A New Tai Chi Chuan Sword Form We Started Learning

"Tom Cannon and John Zietlow (City of Lakes Tai Chi) perform 2 person Yang style Tai Chi sword form as developed by Sam Masich. Performance as part of Chinese New Year Celebration at St. Paul Student Center."


Saturday we traveled to train with our Tai Chi Chuan instructor Michael Gilman in Port Townsend. On the agenda this time was to begin learning the above two-person sword form. The form was created by Sam Masich, a great instructor we had met in the past.
Like the two-person San Shou fighting form, this one will be tricky to learn. Lots of subtleties and a blade involved. Most of the students were using wooden training swords, but I did get my hair parted by the metal sword of one student.
Got to be careful...
The method of learning is first doing a few moves on the "A" side, then a few on "B". Finally you partner up and combine the two, and progress from there.
If you watch the video above, they start out slow and then reverse rolls and do the form again fast. These partner forms are said to demonstrate the highest levels of Tai Chi Chuan as an art.
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Nobody fights with swords anymore.
That's why we consider this training "Art". It's about self-cultivation and stretching your mind to perform in unison with a partner. In learning a form like this, you actually learn two solo forms and put them together.

Before beginning this, I reflected on the over thirty years I have been cramming martial arts forms into my head. Learning a new, complex form is a daunting task.
In Tae Kwon Do I probably learned about twenty forms and twice that number of one-step fighting techniques (Kibone).
When I started Kenpo Karate, I had to toss out the TKD forms and replace them with the same number of Kenpo forms.
Then I moved into the Chinese Internal arts of Taiji, Bagua and Xingyi.
Yup, I tossed out all the Kenpo forms to learn the Chinese arts.

So why go through this?
Well, times change. Our bodies change. Hard-style martial arts are very stressful on the body and injuries occur. I know I caused some hip damage in Tae Kwon Do with extreme kicking techniques. Very bad as you get older.

But also, various friends of mine that used to practice with us have dropped out now. They hit a plateau and never found something of interest to pursue in martial arts.
For me, it's like playing music; there's always another song or chord riff to learn.

So here we go, down another rabbit-hole in the quest for a higher level of martial skill and knowledge. I know some of you are also on the same path.

Form Review at the Gilman Studio

Last weekend we went to visit and train with Michael Gilman, our Tai Chi Chuan instructor. For several sessions, we have been reviewing the 2-man 88-movement San Shou fighting form. This form takes nearly all the techniques from the Yang-style long form and pairs them up like pieces in a puzzle. The form is the most complex I have learned, with 44 movements for each side - and you have to learn both sides.
Here's us doing the form when we first were learning it, about three years ago:

It's fun to look back on this video, as we attempt to smooth it out and get the moves right. I think it took us three cuts to get it without mistakes. Still, our postures and intent are lacking and we have made many improvements with time.

We always have a great time with Michael. He's a truly great instructor, a push-hands champion who has worked with other famous masters. In fact, the San Shou form was taught to him by the late Jou Tsung Hwa. The form is very rare, seldom taught, and difficult to learn. But within it are arm breaks, pressure-point strikes and takedowns. Michael has thought through this form for many years, and has tweaked it here and there with improvements and alternative methods of application. I think one of the benefits of reviewing a form that we are already familiar with is in observing Michael's teaching method. Following a good teacher's methodology also allows us to teach others better.
Now, this form will certainly not transform the average Tai Chi Chuan student into a serious fighter. What it does however, is show how the often mysterious solo form techniques work in application. There is a strong emphasis on blending and continual motion, the quintessence of good Tai Chi Chuan.
It's probably time to film a new video so we can compare our current level of training to the stumble-bum video we shot several years back.

Goofing off after class


Here's a link to Michael Gilman's website, and "The Gilman Studio" in Port Townsend, Wa.

Taiji Secrets: Opening And Closing The "Kua"

Again we have instructor Michael Gilman with a very detailed explanation of the use of the hips or "Kua" in martial training.
This video integrates the rooting aspect of gathering to the inside of the foot and releasing from the heel and outside of the foot with proper use of gathering and releasing from the "Kua".
All of us have seen people who "float" on top of their hips. They move like stick figures and cannot perform proper rooting skills. No matter what art you practice, this will add greatly to your ability to root and then discharge energy.

