Softness and yielding are yin qualities. They require physical sensitivity and awareness.
Instead of pushing, you must yield into the opponent.
This is accomplished by allowing your body weight to move.

Pushing hands is an exercise in yielding; you relax your own body enough to allow the opponents force to move you and then you shift your weight in order to move them.

Should your partner present more than 4 ounces of resistance during the exercise, you must stop pushing immediately.
Once you learn not to push against solidity, your physical tension will start to fade and your body will begin to use gravity creatively.

'Reasonable force' requires you to be cautious in how you treat an attacker.
Do not make it an emotional event.

Be practical and expedient.

Your aim is to incapacitate temporarily. It is not to exact justice or vengeance.

Sets are not self defence.
They are fixed pattern, and serve to train accuracy, positioning, timing and movement.

The skills they teach can be taken into self defence if they manifest under pressure without contrivance.

In practice, the sets are about habit.
They encourage a certain way of moving, a habitual approach to attack.
This is what you take into self defence.

When facing a single tree, if you look at a single one of its red leaves, you will not see all the others. When the eye is not set on one leaf, and you face the tree with nothing at all in mind, any number of leaves are visible to the eye without limit. But if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there.

 (Takuan Soto) 

The conventional use of strength involves the application of force at a given, specific moment in time. If the aim is to break an arm, the individual exerts for a moment and the effect occurs.

The problem with this is that it is tiring. It wears you out.
Exerting the muscles is not very energy efficient because most of the effort accomplishes nothing; it feeds back into you when resistance is encountered.

'Internal power' is altogether different. Exerting never occurs.
The limbs are imbued with strength at all times, so an arm break would be performed with no more force than raising a glass of water to your mouth.

Where does the power come from?

It comes from unifying the body and projecting a wave of kinetic energy (jing) throughout the entire structure as and when necessary.
It is the wave that breaks the arm, not the local muscle strength.

If you lack composure, you will not see what is right in front of you.
Being calm is utterly essential.
You need to remain detached, emotionally aware and at ease.

This is the real reason why white belt syllabus students practice 'escapes'.

As soon as you use tension, you have failed.
Even if you eventually prevail, it has cost you an unnecessary amount of effort and is not tai chi.

Correct use of alignment, timing, pressure and positioning will enable you to skilfully defend yourself.

A kung fu class would not be a kung fu class without combat.
Kung fu, however, is not about fighting - it is about self defence - and the two are rather different.

Fighting is about contesting yourself against another, besting them in combat and perhaps obtaining a prize.
Self defence is about escaping harm - using the minimum degree of effort and commitment.
There are no prizes or runners-up in self defence; if you lose in a real life confrontation, you could die.

Class practice must skirt the edge of reality; tasting the danger without running the risk of serious injury.

There have been some pretty weird definitions of 'internal' from various instructors across the years.
A lot of needless debate has been carried out.

Whole-body soft movement is quite unique and easy to identify.
If you have received an internal strike, you are unlikely to confuse it with anything else.
Anyone who has tried to grapple with a real kung fu person tends to be amazed by their malleability.
The fluid, adaptive approach creates a sense of 'fighting with yourself' or with water.

What people find most odd about kung fu is the ease of the art.
A small movement produces a disproportionate consequence; and no muscular tension is ever used.
Yet it works.

To accomplish this, the tai chi classics must be adhered to strictly, with no deviation.
Yielding must be your first and last thought at all times.

We adopt a 'grass roots' attitude to kung fu, going right back to the basics.
Students explore the human body, physics, biomechanics, principles and martial theory.
They discover the difference between jing and li; and come to recognise the significance of tao.

Such an adventure is not for the half-hearted. This is no quick fix.
The syllabus is lengthy and thorough, but you can study it at your own pace.

Apprenticeship involves following the syllabus of one particular instructor.
Learning the art their way.
It is literally the cliché: "My way or the highway..."

Being an apprentice entails strict adhesion to the instructor's approach at all times...
No deviation. No debate.

Do not push on impact.
That way, the kinetic energy will travel out of your body instead of just bouncing back.

Your intention goes through the opponent, not your punch.

Upon impact, your hand/elbow/knee sinks slightly into the opponent before bouncing back off again.
This process occurs naturally and need not be contrived.
If you pull off too soon, 4 ounces of pressure has not been established and the power will diminish.

We offer beginners classes that anyone may attend.
New starters and students with different levels of commitment are all welcome.

