K. Wacknov's Chen Tai Chi Website

0) Sitting

1) Standing

2) Warm Up

3) Feet & Hands

4) The Form (Feat. Marlon Bishop)

5) Other Videos

6) Notes

7) Mindfulness Apps

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Warm Up:
Master Tony Wong's Silkreeling Simplified

All classes by Master Tony Wong include silkreeling exercises. The complete set takes 1 hour. Master Wong also has a shortened silkreeling form, but here is an unofficial way to do it with only one exercise per body joint.

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This website is from Kevin Wacknov, with form lesson videos from Marlon Bishop. Both Kevin and Marlon are students of Grandmaster Tony Wong.

Learning Some Tai Chi Basics Sitting

Most tai chi is done standing up, but you can learn some basics about relaxing the body, yin and yang, and the five elements, and meditation while doing sitting exercises.

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Standing Meditation

Standing meditation is very important for aligning the body posture and preparing for Tai Chi movement.

You can stand in this posture for 1-20 minutes and get great benefits. Start gradually and build up time and regularity of practice.

The video below describes Master Tony Wong's method to get into the standing meditation posture.

Another way to do it was described by Grandmaster Cai Song Fang (one of Tony's teachers), who said to align three vertical points and then focus awareness in the lower abdomen:

Align these points:

1. Midpoint of line joining arches in feet (on the ground between the Bubbling Well acupunture points.)
2. Perineum (point between anus and genitals, called the Hui Yin acupuncture point.)
3. Top of the Head (acupuncture point: Bai Hui.)

Then keep your attention for a long period of time at your dan tian (2 inches behind belly button).

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Feet and Hands in Tai Chi

Feet in Tai Chi

Hands in Tai Chi

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Other Videos

Eight Brocades QiGong (BaDuanJin)

Muscle and Tendon Changing from Bad to Good (Yi Jin Jing Exercise)

Tai Chi Ball exercises simplified

Push-hands, Microcosmic Orbit, Tai Chi drills

Protecting the Knees

Storing and Releasing with the Leg Muscles

Using a Mantra to Clean Up Your Tai Chi

Help for Emotionally Sensitive People

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Chen Tai Chi

Laojia Yilu
(Old Family First Form)

Mirror Image Training Videos —
So when you follow the screen,
your left and right are correct.

Click for NOT-Mirror Image

(These are more gentle Tai Chi videos.)
Demonstrated by Kevin Wacknov,
student of Master Anthony (Tony) Wong
(click Arrow Circle to start that video lesson.)

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Chen Tai Chi

Laojia Yilu
(Old Family First Form)

NOT Mirror Image Training Videos —
So your left and right are reverse
of person facing you on the screen.

Click Here for Mirror-Image

(These are more aggressive Tai Chi videos.)
Demonstrated by Marlon Bishop,
student of Master Anthony (Tony) Wong
(click Arrow Circle to start that video lesson.)

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Notes

Tai Chi Points to Remember
(Taught by Master Anthony Wong)

1. When doing the silkreeling drills, focus on the joints closing, and then opening with the body expanding.
2. Take this method into your tai chi form postures.
3. Don't loose your rooted feet feeling. Also, extend the spine more straight, and relax it, and sink the energy down.
4. When punching, don't let the rear qua and knee turn inward. Keep the qua open when turning the waist to shoot the fist forward.
5. The whole body works as a unit.
6. Sink into the kua (muscle/tendon band around upper leg near hip joint) at the LEFT leg and the RIGHT leg.
7. Some basic energies to include in your form are spiraling, sinking-then-issuing, and closing-then-opening.
8. When the leg goes down, you feel the earth return a force back up your leg.
9. Try to feel the back.
10. Start all rotations with the dan tian.
11. Do some advanced planning positioning the feet at the end of one posture to be ready for the beginning of the next posture.

