H. WON TAI CHI INSTITUTE

 

A BULLET WRAPPED IN COTTON

How do I begin to describe what can only be experienced, and then only experienced after countless hours, sweat, pain and precise instructions that can only be transmitted verbally from Teacher to Student. What can not be observed with One's own vision or from a video or read from a book or a volume of books. How do I describe the insanity of this soft energy that when delivered appropriately, can feel like being hit by a truck and delivered at the speed of a bullet without notice or warning. This is not a fabrication or a hypnotic trance or an illusion. This is the invincible power of the famous Yang Lu Chan, handed down to his son Yang Jian Hou to his son Yang Cheng Fu to his son Yang Sau Chung to his 2nd Disciple Chu Si Gong and to his 2nd Disciple Sifu Kim, who is my Teacher. I can only speak from my personal experience with my teacher in the 10 years I have trained under his guidance. There is no doubt he possesses the Soft Peng Jeng or power that the Yang Family was famously known for. I have personally been tossed many feet with this effortless power and felt it "bubble" out of my teacher as we have trained the Dynamic power push hands, to also feel the absolute heaviness as it literally rips through my internal skeleton or ligamentous joint structure. I have felt his arm/shoulder go from the hardness of steel to the softness of cotton where he seems to disappear. Not literally in the sense that he is not there but no matter where or how I push it just seems to go nowhere, basically into emptiness. If you are reading this and you have not experienced this feeling you can not even begin to comment, for you hold no vantage point of understanding and only speak from your non qualified intellect or diminutive experience or system of training and skill or lack there of. If you are reading this and have not experienced this I invite you to come and see for yourself, although I warn you that you will face your nemesis of your weak and feeble mind. The craziest thing in all of this is that my Teacher talks of the skill and knowledge of his Teacher, that being Chu Si Gong and how much more he possesses in comparison; I can only fathom for I have only scratched the surface of the great ones, if even that. This, in my opinion, is the start of a strong argument for who should be the true Successor of the famous grandmaster Yang Sau Chung. He who holds the greatest skill and knowledge and thus the greatest power should be named the next. If you disagree then you should show yourself and state your case or better yet show us your skill, knowledge and power.

Brian Mungeer

Tai Chi Chuan is known for its effortless power, especially when you hear about the feats of the Yang Family. I started studying Tai Chi at a local school in New Jersey. There was the form and push hands but it lacked the legendary power that I heard so much about. Eventually I started to think the stories were just that: stories. Then I heard about Sifu Gim in New City. After some research and watching a couple of videos of dynamic power push hands, I decided to visit the school. When I visited I watched Sifu effortlessly push the student across the room with little movement, I couldn't wrap my head around it. Did I find the real thing?! Afterwards he talked to me about the lineage of his teacher Chu Sifu, who was the 2nd disciple of Yang Sau Chung, son of Yang Cheng Fu. I wanted to feel the power behind these stories so I asked Sifu to push me, and thankfully he obliged. Just like the student I was tossed effortlessly across the room. Its been many years later and one thing is abundantly clear: to gain this effortless power one has to train with maximum effort. When thinking of Chu Sifu and Sifu Gim power, even among their peers, their effort must have been monstrous. Based on my first had experience of the power passed down to Sifu Gim, and from his own accounts, Chu Sifu is the only one that possesses the true power and understanding of Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan. This is why I know Chu Gin Soon is the one who truly deserves to to be the 5th generation successor of Yang sau Chung.

Jesse Brossa

Knowledge Is Power

I learnt many years ago that who you learn from is of critical importance (especially when those skills are needed to save someone's life).

In finding a Tai Chi teacher, my criteria were:
      *  Someone who knows the essence of tai chi
      *  Someone who could articulate and demonstrate that essence
      *  Someone who was as close to the 'originators' as possible and therefore have 'cleaner' information
      *  Someone who had substance over presentation
      *  Someone who taught in the tri-state area

Eventually, I found Sifu Gim's website and what I read was a perfect match for what I was wanting in a teacher.

Six years later... with a few thoughts:

The training for the internal power requires mental and physical tenacity.