Whilst there are grades and belts, the onus is very much upon individual progress and achievement.
You can train as hard or as casually as you like.

Students often make the same mistakes when attempting fa jing:

1. pushing upon impact
   - this approach is external in nature - the classic 'punch through the opponent' strategy
   - it is not tai chi
2. 'cocking' the pelvis and/or shoulder
3. lunging forward
4. an obvious build-up
5. jerky
6. a step
   - your step should occur because of the release, rather than to cause the release
7. tension in the striking tool
8. overall tension in the body
9. emotional tension: anger, aggression
10. forcing

Fa jing is altogether different to these approaches.

We teach baguazhang as an extra to tai chi. We do not mix and match.

Why bother learning a second art?

1. It's fun
2. It's hard
3. It is sneaky and deceptive
4. It makes your footwork smoother
5. It improves your spatial awareness
6. It works well against multiple opponents
7. It challenges you physically and cognitively
8. It encourages spontaneity and improvisation

Any student who wants to put in a little extra practice time between lessons can learn baguazhang.

Neigong is a focus. It is like a koan.

It pays attention to how an action is performed rather than the action itself.

Imagine throwing a punch?
Neigong addresses what the body does in order to produce the punch.
It re-trains the framework to deliver power from the whole-unit rather than the shoulder, waist and leg.

Each neigong is different. It has a particular emphasis.
Neigong is internal, with most of the work occurring unseen.
The body looks to undulate as you move.

Fa jing is not hard, it is soft. The effect is hard, not the means itself.

No more than 4 ounces of pressure is applied and the moment of delivery is a split-second.
You do not have time to tense the hand.
The hand (and body) must close by itself on impact, then instantly re-open again.
Conscious strength ruins any chance you have at using fa jing, so just relax.
Be patient.

When you deliver fa jing into a focus mitt or target pad it will pass through the body and into the ground. 
It may cause the floorboards to resonate.

Reach is the act of stretching out your arm or leg in order to touch or grasp something.
It is the limit of your potential stretch. 

A young boy travelled across Japan to the school of a famous martial artist.

When he arrived at the dojo he was given an audience by the sensei.

"What do you wish from me?" the master asked.

"I wish to be your student and become the finest karateka in the land," the boy replied.

"How long must I study?"

"Ten years at least," the master answered.

"Ten years is a long time," said the boy.

"What if I studied twice as hard as all your other students?"

"Twenty years," replied the master.

"Twenty years! What if I practice day and night with all my effort?"

"Thirty years," was the master's reply.

"How is it that each time I say I will work harder, you tell me that it will take longer?" the boy asked.

"The answer is clear. When one eye is fixed upon your destination, there is only one eye left with which to find the way."

(Joe Hyams)

Shuai jiao is a very good self defence skill.

It teaches you how to keep the body free and mobile, and see opportunities within every situation.

Instead of seeking to apply techniques from the palm changes, a student learns to blend with the incoming attack and respond spontaneously.
Natural movement is encouraged.
Turning, stepping and changing enable the individual to move freely and comfortably.

The relaxed stepping methods cultivate evasive habits and help students to feel confident when faced with assault.

The body, freed of tension, should reach a condition where the joints move freely.
Only then is the body loose enough for fa jing.
You must be sufficiently attuned to your own movements to feel when and how fa jing can be generated.

Some students are not patient enough and use force.
A common mistake is to use the pelvis and hips rather than the combined muscles of the entire body.
People become adept at rapid pelvic turns or abrupt shunts of force.
These are quite strong but they are not fa jing.
They tend to create a residual pattern of tension within the body.

Fa jing is like a wave, rippling up from the ground, through your hand and into the opponent.
Instead of using the hips and pelvis, you should use the spiralling of the legs, the opening and closing of the spine and the movement of the centre.

Unlike many grappling arts, shuai jiao does not rely upon holding your attacker's clothing.
Grabs require commitment, and a successful application is over almost as soon as it started.

Holding onto your opponent is unnecessary. Instead of holding, you employ stickiness.

Baguazhang addresses the experience of combat in a different way to tai chi.
The student avoids direct confrontation by circling around the opponent or by encouraging the attacker to circle around them.
Momentum and flow are used to overcome strength. The aim is to draw the attacker out of their centre and off-balance.

Bagua trains the student to adapt, change and improvise.
There are no fixed techniques, with the exponent preferring to respond to the demands of the moment rather than force an outcome.

There is some degree of overlap between shuai jiao and chin na.
However, the skills serve a different purpose.

