YMAA Standing On Stake.

[lilman]

I have a question relating to YMAA Taijiquan. In all of the books and videos and DVDs I've seen of YMAA, Dr. Yang mentions sitting meditation and Qigong, and doing the form as slowly as possible to generate Jing. The only thing is he barely references Standing On Stake. Why is that? Is it that he doesnt do much training on it. From the teaching I recieved and the other books I read, Standing On Stake is the BEST way to develop Jing and to strengthen it.

Dont get me wrong, I really admire and respect Dr. Yang. If there was any teacher I could have thats living right now, it would definately be him. I have learned a lot from his books and videos, I was just curious why he doesnt put more emphasis on it, and if he teaches it at all. In all the books the only posture or description for Standing on Steak I ever seen was the "Holding the Jug" posture. Standing on Stake is what supposedly made Yang Lu Chan"draw blood with every step" and what made his son's jing so powerfull. It is also the basic practice method behind "Empty Force", and the way to develop fa jing to a level where you can send opponents flying 15-20 feet away, and I was just curious if there was a reason why that isnt emphasized or if there was something I didnt know or was missing. Thank you.

[Yatish Parmar]

in the brown Taiji form book:

pages 92-3, 145-149

[lilman]

Thank you Yatish. Would that Brown Taiji Form book be Classical Yang Style Taijiquan, or a different one?...

[Dvivid]

http://www.ymaa.com/publishing/books/internal/taijiquan_classical_yang_style

[lilman]

Thanks for the info. I went back to the book and reread everything to make sure I wasnt missing anything. The reason I asked the question I did is because if you read the first pages mentioned in the previous post by yeniseri, it just talks about rooting, not of standing on stake. The second reference in that post speaks of a standing on stake exercise to help a beginner feel Qi and an advanced practitioner feel a stronger Qi flow. He also teaches how to lead Qi between 2 circuits. I was taught, and read in many other books, standing on stake should be standing still doing nothing, with attention on rise and fall of the ldt, and Qi should not be lead unless doing a specific Qigong practice. He makes no reference to standing on stake as a source of power for Jing, or how standing on stake is supposed to fill your body with Qi. He does however mention how it improves your root. The reason I am concerned with this is not to say hes missing anything or downgrade the book, its just cuz things like this help to further confuse beginners. As a beginner, if I read that book alone, I wouldve done the practice to feel the Qi and left it as illigitimate. This is supposed to be a main factor in ANY martial arts training, especially the internal styles. Standing on stake is the source of power and I was just curious why more attention wasnt given to the subject... Unless thats something he feels should be taught by a teacher, but still then, I feel it should be emphasized with more importance. But thats just my opinion.

[Dvivid]

There is a section devoted to standing meditation theory and a follow-along practice with two versions of the exercise in this new video:

http://www.ymaa.com/publishing/internal/tai_chi_chuan/wudang_taijiquan

[yeniseri]

lilman said

I was just curious why he doesnt put more emphasis on it

.

Personal practice is something that cannot be dictated because you have to be motivated on your own accord to be better. Additionally, American students must want to practice without being told what to practice so it become a dilema.
My own experiene is that if you begin with zhanzhuang and you told the student he wil lbe holding postures for 6 months, of 200 students only about 5 will stay and follow through. If a teacher had to rely on that, he will surely starve to death if he is relying on public tuition as opposed to teahcing what he thought was the 'perfect student'!

[clairvoyager]

It is true that standing exercises are not emphasized much in the YMAA curriculum. Dr. Yang's extensive experience has led him to believe that the most fundamental practices for taijiquan are a) embryonic breathing for the internal-yin aspect of the art, and b) taiji ball qigong for the moving-external side of the art. This is not to say that standing is useless, it is just that he considers other methods more valuable.

Also, in YMAA material, there is a strong emphasis on transmitting the essence and the foundation, then it is up to you to decide what to emphasize in your training. Dr. Yang acknowledges the reader/student as someone who is free and capable of deciding where his/her interests lie and choose accordingly. While this is a noble and uplifting approach, it is often the case for the layman that he does not know what he should be doing!! Eventually, I think it is best to commit and persevere with just a handful of practices, due to ever limited training time. I have decided to follow Dr. Yang's advice and emphasize embryonic breathing and taiji ball qigong, although I have wandered high and low in the past.

The previous is what I have recognized in YMAA. Now, some thoughts of my own. It is my belief that standing is only really effective if a) you put some internal components (like qi circulation, development of inner awareness, ...) or b) you adopt a physically demanding posture. Only in one of those (or both) cases you will condition your system sufficiently. Otherwise, I think your training time is better spent in other moving qigong, form, etc. Take "embracing the tree" for instance. It is a mild exercise. If you perform it just with quiet mind and high posture, it will help beginners relax both mentally and physically (dropping bodyweight into the proper alignments, achieving stillness of the mind, ...) but it will require increasing amounts of precious time once you start to develop.

Just my two cents.

[shawn123]

hi guys,..
check this one,..its very nice,..
youtube.com/watch?v=cnckgTx3-rE
YouTube - Zhan Zhuang - Standing Stake Tai Chi Lesson,...
thanks,...