It means, for example, when I think I can no longer hold that Cham Zhong posture after 20 minutes, and my legs are uncontrollably shaking, my back is hurting, and that internal voice is telling me to give in, and then somehow I'm able to put that aside and go inside and find that place where I re-relax and go past that threshold while still holding the same energy level in my hands.

It means, for example, being able to have complete, and I mean 100%, complete focus of attention on my whole body while doing the form. I have flat feet and it is an issue for me. So I need to make sure I am feeling my body go though the transitions when going from posture to posture. I need to make sure that my feet are making the correct contact with the floor and that I have complete balance. This allows me to relax even more.

I love and enjoy this experiential learning. For me, that means applying the principles Sifu writes and talks about to when I am practicing the forms. This takes time and patience is needed. The more I practice the deeper the understanding becomes.

Doing the power push hands with Sifu is a mind-blowing experience. What actually happens in that moment in time when Sifu strikes my energy with his soft energy, and then sometimes for that millionth of a second "I disappear", my mind goes someplace else, and then I find myself going backwards.

Learning Classical Yang style Tai Chi has helped me with my breathing problem I have had for a very long time. For another, it has helped me with my flat feet.

If you were to ask me what tai chi means to me, I would say it is the medium through which I express who I am, what I am, and how I am.

I would like to thank Chu Si Gong because without him I probably would not be learning tai chi. Chu Si Gong was the second disciple of Yang Sau-Chung Tai-Sigong. He learnt firsthand the full curriculum and the principles of classical tai chi from a Yang family member! How many tai chi people can say that. Not only that, he was also an excellent teacher because he was able to transmit that same curriculum and those same principles to his second disciple, my Sifu, Sifu Gim. Which is why I believe Chu Si Gong should be recognized as the 5th generation gatekeeper.

Joe Izhakoff

Today marks my 5 year anniversary of studying @ Classical Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan of NY

I can only describe the feeling from my subjective experience: It's as if an electric current is sent through my body, subtly, and then upon contacting the bottom of my back foot, 'exploding'. Sometimes that explosion bounces back up, all the way to my head and makes me scream as I get launched backwards, other times it's as if the energy hits my navel center and 'tickles' me internally (for lack of better words), and this makes me laugh or cackle. There are times when I barely feel a charge entering my body, yet it's as if a strong gust of wind blows through and me sends me whooshing backwards. Students and non-students have witnessed this and it probably appears confusing yet hilarious. When I first started this exercise, my body was not strong enough to withhold the pressure being applied to it, so I folded and collapsed, even though I used as much physical strength as I could muster. Slowly but surely I learned that if I could relax my individual muscles, especially in the upper body, that I could maximize the power of my connected body, much like a tensegrity model (think or google buckyball). Even still, at that time, I would get overpowered by the force being applied to my structure and would collapse or topple over, as I reached the limits of my connected strength. As I continued with this exercise, my body became more supple, flexible and connected, with less isolated muscle groups firing upon pressure being applied. In so doing, the aforementioned charge that I would feel coursing through my body became more 'alive' and visceral. As my sensitivity sharpened, and my connected body became more in-tact, I could experience more subtle interactions, with less externally visible physics interactions occurring. Only then did I even think I could begin to grasp what is meant by 'Internal Art'.

*****

In reflection:

I inadvertently stumbled upon Tai Chi when I was 17 years old, whilst studying at a rabbinical college in Australia. I knew right away that it was a discipline/art-form that I could really get into. My curiosity was piqued.

As life winded through twists and turns over the next 10 years I found myself studying this incredible art with a few teachers along the way. Each teacher provided new insights and I'm grateful for their guidance.

When I moved to NYC for my career just over 5 years ago, I knew it was time to dedicate myself more thoroughly to this art. Thanks to the recommendation from Sifu Dimitri, who was my previous teacher in Florida @ Internal Arts Institute, I enrolled at my current school, to study with Sifu Gim, the 2nd Disciple of Chu Sigong, who is the 2nd disciple of Yang Sau Chung.