Chin na encompasses a range of skills (misplacing the bones, cavity press, sealing the breath and dividing the muscle). 
Shuai jiao is simply wrestling.

Ultimately, chin na is designed to defeat shuai jiao. 

Pain is the means by which you can deter even the strongest attacker.
The human body responds to pain.
It seeks to get away from pain.

Chin na begins with misplacing the bones; a coarse infliction of pain through joint leverage.
The threat of breakage acts as deterrent, whilst actual breakage renders the limbs useless.
But breaking a limb is extreme and vulgar.

Incapacitation is important, but preventing a person from earning their livelihood seems excessive.
A broken bone may cause long-term problems.

More advanced chin na focus upon short-term intense pain, designed to fill the mind with panic.
When an aversive reaction is promoted, the assailant cannot think clearly.
Such pain is also temporary and fades soon after the chin na ceases.

'Fa jing' means spontaneous energy release or 'jing release'. It is concerned with kinetic energy emission.
It is the means whereby energy can be transmitted from one person to another. 
It is not structure or movement or energy. It is the way in which the energy is emitted.

Fa jing is a means, not an end.

The harder you seek it, the more you try. Trying involves effort, effort causes tension, tension blocks energy and there is no fa jing.

A practitioner learns how to generate an undulation wave.
This is passed throughout your entire structure, storing and releasing kinetic energy.
We develop this wave by learning whole-body movement. Every strike involves every body part moving as one.

The skill cannot be attained by force.
Only when the body has augmented itself with neigong will fa jing emerge without effort.
You need to be soft and relaxed.
You need to let go of your tension.

The fa jing release of energy is akin to a sneeze; the entire body opening and closing in an instant.

In self defence practice, we cannot use fa jing on one another. The outcome is too unpredictable.
We use soft target pads and sticks for fa jing practice.

The gravity component of fa jing is trained separately. We strike one another using gravity in order to develop this skill.

Peter Southwood's main kung fu instructor was Chu King Hung, following the Yang Shou Chung line. 
His other instructors include Peter Newton, Lam Kam Chuen, Yang Jwing-Ming, Bruce Frantzis and Mike Sigman.

In Wolf Lowenthal's book There Are No Secrets, the author presented a situation in which Cheng Man Ching had asked the students to push hands without using the arms.
The students were using tension.
They were forcing a result.
Cheng Man Ching wanted the students to push hands in a different way.
However, he was not prepared to explicitly tell the students what to do.

Years of fruitless practice bore no result.
After Cheng Man Ching's death, the author was watching a video of the instructor pushing hands when he suddenly saw how to push hands correctly.
In hindsight it seemed obvious.

Cheng Man Ching was not keeping secrets. In fact, he was showing the very skill all the time. But his students were just not ready to see it.

Think of the treasures as being like this example.

The 6 balanced pairs can be considered in more detail:

1. Hands & feet
   - hands and feet must coordinate
   - if the right hand is yang, the left foot is yang
   - the further past the feet you extend your hands, the less centred you are
    
2. Elbows & knees
   - elbows and knees must both be naturally relaxed and in-line
   - elbows and knees do not initiate any movement
   - knees are soft and loose, not locked or collapsed
   - elbows are dropped and heavy
    
3. Hips & shoulders
   - shoulders must be above the hips
   - do not lean upper torso forwards or backwards
   - vertical distance between shoulder and hip should not increase or decrease on either side
    
4. Back of head & coccyx
   - the base of the spine and the base of the skull move together
   - this encourages moving from the back, and remaining upright
    
5. CV1 & crown
   - CV1 is between genitals and anus
   - the centre of the skull and CV1 must be joined by a vertical line
   - this is your vertical centre
    
6. Buttocks & armpits
   - armpits are open, buttocks are drawn inward
   - do not tuck the pelvis

Throughout the tai chi syllabus there is a need to grapple and to avoid grapples.
Yet, grappling is tiring and wastes time.
It is necessary to avoid being held.

Shuai jiao offers leverage principles that enable the student to evade holds with ease.

From the very beginning of their training students explore:

1. Against a grappler
2. Escapes
3. Floor work
4. Floor work (control)
5. Freeform grappling
6. Monkey paws
7. Pushing legs
8. Yielding/chin na

Escapes and floor work are particularly important skills.
They enable the defender to remove themselves from harm without the use of brute force. 

Palm changes are essentially form. We practice 8 different palm changes.

