Small circles and loops

/ Tai Chi Notebook

I read something interesting in this interview with Chen Xiaowang, originally published in the October 1996 (vol 20 no. 5) issue of T’ai Chi Magazine.

He’s talking about silk reeling and he says:

Chen commented that many people practice the Chen style in an overly exaggerated fashion making very big movements. He said these kinds of excessively large movements lead to a separation of one part of the body from other parts of the body and is incorrect. A common mistake, he said, especially among those who do the Xin-jia or new frame is to do movements in an exaggerated manner and make a lot of small circles and loops. “That shows that they don’t understand the principles of chan si jing.”

Tai Chi Magazine


I’m not sure what to think about that. It’s pretty well understood in Chinese martial arts that you often practice big and use small. The best way to practice a movement is to start with it in a large, exaggerated way, but then over time you do it in a more refined way and it becomes smaller.

A quote from my teacher I’ve always remembered is:

“In the beginning my circles encompass the whole universe but at the end I roll them up and put them in my sleeves.”

However I think perhaps Chen is not talking about this. I’ve seen a lot of people who do Tai Chi (and particularly Chen style) in a very bendy, rubbery, gyrating way. I think he’s saying that too much of that can often lead people onto the wrong track. And more specifically, he’s saying that if they’re doing this then it’s because they don’t understand the basics of silk reeling.

Now silk reeling is quite a Chen style-specific practice. I don’t think you even need to do it to practice Yang or Wu style, but if you are doing it, I bet it’s very easy to get sidetracked into doing lots of small loops and circles. But really the process should be about being minimalist. Cutting out the inessentials until the movement is pure and simple, while still being effective.

3 thoughts on “Small circles and loops”

  1. Let me say it with some overly-simplistic models. The main “qi-tissues”, the same ones that are used in Iron Shirt, genital-weight hanging gongs, supplemental strength, some of the force-direction manipulation of “jin”, etc., is mostly near the surface of the skin. That’s also why acupuncture needles are lightly inserted in the skin. These superficial tissues are what you strengthen and develop with breathing exercises and related movement exercises.

    In silkreeling movement, the major idea is to connect the power from the lower body and the ground’s solidity to the upper body. The “qi-tissues” (Mantak Chia does a good drawing of them) are pulled, twisted, turned, etc., in a way that complements the natural winding of the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones (hence the “reeling”). So silkreeling exercises are meant to build up the elastic connection covering of the body so that the power of the lower body can drive the upper body. The size of the movement isn’t all that critical, but to maximize the body’s elasticity as opposed to muscularity, the movements should ultimately be small.

    Like

  2. Chansi is not about loops or circles, large or small. It is about rotation. In taijiquan applications, rotation requires a stationary center of rotation.

    My experience and discussions with practitioners of Yang and Wu styles is that these styles also have lots of chansi jin, but it is shown differently. They typically have a move, rotate, move, rotate… type of movement pattern.

    Chen style sometimes moves like this too, but it is more rotate, adjust, rotate, adjust… or rotate, release, rotate, release…. in pattern. This is seen more in push hands, but some Chen teachers make a great show of it in the form to emphasize its importance.

    Of course, I can only really talk about my own transmission tradition. YMMV.

    Like

  3. Silkreeling is about developing the elastic connections of the body. Think of using a bowstring and a bow as an example. If the bowstring is too loose, yes you can pull it and bend the bow somewhat, but you don’t get the combined whole of bowstring and bow combination. It’s OK to use some large exaggerated motions at first, in order to get the coordination correct, but silkreeling doesn’t really work until you get it to the level where you’re using the body’s elasticity. Larger movements without elasticity miss the point.

    And BTW, the idea of “fajin is like shooting an arrow” sort of implies a “bow and arrow”, but the point of the saying is that a fajin release is an elastic release. Releasing an arrow from a bow is just a metaphor for “elastic release”.

    Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment