presentation and certainly worth buying if you are interested in the true source of internal power.

Edited February 27, 2014 by Sunman

[soaring crane]

hmmm... you guys are making me curious. I do have contacts in Chicago who travel to Germany regularly and are happy to bring stuff with them. Think I'll order the DVD after all

[Green Tiger]

hmmm... you guys are making me curious. I do have contacts in Chicago who travel to Germany regularly and are happy to bring stuff with them. Think I'll order the DVD after all

 

If you want me to order and re-ship, I've got shipping connections. Just PM.

[tumoessence]

you can't get the downloadable format in UK and the continent?

[soaring crane]

you can't get the downloadable format in UK and the continent?

 

nope. Nowhere that I can see.

[Green Tiger]

I started working with the DVD this weekend. I definitely like the drawdown/buildback training technique. I feel like what he shows is an exaggerated version of something I do repeatedly when practicing standing. I'm always collapsing a little bit and the filling back up. I've mostly just done that in the double-weighted wu chi stance and also in santi. Practicing drawdown/buildback in golden rooster stands on one leg and stretch kick is really tough!

 

Even ward off was a lot tougher than I expected. I definitely think it helps to start with the single-weighted stances and then move to the 70-30 stances. After golden rooster and stretch kick my legs were already turning to jell-o. Ward off felt fantastic! A big relief, too.

 

Also the comparison of cloud hands to the sumo leg lift exercise was really interesting. I liked that he ended on that one. After all the static standing it was nice to have an easy moving exercise to close.

 

By the time I finished my 25-30 min session I was feeling pretty whipped. Definitely felt the hard wave hit me, but not so much the soft wave. I think I may have some misalignment to work out before that will flow. I'll be looking forward to my next standing practice session.

[soaring crane]

I started working with the DVD this weekend. I definitely like the drawdown/buildback training technique. I feel like what he shows is an exaggerated version of something I do repeatedly when practicing standing.

 

 

So he actually demos the moves, too?

[Green Tiger]

So he actually demos the moves, too?

 

Yeah, he demos the stances and shows how you can collapse into them and then fill back up from the collapsed position into what he calls the 'zero' or optimal position.

 

He also demos how you could work with a student and help them to relax their arms and legs in each of the stances. It's kind of a long video with lots of good content.

 

I think there was even a helicopter gunship battle

[Sunman]

.

Practicing drawdown/buildback in golden rooster stands on one leg and stretch kick is really tough!

 

Even ward off was a lot tougher than I expected.

By the time I finished my 25-30 min session I was feeling pretty whipped. Definitely felt the hard wave hit me, but not so much the soft wave. I think I may have some misalignment to work out before that will flow. I'll be looking forward to my next standing practice session.

 

Same here.its certainly more demanding than the training I did in YIquan but in a strange kind of way its actually enjoyable and rather than being glad the session has come to an end I am finding myself wanting to go on a bit longer.Golden rooster is a real bitch.

 

I had the same experience,the entire body vibrating,mainly after practicng ward-off for several minutes and trying to really soften and then doing the drop down/draw back.No soft wave though but its early days and I am happy with my progress so far.The fan out from the niwan also seems to help to get things flowing.Using the book I had real trouble locating the niwan point but with the fan out its become a real feeling rather than imagination.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 3, 2014 by Sunman

[Sunman]

The new book is now available in Kindle format.It makes a good companion to the DVD.

 

http://cattanga.typepad.com/tabby_cat_gamespace/2014/03/kindle-edition-now-out-print-following-in-a-couple-days.html

[cheya]

The paperback is available now too for those of us who don't do Kindle.

Here's the blurb:

 

"My new book Tai Chi PENG Root Power Rising is a superset of the material in the video Tai Chi PENG Surfing the Soft Wave. It can function either as a supplement to the video, in that all drills on the video are covered in the new book, or stand-alone, in that the drills are presented comprehensively and there is a lot of additional background material.

Tai Chi PENG Root Power Rising explains the mysterious tensile/elastic power of traditional Chinese Tai Chi known as PENG energy. The concept is clarified with direct reference to original translations of classical Chinese source texts. The human energy architecture that enables PENG development is detailed. Seven Tai Chi poses/structures from the Zheng Manqing Tai Chi sequence are introduced as a new framework, beginning with traditional 'standing post' energy exercises. Standing Post work (zhan zhuang) is enhanced with unique Tai Chi characteristics, leading to the evolution of a new relaxation and energy cultivation protocol: 'expanding post' (zhang zhuang). Fully illustrated, with extensive commentary on all aspects PENG definition, cultivation, and deployment, including a highly effective basic Tai Chi straight sword drill for linkage between core power centers and the hands."

 

Here's one of the manga illustrations from the book, and, yes, a picture is definitely worth a thousand words!

 

"Step Like a Cat"

 

http://cattanga.typepad.com/tabby_cat_gamespace/2014/03/step-like-a-cat-from-tai-chi-peng-root-power-rising.html

 

[GreytoWhite]

I hate to revive an old thread but thought this would be the best place to post.

http://cattanga.typepad.com/tabby_cat_gamespace/2014/03/aiki-master.html

 

If you're interested in Dan Harden's work there aren't DVDs, there aren't YouTube videos, there is no book.

 

http://bodyworkseminars.org/

[Green Tiger]

Thanks for the heads up! Noticed he's doing a seminar in Minn. (I hope that means Minneapolis) April 11-13. Thinking I may want to check that out . . .

[tumoessence]

I have been waiting to train with Dan Harden but this bumps up my interest.

[Sunman]

A new article by Scott on the energetics of Xingyiquan's Bengquan.If the link dosen't work go to his site.

 

http://cattanga.typepad.com/tabby_cat_gamespace/2014/03/liquid-lightning-the-clear-energy-of-xingyiquan-.html

Edited April 1, 2014 by Sunman