Palm changes are quite short in length.
They teach the body how to move in a bagua manner and enhance your ability to walk the circle.
A student learns how to coordinate changing, stepping, turning and arm movement.

We teach shuai jiao for self defence, drawing applications from the form.
There are no competitions, weight categories etc.

All students are expected to apply shuai jiao in self defence as they proceed through the syllabus.

Most students begin standing by ‘hugging a tree’/‘holding a balloon’ at chest height.
Essentially, the arms are positioned in a circular shape and the fingers are lightly opened.

This innocuous exercise quickly becomes a challenge.
The skill is to maintain the posture without in any way ‘holding’ the posture.
Muscle usage must be minimal. Psychological ease and relaxation are paramount.

The posture must be natural and comfortable. Do not strain the knees by squatting.

The idea is to let go.

This is not easy. A lifetime of tension will pain you and the temptation will be to hang on.
Liz Koch, author of The Psoas Book maintains that you must reach a stage where the body feels safe and begins to shake.
This shaking is quite disconcerting. It is not muscle fatigue. It is the product of deep relaxation.
All the stored tension in the joints and vertebra is being let out.

The shaking cannot be forced or contrived. It is accomplished by not-doing.
By stopping the habit of tension.
By letting go.

Daily standing for 15-20 minutes will produce the required outcome providing internal relaxation takes place.

Chin na is the art of seizing the opponent abruptly and painfully during grappling.
It is intended to break bones, tear muscles/tendons/ligaments and inflict pain through sudden leverage.

Locks and holds are not used because they require commitment.

Form is not slow-motion kata. It is not moving yoga. Tai chi has internal content.
To gain the internal, it is necessary to address how the movements are performed.

A beginner is taught to move their arms and legs in a particular way.
This lays the groundwork but is more about spatial orientation than anything else.
The student learns which way to face, where to step and what to do with the hands.
There is no internal work occurring at this stage.

To understand form, consider a caterpillar or a snake and how they move.
Every action is generated by an undulating wave that causes every part to shift in the required direction. Form is like this.

Instead of moving the localised limb by itself, the framework twists and the striking tool is spun outward.
The movement of the limb is in harmony with the torso and power is developed.

Physics is important in tai chi.
The body parts must be aligned at all times with strength in mind.
Aesthetics are not the concern in real tai chi; priority is given to alignment and the way in which the body is used.

Each movement within the form offers a whole array of potential strikes and skills.
The emphasis is placed upon the movement itself.

The so-called posture simply serves to shape movement. It is not a static pose.

It is not a fixed application.
The form is not as specific as other martial arts kata. It is much more embryonic.
Every movement provides angle, direction and power.
The exponent finds strength in every nuance.

The skills and insights learned through standing and moving qigong must be incorporated in your form practice.

Considerable balance is acquired through learning baguazhang. 
Walking the circle requires the student to sink their root deep into the ground in order to become stable in motion. 
Evasive footwork is vital. 
The feet must be agile, alert and swift.

Circle walking needs to be smooth and natural, casual and comfortable. 
Awkward stepping cannot be used in self defence.

Sifu Waller started martial arts training in the mid 1970's, both in class and daily at home.
During the 1980's and 1990's Sifu Waller attended up to five different lessons a week, sometimes travelling over 40 miles for tuition.
He also attended a considerable number of workshops around the UK.

Sifu Waller enjoyed practicing many different kinds of martial arts.

Invisibility literally means to be unseen, unnoticed.
In modern times invisibility is associated with fictional stories involving magic cloaks or scientific devices.

In the martial arts it is about stealth and secrecy. 

Tai chi is based upon a complex theoretical foundation, explained in the taoist classics and the tai chi classics.
A tai chi instructor is usually also a scholar. Without an understanding of the crucial works, much is lost.

Sifu Waller holds an honours degree in Literature and a post-graduate certificate in English.

'Fa jing' is the name given to a sudden wave of energy that surges through your body and into the opponent.
However, fa jing is not the energy itself. It is the means by which the energy is delivered.

Fa jing is the main means of striking in tai chi, fuelling both strikes and chin na.
It is the medium by which kinetic energy is transmitted from one body to another.

Moving qigong is similar to standing qigong except the onus is now upon smoothness and relaxation in movement.
No extraneous muscle usage is permitted.

Alignment, softness and breath are important.

Each exercise can be used as a training ground for whole-body movement.
Instead of just moving the arms and shoulders, every part of the structure is involved.
Even the simplest movement should spiral from the toes to the fingertips.