You can watch the rest of this series and find dozens of other Tai Chi instructional videos on Michael Gilman's YouTube channel at THIS LINK

Michael Gilman: Taiji Inner Secrets

I just got back from another great weekend workshop with our Tai Chi Chuan instructor Michael Gilman. This class was on what he calls "The Inner Journey", and delves into the hidden ways of movement that make for really great Tai Chi Chuan.
Michael explains things in great detail, and this is the second of an eight-part series.
In Tai Chi Chuan, the power is generated from "the root". In this video, Michael explains the importance of "gathering" to the inside of the foot and "releasing"(energy) from the outside of the foot and the heel. This is the key to success in rooting and stability in grappling arts. Taiji players that push hands (and other arts) will benefit from this series.
So many people mindlessly practice their forms with no clue to proper structure, let alone proper application. A good instructor that can explain the subtleties of a complex art like Tai Chi Chuan is a rare find, and our Dojo has a lot to thank for Michael's patient instruction and deep knowledge of the art.

You can see Michael Gilman's website at this link

Scenes From The Wudang Saber Seminar

Well, we just returned from a three-day intensive seminar on the Wudang Saber with our instructor Michael Gilman, and my head is spinning.
This form was passed down from Master Wang Bao Ren. Michael met Master Wang through mutual friends at a Tai Chi Chuan club at the Boeing Aircraft Company. Wang traveled regularly from China to Seattle to teach, and that is where the form was passed down.
This is the most beautiful yet complicated weapons form I have ever tried to learn. While Japanese sword tends to be very direct, the Wudang Saber uses intricate Bagua-type footwork, circle walking, wild slashing, hand strikes and kicks.

Unlike the harder style fighting systems of the Bhuddists of Shaolin, the Taoists of Wudang Mountain developed the Internal systems including Tai Chi Chuan and Bagua, and this Wudang Sabre form clearly reflects that lineage.
While the form is only classified as 40 movements, each movement consists of multiple complex techniques. Just take a look at some of the names of these movements:
- "Stepping into the gate with an indomitable spirit"
- "The hidden dragon turns the waves inside out"
- "Gallop through the mountain and split the wood column"
Thankfully, I was able to get a short video of Master Wang doing the form in China many years ago. My brain is wired for the written word. The first thing I did when I got home was to run the video, pause it and write notes on the movements in my own words. Not only is this a portable reference, it just allows the complicated information to be run through the brain in a different way.

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Music Report
Port Townsend is a screamin' hot music town. We saw a great "Jug Band" up at our favorite Bar, "Sirens", which incidentally was built by a friend of mine. We started out with what may be the best Beer in the Pacific Northwest, Port Townsend IPA.
Our hotel rooms were about two blocks up from Sirens, over what used to be called "The Town Tavern" in the eighties, now I think it's the "Water Street Ale House" or something. There, we saw another band, this one a very hard-driving contemporary rock trio. These kids were fantastic, transitioning from fast hard-rock to ethereal vibes, great dance music. By that time we had moved on from the heavy IPA to Grapefruit and Vodka or $2.00 Oly and Pabst in a can.
Potential Hazards
Like all best laid plans, something is bound to go wrong.
Young Zackey Chan gave his hotel room key to another Dojo Rat who was sharing the room. Zac stayed up and shmoozed with the band as they closed the bar down. The rest of us had already crashed out.
Without his hotel key, Zac had to climb the fire escape until he found a door open on the third floor, but he made it in safely.
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All-in-all, a very successful road trip for the Dojo Rats and a great opportunity to learn a powerful Saber form that is hundreds of years old. It really reminded me of how weapon training can make your empty-hand training even better, with the weapon being an extension of your body and your energy.
It's going to take some time and practice to get this form right, but once we got into it, it really grabs onto you!

