Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts Blog

Say No to Noodle Legs -- Do Not Collapse Your Legs in Tai Chi

chen family taijiquan chen tai chi chen tai chi training internal body mechanics peng jin studying internal arts studying internal gongfu Jul 15, 2019

See the two images above?

The left image shows a mistake that I see a lot. In fact, there is a good chance you are making this mistake in your forms, especially Bagua and Taiji.

I spent several years making this mistake and I was never called on it.

Then, I was training with Chen Huixian and her husband, Michael, and they pointed it out. I was doing "Buddha's Warrior Attendant Pounds Mortar" and it was pointed out that my rear leg was collapsed.

In the left photo, my right leg is collapsing. I have lost my peng.

In the right image, I am maintaining peng through the legs.

As you can see in the image on the left, my stability and strength is far less with a collapsed leg. I cannot "defend from all directions."

It is a lot more difficult to maintain peng in the legs. It helps to relax and sit deeper into the kua, and it requires a lot of mental focus until you break the habit of collapsing.

That one bit of advice changed a lot of my stances. And now, I see...

Peng Jin is the Most Important "Energy" in Tai Chi

internal strength peng jin tai chi energies taiji energies Jul 08, 2009

"Jin" means "energy," although that has been misinterpreted by some literal-minded folks who believe it is an actual scientifically real "energy" in the body. It has also been called "power" by some.

I tend to think of jin as "skill" or "method."

The term "energy" is an abstract way of describing the skill that you develop with practice. Liu jin, for example, is "roll back" energy. It's a physical skill that combines reflexes and sensitivity when someone pushes or punches or attacks in another way. The skilled fighter who uses liu can deflect the attack, rolling it away and often causing the attacker to go off-balance. Naturally, this takes a lot of practice. It's impossible to develop this skill just by doing a form. It is a method of dealing with force coming in.

The most important of all the so-called "energies" of tai chi and the internal arts is peng jin. It MUST be present in all of your movements, even when you walk. If it isn't, you're not doing tai chi (or hsing-i or bagu...

How to Develop Internal Arts Skill - the Ground Path

ground path internal strength peng jin Jul 07, 2009

I can't tell you how many internal artists I've met during the last decade or so who look at me with blank stares when I ask if they have been taught about the ground path.

I know how they feel. I first heard about it around 1997, when I started reading a network listserve, where Mike Sigman and others talked about it. I had studied martial arts for many years at that point, and had practiced the internal arts for a decade, and this concept was new to me.

I began studying Sigman's material and attended a workshop he held in Minneapolis. I began studying Chen tai chi with Jim and Angela Criscimagna, and learned body mechanics that were foreign to me. As I've seen during the past decade, these physical skills are still foreign to a lot of internal artists. Simply put, there is a LOT of bad instruction happening in the internal arts, particularly tai chi.

When Sigman began telling tai chi teachers and students about the ground path, he was flamed by many of them because they had devel...

Peng is the Most Important Concept in Tai Chi

peng jin tai chi energies taiji energies Mar 01, 2007

The most important "jin" (strength or force) in tai chi is peng jin. Chen Xiaowang has described peng jin as "chi flowing, everything full, nothing broken."

Peng jin is an expansive feeling directed outward from the body--beginning with the ground, transmitted by the legs, directed by the dan t'ien and manifest through the hands and fingers. It must be delivered without "local" muscular tension--in other words, you use your entire body as your fist, you don't strike with primarily your arm and shoulder muscles.

Peng jin works with the ground path to provide a solid structure in the body.

This is the foundation of internal strength.

In every movement in Taijiquan, the ground and peng must be present or your movement is empty. This is my the first thing I teach new students is the ground path, then peng jin.

Peng jin feels a bit like the same type of force that exists when you push a beach ball beneath the water. The potential force is ready to be released when you let go of the ba...

Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

Say No to Noodle Legs -- Do Not Collapse Your Legs in Tai Chi

Peng Jin is the Most Important "Energy" in Tai Chi

How to Develop Internal Arts Skill - the Ground Path

Peng is the Most Important Concept in Tai Chi

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