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Quick QiGong Exercises Taught by Professor Qu Limin during the June 25-26, 2016 Yi Jin Jing Workshop in the South Bay

NAME OF MINI-EXERCISE	INSTRUCTIONS	BENEFITS
Move the Water in the Shoulder Wells	Roll shoulders back, both at once or one at a time, to loosen up the stiff muscles and tendons. If doing both shoulders at the same time, bring shoulder blades together at back. Roll in the other direction. (3x backward rolls, 3x forward rolls.)	good to keep chi healthy after age 50
Empty Liver Anger from the Armpits	Keeping back straight, clasp hands behind head and open elbows out to the sides. Keep the head slightly up. Look at the left elbow and stretch it open more. Then return gaze forward. 3x. Look at the right elbow and stretch it open more. Then return gaze forward. 3x.	good for frustration in relationships
Empty Spleen Stagnation from Hips (Kua)	Feet shoulder width. Hands on hips bones so you can feel them move. Roll weight, toe-by-toe, across all right toes, from small to big toe. Roll weight onto left heel. Roll weight, toe-by-toe, across all left toes, from small to big toe. Roll weight onto right heel. go back to step 3. You should feel your hip bone move as you do this.	good for helping with diabetes
Roll Fingertips of Tiger Claw Hands on Table	Make Tiger Claw Hands: all fingers bent into claw shape. Press all fingers of both hands down firmly on a flat surface. Keep attention at tips of fingers, top of head, and toes (extremities). Roll the fingertips slowly on the table many times. Reverse direction of the fingertip rotations.	good for overall strength and to increase your intelligence
Cool the Heart Fire with Kidney Water	Scoop hands along sides of waist to 'scoop up' Kidney Water Bring hands together up toward mouth and pour in the water over your heart as you lower hands, fingers first, down to original Kidney level. While pouring cooling water over heart, think the "Heeee..." sound with decreasing pitch. Breathe in bringing up the Water, breathe out lowering the hands. Do this 3x.	good to calm yourself down
Help Digest a Big Meal	Sit up straight. Put flattened hands on sides of belly, middle fingers almost touching. Expand hands outward slowly. Think inside the Spleen sound, "Huuuuu...." Contract hands to original position. Repeat 3x.	good after a big meal

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Basic Chinese Medicine Ideas taught by Professor Qu Limin

The Yi Jin Jing, Classic Book and Exercise of Muscle-Tendon Changing

Written by Zen Buddhist Patriarch Da Mo (Bodhidharma) after meditation in front of a cliff wall for 9 consecutive years in 500 AD and thinking about how to get the meditators of his day in shape after focusing only on their Minds (Chi), not their Bodies (Blood, or Liver fluid).

Professor Qu Limin is the source of most of these notes. She gave a workshop June 25-26 in San Jose, CA and Sunnyvale, CA through Tai Chi Master Tony Wong's support.

Why is the YJJ the only Classic Text of QiGong? Because it starts 50% Yang and 50% Yin, leading with the thumb side of the hand, not the back or front of the hand.

