Steps:
1) Understand what not to do. That is use muscular force
2) Relax i.e. drop the shoulder girdle i.e. open the upper gates
3) Keep the relaxation active and focus
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Additional steps needed to take/ elongated and detailed info:
1) Releasing shoulder to open upper gate. There are four gates that must be opened in the body. The lower two are located in the pelvic region, where the leg connects to the pelvis. It is called the kua in tai chi. The upper two are where the shoulder connects to the torso/ chest. If these are not opened i.e. relaxed, then nothing will come out. The intention will stay in the torso/ chest and it won’t come out of the arms and legs. This makes this training impractical because it cannot be used and applied; tested and revised.
2) Driving focus to the elbow
3) Connecting to the opponent’s center of mass; to the opponent’s body. Connecting to their shoulders for example.
4) Using the entire body; connecting the entire body
5) The movements simply happen. Fook turns up down. It goes into tan, bong. Bong, tan go into fook. Movements are natural because “they simply want to move.” Body is loose and able to rotate. So when force is applied, it simply moves appropriately.
6) Always moving. The body is always dynamically moving internally if not outwardly.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
There are currently 10 ways to use internal (the focus from step #3). What is assumed here is that relaxed condition is met and is continually being met:
1) Kwun Tong method of expanding. Think of a balloon. It is getting bigger inside. It is filling up the chest, the shoulders, the arms and hands. Now you are expanded. Feel that balloon and use it.
2) Using center of mass by focusing on the dantian. Or the crown.
3) Rotating joints. Few. Or all. First in the same direction. Later in opposite directions.
4) Imagine the energy body being one foot or deep in the ground. Mind comes up and flows out through the limbs.
5) Just “being.” You simply are. Walking normally, picking something up, putting something down. In essence, its using the skeleton. But the manner is straightforward. You simply “are.”
6) Mike’s method of collapsing and then quickly expanding. It’s the Kwun Tong method with collapsing of the joints at the elbow and shoulder levels
7) Like waves crashing or a solar flare, in and out. Like a firefly or a blinking light, coming in and going out. Note: there is no loss of focus. Arms don’t retract as internal force comes in.
8) Dead arms, dead body. A variation of just being. Let limbs rotate at will.
9) A variation of the expansion is making a ring around your arms. Make it bigger. Engulf the room. The building. Expand in degrees of the rings.
10) A combination of the above
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
The way to train is as follows:
1) Relax the shoulder girdle and focus down, through the elbow. Practice bong, tan and fook sau the same way – in the sense that the forearm moves. Not the entire shoulder and elbow. The forearm is rotating to create shapes of fook, tan and bong.
2) Focus on the center of mass i.e. the dantian. Connect the active or passive limbs to the center of mass. A circuit will form naturally. There is no need to create a line. Focusing on those two points (dantian + limb) is enough.
3) Keep intention the intention that the joints are rotating whether in or out of motion. Motion doesn’t matter. The intention does. This is only a thought. It is enough to simply have the notion. It will then be active.
4) Expand (Kwun Tong method)
5) Do SNT using points #1-2/3/4
Point #1 is a must. You can enhance point #1 using point #2. Without point #1, nothing will happen. Flow will get stuck at the shoulders or elbows.
SNT is different due to focusing on center of mass (connecting the entire body as well as not sticking and trying to relax a local point) and focusing on elbow force through dropping of the shoulder. Different in the sense of it being enjoyable and non-straining.
*****************************************************************************************************************************
Note: There is no way to understand this without coming through me. Even going to Hong Kong results in a brick wall. When possible, meet me to build the routine.
This has been described in detail in my “Conclusion” post.
*****************************************************************************************************************************