This Months Tai Chi Chuan In Port Townsend

Instructor Michael Gilman

It was another beautiful weekend to travel and visit our Tai Chi Chuan instructor, Michael Gilman. Port Townsend was in street-fair mode, celebrating the re-opening of a major bridge that brings in lots of Seattle visitors. There were at least three Bands playing in town, including one on a waterfront street where this picture was taken:

Several Beers Later...
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This weekend's workshop focused on elbow and shoulder strikes in Tai Chi Chuan, but before that we reviewed "Chan Su Jin", or Spiral energy. In the above picture, on the back wall you see a banner with three versions of the Yin-Yang symbol. We first visualized the top symbol, attempting to move our internal organs in the direction indicated in the symbol. Then the pattern was reversed in the second symbol, and you alternate between the two in a continuous loop. For those of you who read my review of the book "The Wellspring", we know that there are more nerve endings in our gut (The enteric system) than there are in our brain. For those with digestive problems, this may cure any ailments you experiance. The Enteric system operates seperate but in conjunction with messages from the brain, and it is often called "the second brain". You know, "gut feelings".
Next, we had a training partner put hand pressure on our stomach and small of back, so when we rotated our organs in the yin/yang pattern there was a little resistance for us to feel. I was paired up with our instructor Michael Gilman, who has very strong Chi. I felt that as he pressed on me and I rotated my gut, there was a powerful energy exchange between his palms and my center or Dantien. This went on for a couple of minutes, and when he released his palms from my body there was a powerful rush, like a drug coursing through my body. It was an almost trance-like experiance.
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The remainder of the class was on the use of the shoulder and elbow. Elbow strikes are somewhat obvious and need little explanation. But shoulder strikes are underestimated in my opinion. Given the correct angles and positioning, there is a tremendous amout of knock-down power with shoulder strikes. Additionally, pulling the opponents face, nose or jaw into your shoulder causes lots of damage to the opponent, while you hardly feel anything. It's like slamming the opponent into a wall. The key is to use the three harmonies of range: hand and foot; knee and elbow; and shoulder/hip. The opponent will present us with an opportunity to use a particulear weapon at a certain range; you can't pound nails with a screwdriver...

Tai Chi Chuan Training - Yang Applications And Sword Form

Two-Person Yang-Style Sabre Form

Ah, yes. We had another great training session with our Tai Chi Chuan instructor Michael Gilman this weekend. The studio was packed with a good turnout of Michael's local students, My fellow Dojo Rat Corey and I, and Terry and Alex from Dojo Rat Southern Division (Ok, Seattle).
Michael started us on "Chan Su Jin" which is a study of spiral energy. This is something he had introduced before, but is complex to internalize and will require some personal work.

To do this, we started by tracing the Taiji symbol as above with our palms, first vertically then horizontally in front of our body. This was followed by tracing the same patterns (right and left mirror images of the symbol above)with just our internal organs. Outwardly still but inwardly moving our guts around, shifting the Dantien. Finally, and most difficult was doing this as we were walking in a large group circle, tracing the yin-yang symbol with our palms (one direction, then reverse image) in unison with our footsteps. Not as easy as it seems.
With regard to stepping, Michael talked to us about "5-4", which refers to having all five dantiens lined up on the lead foot (lifting the rear foot heal and shifting to ball of foot) before taking the next step.
These drills seem may esoteric, but work directly into proper rooting in applications of push hands etc. These are the golden hints that make Tai Chi Chuan work correctly.
We also worked on the energy of split, or lieh, which I am working out ideas for a video on. And of course, some of us had a lively few minutes of push hands also.
As a little suprise to us, Terry had asked Michael to introduce us to the two-person Sabre form, which Terry had been working on from Michael's instructional DVD.
I had seen Michael demonstrate the form before, but this is the first time we have tried to learn it. Terry actually did very well, as he had been studying the form for several weeks. We all had a blast (weapons are fun!) and I think we will be spending a few minutes on this form every seminar we go to for a while.
Stay tuned for some ideas on "Split", coming up...