Performed correctly, this is just as difficult as standing qigong.
The body is trained to coordinate left and right, upper and lower, along with cross-patterning.
The muscles serve only to move the bones and must never stiffen or tense.
Tight joints prevent movement.
These exercises are designed to facilitate fluidity with strength.

Qigong is not something that is trained for a while and then discarded.
The student comes back to it repeatedly as they get better at tai chi.
As the ability to move with internal power increases, the exercises can be re-evaluated and trained with a new emphasis.
A movement that once connected the arms to the back now becomes a means of training energy discharge.
Qigong changes as you change.

  Tai chi comes from emptiness and is the mother of yin and yang.
In motion tai chi separates; in stillness yin and yang fuse and return to emptiness.

It is not excessive or deficient; it follows a bending, adheres to an extension.

When the opponent is hard and I am soft, it is called yielding.

When I follow the opponent and he becomes backed up, it is called adhering.

If the opponent's movement is quick, then quickly respond; if his movement is slow, then follow slowly.

Although there are innumerable variations, the principle that pervades them remains the same.

From familiarity with the correct touch, one gradually comprehends jing (internal power); from the comprehension of jing one can reach wisdom.

Without long practice one cannot suddenly understand tai chi.

Effortlessly the jing reaches the headtop.

Let the qi sink to the tan tien.

Don't lean in any direction; suddenly appear, suddenly disappear.

Empty the left wherever a pressure appears, and similarly the right.

If the opponent raises up, I seem taller; if he sinks down, then I seem lower;
advancing, he finds the distance seems incredibly long; retreating, the distance seems exasperatingly short.

A feather cannot be placed, and a fly cannot alight on any part of the body.

The opponent does not know me; I alone know him.

To become a peerless boxer results from this.

There are many boxing arts.

Although they use different forms, for the most part they don't go beyond
the strong dominating the weak, and the slow resigning to the swift.

The strong defeating the weak and the slow hands ceding to the swift hands
are all the results of natural abilities and not of well-trained techniques.

From the sentence "A force of four ounces deflects a thousand pounds"
we know that the technique is not accomplished with strength.

The spectacle of an old person defeating a group of young people, how can it be due to swiftness?

Stand like a perfectly balanced scale and move like a turning wheel.

Sinking to one side allows movement to flow; being double-weighted is sluggish.

Anyone who has spent years of practice and still cannot neutralize,
and is always controlled by his opponent, has not apprehended the fault of double-weightedness.

To avoid this fault one must distinguish yin from yang.

To adhere means to yield.
To yield means to adhere.

Within yin there is yang.
Within yang there is yin.

Yin and yang mutually aid and change each other.

Understanding this you can say you understand jing.
After you understand jing, the more you practice, the more skill.

Silently treasure knowledge and turn it over in the mind.
Gradually you can do as you like.

Fundamentally, it is giving up yourself to follow others.
Most people mistakenly give up the near to seek the far.
It is said, "Missing it by a little will lead many miles astray."

The practitioner must carefully study.

This is the treatise.

(Wang Tsung-yueh)      

Baguazhang is the sister art of tai chi, and focuses upon stepping and change.
The training involves:

1. 8 mother palms
2. Circle walking
3. Direction changes
4. 8 palm changes
5. Partner work
6. Freeform self defence

Students are encouraged to move, flow, adapt, respond - spontaneously and calmly.

Baguazhang is particularly effective for applying chin na and shuai jiao.

Chinese grappling/wrestling is called 'shuai jiao'.
It is an umbrella term that encompasses a variety of approaches.

Shuai jiao is not to be confused with Western styles of wrestling.

Yang Cheng Fu and the other famous historical tai chi instructors did not collect forms and styles.
They trained one form and focussed on that.

Form collecting is a modern habit which arises when a student is unwilling to commit the necessary practice to mastering a form.
In short, the student gets bored.

A form is a complete record and repository of the system.
It contains every strategy, skill, movement required to gain a good sense of the art.

Your opponent is also utilising the three dimensions. They have no choice in the matter.

If they swing their right shoulder, rotate their waist, shift their weight into the right foot - in an attempt to hit your jaw - they are employing two dimensions.
They are using the horizontal axis, and moving forwards.

Your response must be applied relative to these dimensions.

If you attempt to oppose the incoming force by using an outward-moving 'block' with your left arm, you are going to meet the full force of their delivery.
This is not tai chi.