Come to find out, the only person given permission to teach outside of Hong Kong by YSC was Chu Sigong, the 5th generation successor of the Yang Family. This puts me in direct contact with the transmission of the legendary power and energy the Yang family became famous for. Little did I realize what I was getting into.

Tai Chi Chuan has since become my primary tool for fine-tuning my mind and body. The visceral and sensory awareness it brings forth is profound, not to mention the health benefits. Yet I feel like I've only begun to scratch the surface of this art, as there is 'something' so deep at it's core, inexplicable, that awaits the perpetual discovery in an eternal quest. And so the journey continues...

Thank you firstly to Sifu Gim, for putting up with my stubbornness and guiding me thus far, and infinite gratitude to Chu Sigong for carrying on and transmitting the Yang Family lineage. It is through all his tireless work for 40+ years, that he truly deserves the title of the 5th generation successor.

Ari Reisner

Sifu H. Won Gim has written extensively on lineage and the curriculum at nytaichi.com.  For a student this more direct lineage via extended close relationships across each generation means more precise and complete instruction.  The lineage is: Grandmaster Yang, Sau-Chung => Grandmaster Chu, Gin Soon => Sifu H. Won Gim. Each generation is a disciple of the previous generation and has received approval from the prior generation to teach indicating a confidence expressed from teacher to student.  By looking at the quality of H Won Tai Chi Institute's teachings and its Sifu you can see the quality of Grandmaster Chu's skill and teachings. Each generation is a reflection of the prior generations.

There are many Tai Chi schools to learn from, but when looking in NYC for a Tai Chi school only H Won Tai Chi Institute indicated Yang Family Tai Chi and I was curious what this meant vs schools which did not claim as direct a lineage.  I previously studied with a student of a student of Cheng Man-ch'ing. One interesting thing was that student altered the form adding his personal "touch". This is a contrast with the Yang Family Instruction in which great care is taken to teach the form and then to go through corrections to increase the quality of the form.  There is a video of Grandmaster Yang Sau-Chung doing the form on youtube and one of the amazing things is how the form is essentially the same representing an extremely accurate transmission. Additionally the Yang Family form is quite different from most of the other schools I have seen which are a variation on Cheng Man-ch'ing's form.

One of the reasons for doing Tai Chi is to learn this internal power. Of the schools which claim to teach Tai Chi as a martial art, push hands is pointed to as the path to gaining internal power but it is like a dance.  Someone thrusts forward and someone backs away both people twist their waist back and forth over time there is one hand variations and stepping put in. Softer is better. In H Won Tai Chi institute as well as Grandmaster Chu's school and the schools of his students we do "power push hands" also called by some "dynamic push hands" which is something rare and unique.  The goal is to stand like a mountain while being pressed on with a strong force and occasionally being striked at. At first not much happens, then you go back a few steps here and there, and after a long period of time you begin going back across the room. What is happening exactly is not obvious. There is not an obvious waist turn when Sifu strikes you. If you are not relaxed or you fail to have your weight in the right place your reaction to the strike is much less.  Occasionally as you are being sent back it feels as if you are gaining speed or accelerating. Failure to pay attention can result in falling flat on your back by this invisible acceleration. What really is this sending you across? The other fascinating thing is as you practice more Sifu can send you back with less of a push. A soft touch barely touching you is enough to send you back. This training is a strong focus in H Won Tai Chi institute. It is not found in any other school I have personally set foot in.  This is a gift of the Yang Family as passed on to Grandmaster Chu and Sifu H. Won Gim and one of the biggest differences between the Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan and other versions. As opposed to learning to redirect with the waist we are learning to borrow energy and after 5 years I am still learning. Nevertheless many of the senior student are quite skilled and educated about this. Indicating that Sifu is indeed transmitting the teachings and power learned from Grandmaster Chu onto the next generation keeping the integrity of the system and its lineage.

Undeniably Grandmaster Chu has tremendous power and skill as evidenced by the power and skill in his disciple Sifu H. Won Gim.  Only someone with at least Grandmaster Chu's level of skill and power or should be appointed a 5th generation successor.

Chris Field