Here's the link to Michael Gilman, at "The Gilman Studio".
And here is a link to Michael's YouTube Page

Tai Chi Chuan Fighting Form: A Work In Progress

Recent Practice

Previous Practice

This last weekend I went to train with my instructor Michael Gilman, the focus was on the 88-movement fighting form. Michael always goes into great detail and the form evolves in efficiant and dynamic ways. It was also a great three-hour workout. Later, back at the Dojo we made another video, this time with a different partner who is learning the form from us. This is the most difficult form I have ever tried to learn, and it is very difficult to teach. Each partner has 44 movements and you have to learn both sides - 88 movements.
In these videos, done over a year apart, I am doing the "B" side in both so I can compare more carefully. It's a different partner, and everybody moves differently and has a different body type and energy.
In the recent version, we are doing the form slightly faster. The faster you go the less deep, pendulum-type movement is possible. Things shorten up and are not as clean. When you do this at top speed, it is incredibly aerobic and you can get pretty winded after doing both sides back-to-back - (we just show one side in these versions).
Looking at both versions, I see we have quite a lot to work on. When the form is performed at this speed or even slower, we have to try harder to have deeper movement, in "Parting wild horses mane" for example. A little closer and more accurate contact. Each technique should be clearly apparent, where some of our moves here tend to blur together. I'm sure my instructor will have lots of criticizm, but to be fair, the partner in the recent version has only learned the form from us, not from our instructor.
All-in-all, I still feel pretty good about where we are at on this form, there is still much work to do, but we're on the right path.
-- On a side note; My instructor Michael Gilman learned this form years ago at a retreat camp on the Island where we live. The teacher was none other than Jou Tsung Hwa, a world-famous Taiji instructor. The years rolled by, and my friend and I started training with Michael, eventually learning this fighting form. Now the form has come full-circle, back to the island and is being kept alive here by our current practice.
That really makes me feel connected to a long lineage of great Tai Chi Chuan, and this form is truely an example of the "Art" in "Martial Art".

More Push Hands Patterns

Instructor Michael Gilman

A fellow Dojo Rat and I attended another three-hour training session with our Tai Chi Chuan instructor Michael Gilman Saturday.
This time, we worked on the short Da Lu form (Great Rollback) which uses elbow and shoulder strikes in a two-man form. It starts with the defender using a rollback against a palm strike to the face, locking opponents shoulder and arm. The person being locked steps deep into the rollback-guy's center with a elbow or shoulder, the rollback-guy adjusts and locks the elbow firmly. Then the pattern is reversed and continues, working in diagonals hitting all four corners of the room. I'll try to post a video of that later.
Here, Michael Gilman and assistant Stephanie demonstrate some of the push hands patterns. After a review of these patterns, we went from doing the push hands pattern then moving into the Da Lu form, and then back into the push hands pattern again.
It becomes very active and spontaneous, moving from Da Lu to push hands and back.
More on this later...
Michael Gilmans's website is lINKED HERE, stop by and take a look!

Push Hands With Michael Gilman

Online Videos by Veoh.com
Thanks to Gordon for the video system tip;

Well, I went to Port Townsend Saturday, to see our Tai Chi Chuan instructor, Michael Gilman.
I got caught in a huge windstorm, The passenger ferry was shut down because the jetty had torn loose and they thought the dock would get ripped out. So there I was. Stuck overnight in a Victorian hotel. In Port Townsend. With the "Town Tavern" right downstairs.
Ah; "Rats!"
We had a great seminar with our instructor, mostly in "four hands" or "the Chen pattern". The above video is of some of the drills we worked on. Later, we did some freestyle push hands competition. Mind you, this was not a streetfight, it's a cool chess game. I'm not ashamed to say that I got my ass handed to me. My instructor Michael Gilman has had 30+ years of international experiance, and my training partner (black sleeves in the video) is a Nationaly ranked Karate fighter. Despite all my training, I still don't have a deep enough root to compete with the really skilled guys. I have a lot to take home and work with, some of the instruction was that people tend to "float" on top of their hips, and not really sink into the "Kwa", or hip joint.
In the mean time, The locally brewed Port Townsend Beer was excellent!!

An Epic Battle; (in which I am dumped on my ass)

