To help far away students master the internal healing & martial arts and to help others get insight through sharing these training notes.
Tom (England)
Dear Shrfu Bracy,
I have read and re-read the stuff you sent and I have been practising daily again, already my level is returning it
|
Mark (New Zealand)
Hello Master Bracy,
Thanks very much for the new video !
I think Skype based training will provide an excllent opportunity to link-up and learn !
In terms of the questions you have asked I am 37 year of age, I probabbly in worse shape than I like to acknowledge (although not to bad) ! Most of my Martial arts experience has actually been in Wing Chun I studied for 7 years and was a junior instructor. I have recently attempted to train in the internal martial arts and work on developing the soft internal strength that you talk about. In terms of my martial arts goals I would like to develop and uderstand internal strength and be able to apply it martially. Its probabbly the foundational internal strength skills, structure and connectivity and one point mind training and stepping/footwork that I want to work on and uderstand the most. Your Wing Wei system has great appeal because it shares some commonalities with wing chun, but if I understand correctly could be adpated back to the more traditional arts. I remember when studying Wing Chun I used to think that if we had some of the foot work and whole body power of bagua we might be really onto something.
Tom has already contacted me and he speaks very highly of you ! He sounds as though he has also spent a siginifcant amount of time looking for good teachers. I look forward to working with you.
|
functions very quickly. I especially like to sitting advice ie putting something in the chair to recreate the natural
environment in your body. Actually I have always practised on uneven ground and knew that it worked in the sense that connection was better with less effort etc etc but i never really knew why, your theory about the tensions within the body like a "radio" tower, come to think of it i think you said mast, same concept anyway, with the wires being the fascia etc within the body is not a theory it is fact, but yet none that i know of has ever explained it the way you did and it makes so much sense now!! I had hope to discuss this more with Sal, but that will have to wait, but thank you so much for all that. I must say that i really feel my alignment and connection blossoming because of this. I mainly practice bamboo moved by wind (probably the wrong name) that Sal taught me on the block!
In your opinion what should i do now, of course I will continue with the block training and all the lessons from Shrfu Park and Instrucotor Sal, but is there any process you think I should follow?
|
Still photos taken from the video Tom sent
  
|
Tom’s Training. JOURNAL NOTES May 5
Thanks for sending the video. Gives me some good ideas about your work.
Have your training posture, striking skill, qiGong energy training, or combat strategy evaluated by a true expert
Have SKYPE and camera?
Or send video over the internet
Want advice/ correction/ comment on your internal martial arts practice by Master John Bracy? Limited amount of on line/ video evaluation time available for reasonable fee. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL - OR SHARE on a web training journal like this one. Initial session $100. [FOR INQUIRY SEND EMAIL TO
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
|
The first thing to correct as soon as possible is your EMPTY - FULL
Consider the following instructions from Lien-yuan, who received them from Yang Pan-hou (Quoted by Douglas Wile in Yang Style Transmissions) although the source is referencing Tai Chi instructions, the principle and instruction also apply to Ba Gua.
“Secret of Full and Empty”
ABOUT EMPTY FULL [LINK]
More info and quotes re. EMPTY FULL on the above link and (after you sign in to chi-arts.com,
MORE DETAILS ABOUT EMPTY FULL AND FULCRUM
This second link describes the main block for you to realize increased connective power: when you walk/ move/ strike without correct “Empty-Full” your power and technique comes from a mid-body FULCRUM instead of vertical “connected” power that accesses accessory muscle groups. |
Empty empty, full full, with spirit
ever present;
Empty full, full empty as hands
perform techniques.
To practice Tai-chi without mastering
the principle of empty full,
Is to foolishly waste time without ever
accomplishing anything.
 May 7:
Hi Tom, These photos of the famous Ba Gua master Wang Su Jin should gvie you some guidance re. Empty-Full in the art. Shrfu
Oh My God!
As the title indicates! Have been practising Ba Gua after the standing on a block in this case a chair but same principle i think, and the lesson yesterday, what a difference!!!!!
Thank you Shrfu
May 8 Comparison of Tom's Tai Chi posture with Fu Zhong-Wen
Hi Tom, much closer, put notice that Fu doesn't have the "pointy-knee." It's a different lesson, but also notice that Fu has the edge of his forward hand outward compared to your flatter palm. Shrfu
May international coaching via SKYPE
Via SKYPE, coached Tom to correct posture shown on left to the one in the photo at right.
"For me the shift in focus from passive to active standing is something worthy of great praise. It is almost like the discovery of £20 in your coat pocket when you are really broke. The £20 was always there you just were't aware of it, but when you find it and realise it was so close great joy mixed with “bloody hell” arises!! That is how I feel in regards to real active standing!
For me passive standing is something which involves the structure of internal arts but not the connections so necessary to produce notable results. A bit like a hollow tree!
When standing becomes active the results are so palpable that one simply cannot refute the experience.
Active standing is so wonderfully painful that one can only muse as to how and why this art has all but been lost, but at the same time be grateful for the few masters left transmitting that knowledge onto the next generation.
I was reading the thoughts of Yang Chen Fu and the reasons that he felt for continuing the practice of Tai Chi. He argues that the most important thing was for the Chinese to become as strong as the Japanese and Westerners who were at that time carving up China for their own benefit. The Chinese were all but peasants at that time, mere shadows of the glories of the past.
That may not be so relevant now, but what is relevant is the fact that we are in more need of real internal arts than ever. Active standing allows for those connections that are lost due to the artificially flat world and hours of sitting in front of the TV and computer to be countered thus remedying illnesses before they even set in. Illness here not only means of the body, which is much easier to fix, but also of the mind. In Buddhist philosophy it is stated that we are in the Kali Yuga, a time where the merits of humanity is lessening and especially rife will be mental provocations and illnesses of the mind, which we all know is more evident than in the past.
Although the world has changed, our bodies are still made from the womb of the earth. We still need to connect with her and active standing and real internal arts not only does that, but does it in great abundance creating as Yang Chen Fu said a strong and resilient race, the race in this example is the only one that matters, the human one.”
---------------------
Well you have me well and truly hooked!! Your lessons (the few that we have taken) have started to transform my understanding of internal kung fu so much so that i would like to know when we can have our next lesson. If it works better for you perhaps I could start to pay for an hour or 45 minutes lesson if that is better for you? I am not rich, but i know what is worth spending the money that i have on. Those two things are my future wife and your wonderful knowledge. I look forward to the next lesson and every break between seems like a very long time indeed!!!
|
Training Journals