Notes	Image
TCM Basic Acu-Points The Most Yang Point (Ba Gua, "Bah-Guey") is where 100 yang lines (all yang paths of the body) meet. There is another such point, at the big bone protruding at the vertebra at the base of the neck. The Bubbling Well points are where the Human Essence begins to emerge from the Earth's energy. The Most Yin Point (Hui Yin, Perineum, the point between anus and genitals) is the starting and ending point for all energy in all QiGong exercises, says Professor Limin Qu. The Shoulder Well points (where the Clavicle is felt between the shoulder muscles) on either side is the most important Health Maintenance Point in gigong. The basic exercise for "moving the stuck (tight) energy in the Shoulder Wells" is slow shoulder rotation exercise. On each side of the body, the Bubbling Well is where our Personal Energy starts, and the Shoulder Well is the peak of our Personal Energy. Professor Qu Limin says, "If you align the Bubbling Well Points with the Shoulder Well Points of both sides, and the Most Yin Point with the Most Yang Point while standing, this is better than doing the exercise form 100 times."
TCM Main Channels (Meridians) The Governor Meridian runs along the skin from the Perineum up the spine, over the head through the Most Yang Point, and down to the hard palate just behind the front teeth. The Conception Meridian runs from the Perineum along the front of the body to the tip of the tongue. When the tongue curls slightly at the tip and touches behind the front upper teeth, the circuit is completed and Qi and Blood flow well. When talking the circuit is broken. Hold a slight tension in the Perineum to keep the essences from "dripping out" the bottom of the loop. The Qi and Blood can circulate in either direction, and to force it to change in either direction is thought to be unnatural. This energy loop is called the Microcosmic Orbit, because Qi and Blood are thought to be like the Sun and Moon moving relative to the earth, and the Human Body is like a universe in miniature. This is why the 9 Palaces Map is also used for Feng Shui, enabling practitioners to adjust living spaces according to the same universal principles which govern the human body and its organs.
TCM Chi Flow Side View In reverse direction, cooling occurs. This can be done naturally, as when the body gets ready for sleep, or deliberately, as a meditative exercise.
TCM Eight Vessels to Empty Energy stuck in these vessels (4 left, 4 right) cause health problems. Actively release them before and while doing the Tai Chi or QiGong forms.

TCM Organs

Yin Organs are Female, protected indoors (Rib Cage), and collect the money (Nutrients)

Yang Organs are Male, work outdoors (not in rib cage), and are always moving.

TCM Body Grid (9 Palaces Map)

Western European Anatomy studies show the Liver on the Right side of the abdomen under the ribs; Chinese Medicine feels the Liver Blood to be rising on the Left side of the body.

Clockwise DanTian rotations starting from the Water region build energy according to the 5 Element Creation Cycle: Water -> Wood -> Fire -> Earth -> Metal -> Water...

Therefore, Counterclockwise DanTian rotations starting from the Water location (below navel) break down or release energy since you are moving your internal energy with your hands against the 5 Element Creation Cycle: Water -> Metal (Lung) -> Fire (Heart) -> Wood (Liver) -> Water (Kidney or Bladder).

Empty yourself before refilling, of course. When your hands are positioned below your navel and you're starting dantian rotations, go to the right first.

Men are more Qi dominant, so they encourage Yin-Blood-Liver-Left Hand covering the Right Hand when doing dan tian rotations; Woman are more Blood dominant, so they encourage Yang-Qi-Lung-Reft Hand covering the Left Hand when doing dan tian rotations.

Since Blood moves slower than Chi, start your qigong or tai chi form by moving the left leg (Liver-Blood side) first to give it a head start. Then activate the Chi by turning the big toes in toward each other imperceptibly, which opens the lumbar back very slightly. Now your Yin-Yang Chi Engine is ready to go!

Start the form very deliberately, and End the form very deliberately.

TCM Basic Chi Flow Direction, Front View

In reverse direction, energy is 'destroyed,' or released.

The maximum potency and minimum space of yang is at Y1, like in a baby boy.

The minium potency and maximum space of yang is at Y9, like an old man.

The most stable yang energy, at Y4, is said to be 4x9=36 year old male, said Dr. Qu Limin.

The male reproductive energy is best at 4x8=32 years, according to the Yellow Emperor's Internal Medicine Classic.

At Y5 (40 years old), the male energy is already deteriorating, says Dr. Qu Limin.

For women, the formula is similar, but the best yin energy is at Y4, (? years old). The Yellow Emperor said women reproduce best at 4x7=28 years old.

TCM 6 Healing Sounds

Form your lips and throat into the usual shape to say the sound out loud, but make the sound only in your head to keep the energy inside.

Make the internal sound and do the corresponding exercise the number of times indicated for that organ's position in the 9 Palaces Table.

The Heart Sound (He) can be made with decreasing pitch in your inner voice as you cycle energy Down, Forward, Up, Back, and Down to "pour Kidney water over the Heart fire to cool it."

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