A fellow Dojo Rat practicing with Tai Chi Chuan instructor Michael Gilman

Once a month, sometimes more, several of the Dojo Rats leave our Secluded Island
Hideout and travel to visit and train with other martial artists. While we have been to the mean streets of Portland, Seattle and Boise, our favorite is Port Townsend, Washington. We get up at 5:00 am, take a hour-and-a-half ferry ride to the mainland, drive forty miles, take another ferry and we arrive in Port Townsend. It's a hip old Victorian seaport that was the place where the original sailing ships cleared customs and went on to the Seattle area. I lived there for a while back in about 1981 or '82, and it was really wild back then.
Port Townsend is the home of our Tai Chi Chuan instructor, Michael Gilman. Gilman is a very "hands-on" instructor who began studying Tai Chi in 1968 with Master Choy Kam-Man in San Francisco. He is an internationally recognized Push Hands champion, and teaches all aspects of Tai Chi Chuan.
We began our training with Gilman over two years ago in Push Hands, working on sensitivity and basic drills, The Yang and Chen hand patterns and changes, and freestyle Push Hands.
Most recently, we have been learning the Tai Chi Chuan San Shou fighting form, which is the highest level form in the Yang System. It is very, very complex with many subtleties and variations. You can view a video of us doing the form in my previous post on San Shou. As I wrote before, we are still not that good at it and have a lifetime of work ahead of us to perfect it. What it does show is all the applications from the Tai Chi Solo form and how to interact with a training partner that is generally not found in the Karate arts we have studied in the past.
Yesterday we had our last San Shou class for a while, we will re-visit Push Hands and other elements of Tai Chi Chuan in future sessions.
At the end of class, he gave my fellow Dojo Rat and I a chance to go at him with the form in full combat speed. The idea was to be as accurate as possible and stick to the form, but really go for it. My partner went with him first, but broke contact when he lost the sequence of the form. It was my turn next.
Now, I've done lots and lots of tournament fighting and such, but this is fast inside combat at close range within a fixed pattern. This is at the range where Push Hands really works, just before a clinch or grappling range. The form has forty-four movements for both sides, and I initiated the attack. It is amazing how you loose a sense of root to the ground when you move so fast, and at eight or nine movements into the form, I was striking in the "Raise Hands" posture and Gilman responded with "Turn and Push". As best as I can remember, he drew my right arm across my centerline, pinning it to my chest and giving me one of those classic Tai Chi pushes that launched me backwards about eight feet. You know, you have those moments where "time stands still"? Well, I could see my 200-pound ass sailing through the air in the full-length mirror on the Dojo wall, and I hit the wood floor with a picture-perfect breakfall. It was the high point of the day for me.
In Tai Chi Chuan, there is a saying: "Invest in loss", and at that moment I invested heavily. I learned two great things in that twenty seconds: Push Hands applications can work perfectly well in self-defense situations, and it feels really, really good to do a perfect breakfall on a hard surface.
Michael Gilman's website can be found on my links list at the right of the blog.

Tai Chi Chuan: Grand Ultimate Fist

Michael Gilman demonstrates application of "Parting Wild Horses Mane"

Many people have seen or experianced the meditative and health aspects of Tai Chi Chuan. For years now, it has been recomended as a low-impact exercise that can improve balence in seniors, lower blood pressure and provide a sense of well-being and stress relief.
In reality, Tai Chi Chuan ("Grand Ultimate Fist") is anything but low impact. From it's roots in Shaolin Kung Fu and Taoist philosophy, Tai Chi has evolved into what may be the perfect martial art.
At it's deepest levels, Tai Chi practice allows the individual to experiment with the movement of energy, both within ones body and between people. Known as an "Internal" martial art, Tai Chi relies on developing extreme sensitivity to the positioning and movement of an attacker, in part due to the constant contact with the opponent. In fact, it is fascinating to see the similarities between Tai Chi and Aikido techniques, something which we will explore in great detail later. If anything, the variety of techniques in Tai Chi are far more devestating and brutal. They not only include some of the sweeps, joint-locks and throws of Aikido, but many striking techniques not found in Aikido. Both arts share an innate sense of blending with an opponents motion, neutralizing the attack and taking the opponent out.
Through the Cultural Revolution in China and the introduction of Tai Chi to the West, modern Tai Chi practice often overlooks the practical application and devestating fighting techniques of Tai Chi Chuan. We at Shima Dojo are very fortunate to have one of the best Tai Chi instructors in the country, Michael Gilman, living nearby in Port Townsend, Washington. Gilman is an internationally recognized push-hands champion, and always stresses the practical application of Tai Chi. His training has greatly improved our understanding of Tai Chi as a martial art, and as a result all of our previous martial arts techniques are now viewed in a new light. In future posts and video uploads we will demonstrate some Tai Chi Chuan applications and explore it's common roots with other martial arts.