T'ai Chi Staff

Had a nice private with Sensei John Sullivan yesterday morning. We worked on Wansu Knife, Tai Chi Staff, Sunsu and a couple of knife 'skill drills'.....very nice to hang out with one of my oldest students

crane frolic standing 6

crane frolic standing 5

crane frolic standing 4

crane frolic standing 3

crane frolic standing 2

Crane frolic - standing #1

I've started to teach the Crane Animal Frolics that I learned from Sifu Gallagher in classes this week. It's a set that I've been practicing recently to help re-hab my injured shoulder. I'll post them one at a time starting with the 6 Standing Crane Frolics and then I'll add the 4 Walking Crane Frolics.
(If you go directly to YouTube it seems to load a bit better)

Sung Exercise

A sequence I put together to blend the one leg Sung practice with the one leg Standing practices.
I get the feeling of Sung in the first exercise and try to keep that it while I'm aligning the body vertically and then attempt to maintain that feeling while holding the posture (raise hands). The idea is to train and develop the quality of Sung while Standing then to be able to transfer that skill to moving solo then of course to be able to access that skill while moving full speed with a training partner. First things first....that's the Standing part!!
Key points:
- The mind descends down the weighted leg (like it's a conduit) then out the bottom of the foot and into the ground where the energy splay's out and down, like the roots of a tree, several feet into the ground (Sung)
- The head lifts and crown is light
- The tail bone drops and is heavy
- The lower back is 'filled' and is straight
- The shoulders remain down and the middle back is open
- The elbows point down and are heavy
- The fingers are light
- Observe the breath (Taoist Longevity Breathing)

apparent closure drill sifu and bob 3.29.11

arnis form five sifu

tai chi cane part one sifu